“Never question how exceptional you are” -QSB Professor

As the fall semester wraps up to a close, it’s hard not to wonder how these past few months have flown by. And here’s the irony: though each day seems to be filled with long hours and at the conclusion of each evening the epic “to-do list” has still yet to be conquered, a semester seems to pass in no time at all.

Yesterday, we submitted our term-project in marketing. Our marketing professor asked us what we learned in the course and- well, I didn’t know what to say. I suppose the biggest lesson I had was that marketing in itself involves much more than just people in suits and orthopaedic shoes trying to get kids to buy their brand of sugary cereal or convince the general public that a certain brand of toothpaste would result in an uber-awesome pearly smile.

December begins tomorrow. The exam panic is beginning to settle, but I thought I’d give a quick overview of some of the academic help/support available:

• Professor Office Hours: check your course webpage, professors really don’t bite and know the most about the exam
• Teaching Assistants Hours: check your course webpage, TAs are great resources and have obviously excelled in the course previously
• BrainTrust Tutors: a great one-on-one work environment, where the tutee pays $10/hour and ComSoc reimburses the tutor with an additional $10/hour
• BrainTrust Tutorials: a $40 group review session, which offers helpful summary notes
• CourseCram/External Review Sessions: usually a $100 group review session which is much more thorough and in-depth

And here are my 2-cents: while it can be helpful to attend a review session to ensure that you understand course concepts, please don’t rely solely on them to study! First year is a definite adjustment, but remember that your academic success is definitely not related to the amount of money/time spent in review sessions. Challenge yourself and study smart. The opportunity to share a learning environment with so many exceptional students in itself is exceptional.

(Personally, I find that having a small piece of chocolate before an exam helps me stay focused during an exam)

P.S. Something I thought I’d share: our professor also posted a humorous summary of USA market and economic conditions, “quantitative easing explained”- http://www.minyanville.com/dailyfeed/quantitative-easing-explained/  

Cheers,

Annie Wang (BComm 2013)

I’m happy to report that I am almost done this semester! I had two presentations this past week with my last formal case report and my last task for my TA job done. Next week I have my last presentation on Thursday and two more short papers due before I’m done the first semester of my graduating year.

Of the two presentations I had this week, both were somewhat unconventional. The first one on Wednesday for Business to Business marketing, we interviewed the VP of marketing of a natural gas company. This was very interesting because he didn’t have a conventional marketing job. Through this project I was able to learn more about the jobs outside of the traditional jobs presented to us through the Business Career Centre. The second presentation that happened today required us to create a business plan for a sustainable business model. That was also interesting because it got us thinking like entrepreneurs but in a more environmentally friendly and socially beneficial method.

In addition to all the school work this week, the Business Career Centre held a workshop to explain the importance of informational interviews. They stressed the usage of Linked In as a way of networking. Linked In is like Facebook for professionals. You can check out people’s resumes, accomplishments, education histories and any recommendations they’ve received from other people. You can see  my Linked In profile here.

And on the topic of “work,” yes I am still in the process of finding a job for after graduation. I don’t think I mentioned this before, but I want to go back home to Vancouver for work so it is a little harder for me to find work when I am all the way in Ontario. But I am working hard at it, and I’m hoping that I will be able to find one soon.

Logging off now… hope to talk to you again soon!

- Sheila, BCOMM 2011

I can’t believe we’re already partway through November. This semester has literally flown by. For those of you who didn’t read the blogs from last year, I’m Sarah! I haven’t blogged yet this year but I was a blogger all last year. I’m a second year student in the commerce program. It feels like I just started second year but really, I’m almost half-way through!

Between mid-terms and final exams the time goes so fast you don’t even notice it. All the readings, assignments and presentations are just starting to all build up right about now – the next few weeks will be pretty hectic! My Information Systems professor said today that we have 6 classes left before finals. Now is the time for lots of group meetings and hiding out in the library (Stauffer is great for that). Final exams are ending pretty early this year, second year students are finished December 18^th and what’s great about university is that Christmas vacay is about 3 weeks long! I’m already looking forward to that. Exam period will begin December 3^rd when classes end. So between the 3^rd and the 18^th we will write all our finals and have around 3 weeks of no classes and pure study time. This sounds like tons of time but there always seems to be an exam coming up in a few days to keep you motivated.

This is also the time to prioritize. One of the great things you learn from Commerce is how to organize your time and these are the weeks to use those skills! Between assignments and presentations you really need to look at your to-do list and evaluate. What is top-priority? What could I spend a little less time on? What is worth the most? By second year most of us have figured out what works best (it changes for everyone). First year is the best time to figure this out and yes, it does get stressful at times. The best way to prepare for this is to start making study schedules (even in high school!). You will find out what works for you and hopefully figure out how to be effective.

