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One great thing about commerce is that (at least for the first two years), winter midterms are before reading week. After a gruelling week of four midterms in four days, which is definitely more challenging than exam period, we commies actually get to take all of reading week off, and not feel any guilt about it. Whether it’s catching up with high school friends, heading south for a vacation, building homes, volunteering, letting your brain turn to mush watching the Olympics, or simply resting up, it’s really nice to have a genuine break in the middle of a semester.

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Speaking of the Olympics, Canada did win according to the IOC. The medal table that goes by total is such a silly concept. It was always that whoever had the most Golds won, until one year that country wasn’t the US, but they realized they were leading the total medal count, and starting ranking by totals.

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I went back to visit my high school this past week and it’s funny being able to talk to my teachers about Queen’s, as half of them graduated from here. I definitely encourage high school visits, especially in first year when a lot of the students will still recognize you. I imagine it gets increasingly awkward after that.

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It’s also interesting to see where everyone is thinking about headng next year. With respect to picking a university, it’s probably one of the biggest decisions that a teenager will makes, so I dug up this excerpt as a source of inspiration for those making their decision.

Ryan: You know why kids love athletes?

Bob: *inappropriate comment*

Ryan: No, that’s why we love athletes. Kids love them because they follow their dreams.

So when you’re picking your university/program, just follow your heart. =)

Digress

That exchange is from Up in the Air, which has been nominated for Best Picture for this year’s Oscars. It’d like for it to win, but the chances seem rather small. I would still be content as long as Avatar doesn’t win. That would just be the worst…

It’s great timing that first and second year midterm classes are cancelled in the week before Reading Week so that we can really focus on our exams before taking a nice week off.  I went back home to Mississauga and spent most of the week in and out of Toronto for some meetings, networking opportunities, and to just unwind and soak up life in the big city before I head back to Kingston.  I’ve been catching up on a lot of work and unread emails, and of course, following Canada along in the Olympics!  Yesterday, I was lucky enough to be able to visit my old high school and say hi to my former teachers.  Definitely a strange feeling to watch all the students going down the halls…

I’ve also been doing a lot of research on summer jobs in marketing, and sports and entertainment over the past little while.  While I’ve had a lot of job experiences in and around Mississauga, this year I’m hoping to find a good summer internship position in Toronto (more networking!) before I leave for Norway at the end of the summer.  However, it’s Careers Week next week, so perhaps I’ll find some good opportunities there…I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

If you haven’t heard about it already, I definitely encourage you to come and visit Queen’s and check out Goodes Hall during the March Break Open House taking place March 18th and 19th.  You’ll have the opportunity to tour the building and there will be an open panel discussion about the Commerce program.  Of course, if you can’t make it then feel free to send me an email with any of your questions.  I’m always happy to reply to your emails; it makes me feel like this blog isn’t such a one-sided discussion! You can reach me at 8tykw@queensu.ca.

Cheers!

I recently received a question via Facebook about the BISC program here in England, and I’d like to share the question and answer with you all in case you have the same type of question:

The Question:

Hey sheila,

i came across your blog entry on QSB – it’s so great to hear that you’re enjoying the studies at the Castle. i’m actually a froshie and I’m planning to go for a whole year exchange in 3rd year. i believe the only way to achieve that is to go to the castle + your desired school abroad. (is it in anyway possible to do exchange in 2 partner schools?)

you mentioned that the BISC community is very small – how many people in total are there, would you say? and what about the variety of courses offered? and trips; how frequent are they? (europe is niiice for those) and academically, do you actually get grades (transcript) or is it more a fail/pass thing?

My Answer:

They changed the rules so you can’t do two-semester exchanges unless you go to the castle for one semester. There are about 150 students here, including first year and upper year. For just upper year students, there are about 40, but apparently this year is the most they’ve ever had so I don’t know if you should come expecting 40 students =)

For course information, there are some courses that are not offered back at Queen’s home campus, and those are the ones I highly recommend you take. I didn’t take them and I totally regret it. Variety is okay, there aren’t THAT many courses to take, but there are VERY MANY courses that you would WANT to take, if that makes sense.

There are field trips to London or somewhere almost every weekend depending on which classes you take, but you can always hop on the field trip bus and go with them to London for the day or something. As for actual trips, student services plans about 2 optional trips each semester and it varies semester by semester. The only one trip that everyone goes on is the midterm trip. Usually in the fall term you go to Scotland, in the winter term you go to Brussels and Paris. Any other trips you plan are at your own expense. For example I went to Amsterdam for 2.5 days right before the midterm trip, and then met up with the other students in Brussels. I’m also going to Barcelona for 4 days next weekend, but other students aren’t going on that.

If you’re a Queen’s student, you definitely get grades. The BISC is similar to being a “branch” of Queen’s, and whatever you do transfers back directly. If you do exchange in another university, then it would be pass/fail unless you decide to apply for grad school, then the grades from your exchange school would also have to be submitted.

