Management and Organizational Studies
At a Glance
Hi there! My name is Harry and I'm finishing up my first year here at Western. I am currently a student in the Social Science pursuing a Bachelor of Management and Organizational Studies (BMOS).
WHY BMOS?
I chose the Business Management and Organizational Studies (BMOS) program at Western for various reasons extending past first-year opportunities. One of my other top choices of applications was the Rotman Commerce program at the University of Toronto. Still, I ultimately chose Western’s Business Management and Organizational Students program for its diverse choice of first-year electives and modules going into your second year.
When exploring my options for Business programs, I found that the Business Management and Organizational Studies program would allow me to build a base knowledge in business, while also developing my learning in various other Social Science courses. I had never taken a business course before coming to University. Still, I was always interested in other Social Science courses, so I was excited to enroll in various classes within the faculty.
Additionally, I was specifically interested in the Legal Studies module offered upon entering second-year within the Business Management and Organizational Studies program. With goals of going to Law school after I obtained my undergraduate degree, I felt as though the Legal Studies module would allow me to explore a balance of business and law courses. My ultimate goal is to become a corporate lawyer, so I felt the background knowledge of business law would prove highly beneficial to this goal.
MY FIRST YEAR COURSES
The Business Management and Organizational Studies program requires 1.0 credits in the two introductory MOS courses, 1.0 math credits, and 1.0 credits in the introductory economics courses. You have 2.0 elective credits, with 1.0 being within the Social Science faculty and another 1.0 within any courses numbered 1000-1999. Graduation requirements include 2.0 credits of essay courses and 1.0 credits of Arts and Humanities or Languages courses, which is another consideration for picking your first-year courses.
FIRST SEMESTER
SECOND SEMESTER
MOS
1021A/B & 1023A/B
(1.0 requirement)
MOS 1021 (Introduction to Human Resources and Consumer Behaviour) has the semester split pretty evenly between topics of human resources and consumer behaviour. The human resource portion incorporates topics such as job training and development, so if you get a solid introduction to the management of occupations within businesses. The consumer behaviour portion covers some pretty interesting topics within marketing, including behavioural targeting, which you likely experience every day. A lot of the content in this course is familiar and has a lot of real-life applications, so it's a fairly enjoyable course.
MOS 1023 (Introduction to Accounting and Finance) is split with ⅔ of the course being accounting topics with the other ⅓ being finance related. During the accounting portion, you learn a lot of the basics of accounting, including national and international accounting principles, where a lot of the content is concept based with little calculations. The finance portion was my favourite part of the course as you learn about processes like company mergers and takeovers, which was pretty interesting to me. The lectures in this course seem to last forever, so I highly suggest either a good night’s sleep or a good nap before coming to class.
My biggest piece of advice for these courses is to not make the same mistake as me and take these courses in separate semesters. My first two exams last year were these two courses on back to back days and you can only imagine how unprepared I was for that. Taking the courses in separate semesters will give you the best chance of getting a hang of how to study for these courses, so I would highly consider that when picking your courses for next year.
CALC
1000A/B
(0.5 requirement)
Calculus 1000 touches a lot of many concepts of Calculus you may have learned if you took Calculus in High School. The biggest difference between this course and the ones you make have taken in High School is just how fast the topics are covered as the lectures for me were only an hour-long, three times a week. Depending on the section you’re in, there’ll likely be assignments roughly every week, or quizzes with two heavily weighted exams. Due to only having two exams and how fast the course moves, you should try to do as many practice problems as possible, both in the textbook and past exam booklets.
Lastly, I would highly recommend not taking this course at 8:30 am or any time near that early. Taking this course that early will make you rethink all your thoughts of being a morning person and wondering why you chose to get up before sunrises in the winter.
MATH
1229 (online)
(0.5 elective)
The beginning of Math 1229 is very similar to many Vectors concepts you may have learned in High School, which expands on newer topics after the first exam. The concepts are reasonably straight forward, and the best way to study for the exams and quizzes is to get comfortable with the content by taking time to do practice problems and past tests. I took this course online, which I would highly recommend if the option is available. My online professor took the time to do lesson videos, create practice questions, create videos with answers to the practice questions and provide us with online versions of past tests. Having all my resources for this course online really saved a lot of time and made learning the content easier for me, so I would consider doing so as well.
