Some Advice on Advisors

Hello Friends,

With registration for classes right around the corner I thought I would delve a little into advising and class selection for CSOM students. Like every student at Boston College, students in the Carroll School of Management have an academic advisor that is assigned to them. You are required to meet with your advisor to receive your degree audit and the access code needed to register for classes. Each of these advisors are great resources for students but you should never underestimate the value other professors can have for your experience here at BC.

Case in point. I recently declared my concentration so my official academic advisor switched from who I had last year. Although my advisor for this year is great and is in my department, I really liked Professor Clarke, who really helped me figure out what I wanted to do with education and time here at BC. So I went back to her. In fact, I’m meeting with her tomorrow and she’s introducing me to another professor who she promises I will absolutely love. By the end of tomorrow I may have 2 more academic advisors! It truly is the hallmark of a BC professor: someone who is truly dedicated to the undergraduates.

In terms of registering for classes, you’re going to want to find a balance between both the University Core Curriculum, which all students must complete in their years at BC, and the Management core. It’s nice to have a balance of liberal arts courses along with your more focused courses like economics or marketing principles. Feel free to shoot me an email if you’d like some recommendations on great classes to take.

Until next time friends …

-Luke Lapointe
CSOM '12 Finance
A & S '12 Communications
Student Admission Program
International Coordinator

Google Map Search: Undergradute Research ... Results: 1 - Boston College

The opportunity to become involved in research as an undergraduate is seemingly limited to the natural sciences. Thanks to the undergraduate focus of Boston College however, all the academic departments are keen to have undergraduates involved in research including all of the departments within the Carroll School of Management.

Professor Sam Ransbotham who taught my Computers in Management course recently won a grant from Google to conduct research on “consumer decision making in the context of visual search tools, such as Google Maps, and location-based advertising, such as Google Maps API ads layers.”

Earlier this summer he spotted me in the Eagle’s Nest (my favorite place for lunch on campus) and told me all about the research he was doing as well as talked about how each of our summers were going. He also offered me a position as a paid research assistant during the academic year with him to help conduct this research.

While BC does have several formal avenues for getting undergraduates involved in research such as the Undergraduate Research Fellows Program, the faculty really are phenomenal about engaging their students in the entire research process.

I guess undergraduate research opportunities was something I never considered when I was looking for schools because I really wanted to go to a school with a great undergraduate business program (and was under the impression there was no research going on in business). Nonetheless, having now been given opportunity to do so, I wouldn’t consider a business program that didn’t have its primary teaching and research focus centered upon undergraduate involvement.

Until next time friends …

-Luke Lapointe
CSOM '12 Finance
A & S '12 Communications
Student Admission Program
International Coordinator