Maybe just another minute we'll get
started that's sound good
I am happy to see so many people joining
us folks are still coming in welcome
we're gonna get started but okay 30
seconds here
I have to see folks are still coming in
welcome
all right panelists what do we think and
we think we're good yeah you are all
right we're good to go
hello everyone welcome my name is Ron
Laue
I am counterpart from the School of
Engineering to the business and computer
science program the program we
affectionately call the bucks program
and we are so glad that you are here
today to learn more about what this
program is all about
in just a moment I'm gonna have our
students introduce themselves and talk a
little bit about themselves and then
we'll kind of give a little bit of the
format of how this will all work but
before I do that a little bit more about
myself I've been at Washington
University for almost 13 years now in
the School of Engineering and it worked
very closely with a lot of the
collaborative efforts that we have
within the business and computer science
of initiatives that we have and we are
now in our first year going into her
second year of this unique program in
the business and computer science
program and I can't tell you how happy I
am to an honor to be frank with working
with such talented students so that's me
I'll have my colleague Jesse yeah thanks
Ron hi everybody my name is Jessie Voss
learned I'm an assistant director with
the Olin undergraduate programs office
so I am
Ron's counterpart on the business side
of the program I can certainly say that
working with this program has been one
of the highlights to my time so far at
Wash U we have a great group of students
that joined us last year and I'm really
looking forward to our next group to
join us I've been with Wash U and with
the Olin Business School now for almost
two years I started in August of 2018
and it is truly a synergistic
collaborative program between the two
schools and so you will get to learn a
little bit of how students within this
program can utilize the resources of
both Calvi School of Engineering in the
Olin School of Business so this is how
it's gonna work
we certainly want to keep this as
informative it
conversation was possible as questions
come up if you could preferably use that
the Q&A way to submit your questions and
then after all of our students introduce
themselves we're going to jump into some
of those questions that will be off and
running just making sure you have all
the information that you need so with
that said I'm going to ask each one of
our current buck students to introduce
themselves if they could say their name
and where they're from and then for them
could I ask that each one of them talk a
little bit about why they chose the
business computer science program here
at Wash U who wants to to start us off
um I can go sir please go ahead hey guys
my name is Kristine Zhang and I'm from
the northern suburbs of Chicago I
personally chose the Bucks program
because I knew that I was really really
interested in doing business in computer
science as a double major at this
more effort
and we lost a little bit of that we may
want to check the mic that anyone else
kind of not hear that right at the end
yeah oh yeah I felt like the Bucks
program was a great opportunity for me
to be able to explore both of the
subjects in a more immersive environment
rather than two separate majors all
right thank you I'll go next yes
my name is Jacob Dodd I'm from Kansas
City Missouri and the real value for the
Bucks program for me came from not
compromising on either the business side
or the computer science and engineering
side so in high school I was like really
focused on engineering really just
wanted to be a cop Stein major but then
towards my senior year and like the
summer after my senior year I started
exploring business more I think people
questions about it and I I knew that I
was like considering a double major and
it already agreed to be in the Bucks
program so the value came from not being
able to do like engineering and only
half doing business or only doing
business and then half doing engineering
I think having a solid education at both
opens up a lot of career paths and
that's where I found the river value
yeah I think I next hi I'm Lisa I'm from
Seoul South Korea
I chose box program because as Christine
said I wanted to study both computer
science and business not as a double
major but as like I incorporated like a
study major I guess and I'm also
interested in like tech startups and I
thought computer science and business
will be very useful in terms of working
at our startups in tech industry right
oh good next my name is Allie merchant
I'm a New Yorker specifically from Long
Island and my reason for joining the
Bucks program was more so on the
business side of things than the
computer science side I've always wanted
to do investment or finance or something
wrong along that alley and I remember
hearing a quote from Jamie Dimon about
how now a lot of times finance companies
are shifting towards more so beam
technology companies about finance
rather than just being
about the finance itself and I really
feel that computer science is an
important skill in order to really
succeed in business so yeah I like that
quote alright thank you
Jesse some good questions already great
yeah thanks for submitting some
questions already this is wonderful to
kick us off and again this is going to
be fairly informal so please keep
submitting those questions on Q&A and we
will answer as we go so first question
for our panelists a pretty easy one to