Let me know if you have any other questions!

Important: I received another question asking me about what I put on my PSE when I applied. Unfortunately those questions need to be answered independently, so I am unable to help you with that. If you are unclear with what they expect then you should contact the admissions office, not any of us bloggers. Sorry about the inconvenience, but this just to make it fair to all prospective incoming students!

I can’t believe it, but its already February! It has been a month and a half since 2010, and since I’ve been here at the BISC in England. A few weeks after I arrived, it started snowing. It really reminded me of Kingston and its never-ending winters, but being here made me feel like I was on vacation, not exactly in school.

Classes have been fun so far, it is so unlike what it is back at Queen’s. The classes here are super small; my biggest class, Geography, has about 15 people and my smallest has about 8-10. It feels a lot like high school because the professors are very attentive to your needs, and very flexible about assignments and presentations. So far, I’ve had one presentation and one mini assignment due, meaning its not busy at all compared to Queen’s, but the second half of the semester, after the midterm break, will definitely be much busier.

Speaking of midterm break… it started today! The school has organized a 5-day trip to Brussels and Paris starting next Monday, but my friends and I decided to go early and visit Amsterdam before meeting up with everyone else on Monday. I leave for the airport in 4 hours! That’s the amazing thing about being here is that basically every weekend (if you don’t have a field study, aka field trip) you can travel around Europe. So far I’ve been pretty conservative and haven’t done that much travelling, but I know people who’ve already visited Oslo, Milan and tons of other cities in Europe. I’ve only done a weekend in London.

I’ve really come to love it in England. Life is simple and it is a very small community here at the BISC so you really get to know most people. We eat our meals with our professors and . walk into them at the residence building, its really that small.

I would definitely recommend the BISC for students looking to study in a small community setting. It is a really great alternative to going on exchange to a bigger university elsewhere. Even though it feels like little Canada here, due to the majority of the students coming from Canada, you just have to walk out of the BISC community and you’re in a whole new place. Or you can be like a lot of us and take the 2 hour flight to the Netherlands or Spain or France and you’re in a completely new place with a new language and everything. Of course, there are students who are not from Canada too. I’ve made really good friends with students from Fudan University (such irony, because I was almost going to go there for exchange), Seoul Women’s University (in Korea) and other schools in Mexico and the USA.

Anyways, I’m off to get ready for my flight. Hope to see you soon!

P.S. Don’t forget that I am constantly updating my Twitter with stuff about life here, so if you do happen to have Twitter, feel free to ask me questions about the Commerce program or Queen’s in general! My Twitter username is @pinkrose398.

Hey guys!

It’s definately one of “those” weeks in Commerce. Everyone here at QSB understands exactly what I mean by that. The workload in Commerce definitely comes in waves. There will be some weeks where there are only readings and practice questions to finish (which sounds like enough work!) and then there will be weeks like this – where there is an assignment due in every class, tutorials you should probably go to, an application you want to fill out, the readings you need to do anyways and then of course, as it so happens, midterms right around the corner. By right around the corner, I mean a week! First and second year Commerce students will have all Commerce midterms together, in one week, and no Commerce classes. Once you hit third year, like most other faculties at Queen’s, midterms will be spread out over a couple of weeks, sometimes even a month. For me this means that in addition to all those assignment and the application I want to finish, I also need to find time to study! It’s definately a hectic week. After midterm week, we will get a much needed break – Reading Week! – and then back to school again.

When I mention applications, what I’m referring to is the massive amounts of committees, groups and conference teams that involve Commerce students. Throughout the year, different conferences are continually hiring new executives for the coming year (the team which will help organize the conference), committees are interviewing for new members and plenty of different groups are posting applications online. There’s a ton of different groups ranging from HSL committee (YAY!) to CEEC (Commerce/Engineering Environmental Conference) to I.C.B.C (InterCollegiate Business Competition) and so many more. I strongly encourage you guys to try for any roles that might interest you – I’m about 99% sure you will find one. And although Commerce groups are amazing, there’s a million other opportunities around campus as well.

As a couple posts before me have mentioned, the very early wave of Commerce acceptances have gone out. Congratulations! For everyone else, don’t be worried by this. Scholarship winners, or those who applied to some major scholarships, will be notified around this time; however, everyone else gets to wait a few more months! Those are the only type of early acceptances Commerce offers so there’s still plenty of time! (Once again, if you guys have any questions about the PSE or acceptances I’d be happy to answer them).

I should probably start studying for my midterms soon! Second semester has literally flown by, it should NOT be time for midterms yet.

Email me at 8sjk2@queensu.ca with any question you guys have I’d be happy to answer. There is also a March Open House coming up (I’m not totally sure of the dates yet, I’ll get back to you guys on that one) and I will be there with HSL; feel free to come say hi, I’ll hopefully see you there!

Sarah