Seeing as I have a huge amount of marketing to work through (it’s fun though!) I’m going to leave it here. As always, let me know if you have any questions – I’d love to answer them! 8sjk2@queensu.ca

Sarah

This is a reply to Maclean’s recently published “Too Asian” article, which in its first 24 hours, became the most read article all time. It now has over 1,000 comments (the average Maclean’s  article appears to have 0 to 5). Also note that the article went down for a few hours Wednesday night and was re-uploaded on Thursday with some changes in content to sound less prejudiced. You can read it here: http://www2.macleans.ca/2010/11/10/too-asian/.

I’m not here to deconstruct the arguments presented in the article, because Maclean’s has already been ripped apart in every way possible within the comments. Rather, I’m here to offering my personal takes on certain comments/lines in the article that I found particularly striking.

1. “At graduation a Canadian—i.e. ‘white’—mother told me that I’m the reason her son didn’t get a space in university and that all the immigrants in the country are taking up university spots,” says Frankie Mao, a 22-year-old arts student at the University of British Columbia.”

Okay, first of all, what’s the requirement to get into university these days? I’m pretty sure there are multiple programs where a high 60 (top 6) average will warrant admission. This is in an age where rampant grade inflation has brought high school course averages into the 80s, where you can buy 90s at private schools, and where some schools graduate over 50% of their class with 90+ averages. Further, Canadian universities don’t have strict quotas like ones seen at highly selective US institutions. In Canada, if you make the average cut-off, you’re in. Harvard’s class size is 1,684 students because that’s how many beds they have in freshman dorms. So for this kid to not have gotten into university, I just don’t feel it was an immigrant’s fault.

2. “Asians get more support from their parents financially and academically.” She [Diane Bondy] also observed that the focus on academics was often to the exclusion of social interaction. “The kids were getting 98 per cent but they didn’t have other skills.”

This is scary because Diane Bondy was actually the guidance counsellor of one of my classmates. I can’t imagine having someone with this kind of perspective sitting in such an influential position.

This quote, and the article in general, seems to suggest a negative correlation between high marks and interpersonal skills. Throughout my life, I have never seen this to be true. I have always observed that the kids who sit at the top of their class are always involved in extracurriculars. Similarly, the kid who spends all his/her time studying is never the kid who gets consistently high marks. This is what I have continued to observe at Queen’s Commerce.

3. The article, in attacking Asians, seems to inadvertently stereotype white kids as lazy, stupid alcoholics.

I think we all know race really has nothing to do with potential. Regardless of race, there are people who work hard to achieve their goals, and there are people who don’t care. There are Asians who go off to university to party, and there are white kids who are very smart and sit at the top of their class. The writers of the article have taken generalizations to the extreme, and clearly filtered interviews to include only quotes that support their hasty generalization.

All in all, it is a very misguided article dominated by over-generalizations. On my final note, I will point out something for those who make university decisions based on the racial composition of the student body and are considering Queen’s.

“All the white kids…go to Queen’s, Western and McGill.” (page 1)

“Asian parents do their homework and the students are going to U of T or they’re going to Queen’s.” (page 2)

While Maclean’s neglects to acknowledge the existence of races other than white and Asian, they are essentially saying that everyone goes to Queen’s! =D

Zeya Yang, Comm 2013

Its November! I seriously cannot believe the semester is already over. I’m already almost halfway done my last year of university! However, November usually means that its group presentation season and I had my second group presentation of the year yesterday with my COMM 439 Business to Business Marketing group (my first one was for COMM 401 Business Policy where we presented on Microsoft XBox and their new Kinect). The presentation yesterday was on a cable welding company based in China. That case was probably the perfect example of cross-function applications because we had to take content from various classes and apply it to that case. We spoke about not just the business side of it, but also the cultural side of doing business. Overall I thought it was pretty well done because we were able to bring focus to the more “human” side of business rather than just the technical.

At Queen’s, we are fully encouraged to develop our knowledge on International Business. This is why the exchange program is one of the most developed in the country with 70% of the 3rd year class who participate. There is an International Business credit requirement to graduate, where you must take a certain number of IB courses. Most people opt to take these courses on exchange, but I really love the variety of IB courses offered right on campus.

My favourite is (yes I am blatantly advertising for the course I TA for) COMM 376, which is Business in the Asia Pacific. I probably have to say this is one of my favourite courses that I’ve taken because Asia is becoming so important right now in the world economy, this course has really helped understand more about Asian culture and the way people do business in Asia. I also found this to be one of the most useful courses too because so many cases we receive now are about Asia (for example the case I just presented on from my COMM 439 class), and that class has really given me a lot of knowledge I could use to solve other cases.

I believe I have 2 or 3 more presentations this semester, and then I’m all done. Next semester I will probably have a few too; you will usually have at least one presentation in each class. I’m definitely becoming more comfortable with presenting because of all the training and practice I’ve had during my time at Queen’s. After presentations are exams, and I’m very happy to say I only have one exam this year (yay!), so I will be spending almost a month at home. This definitely beats the 10 days of winter vacation I had last year.

Until next time!

- Sheila