start us off how many bucks students are
in your cohort who knows and I think
it's worth mentioning the cohort the
size as we try to get it around 30 each
year because that allows for a kind of a
diversity of perspectives and at the
same time it's not too big where we can
really kind of set up some of the
networking initiatives within the
program great thank you so need you all
to think back a few months if you could
remember how orientation worked to just
give a high-level summary of that
experience as soon this is talking about
bare beginnings and I was like a
week-long process for any classes stuff
art or anything so you already have like
your schedule and like your dorm and
stuff like that but it's really just an
opportunity to get come to campus and
then like me everyone that's gonna be
living on your Freshman floor meet like
your Ras and that you're like wash your
student visors here who says and they
just take you through this week on
process where you meet a bunch of people
on campus meet like professors faculty
and stuff like that and do there's some
fun events so I would just go at it as
like meet as many people
I'd like to also add on to that that
during the fair beginnings time one of
the main things that came up on at least
for me was the ability to actually go to
a lot of different panels a lot of
different things held by the career
departments and the research departments
and really learn about a lot of the
opportunities that I can take advantage
of throughout the semester and
throughout the coming years it really
helped me like get a sense of what was
coming up also with bare beginnings at
least for us they might be can put you
in the cohort so for me I can go hard
and I went camping for a few days and it
was a really really awesome experience I
still talk to everybody who is in my
camp group we still went out to go get
lunches throughout the semester and like
those were probably the first runs I may
not wash you and I still talk to them to
this day so it's a great way for you
guys to really quickly and deeply
connect with people in your grade thank
you all I might just add in to back to
Ron's point about this really being a
connection between engineering and
business we make sure as part of the
orientation experience for our buck
students that you both attend the key
experiences with McKelvey school and
then also with Olin business school
wonderful so next million-dollar
question are there any programs or
opportunities that are exclusive to the
bucks program I love this question um I
can so we actually I'm we actually were
supposed to go on like a Bay Area track
um in like May I think it was but
obviously that's been cancelled for
clear reasons but we do have specific
tracks for the Bucks program so we were
gonna go to the Bay Area in California
and kind of travel around and meet and
talk with companies so that's something
that our program only does also your
first semester you'll take a seminar
class with all I know they said they
want to get around 30 so 30 people in
you
your cohort and you'll be able to also
really bond with them as well yeah and
in addition to that you get like plenty
of advisors to like see you to the
program so not only do we have like
Jessie and Ron or so so immensely
helpful but you also will have like a
faculty adviser that you give me with
before you register for classes and then
there's even people at the westin Career
Center in Oland who are like dedicated
to like helping us find opportunities
and making the most out of them we also
have a seminar class in the first
semester so I think it's a really good
way to know each other in the cohort
because we meet once a week and every
time a new lecture a new guest speaker
comes and then you know give a lecture
and it was really interesting in a good
experience that I kind of miss right now
yeah
in addition to the seminar throughout
the second semester or this semester I
suppose we've had a couple different
events where we've met with older
students and alumni to basically discuss
hey here's the track moving forward
where you can expect to go these are the
sorts of things which you can learn on
the business and computer science
interaction so I remember specifically
that in February we had a medium with
mostly juniors and seniors who had we're
basically talking about internships and
those kinds of opportunities that they
had and I feel that that's also
something with you gosh great comments
right I could just add I look at so much
of what Jessie and my job is here is to
connect students with all the already
incredible resources that are there at
Washington University that are here
within the all in business and McKelvey
engineering and we need to look no
further than some of our upper-class
students and our recent grads who have
gone on to do amazing things but as we
are doing this connection with different
resources there's that networking piece
as many of the students talked about it
being able to connect to be
friends with students the cohort of
Bucks students will be your friends and
networks we hope for the rest of your
career which is also an incredibly
valuable resources
resource which is why we work so hard to
have these special programming that is
just for the Box program great thanks
everybody
another question what level of computer
science should we be familiar with
before the program starts
I'd like to sorry all right I'd like to
start on this one I came into the Bucs
program admittedly not really knowing
much computer science I had taken one
course back in middle school where I had
learned the basics of what Java was not
