Another item that has been recommended to post on your blog is a letter of advice to the new students, the people that will start next year. I think this is a good tool for reflecting the semester that has just passed and think about your progress. Therefore, you can find this letter below. (For more information, check http://www.rug.nl/Studiekiezers/_shared/pdf/InternationalBusinessAndManagement.pdf)
Dear prospective student,
It is great to see you considering to choose International Business and Management (IB&M) as the next step in your career. In this letter I will discuss my experiences with this study and all the courses that make up IB&M. I hope you will get a clear view of what this comprehensive study is all about and make a well informed decision.
First of all, I will explain to you why you should start a study in this field. If you are interested in business, and business management in particular, IB&M will provide you with knowledge across very broad fields. It is made up of accounting procedures, cultural awareness and how to deal with cultural differences, academic research methods, organizational structures, marketing, and many, many more interesting fields of study which you will not find in many other (one-subject) studies. IB&M will give you a steady, broad base of knowledge on international business and, because it is taught in English, will give you an advantage over regular business courses.
Besides this, the courses are very interesting. They give you a sense of usefulness as you can use them in your future career. Because IB&M is so tremendously broad, you can figure out which career path you want to choose as the years go by. If you, for example, find out that marketing is your cup of tea, you can choose to follow a masters degree in marketing straight after graduating from IB&M. If you find organizational behavior much more interesting, you can choose for a masters degree in that field as well.
If you choose to study IB&M, there are some important notes to keep in mind. First of all, the courses are all in English. You might find that somewhat frightening. However, you will get used to this quickly, as there are a lot of people experiencing the same problem and teachers understand that. As you go along, you will become more confident in speaking this language in front of all your classmates, mainly through an extensive use of presentations. You will expand your vocabulary and gradually learn how to use these new words in a convincing way.
Secondly, IB&M is not an easy course. If you want to succeed in this study, you will have to put in some decent effort. You will get used to working together in a team and you will need to actively participate in making team assignment.
It is also very important to become used to stepping up in class to air your opinion. Doing this will make you much more confident in the group and will trigger good discussions. It is also important for developing your English as you will learn from these discussions every day.
I would also recommend you to start off straight away with studying. If you do this, it will help you to keep up with the material and will save you from having to do many courses at the same time. Many students do not take the course English I (for which this blog has been written) seriously. They think it is not helpful or think they can finish it with a 6 and be satisfied. However, I think this course has proved very helpful to me. Because of the focus on writing academic English and, in particular, structuring texts in an academic way, it has given me a good base for all of the other courses. This course has helped me structure my assignments for other courses as well, with satisfying results.
Finally, if I can give you one more tip, it will be the following. When I just started this study, I bought the Oxford Advanced Learner's dictionary. This dictionary proved to be very helpful as it also contains a CD-ROM (see video below). After installing, you can find the whole dictionary on your computer, complete with synonyms, opposites, pronunciation and example sentences. It also contains tools to write a curriculum vitae, letters and many more texts. The dictionary will cost you about €40, but I think it is well worth the money!
I hope this letter has helped you to reach a well informed decision and I hope to welcome you next year to IB&M at the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen!
Yours sincerely,
Peter Jesse Sijbrandij
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