Undergraduate Student Life

As the years go by I start to realize just how much I’ve gained here at the College of Business. Here are some of the most important lessons I’ve gathered through my freshman and sophomore year.

Registering each next semester can sometimes be a very stressful process. I have learned over past three years to start early so I don't get overwhelmed once my timeslot opens. I have a few basic resources that I use when registering.

1. Plan multiple schedules on scheedule.com. This website is amazing. It has the entire U of I couse database and lets you play around with class time slots. All you have to do is enter the couses you plan to take during the semester you are registering for. Then you can manually build a schedule or the website will come up with every possible combination available with your classes. You can also give schedule preferences such as a one our lunch slot, no classes before or after certain times, and whether you want your classes clustered together or spread out. I highly recommend this site for everyone!

2. Schedule an appointment with your advisor a month in advance. Registration is one of the busiest times for our advisors. Typically, advisors calendars are full with appointments two weeks before registration opens. I always like to go over my course plan with my advisor to make sure I am on track to graduate.

3. Check out different professors' ratings on ratemyprofessor.com. This webstie has honest reviews of most professors on campus. You can see their ratings in easiness, helpfulness, rater interest and clarity.

4. Talk to your friends! People who have taken classes in the past are some of the best resources to use when picking classes and professors. They know how classes run and which professors are more popular for certain subjects. Students have a wealth of knowledge and are nevery shy to tell you the truth!

If you plan head and use your resources wisely, registration can be a breeze!

So, it's decision time. Well, it's not really decision time for a couple more months. What happens between now and May 1 will have a major impact on your next few years. What do I always do before a big decision? INFORMATION, INFORMATION, INFORMATION!

Figure out what is important to you. Make a list of your values. What is important to you for a school to offer? For the students around you to care about? Do you want to know the Deans? Do you want to have an impact? Do you want Big Ten sports? Then, find somewhere that matches those values. Listen closely to what each campus prides itself in. Are the professors the best thing? The students? The facilities? What do you value?

Here's why I picked Illinois...

I was between lots of different schools, big and small. I did not know if I wanted to go to a big school with tons of opportunities, but where I might fall between the cracks, or a small school, where I would get to know my professors, advisors, etc.

What I found at Illinois was that I didn't have to choose! The College of Business has 3000 undergrads. You get to know everyone in the College. You know your advsiors, you know the Deans, you know your professors, and you meet your best friends. I live with business majors, hang out with them over the weekends, and study with them. It is an absolute small school feel.

Then, on the other hand, I'm part of a Big Ten community. I go to football games with 60,000 screaming fans and am part of amazing traditions. We have access to over 1,000 Registered Student Organizations that literally offer anything and everything you can think of. We have best in class Research opportunities. Oh yeah, and people here are amazing.

Where else do you get to meet with the Associate Dean of the Undergraduate program one-on-one starting from Day 1, do top-tier research with your professors, and spend your Saturday afternoon at a Big Ten football game? 

Say it with me... 
I-L-L!
I-N-I!

Even though your senior year hasn’t yet ended, I’m sure many of you are wondering what to bring to school.  I remember being nervous amount the amount of space in my dorm room.  At home, I have my own closet and bedroom, and space had never really been an issue before.  As school approached, I knew I had to buy storage items that would help me save space.  In this post, I want to give you some insight as to what to bring to U of I in the fall.

First, I recommend bringing storage bins that will fit underneath your bed.  This is a huge space saver!  It’s easy to store sweats, work out clothes, sweaters, shoes, and extra toiletrees underneath your bed.  I recommend checking out Target or The Container Store for these types of bins.  You’ll find them in a variety of sizes and colors.

Second, bring stacking hangers.  These hangers are long and you can hang multiple pairs of pants or shirts on them without taking up more space in your closet.  Here is a link to these hangers so you get a better idea of what I’m talking about: http://www.kmart.com/shc/s/p_10151_10104_011W946214110001P?sid=KDx20070926x00003a&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=011W946214110001

Third, bring a shoe rack to hang in your closet.  This will save space, keep your shoes organized, and reduce the amount of clutter on your floor.  I’ve had the same shoe rack since freshman year and I think it works great!  I use a shoe rack very similar to this one: http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/product.asp?SKU=10207673

Fourth, you’re in the College of Business, which means you’ll need to bring a suit to school along with a few nice shirts to go underneath.  As the years go on, you’ll build your professional wardrobe, but it is important to start with the basics.   I recommend bringing a black suit with maybe a white, blue and one other color shirt to go underneath.  If you shop around, there are some great deals on professional clothing out there!  You may also want to look into bringing a padfolio to store your resumes in.  You will need one for interviews and also when attending the Career Fair.  They are available for sale at the bookstores on campus so you can purchase that once you are here.