even how to code in it and that was as
far as my experience went and so I went
into in guro Comp Sci but even still I
am able to take Comp Sci 247 right now
which these data structures and
algorithms and I'm still able to despite
coming in with practically no experience
with computer science still able to keep
on climbing that ladder as it were yeah
I'm just gonna piggyback off of that
same I came in with basically no
experience I took principles in high
school which isn't really even coding so
I kind of just call myself as somebody
who came in with absolutely no coding
experience and I did just fine in my
Comp Sci classes I do have a tutor
though which is really nice of the
engineering school you guys can get
those for free and they really really
help
um but yeah like as a person who very
much like leans a little more towards
the business side I didn't have any
coding experience and I did just yeah
I'm on this page I was engaged with our
lame and increasing I took computer
science principles in high school I have
like zero coding experience but it was
fine either cheering first semester and
now I became a tutor in second semester
so everything really worked out you
really don't need
much computer science experience I think
I feel like it's really or you make out
of it so you don't really need to worry
about it if you don't have much computer
science experience yeah I definitely
agree with Lisa I came in with like very
little experience as well but that being
said like your Bucks cohort will come in
with varying levels of experience but
most of us like went through the intro
Comp Sci course together so I know like
a lot of the a lot of the people that
like help me out or that I like work
closely with like get to the class and
study for tests or in the Bucks program
so I definitely had that like network to
help you great thanks everyone all right
another good question what would be the
advantage of the Bucks program as
opposed to doing a double major in a
business major and CS at Wash U or
another school um so for me because I
like was looking at maybe doing a double
major versus the joint program the joint
program does save you credits which
means more space to take other classes
if you want so you can like maybe fit a
minor in I know I'm trying to either me
like maybe minor in math or PNP and I
would probably only have the space to do
that if I like like I wouldn't have the
space to do that if I wasn't in the
joint program because business and
computer science are on opposite sides
of the spectrum so you would have to
take the inter courses for all of them
rather than maybe double majoring in
business which is a lot easier because
you have the same intro courses to get
the majors um and as well as like the
specifics that the Bucks program has to
like the tracks and like being able to
bond with your cohort like I really just
saw those as really amazing things as a
part of the program so I decided to do
the joint degree instead of the double
major yeah I agree I think like the rib
eye in the Bucks program comes from like
the network that you'll get with your
cohort and also the support you get from
having like plenty of advisors and the
fact that they're like willing to send
us on tracks and help us with career
support and stuff like that I'd also
like to address the second part of a
question where it says doing a double
major at another school
which doesn't offer this I'd say that
one major advantage to having business
and computer science bundled together
like this is that the pathways that we
take in either business analytics or
strategy and leadership are really kind
of geared towards allowing us to really
see that intersection between both
disciplines with a lot of the use of the
program actually and one of the main
reasons like I said earlier that I
wanted to apply to the program being the
fact that rather than just being Kansai
in one category and financed lash-up
their business stuff in another really
that intersection is important great
so next couple of questions will be
fairly similar but I'll start with is it
fairly equal between business and
computer science classes and
opportunities or can you focus on one if
you choose so I think it's fairly equal
like there's our course on requirement
you guys look at that once you enter I'm
not sure if it's on your website we need
to get 30 credits for Kansai and then 30
credits for business and then there's
other fundamental credits that you have
to make but in terms of focus for
business as Alan mentioned earlier you
can choose either business and other
analytics or the leadership part for
comm site I think you have more freedom
in terms of choosing classes because
there are so many left if choices so
yeah yeah like the next few questions
about maybe like focusing on finance or
accounting that I see here in the QA so
you can't major specifically in those
areas like you have to choose business
analytics or strategy and leadership but
because again of that flexibility you'll
have extra like credits that you can use
to maybe focus on an area that you're
more interested in so personally for me
I'm really interested in like OS EMM or
entrepreneurship so with those extra
credits that I have I'll probably be
taking extra courses in that um just to
kind of you know
focus in that area yeah and also like
while the program is really really
balanced you also have my time for
extracurriculars so if you really really
want to like focus in one area and you
can take on like an individual or a
concept project or you can like choose
internships over the summer that are