POLISCI
1020E
(1.0 elective)
Political Science is a great elective course to take, as it’s pretty informative and will count towards one of your required essay credits. There are quite a few textbooks for this course that are either lecture or tutorial specific, but they’re all pretty small and inexpensive, so worry not about breaking the bank. As this is a full-year course, my course section had two professors (one per semester), which both had a great sense of humour and gave great lectures. The professors and teacher’s assistants (TA’s) are also really accommodating when it comes time to write the essays and even brought in a librarian into a few lectures to walk us through the process of searching for academic journals and other helpful library sources. You should definitely take this course if you want to learn about historical and modern topics of politics.
SOCIOLOG
1020
(1.0 elective)
This course is a very different course than any sociology courses you may have taken in High School and may get a little confusing with the professor’s unorthodox ways of teaching. With a multitude of resources for readings, you have to make a lot of non-linear connections between the works of theorists, sociological concepts and current sociologists, including those within the Department of Sociology at Western. The multiple-choice exams include a lot of reading specific material, so you turn a lot of what you thought was common sense into answers regarding the sociological concepts in readings or sociological works.
In terms of studying, there's a lot of content to keep up with in this course, so one way I would suggest managing this is by having a study group of friends to divide up the reading and exam material. When times for assessments came, I first studied on my own, then met with a group of my friends and discussed all the topics, concepts and additional contents. I felt this was the best way to verify if what I understood was consistent with the rest of the group and to have a better understanding of the course through more than my perspective.
ECON
1021A/B & 1022A/B
(1.0 requirement)
ECON 1021 (Principle of Microeconomics) focuses on economic principles at the individual and organization level. Many of the concepts in this course deal with the laws of supply and demand and their applications to economic graphs. Depending on your course section, there are three exams and various quizzes, which include concepts, interpretations of graphs and a few calculations.
ECON 1022 (Principles of Macroeconomics) builds on the economic principles of microeconomics to apply it to mainly government and state affairs. Some of the principles you learn in microeconomics still apply in this course, but you'll be using a lot of calculations to build on the concepts and graphs used in ECON 1021. The course set up is similar to microeconomics with three exams and various quizzes, which will again include concepts, graph interpretations, but with a lot more formulas for calculations.
Some great resources for studying are the Mylab online learning attachments to your textbooks and the Economics Drop-in Centre. Also, you're advised to take ECON 1021 as either a prerequisite or a corequisite to ECON 1022. I took both of them in the same semester and felt fine doing so, but it's up to your discretion of whether you want to do the same.
KEY BUILDINGS ON CAMPUS
Campus Map
SOMERVILLE HOUSE
1151 Richmond St, London, ON N6A 5B7
NORTH CAMPUS BUILDING
2004 Perth Dr, London, ON
SOCIAL SCIENCE BUILDING
1151 Richmond St, London, ON
MY FAVOURITE STUDY SPOTS ON CAMPUS
Richard Ivey School of Business Library
Social Science Centre Reading Room
Weldon Library 3rd floor
Perth Hall Study or Conference Room(s)
EXTERNAL RESOURCES
FACEBOOK GROUPS
Used Textbooks
Facebook groups specific for your courses (ie. M1228, M1229)
Your residence building's Facebook group
THE THOMPSON RECREATION CENTRE
The gym/workout space
Sports gyms (e.g. Basketball courts)
Instructional classes (e.g. Dance Cardio)
FINAL WORDS OF WISDOM
FIRST YEAR IS A LEARNING EXPERIENCE!
Some of the best advice I could give to incoming first-years is to use first-year as a year to develop as a person and truly find a system that helps you balance both school and extracurriculars. It's important to focus on finding study methods that work best for every course, and also make sure to enjoy yourself while making meaningful connections in the process. In the last year, I've definitely learned a lot myself and how to approach my academics, which I think connecting with and learning from a lot of my closest friends has played a huge role in.
With that being said, I think it's really important to reach out to people if you ever feel like you need help or advice on how to manage life at school. Your Sophs and Residence Attendants or Dons, are all a great place to start as they're genuinely supportive people who are always there if you ever feel like you need with any problems you may have. Also, introduce yourself to Professors and teacher's assistants (TA's), make use of their office hours and don't be afraid to ask questions any time you're unsure of something as they have your best interest of succeeding in mind. There are many other support services and people you can reach out for help at Western, so know there's always something there to support you as learn and grow throughout your university experience.
I hope that by sharing a bit of my first-year experiences, you've learned some useful things about the Business Management and Organizational Studies program here at Western and will help you decide if this program is the best choice for you! If you have any more questions, please don't hesitate to ask them on the forum or book a one-on-one meeting. If you have any questions about my first-year experience specifically, shoot me an email at halorgbe@uwo.ca!