It is really hard to believe that we are roughly three-quarters of the way through first year. More extraordinary than how quickly the time has flown by has been how much I have learned during the months that I have been in the program. Having entered Queen’s without any business courses or experience from high school, I now have at least a foundation in so many different aspects of commerce. With midterms out of the way, only one set of exams remains- which is an exciting thought! I am starting to look forward to May, when I will be heading down to Peru to work in a village in the Andes mountains, volunteering at a local medical practice. I hope that the experience will be both rewarding and educational, and it will certainly serve as a nice change of pace from the fast-paced life we are used to here at Queen’s.

Now that the majority of my first year is behind me, I thought I’d share the three things I like the most about Queen’s School of Business:

3. The wide variety of amazing, eye-opening conferences

This year, I had the opportunity to attend three ComSoc conferences as a delegate- QMAC, (Marketing) QFAC (Finance) and, coming up this weekend, QCIB (International Business). I can speak only with respect to QMAC and QFAC, as QCIB has not yet occurred, but it seems to be a general theme amongst all commerce conferences that the speakers are awesome, you have a ton of fun during the day and at the evening socials, and everyone comes away having gained new perspective and insight into the industry in which the conference is geared towards. This was definitely true of my experience, and I am excited to be working on the executive for next year’s finance conference which will hopefully uphold the tradition of excellence that all Queen’s conferences share.

2. The interactive nature of classes

Being in a small class where students are encouraged to participate is, for me at least, a great learning environment. I find that it allows for us to not only hear what the professor has to say, but also what our peers think about the subject matter. In commerce classes, I find that I pay more attention because I know that I can ask questions if I need to, and that others will do the same. In all of our classes, we also have name tags- this allows not only for the professors to get familiar with us but also allows us to familiarize ourselves with our classmates, and is perfect for someone like me who has trouble remembering names.

3. The strong sense of community within the commerce faculty

Coming from a graduating class of 500 students, ‘downsizing’ to a year of just over 300 students seemed at first to be a bit counter intuitive. However, I have to say that being able to recognize and chat to a large portion of people in my year has definitely made me feel more at home in the commerce faculty. During midterms or exam times, it’s awesome to see everyone helping each other out and working together, and to know that if I have trouble with a subject, I just need to walk down the hall to any of the other ‘commies’ on my floor for help.

If course there’s more reasons, but for now those are my top three.

I spent part of my Reading Week at my former high school, meeting with some of my old teachers.  I was asked to speak to a number of Grade 11 and 12 classes, so I threw together a short slideshow presentation on myths and facts about the undergrad university life.  I thought I would post some general myths and facts on the student blog to try and address some of the fears you may have.
MYTH: You’ll be drowning in debt upon graduation
- This is completely false.  A lot of universities offer various forms of financial aid, be it through academic scholarships, bursaries, or other awards.  There is also government assistance such as OSAP, or you can choose to work part-time and save up.  I actually chose to work two part-time jobs during the school year and, along with the scholarship and bursary I received from Queen’s, I was able to pay for the entire first year myself.  I worked part-time through first semester, and I am still working the same position in my second semester at Queen’s without having any difficulty with the workload.
TRUTH: Frosh Week will be one of the most memorable experiences you will have at university
- 100%, completely clichéd, truth.  Frosh Week will really set the tone for your first year.  It is completely led by students, the week is a total blast, and I’m sure you’ll be looking back at the experience with very fond memories.  The people you meet at Frosh Week will be with you for the next four years; you may as well get to know them!
MYTH: Your lectures will be led by boring professors who talk for about 3 hours while you fight to stay awake
- Also false.  The first year Commerce classes are one hour and twenty minutes long; about the same length as a typical class in high school.  Also, I have yet to come across a professor who will lecture for the entire time.  Many of the classes are highly interactive and many profs will encourage group discussion and analysis.
TRUTH: Assigned readings and assignment due dates come up a lot faster than you think.
- Stay on top of everything, learn good time management skills, get your priorities straight and you’ll be well on your way to a successful first year.  I’m speaking from experience, trust me.