These are just a few suggestions – hopefully it’ll help with your shopping!  Remember to pack a few orange tshirts too!

This year a lot of my friends brought cars down to campus.  Even though Green Street has some really awesome places to eat, we’ve been enjoying exploring downtown Champaign!  There are so many great eateries that no one really knows about.  We’ve been using the iPhone app, UrbanSpoon, and seeing where it takes us. 

Our first adventure led us to Blackdog, perhaps the very best BBQ in the entire world.  Blackdog is this tiny restaurant, only about 12 tables, and has people waiting over an hour to eat.  Since our first visit, I’ve now been back a handful of times, both with my parents and friends.  I’ve ordered the brisket every time, although I think the best part of the meal are the beans.  I highly recommend this restaurant when you visit campus next!

The following weekend we wound up at a little hole-in-the-wall place named Thara Thai.  Thara Thai had amazing pad thai.  It was a little pricey, but the portion was huge, so no complaints.  The third time I went to Yellowfin Sushi – it’s not too far away from Assembly Hall.  I absolutely LOVE sushi so my friend and I had fun trying a few of their specialty rolls, and of course, the seafood salad.

Trying all these off-campus places has been really fun and I know we’ll continue to do it the rest of the semester.  If you drive down on your next visit, take a little time to explore the downtown Champaign area – there’s actually a lot of fun things to do that are unique to this area.

One of the great aspects of U of I is that we not only have an amazing, top-rate undergraduate business program, but also other amazing programs across campus. I got to see, first hand, how beneficial this can be.

I assist one of my professors in designing part of a course, and there were significant changes made to the class last semester. This semester, we wanted to see just how effective these were, and whether the message got through to students. We decided to create Focus Groups to better understand what students thought.

This past week the College of Business has been buzzing with the excitement of the Career Fair. The Career Fair can be a stressful, yet an exciting time for students in the College looking for internships and full-time jobs. I believe if you attend the Career Fair as a freshman and start creating relationships early on, it'll make your life a whole lot easier once you are a junior or senior.

I remember going to my first Career Fair during the Fall of my freshman year.  I was really nervous and kept thinking “who would want to hire a freshman?”.   What I didn’t realize at the time was that employers really are looking for freshman.  As a freshman in the College of Business you’ll take a Business101 course.  This course, amongst other things, will teach you how to write a resume, talk to recruiters and dress professionally.  My section leaders also stressed the importance of finding a Job Shadow at the Career Fair.  Job Shadows are days over winter break when freshmen and sophomores go spend a day at a company in a field they are interested in.  When I attended the Career Fair, I located the accounting firms and talked with their recruiters about Job Shadow opportunities.  I applied for a handful of Job Shadows at different companies and got an offer for one that winter break at KPMG.

KPMG is one of the largest international accounting firms and definitely a place I knew I would be interested in working at one day.  At the job shadow, I got to meet partners in different service lines and young alumni from the College of Business who talked about their own experiences.  It was really cool to hear the path they took to get to their end destination.  All of the young alumni stressed the importance of staying in contact with recruiters and firms we thought we may be interested in.  I listened to their advice and stayed in touch with KPMG over the past 3 years and now I will be an audit intern in their Chicago office this summer.  Whether it was visiting them each semester at the Career Fair, attending KPMG events my business fraternity hosted, or stopping by their booth in BIF to say hello when they visited campus – I’ve always let KPMG know that I was interested in them and I truly believe that is how I landed the job.

If you have any questions about Job Shadows or Career Fairs please let me know!  It may seem a little overwhelming now, but I promise the College always provides great advice, service, and opportunities to its students to make the process easier!

Go Illini!!

