Fall 2015 Semester Review

And just like that, my penultimate semester is finished and I’ve received my final grades. :D This semester was a bit odd, as I had two of the best professors in my undergraduate career and then two of maybe my worst. Either way, I’m happy I’ve finished and only have one more semester to go! Here is my semester recap.

FIN 345 – Investments
I really enjoyed this class. All of my finance professors have been rather disappointing – they have all been very smart, intelligent men, but they just couldn’t teach their knowledge very effectively. This professor was really great. We had a lot of individual projects (which I loved, there are not many things worse than a group project) and they were actually really beneficial. For example, I had a mutual fund project where we had to pick funds to invest in, explain why, and why it would reach our long-term goal. It’s really practical knowledge for personal use, whereas most of my finance classes only teach corporate investing. So it was a nice personal touch.

He was also a very fair grader and very organized. His lectures were a bit boring sometimes, but I do feel like I learned a lot, which I can’t say for all of the classes that I take.

Grade: A
Credits: 3

MIS 402 – Management Information Systems
This class was the most boring class I’ve ever taken. I had to bribe myself to go to class everyday (If you go to class today you can stop by Walgreens and buy some candy!) and I really didn’t learn a whole lot from it. I felt a bit bad for the professor because he kind of looked like your grandpa and was the sweetest person. He did have some interesting stories from his career and always had juicy gossip about the university he would share if we looked especially bored.

Grade: A
Credits: 3

MGT 355 – Organizational Leadership
I have mixed feelings about this class. This is the strictest professor I’ve had before. She wouldn’t allow people to leave the classroom once the class started and conversely she would make you feel very uncomfortable if you were late.

That being said, this was such a beneficial class. We mostly studied case studies of employees who made some kind of mistake in their career and then would discuss how to fix the situation, how they could have avoided the mistake, what they did well, etc. I took something away from each discussion that I can apply to my career.

The class was a ton of work. We had assignments for every class, plus a very big presentation we had to give in front of business executives, and very long tests. She also expected active participation, and would pull you aside if you weren’t adding enough to the conversation. That being said, it was worth it to be a part of the case study discussions, and I would still recommend the professor to other students, despite how much of a pain it was.

Grade: A
Credits: 3

ENT 460 – Intro to Entrepreneurship
This was a very frustrating class. First, our professor hardly spoke English. He was an extremely smart man, had started numerous very successful business so had great experiences. He just couldn’t articulate that to the students. Not only could he not lecture because of this, his expectations for all assignments, projects, and papers were very unclear. Most of the time he didn’t even give us due dates!

Second, this class was mostly group work – which okay, I’m used to it – but our group consisted of seven people. Have you ever tried to get seven people, each with their own jobs and lives and other classes, to meet up and work on projects together? It’s impossible. So that was frustrating because all of our schedules conflicted.

There was one class that I was very, very uncomfortable. Our professor essentially changed the whole assignment for a paper that was due in two days. Students were were so upset that they were shouting at him. Instead of remaining calm, he argued and shouted back. Near the end of the class, he was practically screaming. I would have left if the door wasn’t on the complete other side of the classroom.

Nonetheless, I somehow managed to pass the class with above 100%, which I didn’t even know was possible in college, so there’s that.

Grade: A
Credits: 3

Overall, a mixed bag. I’m hoping that my last semester of undergrad will be interesting and beneficial!

5 thoughts on “Fall 2015 Semester Review”

  1. Congrats on getting an A in every class! That’s awesome! That’s too bad half of your classes weren’t that great. I’m glad you learned a lot from the other two at least. I think that’s funny that you had to bribe yourself to go to MIS 402! I probably should have done that when I was in school. There were definitely a few classes that I frequently skipped, haha. Also, 7 people for a group project sounds like it’d be frustrating. I agree that it’s too many people to sync up together.

    I hope your last semester will have better professors! Good luck!

  2. Congratulations on receiving A’s in every single class! You just got a 4.0 and quite possibly on the dean’s list. Right? I’m sorry there were some classes that seemed like a total failure and not worth the time and energy to go, but at least you learned something from it, right? I some times feel this way about some classes, but I do force myself in going. This upcoming semester for Tristan and I will be easier. We only have one class a day, and we are going Monday through Friday. So, we don’t have to pack lunches or anything like that, which is cool. Some times, though I would end up skipping out on a class here and there (even my level 2 web development class — it was mostly a tutorial class than the next time we met would be the actual assignment itself, so the tutorials would be boring and that’s why I would some times skip out on that class). I’m going to try really hard to not ditch any classes this semester. I mean, it’s one class a day. So, it should be relatively easy because they are in the afternoon, I believe the only class I have starts at 9:00 on Tuesdays and Thursdays. But that is it.

    I just can’t believe you are almost done with college! What a thrill it will be when you walk across that stage to accept your degree! I bet your family is proud.

  3. That’s a great idea. I’ll have to start writing down blog post ideas when I get them too. I always get them on the bus so it would really benefit me.

    Glad you enjoyed at least some of your classes. I can’t believe they put you in groups of 7 though. I struggled in a group of 4 once. Everyone had conflicting ideas, and schedules were really awkward as well. You seem to have done really well though!

    Good luck with everything!
    Xxx

  4. Congratulations on all of your A’s! It sounds like you worked hard and really deserved those great results – especially on the Intro to Entrepreneurship paper! That sounds like a very tough class due to the communication problems, but you did so well! The Management Information Systems sounds so sweet, I’m sure ho knows how boring the information is! I had a lesson like that, and I found every excuse to skip it, I wish I had your discipline!
    Good luck in your last semester!

  5. Well it looks like overall your classes went well! I always hated group projects myself. I always worked better on my own.

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