Hey everyone!

So it’s been a crazy two weeks, no time to welcome you all when the blog went up, but here I am!  Actually, I’ve just spent the past two weekends at two different events.  Two weeks ago, I was at QWIL (Queen’s Women In Leadership), with some amazing speakers on balancing work/life and some amazing socials.  It was actually my first university conference, and a pretty eyeopening experience.  You’ll find a lot of conferences at Queen’s (or at any other university), and I strongly encourage you to attend.

Then this past weekend I was at DECA U Invitationals - if you haven’t already, you should join DECA in high school; trust me, you won’t regret it!  Friends from other schools came down, plus a lot of other delegates, had some friendly competition going on (at which Queen’s totally kicked butt), and topped it off with fun socials.

Soo I’m pretty tired.  But like Michael, I’m totally procrastinating on a strategy case, and that’s okay.  We all do it. That part is no different than high school.

But since he went over second year courses, I thought hey, maybe I should too.  So here goes my fall semester:

Comm103 (Business Management & Communications):  It’s basically crash-course intro to business.  Good for me because I went into QSB with just accounting.  The best part of lectures are the Business Updates we do, it can be a pretty interesting time.  This course will be the cause of most of your group meetings (and you’ll have a lot of them!), your foray into the spiritual world of Tai Chi and funky Tai Chi moves and their names, and (hopefully?) you’ll still have the “Shoe Game that is not really a game”.  Great class.

Comm161 (Math): This course is some pretty sexy stuff.  As enjoyable as math can be – and don’t worry, the math is (with a little work) doable.

Comm111 (Financial Accounting): A lot of high schoolers worry about accounting – I went into QSB with Gr.12 Accounting and I would definitely recommend you take accounting now if you can, whatever business school you end up at, but a lot of my friends haven’t taken it, and are doing fine.  The professor is great though; if you need help, it’s available.  Accounting. Fun stuff.  Really.  Sometimes…

ECON: Yes, Econ is required. 8;30 classes everybody, yay!  It’s … economics. Markets and demand and supply.  Not much else needed to describe Econ.  Expect late nights/early mornings finishing those assignments!

(as my elective I take Psychology. If you want to know about it, feel free to ask.

Wow. That ended up being longer than I thought, for a first post.  Until next time? (or you can always comment…)

Hey guys,

First blog post of the year! Woot! Alright so with that in mind, I’d just to like to extend a big warm welcome to all you prospective Queen’s Commerce students out there. I know most of you by now are already looking into different universities and thinking about which ones to apply to. If you’re feeling just a bit stressed out from all this, don’t worry. The fact that you’re already looking into universities at this point in time is a really good sign. Just remember to not leave any university applications to the last minute!

If you’ve read my biography, you’ll see that I’m a first-year student hailing all the way from Vancouver, B.C.. Big jump I know. So you’re probably wondering, “Why Queen’s? It’s like halfway across the country.” And I do remember asking myself that. I had other universities that I could have gone to, but in the end, I chose Queen’s. And so far, it’s been the best choice I’ve ever made.

The Commerce Program at Queen’s is something, I believe, that can’t be matched by any other university in Canada. The program itself? Top-notch. Profs? Superb. The entire experience so far? Absolutely amazing.

Throughout the rest of the year, I’ll be blogging about my life here at Queen’s and in the Commerce Program. It’s my hope that you’ll be able to get a feeling of what life really is here and that you can ultimately make your choice of where you want to go for your next four years.

So once again, wishing you all the best in your final year of high school and welcome!

Cheers,

- Kenneth Lee

P.S. On a personal note, I’d just like to say… GO CANUCKS GO!!! YEAH!!!

Hey guys,

Hope there is lots of people reading this and will follow all of our day to day activities as we make it through a year in Queen’s Commerce. I will keep this short and simple, and I just wanted to welcome everyone to the newly launched blog. Check out my bio where you can find out a few things about myself. If you would like to know anything else, then just leave a post and I will respond. I will keep you guys up to date with all of the hard work, stress, and fun associated with QC. Check back shortly for more posts!

Harrison

I am currently in the middle of writing a major history essay that is due tomorrow and thought, what better way to procrastinate the inevitable then to write a post. So, as per my normal Sunday posting schedule, here she is.

I thought I would go over the second year courses I am taking at the moment. Just in case you follow my Twitter and the strange acronyms don’t mean anything to you, this will hopefully clear it all up. In your second year you are assigned all of your Commerce classes. You are however, allowed to choose 1.5 credits in the Arts and Science department. My fall semester has the following courses: BDM, Finance, Marketing, MIS, History of the Cold War and Myth&Religion. I want to talk about arts and science electives in separate blog post so here are the descriptions of my fall commerce classes.

Business Decision Models (Comm 163): It is hard to describe this course in just one sentence. It is a combination of a math/analytical problem solving. I suppose the best way to describe it is with an example question. Then again I don’t want to scare you. Picture nonlinear optimization problems and you will get the gist.

Finance (Comm 121): This is the first finance class you take in commerce. The first year classes are accounting. It revolves around such exciting topics as corporate bonds, stock prices, and long term financing. All wonderfully exciting. Sarcasm never transfered very well by type.

Marketing (Comm 132) By far my favorite class since the start of my University career. The class revolves around solving business cases. Each presenting a different facet of business for you to solve and learn from. The class also comes with a large project involving finding a company in Kingston to latch onto and solve all of their problems. The professor in this case is what really makes the class my favorite.

Management Information Systems (Comm 190). I suppose the easiest way to describe it is to say that it revolves around the actual structure beneath a business that makes them work. The business of running a business.

All in all I actually really enjoy all of the classes. They give you a very broad spectrum of subject matter and build on the solid foundation you get in first year. Each is very different from any of the first year classes we have to take. So there we have it, a look inside my schedule. Now when you hear we lambasting BDM, or raving about MIS you will know what I am talking about.

Until next time…

Hey! I am the third person to write here!! So… It is already November, which means it is time to apply to all of your prospective universities! I’ve been talking to many of my high school friends and they all tell me that they’ve already applied to a wide array of different schools. I will assume that since you are reading this, you have some interest in attending the Queen’s School of Business (QSB). I remember when I started applying last year at this time, I was reading the student blogs, but the problem was that they did not update very often so I did not get a lot out of it. BUT because this year, it is a whole new set of people writing these blogs, I imagine the experience that you will get will be quite different than what I got.

 The goal of this blog is to answer any questions or concerns that might arise when you are starting to decide which school to go to in this new and amazing part of your life that is university. It will also give you a glimpse of what it is like to be a first year student at QSB, and of course residence life and any other extracurriculars.

 So… check back often to see what new surprises we have for you!

Love,

Sheila