Spring 2008 Semester

Friday, February 1, 2008

My spring and, hopefully, last semester at Baruch has started last Friday.

Honestly, I feel overwhelmed already.

There is a Business Policy (BPL) class, where we’ll be participating in some kind of business game. Teams (6 total) of 4 people will be acting as managers of a company, which produces dinnerware (any suggestions how to name the company?). We’ll have to make lots and lots of decisions, starting with production and marketing ones, and ending with accounting and financial issues. The ultimate goal is not to make money (although it would be nice), but to understand the daily pain-in-the-neck activities of any business planner/manager. We’ll also have to prepare a detailed report of a company — my group is responsible for 3M. Sounds like a fun class, I just wish my group didn’t have completely different working/studying schedules.

Another somewhat interactive class is Futures. Each of us will be playing a trader with initial capital of $1,000,000 on our accounts. We’ll be only allowed to trade commodities futures and options. The game is hosted on http://www.stocktrak.com/, and will go on for 10 weeks, starting from February 18. I feel like a little dogie, who’s been thrown into the middle of an ocean… and can’t swim at all yet! I was reading some articles about commodities markets, but there is SO MUCH information available on the topic… Good thing about the game is that it reflects current market situation, so the experience will provide me not just with stronger conceptual understanding of commodities markets, but with some practical knowledge as well.

Managerial Accounting class seems very easy so far. Although I hate the huge 400+ class, which strikes me as impersonal and, well, cheap.

I’m taking a capstone in macroeconomics. So far I’m not sure if I’m on the same track with my classmates. Hope that reading the book will help to clarify some things that professor Gutmann talks about during our lectures.

I’m taking another 2 advance financial courses — International Corporate finance, which is taught by a nice, energetic woman; and Advanced Investments, which is so far nothing like I expected (there are 3 papers and 2 presentations in this class, but no exams).

In: Life In General Tags: baruch, class, finance, school
Time: 19:46 Comments: 11 Comments Post a Comment

Alena says: Subscribed

February 3, 2008 @ 10:54

Танюш, пишу по настроению. В целом, мне кажется, что по-русски у меня душевнее получается. По-английски когда-то я цель ставила писать — для практики. Теперь уровень языка поднялся, и я реже стала это делать. Но вообще некоторые темы самы просятся быть на английском языке — ну, например, про ту же школу.

Сережа, Таня — это моя университетская подруга (мы просидели за одной партой 4 года! ), к Ермолинской она не имеет ровным счётом никакого отношения.