The first quarter
I am currently in the second semester of my studies and I can assure you that time passes quickly. The months between September 2015 and March 2016 felt like just a few weeks. One reason for that is presumably that there’s always something to do – and not only study-wise.
The course workload is neither too heavy nor too light. The program is separated into a fixed amount of credit points per semester, where one credit equals an approximate workload of 30 hours. The recommendations in the brochure provide you with a rough idea of how much you will be doing in the two quarters.
In the first semester, we took several fundamental courses as a foundation for our later studies.
Here is a short overview and description of the courses so far (in chronological order):
We began with three courses in the first quarter. “Communication and Academic Fundamentals” is simply an introduction to the academic writing style, academic presentations, and talks. It also helps you understand the basics of human communication a bit better. It will provide you with an extremely useful toolbox for the courses to follow (and it’s interactive, so it is fun too).
Another course is called “Management Fundamentals.” It is an introduction to the world of management and business. What I especially liked here is that we worked with case studies: we discussed them in the lectures and had to develop our own, individual solutions.
Next on the list is “Essential Mathematics for Business and Economics,” which is also all about supplying you with the right toolbox for your later studies. In this course, you will learn all about the mathematics required for the following courses. Do not worry if you have not worked with math for a while or do not feel like you are good at math. If you need some help, there are bi-monthly tutorials in which you solve exercises and work with a different professor. Although I liked math’s rational nature and had fun working with numbers, I somehow never excelled in it during my high school years. Don’t worry – you will probably adapt and work your way through the materials just like I did.
After the first quarter of the first semester, you can look forward to the very first examination period before you start with the second half and have new courses and professors.
The second quarter
As you probably already know, we have the option to specialize during the last two semesters of our bachelor’s program, either choosing management with seminars exclusively on this business topic or logistics where you will attend seminars exclusively on supply chain management, etc.
Although I did a short internship in a logistics company, the theoretical approach was more or less completely new to me. Getting to know the topic better before deciding upon my specialization was crucial.
In the second quarter of my studies, I had a mandatory logistics course called “Logistics and Supply Chain Management Fundamentals,” which focuses on the very basics of the theoretical approach to logistics. It provides you with a good basis for making a fact-based decision about your specialization, which will follow in the fifth and sixth semesters.
The course content was very interesting and I managed to successfully put it all on a double-page (my greatest achievement since my application):
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| My amazing cheat sheets ;-) |
In addition to this first insight into logistics, I took “Fundamentals of Accounting,” a course that explores the basics of managerial and financial accounting. Since the beginning of my studies I was convinced that my dream job would be in logistics. Accounting, a subject I hardly thought about before studying at KLU, managed to challenge my plan as I had a lot of fun during the course and our professor was extraordinarily motivating.
I even began applying for internships in the area of financial accounting, which will be the topic of another entry.
The obligatory exam week will come after the second quarter and then I’m off on a well-deserved vacation...
Bye for now,
Helen
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