like strictly related to business or
something like that
so you have like options to choose what
skillsets you really want to hone in as
well I'd also like to throw on that I
think that it's actually a little bit
more flexible than going for a double
major because one thing that was
mentioned earlier was that it takes
fewer credits to do the joint degree
program against a double major in an
area of business and Comp Sci and those
extra credits allow you to actually
diversify with the extra space into an
area of business or computer science
that you're really interested in so for
example I'm probably going to be taking
on the business analytics cluster but at
the same time there are a few classes
within strategy and leadership like game
theory and a couple other really nice
ones but I'm really interested in and
want to learn more about and I feel
could be useful for furthering my own
goals going forward so I feel that the
flexibility really gives me a chance to
do that
great thanks everybody and I do you
think we jumped ahead to the next couple
of questions but maybe just to tackle
this from the advising perspective and
Ron do step in if I miss anything
essentially when you are in the Bucks
program there are a specific set of
business minors that you can pursue such
as business a social impact business of
the arts businesses sport business of
entertainment but any of the other
second majors within Olin you would not
be able to pursue and then on the
computer science side you are not
allowed to do a second major in computer
science a dual degree or a minor within
computer science yeah that's exactly
right just a few things to add for those
that really have diverse interests it
wouldn't make sense to do a minor in
computer science within this
you can do a minor and something called
bioinformatics also a human-computer
interface which is a joint minor between
the art school as well and then it's
also worth mentioning that built into
the curriculum of the Bucks program
students take at least 15 credits and
humanities or social science cultural
classes and it's possible to use those
credits to maybe get a minor in you know
say psychology or sociology or one of
the many different opportunities and
then there's also at least nine credits
of free electives as well to do
different things so this is where the
advising aspect really comes into play
here where the hope is to help guide you
with understanding your academic goals
and kind of giving you the options of
different ways that you can go I did
have a student who came to me and was
worried that he really wanted a lot of
computer science classes and really
wanted to work in Silicon Valley and
wanted more than in the bucks program
and as many the students have said yes
you can do that the student had room to
do that and that's where they wanted to
spend their extra time and that's that's
completely fine
absolutely yeah I might Segway a little
bit too and I know you all are still
deciding what cluster you might want to
pursue but do you want to talk a little
bit more about the two cluster options
and why you might be leaning towards one
over the other
so I'm doing this strategy and
leadership cluster like 99% sure just
because I'm really really interested in
the classes that um I would be taking as
a part of that cluster you guys can find
the course listings on like the books
part of the Olin website or the
engineering website I don't know it's
somewhere there but like there's game
theory there's entrepreneurship which
kind of summarizes all what I want in
Olin but I also know that a lot of the
business analytics kids like a lot of
the Comp Sci ones are
doing business analytics because that's
more like data analysis more comp sci
but obviously there are people who like
switch between the two but yeah yeah I'm
doing the business analytics cluster
because I'm interest more in finance and
all the finance like on 400 level
finance classes in is in that cluster
also in addition to I think operations
and supply chain management so those
those two are the things that I'm
interested in as opposed to game theory
which is also interesting as well but
yeah that's why I chose business
analytics cluster yeah I'm a pretty
indecisive person so I'm like 50/50
split between both I won't be able to
give an answer but the good thing is is
that I have like time to decide so like
it's not something you have to commit
too hard and your first year but you can
like try out like an internship like an
extracurricular see how you like it see
how you like the classes and then make
the decision a little bit later I know I
said earlier but I was planning on doing
business analytics with a couple classes
from strategy and leadership but to be
completely honest asked me on a
different day and you'll get a different
answer on that one I'm still kind of in
the same boat as Jacob I'm kind of
debating between both tracks because I
still don't really have enough
experience in my mind to actually decide
on that front but fortunately as he said
yeah we have the flexibility to do that
right thank you all I did just add in
the chat as well the link to the
curriculum guide for bucks so looking
through that might give you a little
more context as we're throwing some
terminology out there great so we'll
move on I can you tell us more about the
networking opportunities I can are you
so I think this is pretty general too
just like Wash U as a whole but if you
get on like LinkedIn there's plenty of
alumni plenty of students a large Jew
who wants to connect with you and if you
reach out to any of them i like they'll
