When you meet a doctor (or anyone really) and ask “so what do you do?”, you aren’t really interested in the operating equipment or a thorough description of medical practises. What you really want to know is “how does it feel to save lives, to have to view people objectively, to alter biology etc”. Thank you for your e-mails and questions. There was a few that kept coming up, so I figured I’d post them up. I hope that they will help clarify a few things about the commerce program. And I encourage the other bloggers to offer their thoughts as well.

***Please keep in mind that these are my personal opinions based on my personal experiences. I would recommend that you read this with a grain of salt, and conduct your own research.

How has it been this far?
Its been going well so far. I had some trouble adjusting to the program in first year, but its all a process of discovery. You learn so much in such a short amount of time. I had no idea what a market or a corporation was, and now I can define both, dissect a case and organize a nice SWOT chart to top it off (which is pretty awesome).

How is the social life?                                                                                                                                                                                  Queen’s has outstanding school spirit- I didn’t really understand football until I came to Queen’s (because we actually have an awesome team). Everyone’s lives close by and there are days when I wake up and honestly can’t believe that I actually live on this beautiful campus. Queen’s sometimes has a bad rep for homecoming, but it really is just 2 or 3 biased newspaper articles.  

How hard is it?                                                                                                                                                                                                            The program is challenging, but not impossible. Frustration is inevitable when you have a program of so many talented students who are all used to getting 90s, but I really appreciate that professors try their very best to be fair and transparent in marking.

Why Queen’s bcom and not another program?
I’d like to tell you exactly why you should come to Queen’s, but I haven’t attended other business schools (so it would be difficult for me to compare them). But when I evaluated my options in senior year, there were 2 things that came to mind; firstly that my attention span can’t handle large class sizes. Tough to imagine, but think about your general school assembly in the gymnasium…. and now imagine if you had to absorb information everyday with a few hundred other people. There are a number of great undergraduate programs to consider and it is very difficult to objectively “rank” them. It depends on fit. Second consideration was the ability to secure a professional internship during my 3 summers in undergrad and I appreciate the fact that Queen’s allows you to start business from day 1. When I visited Queen’s for QLead and then the March Break Open House- I could actually imagine myself as being a part of the Queen’s community.

How was IB , did it prepare you well for university?
IB helped in 2 ways: dealing with exam stress and writing. I took HL world literature and world history, which has really helped me through essays and reports. I also found that I was more patient with writing long essays and reading long passages. Though some of my classmates had taken some business courses in high school, after about 2 weeks we were all learning things for the first time. I took a lot of science in high school and I still consider it to be an asset because it allows you to approach problems differently and analytical skills are transferable.

 Are you starting of thinking about going on exchange like a lot of students do?                                                       I am asldkgahskgl psyched for exchange- I’ll be going for a whole year, Beijing in the fall and to-be-decided in the winter. Exchange was definitely one of the major reasons why I decided to come to Queen’s. I’ve had a bit of a travel bug lately. You apply for exchange in November of your second year.

And finally, are the stereotypes mostly true about queens or totally false?                                                           Well, stereotypes come from “somewhere” (they don’t just randomly form, stick and spread). But here is what I’ll say: the next time you visit, stop anyone on the street on campus and ask for directions. I guarantee you that he or she will be extremely helpful/nice and not snobby. I think a large part of the “Queen’s is a snobby school” stems from the strong school spirit.

If you have any other questions, send me an e-mail: annie.wang@business.queensu.ca

-Annie Wang (BComm 2013)