Freshman Seminar Fall 17 DMC

On Nov 9th, I along with my English classmates went to the library workshop to learn about how to properly use citation and giving credit to sources we use in our writing. The atmosphere is calm and quiet probably because the presenter wasn’t enthusiastic enough, but we kind of liked it, she began the conversation by showing us the example of a half fill or half empty water bottle which alludes to the idea that when writing, people have different perspective and they all can be correct. To be honest, citing a source is the most annoying part when I’m writing, not because I didn’t study and understand the sources, it’s because I’ve done my research properly, but the procedure is too complicated for me, which gets me agitated. Back to the story, the librarian continued to talk different sources, such as article, magazine, journals, etc. She moved on by introducing to us the Baruch library data base, which I already learned from somewhere else. Then, she went in depth on how to borrow writing sources from all over the world because the Baruch library is connected to a wide variety of data base. Since we were in some sort of computer lab room, there were enough computers for us to use, and she demonstrated every step on how to use the Baruch library data base to us. It was hard to remember everything at once, but I at least managed to learn how I’ll be searching for sources when writing my next English paper. I’ve also learned from this workshop that there are different librarians focusing on different major or topics, which we can ask separately if we have any questions on their focused topic because they already know the research area and the experts that are designed to thoroughly explain the issue we will be discussing. Overall, the things I learned are generally interesting but some of them are also common knowledge because I may have learned them beforehand. The one thing I’ll take away is how to properly use the Baruch library data base.

On Thursday, I went to the Major and Minors Fair. There was quite a lot of people there, but the place was quite compact since I expected the fair would be bigger and a lot more spacious. Each table had signs stating certain majors and representatives of those majors sat in these tables. At the same time, each major section had flyers where it listed the requirement classes we must take if we wanted to major in a particular field. This event somewhat assisted me because I now have a greater idea of which classes I will have to take if I want to major in a particular field. For me, I want to major in Finance therefore, I must take additional economics and finance classes which I don’t mind taking. I also had to take some management and marketing classes which I think is quite nice because I always wanted to see what these majors are about. I also think taking these courses will be helpful for me in the future since the world has become more digital and I think I can definitely benefit from them even though they don’t really relate to my major. Although most of these required classes to take for a particular major are all posted online, I think it is better to go to an event to be more guaranteed that these classes need to be taken for my major rather than it being optional or unnecessary classes. Overall, my experience in the fair was okay however, I was expecting more insightful information rather than general information that I can find on the Internet. For my next few semesters at Baruch, I probably won’t be able to take these required classes since there is a Baruch curriculum that I have to go through and also the business Zicklin requirements. Therefore, probably only until my junior year is the time where I can actually take classes that are specifically designed for my major.

           On Thursday 11/9/17, I went to the major & minors fair with my friends. The purpose I went is because like most of the others, I’m confused about what major I should take. The main reason is that I don’t know a lot about each of the major. Don’t know what kind of job is related to that major. So I went to the major & minors fair, there is a lot of major and minors there. The first one I went is Marketing, this is the one I felt to be most interest. I ask some of the questions that I had. One of them is what is the major of marketing. I also went to the Finance, Economic, Management, etc. There were many major there, so I went to the ones that I felt to be interesting. Some of the major are more popular than others, like finance and economics. There is a group of student that crowed around the front of the table. So, I didn’t get to ask any of my questions. Instead, I was listening to the questions and answers other get. For most of us, we have the same problem with the major. So, I just stayed on the back of the line and listened to others. There were also some of the major that I didn’t felt a lot of interest, but I still went to get more information about it. Maybe there is one of major that I found to be interesting about all. Having to ask about the fair. I notice that there are major that seems to be fun, but the job that relates to is tedious as it sounds. I think it’s important to know what kind of career you would get after graduating with the major learned. If it’s hard to find a job or job is very dull to you. Maybe it’s not the best major you should take.

My friends and I went to Majors and Minors Fair two weeks ago. I am a person who is difficult to decide things, so I have not been able to determine my own major. Before I went to this event，I hope this event can help me to decide my major.

I thought about major in finance, economic, actuary science，psychological…I thought many majors that I would like to have but I vetoed them with different reasons like this major is hard to find job；this major is hard to study；I don’t really like this major. etc. At that event time, my thought for major is human resource management or marketing and minor is new media art.

Therefore, I went to search the majors I was interested at that time which is human resource management and marketing. They gave me flyers about the major course requirements. I did gain many pieces of information from this event. I learned the marketing has 3 types; I learned if I want to have a minor in marketing I need to finish the literacy art minor first so I may finish the new media art for minor first then take the minor in marketing; I knew the management also have 3 types, the one I chose is human resource management but after this even I also interesting at operation management. Unfortunately, I can’t find the minor about new media art in that fair. This minor is the one I like most but this event didn’t have it.

Overall, this event is good to help me figure out what major courses I need to take for each major. This fair has many majors that give students to choose. However, after this event, I have still been difficult to decide a major. I think I  would like to choose a major in operation management or human resource management.