probably put in a good word for you or
be like dying to work with you so the
opportunity I have this summer it was
something I got from reaching out to an
alumni so just the washing network is
pretty strong but within bucks I'd say
it's nice to like be taking classes
within both schools because if you are
only in one like a lot of your like
friend you would probably only be in
that school so being equally split in
both gives you like a wider network
students you can connect with and also
like Olin and engineering also do their
kind of own like career fairs as well as
like a school-wide one so you can go and
talk to different companies that you're
interested in obviously a lot of those
high level companies are also really
really interested in wash use sometimes
CareerLink
I think um you can go on there and see
what companies and when they're visiting
and you can go to like the meeting that
they're having on campus which is really
nice
LinkedIn is great just like Jacob said
reaching out to professor's are great
they're often like oh like very much
willing to work with students and like
networking opportunities aren't all over
the place that Wash U I'd also like to
throw on I know that we mentioned the
treks earlier but this is something
which I feel is probably one of the
bigger bucks exclusive networking
opportunities that a couple of different
treks like the Bay Area track for
instance are available and these tracks
are basically you go down to that
location and you get to go rapid fire
through a few different companies and
really get a view of what sort of stuff
they do and in return they get a view of
you so I feel like that's also probably
a networking event us thank you
Ron I might throw this one directly at
you do you already be admitted into this
program or can you join once you're
already at Wash U yeah it's a great
question so and the answer is tuefel
can't you join the Bucks program if you
don't start in the Brooks program can
you transfer into it technically yes you
can as long as you take the proper
classes to keep you
can you meet so minimum guidelines to be
able to transfer on the other hand
you're not able to transfer till after
your first year and as you can imagine
the cohort a lot of these activities
from the seminar the first semester to
all the different things that happen at
first year you'll be missing a lot of
that if you were not actually in the
Bucks program and kind of once a
community gets going and running
sometimes they share those you know they
do they share those common experiences
they share some of that lingo and they
were there for all those different
events and you would be missing out so
if it were me if I had the opportunity
to join bucks right at the beginning
that's how you really utilize the
program thank you and then if the
panelists have a take on this our AP
exam still worth taking for the credit
for this major I would say it's
definitely worth it I had so much
benefit from taking AP classes for
example I didn't have to take any
Natural Science credit requirement
because I took physics II and I got
waived out I didn't have to take
calculus - I did so I didn't have to
take one year worth of math because I
took AP Calculus BC and got good grade
on it and in general like you still want
to take AP classes because you might be
able to waive your free elective credits
so it's definitely worth taking it a
hundred percent agreed yes taking AP
exams will only like get you ahead of
the curve it's absolutely like not
necessary if you guys don't have AP
classes like I still had to take calc -
I still had to start at like the very
like CSE 131 which is the first comm
psych class and I'm still right on track
so it'll definitely help you if you want
to get ahead and if you want to save
those extra credits to take other
classes we it's it's not required to
keep you on track anything else for that
just you want to switch the answer you
and ask you to cry
go right ahead
yeah so the next question is about how
many applications are there usually to
the Bucks program
Jesse you want to start out with with
that one I don't know the students would
know this one sure yeah well in to be
quite honest with you I don't know
either so within our roles we're not
usually super involved in that process
with the program although if you do have
specific questions about it I would
probably encourage you to touch base
with admissions and they might be able
to help you out with that question
that's exactly right we don't we don't
know those numbers but I can say this we
were overwhelmed by the popularity of
the Bucks program we really were
pleasantly surprised at how this
integration of these two areas and
really what's happening with technology
and business across the country how much
there was an interest in this certainly
congratulations for being mitad
all right next question we did cover
some of this but there's different parts
to it
so anyone jump in when you hear
something we haven't covered yet I
noticed that there are business
analytics cluster and a strategy and
leadership cluster those two on the
business side is it possible to dig
deeper on finance accounting classes
within those two clusters or is the
choice of classes limited to what is
listed in the bulletin also the students
spoke about how the business and CSIS
were integrated versus two separate
majors did you speak about how that
integration connection happens it
covered bits or parts of that but who
wants to cover anything mess I guess in
the first part of the question because
I'm also interested in finance and
accounting and for the business