If you have any other questions in regards to the Commerce program at Queen’s or just general university life, feel free to shoot me an email at 8tykw [ at ] queensu.ca.  I’d be more than happy to answer any questions that you might have.

Until next time!

So it’s been quite awhile since I last posted; things have been pretty hectic the past few weeks.  I had a number of assignments due back to back, all in the week before midterms.  One of the assignments included making a commercial for either a new cafe or a laundry detergent for COMM131 – Marketing.  Go to YouTube.com and search up “Queen’s Marketing” to check out some of the videos that were posted.

Just this past week, all classes were cancelled so that first and second year students could write their midterms.  Unfortunately, because I was writing both first and second year midterm exams, they came into conflict.  Exacerbating the problem was my well-timed Sociology class, which was also scheduled at the same time as two of my exams were.  However, a quick trip down to the Commerce Office cleared everything up in a few minutes.  I really appreciated being able to reschedule everything without any hassle, and I felt relieved that I wouldn’t be expected to write two exams and go to my two-hour Sociology lecture right afterward.  Every time I’ve had a problem, going to the Commerce Office is usually the only place I need to go to find a solution.  You guys are the best!

Overall, I felt that midterm week went by as smoothly as it possibly could and I’m looking forward to relaxing over the Reading Week.  I’m sure before I know it, it’ll be back to work all over again!

Lastly, I just want to extend my congratulations to those who have already been accepted into Queen’s Commerce for next year.  And to those who are still waiting, best of luck!

Until next time,

Kat

It’s been almost a whole month since I’ve updated, but now I’ve come to write about my midterms that are taking place next week! I have a total of 5 midterms this semester, 4 that are taking place next week and one that is going to take place a few days after we get back from reading week. I also have an assignment that is due next week in one of my elective courses, so I’ll have to finish that sometime this weekend. My schedule for next week looks like this:

Monday – POLS 262 International Politcal Economy midterm

Tuesday – COMM 172 Microeconomics Midterm

Wednesday – COMM 181 Human Resource Management Midterm

Thursday – COMM 122 Finance II Midterm and ECON 240 Canadian Tax Policy assignment due

On Friday, we’ll all be off for Reading Week, which is basically like Spring Break for high school students, except that ours is in the middle of our semester, which turns out to be in February. All Commerce courses are convenient cancelled during midterm exam week – next week – but Arts and Sciences elective classes are still in session, so I’ll have to take breaks from studying to attend those classes.

Also, if many of you scroll down to many posts ago where I describe Queen’s International Exchange opportunities, you will see that I submitted my exchange application last November. Well a few weeks ago, we received our exchange destinations and I found out I am going to Fudan University, located in Shanghai, China! I will be going during Winter semester of next year which is technically supposed to be Jan – April 2010, but their semester system works differently than ours, so I will be at school from Feb – Mid June 2010 instead. I am extremely excited about this opportunity, because it means I will be able to study in a different country, experience a different culture, and learn from a different perspective.

Also, I *think* (not sure) that people have started receiving their acceptances already. If you have received anything, or even if you haven’t received anything, feel free to ask us any questions about Queen’s in general, or the Commerce program, or anything that you like! I know that when I was trying to decide on a post-secondary institution, being able to speak to a person who actually went to the school was a huge help for me because they were speaking from experience and not just from something they read off a pamphlet. And speaking to people has made all the difference for me personally, because here’s my little secret… *shh don’t tell anyone!* =) Queen’s was actually my third choice for University in Ontario, I had two other schools in mind and I only applied to Queen’s because you pay the application fee for 3 schools, so I had one spot left and so I thought, why not. I got accepted to all of the schools I applied to, and was weighing my choices. However after being able to speak to Queen’s people and hearing their experiences, and of course speaking to students from other schools as well, just to compare and constrast, I realized that Queen’s was the place for me. Now I am here after a year and a half, and I love it here. So if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me by Facebook or e-mail.

I need to go study now… so I will update some more later! =)

- Sheila