Nearing Graduation…..

So nearly three years after I’ve entered Baruch college, I’m finally approaching graduation. After a couple of years of taking summer classes and taking five classes per semester….I’m graduating about a semester earlier than I planned.

During my years at Baruch, I was able to get four internships, three through Baruch’s Starr Search program. In addition, I was able to develop my knowledge within the areas of business as well as many areas within liberal arts. Also, I was able to meet some very nice friends. Hence, I am very grateful to Baruch College.

However, I have also noticed many of the shortcomings of this well known college.

One of the many shortcomings in the college is that many of its Accounting professors are not very good at teaching. This may seem strange as this school is very famous for its Accounting program. However, being an accounting major, I’ve noticed that many of the professors despite the fact that they have a very extensive knowledge of the areas that they teach–do not know how to share that information. A very recent professor that I’ve had, stood at the front of the board and solved example problems using methods that very few in the class understood, leaving many confused at the end of the class. Hence, it was no surprise that 2/3 of the class ended up failing the class.

It is very obvious that knowing the material and being able to share that knowledge are two very different skills.

In addition, many professors seem a little misinformed on how to properly measure a student’s understanding of the material. For instance, giving a 100 question exam within a span of 1 hour and 15 minutes (45 second per question.) Testing us on material not covered in the textbook or in class.

Or the classic example of giving a wonderful exam in which many of the students in the class received 90 or higher, thereby convincing them to stay in the course….and then giving a very difficult final exam which successfully led to an average final grade of C. Interestingly enough, these professors stayed in the school long enough for many students from several semesters to continuously these same comments on ratemyprofessor.com

Perhaps one of the reasons why these problems exists, is because many of these students do not complain or bring these issues up to the department.

Of course, I am not asking the department to go on ratemyprofessor.com and fire every professor that has a horrible rating. That would be a bit harsh…..

However, perhaps the department should instigate a new policy that aims at hiring those who can teach, rather than those who simply knows the information. Having knowledge is one thing, being able to share it is another.

As for those who refuse to leave….perhaps they should go to teacher’s school.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Career Planning–Resume Writing

Today, I went to a resume writing workshop. I remembered to take my resume with me, and when the presenter was talking about how we should write the resume, I was taking notes on an extra copy of my resume. The information given about how to format and write the resume was different from the format that I used, but overall there was no major differences. We learned that there was something called a Major G.P.A as opposed to an Overall G.P.A. Also, the presenter told us that we did not have to put a major on our resume.

Career Planning–Interviewing

Last Thursday, I went to another workshop, about interviewing. It was offered information on what a person should or should not say in an interview. Most of it was common sense, but some of the information I didn’t know. For instance, the speaker at the workshop told us that if an interviewer asks us about attending graduate school, we should not say that we are going to graduate school.  The reason for this is because this may make the interviewer wonder about where our priorities would lie, with our studies or with our jobs? Also, the speaker spoke about what we should wear, questions we should ask to show that we are knowledgable, etc. Overall, it was a very good workshop; it had a lot of information.

Career Planning–Choosing your major

I believe it was last week, that I attended a career planning workshop that was about small talk. After I arrived, I saw that it had changed to a “Choosing your major” workshop. The workshop was about what a person should look for and be aware of when choosing a major. For example, a person shouldn’t go into a field that he/she does not like, etc. The workshop offered a lot of information, but most of it I already knew.

Personal Enrichment–Mediation

I went to a personal enrichment workshop today, after hearing about it from a classmate of mine. In the workshop, a Umbuds person talked to us about problems that we may have with our professor and/or classmates. She also had us do some role-playing–she divided us into groups of four and had each group role-play a certain issue. Later she had us role-play for the entire class, and we were able to see various problems that we may have and ways of solving these problems. I had to admit it was boring at times, but it was also pretty useful.

Career Planning–Internships

I went to the career exploration workshop for internships last week. It was pretty good. We learned about the different types of internships (paid or unpaid), we learned that only the government (public institutions, etc.) can offer unpaid internships, and that in order for a company to offer unpaid internships–it must offer college credits. We also learned that most internship opportunities go to Juniors and Seniors  🙁 Anyway, everyone who went also got a manual full of sample resumes/cover letters, tips, and a lot of information. It was full of a lot of information. I’m not 100% sure, but I think that there’s another internship workshop coming up.

Be careful when you look for a club

Today, I went to look at this club called BaruchCeo’s. It had a really interesting name and an interesting description. Yet, I couldn’t find the club. The room (that was listed on the Student Club website) was completely empty. So I think that some of the clubs that are listed on the Student Organization website don’t even exist.

The Nature of Photography–Arts at Baruch

Today, our English teacher, basically took us to the Mishkin Gallery and showed us the photographs hanging there. I looked around I did see an interesting photograph of Stonehenge and some of Andy Warhol’s works. I thought that was pretty cool, because once I saw a drawing made by Warhol on T.V and it was worth thousands of dollars.