analytics part you can take three
finance classes I mean not that can take
you're required to take three classes
340s is like the introduction to finance
then you'd have to take two 400 level
classes and after that you can like
you're not limited to those finest
classes you can take other 400 level
finest classes if you wanna
use those classes to meet free elective
requirements that is definitely possible
and then you're more than welcome to
take more of Finance and Accounting
classes if you want to just that you're
not required to take those to me certain
areas I also want to say that this is
probably where AP exams and other ways
of shaping off credits might be really
useful because those give you more time
and more credits available for use for
all of these kinds of opportunities if
you're really interested in finance go
for it make sure that you still meet
your base requirements for the degree
but outside of that you can still
definitely take finance classes and
really pursue that if that's what you're
interested in and the same goes for
anything for a capital gain for any sort
of consulting based classes and strategy
classes that sort of thing also I'd like
to speak a little bit to the second part
of the question where you asked about
the integration between the two listed
on the website I believe is dat 1:24 one
of the things that is mandatory between
both courses but that is a little bit
substitutable for that credit I took
math 3200 which is data analytics and
statistics class in the math department
and we are learning are in that class
and using that as basically a tool in
order to help us further and this is a
class that 120 flash not 3200 /qb a 120
whatever it's called right now but that
class is very important for getting a
good look at things on the business side
of things in terms of what sort of tools
you need and interestingly enough a lot
of the Comp Sci stuff that you learn a
lot of Balaji ik a lot of that sort of
thing can be applied even in that class
and make it a ton easier for you that's
just an example from this semester yeah
no you're good I just miss ADA like to
build off with that a lot of the
b-school kids stop at calc too but we
have to get up to like higher levels of
math and especially with econ strat a
lot
is like we'll get to like partial
derivatives and higher-level math stuff
so just like that like you'll be ahead
of the other B school students who are
also taking the same courses as you are
because you understand the math um so
that way like both the computer science
and the business side build off each
other's because you can use the hard
skills that you learn in Comp Sci as
well as like the soft skills that you
learn in business and apply it to both
sides of the joint program yeah just to
piggy back like there's plenty of skills
that you learn in like your math classes
or McKelvey that'll be applied to Lin
and then a lot of the soft skills that
all just help you with the hard skills
that you've acquired in McKelvey but on
top of that when you like get a little
deeper into the program I believe
there's some capstone courses you have
to take where you like work on a project
and there you'll have like a real
concrete opportunity to apply skillsets
from both in a way that you desire
excellent I think this question kind of
leads nicely into that and I love this
question what kinds of careers would
Buck's be most applicable to are those
careers more business or more computer
science focused you Kardon answer
because you're on the first-years but
may have to think back to some of the
panel's we've had and we didn't fill in
the gaps of necessary I was gonna say
the same thing it just depends on what
you're interested in like if you if
you're just hardcore like and finance
its accounting and like that's like what
you want to do but you also on a highly
calm suspect and you can go and get like
a FinTech job or like working that's a
thing or if you're really interested in
consulting then like the stress
potential cluster might be right for you
or if you're involved in project
management then you have the perfect
skill set from both business and
computer science to go into that I know
that's pretty popular
I'll let some other people touch on some
others um I think just like one of the
great things about this program is that
you could literally go into anything you
wanted to with the skills that you would
learn in both of these both sides of
this program so personally for me as
like a person who's more interested in
business
I'm looking more like entrepreneurship
tech consulting route so more like
leaning business but using tech and my
job and then I know there's a lot of
people who like will be doing more tech
jobs but also touching into business
with it or you could just do equally
both that also is an option but again
you could go into anything like
consulting you can I mean you could you
could go into project management product
manager and entrepreneurship I don't
even know the comp side jobs
um I that's not what I've been looking
at but I do know that in all the panels
that I have looked at um that are tech
in business you could go inside anything
kind yeah I think you can yeah it's just
to some I think you can just go into
like basically anything and more
specifically to like computer science
wise you can be like software engineer a
data scientist and as you mention on
project management you can be that too
honestly I think it's really what you
make out of it yeah so long as the
career involves making money and
technology in some way shape or form
you're probably set yeah you know I I