Wow. Eighth semester on campus and it feels just like any other. Except I'm taking all the classes I've been putting off for four years. I finished up my GenEds last year, so my final semester on campus consists of 5 BADM classes (Business Administration, not Badminton).

Four of the five classes are typical Business Process Management classes for my BPM major. Very fitting. Those fill up 13 credit hours. However, my fifth class that I added in early January is a class that I think I'm going to really love.

See, at the end of last semester, a couple of friends and I found out that a professor (who will go unnamed) had taught a class about negotiations in the past for the law school. The course sounded really interesting and seemed like a good tool for anyone with a future in anything in mind. We asked the professor to offer the course again, for our final semester.

She agreed to teach it. The budget didn't agree to let her teach it. So she agreed to teach it for free.

Are you serious? A person who makes a livelihood out of education has agreed to give it up just for the pleasure of teaching us the topic? I LOVE THIS COLLEGE.

The class is going really well. And I'm excited to dig deeper into negotiation techniques and ethics.

When I came to the University of Illinois I knew I wanted -- and needed -- to find my niche among the thousands of students who attend school here. My first semester on campus I joined a social sorority. While I loved living with other girls and getting to know them better, I was looking to meet students with the same passion I had for business. It didn't take very long for me to find out about these 4 Business Fraternities on campus. I rushed second semester was delighted to accept my bid to Phi Gamma Nu!

I can't believe it was already 4 semesters ago since I joined Phi Gamma Nu (PGN) in Spring 2010. I knew I was joining an incredible organization, the people I had met during the recruiting process were interesting, driven and many of them already had internships and full-time offers with an entire semester left before summertime.   It didn’t take long for me to start feeling comfortable within my new fraternity.  I attended weekly pledge meetings with my pledge brothers and went on a pledge retreat with the executive board.  PGN gave me so much in such a short period of time.  Whether we were at the United Center cheering on the Bulls, camping, ice skating, cleaning up local high ways or raising money for members who feel connected to various philanthropic organizations – there has never been a dull moment in PGN.  One of the things I love about my business fraternity is that we really do have FUN together.  We learn from each other and share our professional experiences, but we really do have a great time along the way.  As cheesy as it may sound, we really are a family – and that’s what makes these business fraternities on campus so special.

The rush process can be a little intimidating, but I assure you if you go in with a positive attitude, you’ll get through it!  There are three different stages, the first one is an interview, the second is social and the third is a final interview.  I like that there are multiple stages -- you can meet the most amount of actives and really get to know the organization so you can make an informed decision if this is something you would really want to be a part of.

I encourage each of you to get involved in a business organization like mine when you come to campus.  Go to info night and see for yourself how amazing these fraternities and clubs can be.  PGN is full of members who are truly dedicated to bettering one another.  I currently serve on the executive board of PGN and it is my honor to give back to an organization that has given me so much over the past two years.  If you have any questions about rushing a business fraternity or joining any of the business organizations on campus feel free to comment or shoot me an email!

It's 2012 and all I can say is Happy New Years! I hope everyone spent the much deserved break filling their hearts and stomachs with the love from friends and family's hometown cooked food. As did I back in the land that I love the most, Houston, Texas (sorry Illinois). I can’t believe 2012 is already here! I can't lie that I expected flying cars and hover boards by now but it is incredible how time flies. It definitely doesn’t feel like I’ve been at U of I for one and a half years already. It feels just like yesterday when I was just a freshman walking through the halls of the College of Business wondering where the heck the Deloitte Auditorium was. It already feels like this year is going to be a lot of hard working lunches and long nights from studying and getting involved more around campus, but with a new year comes new courses that I would like to share with you.

As far as my schedule goes, this is where I will be spending most of my day doing besides writing blogs for you guys.

• “BADM 320: Principles of Marketing” 
• “ECON 203: Economic Statistics” 
• "ACCY 201: Intro to Accounting" 
• “PORT 400: Intermediate Portuguese” 
• “MATH 234: Business Calculus”

So a new semester, new courses and a new year I’m excited and already looking forward to 2012 with its new challenges, ups, downs, and memories that are waiting around the corner! There will be many challenges, as there always are, but I know deep inside my heart that the U of I family will and is always up to those challenges. Can I get an I-L-L!!!