This was my personal contribution to the global SOPA blackout supported by thousands of websites around the world, including Wikipedia, Mozilla, Reddit, Minecraft, and WordPress.Org.

What is SOPA/PIPA?

SOPA (the “Stop Online Piracy Act”) and PIPA (the “PROTECT IP Act”) are bills in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, respectively. These bills are supposed to be a legal backing to stop copyright infringement on websites.

So what’s the big deal?

The way the bills are currently written, the US government would be given the right to shut down any website that may host infringing content or even user-generated links to copyright-infringing material.

For example, if you wrote a comment on my blog and linked to a website that hosted infringing content, my blog would technically be illegal and the US government would be fully justified in shutting it down. Obviously, the government wouldn’t be too interested in my blog, but think how this could affect larger sites like Wikipedia.

SOPA / PIPA is a threat to free expression on the internet and could bring censorship to a whole new level. Hopefully the protest showed the US Senate just how opposed citizens are to the bills.

Interesting fact about the blackout’s success

Over 8,000,000 people looked up their elected representative’s contact information via Wikipedia. There were so many people trying to contact their reps that the Senate’s website was shut down due to “technical difficulties”.

How did the Wikipedia blackout affect you? Let us know in the comments below.

I hope you all had a great holiday break, I know I definitely did!

Unfortunately the long turkey-stuffed break it is now over and it is time to get back to regular life. For me, this means engaging in an activity that I like to call “class shopping”.

As you may have guessed, it means that I load up on courses (or write down the times and locations without actually registering for them) that I am interested in, and then decide which ones most interest me and work best for my schedule.

Obviously it is not very viable for first year courses, since they are pretty much fixed, but it can really come in handy in your later years.

I find going to a class and hearing the professor explain what the class is all about can be much more revealing than the bland course descriptions you read online. There is not much downside to doing this either, other than spending a few extra hours during the first week of classes.

I think the trade-off is a no brainer. If I am spending this much money on a university education, I want to take courses I am interested in, and so far it has worked.

If you have some options and are not sure which course to take, try this method. You can take all of them for up to two weeks while you make a decision!

I think it is great, because while friends are nervous and scrambling to study for their five or six exams, I can sit back after the last day of classes and not feel much stress. Of course, not having many exams usually means longer Christmas breaks and earlier summers.

Upper year BBA students spend much of their time doing group work.

Now, you’re probably thinking, “This is awesome, I hate writing exams. Business classes are easy”.

But this is only half of the story. I don’t want to give you the wrong impression, because it is really more of a blessing and a curse.

In exchange for not having final exams, business students have to complete lots of group projects. You are almost guaranteed to have at least one large group project in every class you take. This is actually part of the reason why business students have Fridays off, because it is a time for groups to get together and finish some of their work.

These projects require huge time commitments, lots of scheduling for meetings, hard work, and long presentations of your work. I spent my last three weeks finishing numerous papers and giving more presentations than I can even count.

A person’s preference for exams or projects is a matter of opinion. My personal belief is that projects are much more advantageous than just memorizing as much as you can for a three-hour exam. Completing a project may be a lot more work, but you get a better understanding of the material. Also, you have plenty of time to uncover and address any issues that may arise. Not to mention all of the teamwork, interpersonal, and time management skills you pick up from the group work.

As school winds down and you prepare for your exams, think about this question: Which do you prefer?

Have a Merry Christmas / Happy Hanukah / Happy Holidays everyone!

Good luck on your exams!

Before I really start writing my blog, I thought it might be a good idea to tell you all a little bit about myself, how I ended up in business and why I am writing this blog.

My name is Kyle McDowell. I am a fourth year business student concentrating in marketing and entrepreneurship here at UNB and the most likely reason for why I ended up in business is: I’ve always had a knack for it.

I was the kid that would always set up a lemonade stand on a busy street in the middle of a hot afternoon, or mow the neighbour’s lawn for some extra dough. I’d always be coming up with new ways of making money. Nothing felt better than making some cold hard cash doing something I loved.

But despite having a knack for it, business wasn’t an obvious choice for me. When I first came to university, Business Administration wasn’t high on my list of subjects to study; in fact, it wasn’t on my list at all. In my first year, I was considering Computer Science and was also having serious thoughts about going into Science to study pharmacology.

I know what you must be thinking. If I was planning to go into computer science or science, how did I end up where I am now?

Well, that’s the beauty of university.

You don’t have to know exactly what you want to do in life when you start. It’s a journey of experiences where you figure out what you like and you don’t like.

As I was trying to decide what to do, I came across a brochure for the BBA program and thought to myself, I might actually enjoy that. Not to mention, business is where all the money is at.

So after a little more consideration, I switched into the Business Administration program.

The first year of the program didn’t really catch my interest very much, since it was fundamental courses like humanities and social sciences. Thankfully there was one business course. It was just an intro to business, but I enjoyed the class so much I gave the second year of the program a try. Finally they were all business courses, and I was interested in all of them! That’s when I knew I was in the right program.

And as an added bonus, I never (after my first year) had to go to school on Fridays. That’s one of the perks of the UNB BBA program, and one that just about every other student on campus is envious of!

My goal with this blog is to talk about some of the interesting things going on around campus, what life is like as business student (I’ll write about some of the events and opportunities that business students have), and just generally what’s going on in the business world.

And don’t worry, my posts won’t usually be this long!