just might share something a buck
student said to me that they said you
know I went to this program because I
wanted to know computer science but I
didn't want to be the person who codes
everything's I wanted to do project
management working with teams and in
order to be effective if you are working
for a company and developing an app you
need to know the right questions to ask
of what needs to happen to develop this
from a computer science standpoint but
maybe you don't want to be the actual
person to development so there's there's
a good example of kind of necessary
function and the collaborative nature
that happens with project management all
right so next question what is the most
memorable challenge it's you experienced
in the Bucs program I think for me it
would be the same as for a lot of
different students and
first semester at Wash U or at any other
college which really likes to have it so
that you're working with a lot of stuff
and that would be time management I'll
admit I kind of overloaded semester one
between six classes alongside the
seminar a play an acapella group another
extracurricular group I was basically
swamped but that was probably the most
challenging and memorable
therefore challenge that I had
experienced during this but even then it
wasn't even that bad because a lot of
the time a lot of resources were
available to help whenever I felt that I
was getting too stressed or too
overloaded whether that be within my
extracurricular groups or whether that
be within the actual programs or schools
themselves I'm just gonna go off of that
I think this is more speaking generally
is about my college experience in
general I think a lot of times like in
high school a lot of your counselors
focused on you know the physical
transition of going to wash you you know
moving living by yourself washing your
own clothes stuff like that but I think
a lot of them lack the mental transition
that there also is I think a lot of us
you know being accepted in a Wash U is a
great thing we were all the top 10% of
our class and once you get here like
some of you guys also might be in the
top 10% of your class but a lot of times
you know those first 10 first college
tests are really gonna knock you down
and I think just being used like knowing
that being average in the middle of your
class is beyond okay and kind of
reminding yourself that like you were
accepted to Wash U this is where you
were meant to be and you are absolutely
capable enough to be here and kind of
just powering through those you know
tough tests and trying to figure out how
to study and what works best for you is
a great time it like is a great thing to
do your first year so you can kind of
tackle college head-on I'll take this in
like a little bit different direction
but like what I remember from like first
semester is case comp
which is something that sure have to do
if you take management 100 which I'm
pretty sure all of you will and you you
get put into teams of people who are
part of the Bucks program and you have
to like do this like comprehensive like
analysis of a company and make
recommendations for them and it takes up
like a huge part of the semester it's
quite a bit of work but you get to go
through it with people in the Bucks
cohort and I just remember like that was
my life for quite a few weeks but it was
fun and definitely memorable and I
learned a lot so coming out of it with
like a good experience yeah I also agree
with Jacob I was gonna say Case
Competition too because I feel like in
high school if there's a problem there
is always an answer key but for Case
Competition there's no answer to the
problem it's really like what you're
coming up with is your answer so
figuring that out was really hard but
this I had my friends from Fox program
who I still like friends right now I
think that was really helpful and
without them I wouldn't be able to do
this competition successfully thank you
my next question is kind of more of a
clarification question about the
terminology when we say the Bucks cohort
what does the Bucks cohort mean and is
there more than one cohort and just kind
of clarify that a little bit let me say
the cohort we're really talking about
each individual class so this is the
Fall 2019 cohort that you're talking
with now but at the same time you will
find that when you come to the program
you yes you will quickly bond with the
cohort of the your current class but I
don't know if we completely define this
but we look at the book the Bucks
program as one big cohort and that you
will get to know people beyond your
class in fact if you land here at Washu
I would write down the names of these
four students here because they're going
to be wonderful people to know when
you're here and great resources as we
kind of look
some mentoring initiatives from one
class cohort to the next so that's what
we mean when we say the class cohort and
then the entire Bucks cohort Jess your
students any clarification that I missed
there with that
all right so let's go this next question
goes a little different direction this
is a good one could athletes fit well
into this box program um Jacob you
probably be better I say yes I am an
athlete in the Bucks program I played
football on campus
and I'm I had no trouble like dealing
with time and is RIT or like missing
things for either activity so I could I
would say you could definitely fit it in
leave there's also like for their
athletes in the Bucks program a tennis
player for sure
I think track or soccer I'm not sure but
yes you should have no worries yeah I am
part of a fencing team and sailing team
