ASTR 5
Life in Universe
Grades
3.41
Average grade awarded in ASTR 5. Not a student rating: this is what the grades were.
In the A range
63%
of the 1,856 letter grades
D, F or W
4.0%
of every letter grade awarded, plus withdrawals
Taken pass/no pass
8%
90% of those passed
The registrar's own records: 1,856 grades over 14 terms, Fall 2021 to Fall 2025. 1 of those terms is a summer session, and summer sessions are counted here. Every instructor is pooled here. The table below splits them, and term averages across those 14 terms ran 2.48 to 3.86.
- A+ 288 · 15.5%
- A 572 · 30.8%
- A- 309 · 16.6%
- B+ 170 · 9.2%
- B 169 · 9.1%
- B- 100 · 5.4%
- C+ 83 · 4.5%
- C 63 · 3.4%
- C- 27 · 1.5%
- D+ 11 · 0.6%
- D 17 · 0.9%
- D- 13 · 0.7%
- F 34 · 1.8%
- P 140 of 2,028
- NP 15 of 2,028
- S 2 of 2,028
- I 15 of 2,028
Percentages are of the 1,856 letter grades. Grey bars are non-letter outcomes: passes (P), no-passes (NP), satisfactory (S), and incompletes (I). They are excluded from the GPA entirely rather than scored, because counting a P as a 4.0 would be a fabrication.
By instructor
| Instructor | Predicted GPA | Raw | n | Terms | A range | Workload | Summer Session C 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RICH, MICHAEL reviews ↗ | 3.49 | 3.49 | 727 | 5 | 63% | very light | not teaching it |
| TREU, TOMMASO L reviews ↗ | 2.97 | 2.96 | 400 | 3 | 44% | light | not teaching it |
| NAOZ, SMADAR reviews ↗ | 3.78 | 3.80 | 301 | 2 | 89% | - | not teaching it |
| MCLEAN, IAN S reviews ↗ | 3.78 | 3.82 | 176 | 1 | 86% | very light | not teaching it |
| HANSEN, BRADLEY M reviews ↗ | 3.35 | 3.34 | 150 | 1 | 53% | very light | not teaching it |
| MALKAN, MATTHEW ARNOLD reviews ↗ | 2.67 | 2.48 | 65 | 1 | 25% | heavy | not teaching it |
| CIURLO, ANNA reviews ↗ | 3.39 | 3.38 | 37 | 1 | 59% | - | not teaching it |
“Predicted” is shrunk toward the course average, which is itself shrunk toward the department, so an instructor with a handful of students sits near the course mean rather than topping the list.
dibs measures outcomes: grades, seats, how fast a class fills. For what a class is like to sit in, BruinWalk has the reviews.
What comes first
dibs has not read a class page for ASTR 5, so it cannot say what comes before it.
Counted in courses rather than quarters: dibs does not know which of them a department lets you take together.
From the registrar's catalog
Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. No special preparation required. Topics include formation and evolution of Earth and Sun, life on Earth, origin and evolution of life, solar system, habitability, extra-solar planets, search for intelligent life in universe, and interstellar travel. Draws primarily from astronomy and biology but includes some chemistry, geology, and physics. P/NP or letter grading.