Queen's University Smith School of Business
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EXCHANGE STUDY REPORT Queen’s University Smith School of Business Tse Sze Man, Mandy Professional Accounting and Information Systems Year 3 Fall 2018 MONTHLY ACTIVITY LOG September 2018 I arrived in Canada on 1st September. The temperature at that time was still high. After a few days of my arrival, there was an orientation activity organized by the School. I met other students who came from another Hong Kong’s university and also some international exchange students there. The class started in the second week of September. Since the semester was justed started, the workload is not heavy and I had a lot of spare time. I used my first half month to explored Kingston. Kingston is a small town and there are not many places to go to. Luckily, my friend and I found out that there was a student pass of VIA train that we can use it unlimitedly during the semester. We brought the pass and visited Toronto on every weekend. Toronto is a big city and there are many attractions. We went to AGO, U of T, CN Tower and etc... I also went to Hamilton, which is a small city near Toronto, to watch my first overseas concert. It is definitely an unforgettable experience for me. October 2018 The weather turned cold in October. I regretted that I had bought many summer clothes as the temperature already started dropping af- ter mid-September. October is still a relaxing month. Although there were midterms in the late-October, I still traveled around with my friend. In early-October, We joined an Ottawa one-day trip organized by QUIC. Ottawa is the capital of Canada and it is a beautiful city. We also join the corn maze activity organized by QUIC. It was ac- tually a pumpkin farm trip. We first walked in a maze which is full of corns. After got off the maze, there was a large pumpkin field and you can pick your own pumpkin. It was a fun experience, yet my new boots were caked with mud after the trip... MONTHLY ACTIVITY LOG In mid-October, we went to Quebec City and Montreal with other friends who were going to ex- change in Toronto and the US. Quebec is a province in Canada which using France as its official language. The views in Quebec City is amazing and I would say it is the most beautiful city in Can- ada I have visited. Korean drama ‘Guardian’ also shot the scene there. In late-October, we went to Niagara Falls. The falls’ view was amazing. October was definitely an enriched month for us since we have trav- eled to many places. Actually the days we went to Niagara were the homecoming weekend of Queen’s. I heard my schoolmates said that there would be many parties and celebrations and they would play crazily. However, we had booked the bus tickets to Niagara and it is a little pity for me. November 2018 November was a busier month because there were many group projects due dates and presentations. Also since we had traveled most of the places we planned to visit before, we almost stayed in Kingston for the whole month. Although there were many works, we still found some time to have some fun. We watched our first ice hockey competition. It was an exciting and worth-watching competition. There were Christmas parade and market during the mid-November in Kingston. The scale of the parade was bigger than my expectation. The last week of November was a crazy shopping week for us since there was Black Friday. All brands were doing sales promotion and it was a golden chance for us to shopping! We went to an outlet during Black Friday and brought many things. MONTHLY ACTIVITY LOG December 2018 December was a tough month for us... Not only because of the ex- aminations (I had four exams and it was the time for us to pay for the time we played), but also the cold weather. Yet, it still could not be the barrier stopping us to travel. We went to Yellowknife to see the aurora in early-December. It was amazing and the most beautiful nat- ural view I have seen for sure...It is beyond words. After the amazing aurora trip, we flew back to Kingston and prepared our exams. After the exams, I traveled to some cities in the United States and back to Hong Kong in January. GENERAL EXCHANGE INFORMATION 1) Visa Procedures For Hong Kong Permanent resident, no Visa is required for entering Canada. The document only needed is an eTA. It can apply online and only takes less than twenty minutes to finish the applica- tion. It costs 7 CAD and credit card payment is required. If you would like to travel the US during the exchange period, you are required to apply for a visa and it takes around 3 weeks to finish the whole application, which includes online application and an interview. 2) Orientation Activities There is a several-hours orientation activity before the term starts. It provides a chance for you to meet other exchange students and have a brief knowledge of Kingston and Queen’s. 3) International Services & Activities The QUIC(Queens University International Centre) offers many activities for international includ- ing one-day trips to Toronto, Ottawa and Niagara Falls. Also, sometimes they organize farm visit and ball games watching. The ETC(Exchange and Transfer Committee) also offers these activities for exchange students. 4) Accommodations Queen’s provides Jean Royce Hall for exchange students. However, it is located on the west campus, which has a 5-minutes bus taking distance from Goodes Hall(the business school building). I heard some schoolmates said that the living environment is not that good and the price is really expen- sive(around 25000 HKD for four months). Also, the spaces are limited and it is difficult to get the offer. My friend and I tried to apply and both of us didn’t get the offer. Therefore, other students will choose to rent a shared house outside the campus since the price is much cheaper(15000-17000HKD for four months). Kingston is a small town and therefore most of the house will not be very far away from the campus. Some are only a few minutes walkable dis- tance from campus. Some may be more far away and take 20-minutes bus taking time to campus. Therefore, it is very important for exchange students to find a house as early as possible if you plan to live outside. The competition for exchange students to find a house is high since not many hous- es will offer only 4-months lease(most of them only offer 8-months lease). You can find a house on Facebook group: Queen’s University - Off-Campus Housing or kijiji.ca. My friend and I started looking for a house in July but it is too late for us to find a suitable one. Fi- nally, we rented a house through Airbnb. It is more expensive than renting a house outside(around 18000HKD for 4 months), but still cheaper than living in residence. 5) Courses Registration The course registration system used by Queen’s is called SOLUS. The system is more or less the same as SIS so you don’t need to worried about how to use it. However, some courses don’t have a waitlist and it may be complicated to enroll in it. GENERAL EXCHANGE INFORMATION 6) Teaching & Assessment Methods Course Equivalent Course Content COMM 311: Financial ACCT3010: Financial Assessment: Accounting Practices, Accounting I MyAccountinglab homework, 2 quizzes, 1 group Principles & Concepts project, 1 final This course is easy and some topics were covered in ACCT2010. The workload is very low. COMM 313: Financial ACCT3020: Financial Assessment: Accounting II Accounting II Group assignments, 1 midterm, 1 final Actually students are expected to take this course after finishing COMM311. Therefore, this course would be difficult if you haven’t taken COMM311. However, since the grades in Queen’s are really good, you won’t fail the course easily. The work- load is very low. COMM 317: Auditing ACCT4510: Auditing Assessment: In-class group assignments, 1 midterm, 1 final The course content does not involve accounting calculation theory. Therefore, it is not a problem for taking it without taking COMM 311 and 313 before. The workload is very low. COMM 401: Business MGMT4210: Corpo- Assessment: and Corporate Strategy rate Strategy In-class group assignments, Capsim project, 1 final / Business Policy and Strategy This course is the highest workload course since you have group assignments every class which re- quire you read a case before classes and discuss it in a group during the classes. You need to make a PowerPoint and you might need to present it. The Capsim project is an online simulation and your group need to make decision twice a week. Therefore, your group might need to discuss it somewhere outside the class. Yet, the difficulty lev- el of the content is acceptable. GENERAL EXCHANGE INFORMATION 7) Sports & Recreation Facilities There is a very big gym room in the Athletics & Recreation Centre. It is free of charge if you have your student card. 8) Finance and Banking It is very common to pay by debit card in Canada. Exchange students can open an account and apply for debit or credit card. You can just close the account before you leave Canada. I choose to open an account in CIBC since there are CIBC ATMs in Queen’s.