It has been a long time since I’ve updated, but I’m now taking a break from writing my part for the marketing report on Orsino’s Salon and Spa to come update. This week is a truly hectic week, probably the busiest week since September. This semester we’re all taking six courses, and right now out of the six courses, we have four assignments due within three school days. On Friday, we have our fourth Economics assignment, Monday is Statistics and Marketing, and Tuesday will be Management Accounting.

I personally think out of all the assignments this semester, the marketing project has been the most difficult as well as the most interesting. We have to create a 30-45 second advertisement to promote the grand opening of a spa that is opening in Kingston on Mother’s Day. It is particularly difficult becaus the spa’s target market is mainly comprised of students, however by Mother’s Day in May, all the students will have left Kingston for their hometown already. Apart from the ad, we also have to write a five-page report on the strengths and weaknesses of their marketing research, the strengths and weaknesses of their evaluation of the marketing mix (the four P’s) as well as recommendations for the spa.

Even though it has been a very busy week, its also been a good time to learn to multitask effectively, as well as set up more productive and efficient meetings with group members. This entire week has been a very good learning opportunity, and I hope that everyone can benefit from it, even though it is not finished yet…

P.S. I am so excited about Sunday, because even though I still have three assignments to be handed in in the following two days, my friends and I will be hopping on the bus to Toronto to the first Toronto concert by the Spice Girls!! I hope it will be as fun and exciting as it is my first ever live concert. =)

The new year in Kingston means plenty of greedy landlords and wide eyed first years shuffling through snow and lease agreements. Thankfully, I took care of the hard work last year and am resigning my lease this year, which makes the entire process nice and easy.

Everyone in first year at Queen’s is guaranteed a spot in residence, which is superb in my opinion. There is no worry about housing and finding house mates, and will allow you to settle into the Queen’s culture much more smoothly. In second year, I would say typically 90% of students will move out of residence and into a house.

The great thing about the housing at Queen’s is the location. The student “Ghetto” is a few blocks directly beside and behind the campus. This small block is where everyone will live. There is no lengthy commute, and the most you will have to walk to get to campus, even if you live on the far outskirts, is 10 minutes. In comparison to some other schools in southern Ontario, which have housing a lengthy commute away from campus, Kingston is able to provide a conveniently located, student dominated, block of houses. Finding a house in Kingston is never really an issue. The real challenge lies in trying to find a good house.

When choosing a University people can rely too much on the academics. Don’t get me wrong, this is the most important factor, but understanding the entire school package will allow you to find the best fit in your University choice. Now, in my completely unbiased opinion, Queen’s excels in both these areas.

Well, it’s been roughly two weeks since my last post, and I figured I should do some timely updating on what’s going on here at Queen’s. It’s already the third week back from the winter holidays, and I must say, I’m definitely dealing with the academic course load a lot better this term. It’s still fairly cold out here, especially with the fresh dump load of snow this past weekend, but it’s definitely something I’m getting used to. I am from Vancouver, and in Vancouver, we just don’t get that much snow. But we do get a lot of rain…

Anyways, back to the topic at hand. As you may have seen, I’ve dubbed this post “Decisions, decisions, decisions.” Now, I know a lot of you are by now seriously looking into where you’ll be going next year for university. You’ve probably been browsing through the many university websites, hitting up the OUAC website, and asking everyone around you about their take on different universities. Ultimately, you’ll be making a lot of decisions in the upcoming few months. My advice for you here is to pace yourself. Know all the university application deadlines. Know when open houses are. And never, ever leave university applications till the last minute. Something can always go wrong, and you really want to give yourself some breathing time. So if you’ve got some university applications in front of you right now, start going through them. As well, I believe an OUAC application deadline is looming quite soon, so now would be the time to get all these things done.

So you may be asking yourself, “There’s quite a few undergraduate commerce programs around. Which one should I apply to? Why should I apply to a program like Queen’s Commerce?” I know I was asking myself these questions at around this same time last year. Well, let’s start off with some facts. The Queen’s Commerce Program is one of the most prestigious undergraduate commerce programs in the country. Each year, the program accepts around 300 students. 300 students! Just to give you a comparison, a typical undergraduate commerce program at, say, the University of British Columbia, accepts almost 700 students. Just imagine the class sizes there! At Queen’s Commerce, you’ll not only experience class sizes of less than 75 students, but also a very interactive class environment with top-notch professors.

What you’ll also find at Queen’s Commerce is an abundance of business conferences and events you can go to. For example, the Queen’s Conference on the Arts and Business is happening right now, with speakers and presenters from a variety of industries across Canada. You can check it out at http://www.qcab.org/index.html

And lastly, you’ll find that Queen’s University is, what I’d like to call, the perfect undergraduate university. The transition from high school to university for me was quite a smooth one, and honestly, it feels like I’ve been here forever. I can’t imagine a better university and program to be in.

Well, I’d better be heading off. There’s an event happening at Goodes Hall ( The School of Business building) tonight, and I better not be late! If you have any questions concerning the Commerce program, Queen’s, or life here in general, feel free to post a comment. Or if you’d like, shoot me an email at 7khl@queensu.ca.

So on this beautiful (but frosty) Kingston day, I wish you all good luck on your university applications and say “Until next time…”

Hey guys,

Well, I must say that it’s really nice to be back and settled into a routine.  It was a little bit of a shock to come back to school after relaxing for three weeks, but the busy pace has kept me going.  So far, I’m really enjoying the new courses we have this semester.  Even though we have to take an extra course, the workload is not nearly as strenuous as I thought it would be.  I’ve been working pretty hard to stay on top of my readings, though I found time to prepare for something that I’m really excited to do.

For those of you who don’t know, the first week before classes is referred to as Frosh Week.  For about the first 3 days or so, you’ll spend time settling in and getting to know all the people in your residence.  In those days, Residence Dons lead a whole bunch of different activities that help us get acquainted with the campus.  After residence orientation, all the faculties split up (Commerce, Engineering, Arts and Science etc…), and have their own faculty frosh week.  This is where the fun starts.  For the next 4 days, all the Commerce frosh are lead by orientation leaders (better known as Bosses) to do a whole bunch of fun and competitive activities.  All of the Bosses need to go through an extensive interview process (which requires an elaborate skit), so right now I’m busy preparing for it.  I don’t want to give away any of the details about my skit just yet, but if I become a Boss, feel free to ask me about what I did during Frosh Week.

Anyway, I know that it’s a real hectic time of year in preparation for the first round of marks to be submitted, but keep working hard, and hopefully we’ll see you here next September.

 Cheers

It always seems like I am counting down the days and weeks until midterms, the end of the semester, the end of the year…

Maybe, that is because for me, Commerce at Queen’s feels like a marathon: I’m  the anxious runner waiting to get to the finish line; everyone wants to finish the race, if not end up in first place! This means you have to keep running even when you are tired and feel like giving up! Thankfully, my 3-week long break (although much too short) rejuvinated me and gave me time to think about what I want to accomplish this semester.  I find that whereas last semester I was still adjusting (trying to figure out how to live on my own, do laundry, study for university exams, etc.), this semester I have it all figured out (or at least more than before).  Now, it is just a matter of applying what I know (which is still easier said than done!).  The thing I will do differently that will hopefully help me improve my grades is review my notes for each subject on a weekly basis (’the notes you take are only as useful as the number of reviews you make’).  Instead of making all my notes in advance and leaving the actual studying until later, I will try to learn the material thoroughly as I go along. 

All my profs and courses are really great so far this semester and I am really looking forward to doing well and having completed one year of my BComm in April!

That’s all for now.

Take care,

Farah