I’m currently in my final stretch of 3rd year; classes end this week for the kids at the Bader International Study Centre and then exams promptly start next week. Life has been pretty hectic these few weeks as much of the assignments here are due within a two week period.  Exams will take us to April 9 and then most of us will be heading home. Many people who aren’t heading home are either doing more travelling or participating in an archeological dig that is taking place for 2 weeks after exams end. I don’t know much about it, but basically the students participating will be digging up Roman ruins. It sounds like a ton of fun, but I’ll be flying home so unfortunately I can’t participate.

The archeological dig is just one of the many exciting events that get planned here every semester. They vary depending on the semester, but there are usually 2-3 major student events that go on. Also this semester, student services organized a weekend trip to Cornwall, which is King Arthur country. I didn’t go on that trip either because I had planned my Barcelona trip weeks in advance.

There are many other ways of getting involved as well. Many students plan student concerts, choirs, dinner parties, trips to concerts or soccer games. A few weeks ago many of the students here went to see the England versus Egypt game in London and personally saw David Beckham, so that was an exciting experience for them. It is super easy to get involved here, there is also student council and other student clubs, almost like you’re back in high school again.

Anyhow, I know I really enjoyed my semester here, its really been a once in a lifetime experience for me. This weekend I’ll be heading to London for a few days before flying off to Prague, Vienna and Zurich for a week with other Queen’s Commerce students who are on exchange to various parts of Europe. Its really going to be a lot of fun because we haven’t seen each other in so long, one of the people coming on this trip is also my housemate from back in Kingston.

I believe many of you have already received your offers from Queen’s and may or may not have accepted yet. I congratulate you on your acceptance and hope that you can join me in being a part of the Queen’s commerce community. Hope to see you in September!

- Sheila

As I mentioned in my last blog post, I attended the Innovation Summit held in Goodes Hall this weekend.  A very well-run event, especially considering it was the first ever summit.  Congratulations to all of the organizers!  The keynotes were all great speakers, and I loved how all the delegates were able to pick and choose which workshops they wanted to attend.  I’d encourage more undergrads to check out the event next year.  It’s a good chance to network and to learn about the MBA program at Queen’s.  If you have Twitter, search for #qsbis tags to get an idea of what the summit was all about!

As a sidenote…isn’t it awful…as a Commerce student, I get accustomed to the conference food, so it’s always rough having to adjust to a typical student diet in the days following a conference.  Food for thought!

Katherine Wong Too Yen, BCom’12

I just sat on the panel for the March Open House today and got to see some prospective students. Towards the end, the questions started to gravitate heavily towards admissions averages. I just want to reiterate that extracurricular activities and one’s ability to communicate are very significant factors in the admissions process to Queen’s Commerce. Furthermore, focussing on those aspects instead of worrying about your average will benefit yourself as an individual much more in the long run.

As we get deeper into the admissions cycle, I wanted to offer some more food for thought towards the decision making process. It’s from one of my commerce classes this term:

Who am I?

Why am I here?

Where do I come from?

Where am I going?

Apparently these are questions that an actor asks him/herself to get into a role, but I think anyone can ask themselves these questions when a bit unsure about what direction to take forward. Sometimes, you can answer these questions really quickly and easily, whereas at other times, one or more questions may stump you. I think they’re good questions to ask yourself when you’re deciding where you want to spend the next four years of your life.

Practically everyone on campus is wearing green today; I love the Queen’s spirit!  Today is like an unofficial university students’ holiday.  I’m really happy that the profs take everything in stride though, case in point: I went to my regular Tuesday afternoon finance class yesterday and there was barely a single empty seat to be found.  Why?  The kids who have finance class on Wednesdays had migrated sections so they could have a happy St. Patrick’s Day AND still not miss any class.  Now that’s what I call forward thinking!  Another professor of mine told the class that she would go easy on us the day after St. Patrick’s Day, to give us time to recover…

Last Friday, I tidied up my resume and submitted it to be published in the Queen’s Commerce 2012 Online Resume Book for recruiters.  This is the first year that the Queen’s School of Business is releasing an online resume book for third year students, which is a great opportunity for the class of 2012.  Many thanks to the hard working Business Careers Centre staff for organizing this!

And now, the schedule of a second year Commerce student…
I’m heading off to a Queen’s Entrepreneurs’ Competition executive meeting tonight, and then a St. Patty’s Day QEC social to meet other past and present QEC exec members and volunteers.  Tomorrow night I’ll be representing QEC at the Commerce Society Appreciation Dinner in the BMO Financial Group Atrium in Goodes Hall.   I have a Geography essay due on Friday, and later that day I’ll also be sitting in on the Commerce panel discussion for the March Break Open House event in the Policy Studies building at 3:00 PM.  On Saturday, I’m registered to participate in the Queen’s School of Business 1st Annual Innovation Summit…it’s going to a jam-packed week!

Until next time,

Kat

The last semester of high school is an exciting time as many of you will have accepted an offer before school is out. With this in mind, it may be tempting to slack off entirely as your academic results from some courses bear no consequence. Before you become too relaxed, make sure you completely understand the terms of your conditional offers.

For the Commerce Program, the academic conditions that must be kept include the following:

• minimum of 80% in all prerequisite courses (MCV4U, ENG4U, and an additional 4U Mathematics course for Ontario applicants)
• minimum of 80% on your academic average of 6 courses (must include the prerequisites)

For those of you who are Ontario students taking MCV4U in the second term – do not treat this course lightly. Depending on the school you go to, this will generally be the determining factor on keeping your acceptance. Most students should not have a problem keeping an 80% on their academic average but a slip on a final exam could put you below 80% on your prerequisites.

On another note, there is quite a bit of overlap in terms of course content between high school and university in some courses so I would recommend that you keep your notes for Calculus, Accounting and Economics – I know that you may feel inclined to burn them but trust me, you’ll want them for later!