and I think it's a matter of time
management if you manage your time well
and balance your athletic life and not
panic life you'll be fine I like to
consider myself an athlete I mean I do
acting and so I do dancing on the stage
so I mean I guess but yeah definitely it
is a huge time commitment to commit to
something like that while you're
simultaneously dealing with classes in a
lot of other things and books especially
you have to deal with a couple different
departments you have to deal with the
business classes and the computer
science classes sometimes it can be a
little bit difficult to manage but at
the same time I feel that it's
definitely an experience which is worth
it and not something which is even that
much of something to worry about before
coming in at least especially since you
can pace yourself
and create your own schedule at a pace
that works best for you
okay thank you next question what kind
of internships come from this program
are there career fairs specific to the
box broker internships is a different
one given this this summer is a unique
summer so it's worth saying that many
internships across the country have been
cancelled due to the pandemic I'll start
out by just saying that yeah so with
internships um
I think especially your freshman year
it's kind of hard to find ones with like
those big companies since they're
looking for people with more experience
like sophomores and juniors for me I
applied to an internship at my mom's
company haven't heard about what's
happening with that over the summer yet
there's also a lot of other summer
opportunities that you can do your
freshman summer so I was also supposed
to go on is ba' is real summer Business
Academy this summer like it's basically
a summer and a study abroad option where
you go to Israel for a month and a half
and you learn about entrepreneurship and
you connect with startup companies there
in Israel got cancelled so I am looking
for other maybe remote opportunities to
do but yeah this summer is a little
little tricky yeah I agree with
Christine on that one um I had an
internship at a tech startup and then in
Chicago and then they cancelled it
after the corona virus thing and
everything so yeah it's definitely tough
times but if you reach out to alumni and
applying to freshman sophomore focus
internships during your freshman year
it's definitely possible to get one yeah
I would also like to plug the Ezra
program especially if you're interested
in entrepreneurship just because it's
like pretty hard to find those big name
into ships as Christine said and it's
like an immersion trip into Israel but
you also need to explore venture capital
and entrepreneurship so that's really
really cool but when it comes to like
internships like down the line I think
it's really cool because
have the opportunity to like do some
like maybe like software development if
you want and then see how you like it
and then like the next year you can come
back and do a different internship by
the time of graduating like you really
know what field you want to work in I'd
also like to throw to answer the second
part about the career fair is specific
to the Bucks program in so far as I'm
aware I don't think it's really that you
have a specific career fair just for the
Bucks cohort rather you have the ability
to go to the career fairs for both the
Olin section and for V McKelvey section
so you basically get access to both
career fairs rather than your own yeah I
just might follow up with that in the
Olin business school and maybe Jessie
you might want to mention just about the
Western Career Center but here's an
example where Washington the way the
different schools were the School of
Engineering has liaisons from the main
Career Center that work directly with
engineering students for internships and
that sort of thing bucks students have
the same access to that aspect of the
Career Center that all engineering
students have and in addition to that
they have the Western Career Center
which works in a little more methodical
way I'd say or maybe just so you can
mention exactly how the accesses yeah
and I was just kind of looking ahead to
some of the other questions so hopefully
this gets at some of those questions but
within the Western Career Center it is
our Career Center's specific to the Olin
business school
although bucks students have all the
same access to that and so one of the
most notable perks of the Western Career
Center is that you do get assigned a
four year career coach so everyone with
INBOX years from our career coach Amy
all the time she's always looking for
opportunities she's always there to
support our Bucks students so it is a
really personal experience that our
students get that that will help you
you're figuring out what career
direction you might want to go down
but behind the scenes in Weston they're
also doing a lot to form relationships
with companies so I think that's been a
pretty big thing especially for this
program as companies have been so eager
to talk with the students and the cohort
so I think it's going to present some
really great opportunities for our
students down the road I will add that
we did have a specific Western Career
Center session webinar just last week so
that should be on the admissions website
if you want to go back and learn some
more about their services - perfect next
question is it possible to give
practical computer science experience by
working with the professor at the
engineering school computer science
practical experience is often very
valuable I'd like to just address that
you don't necessarily need to work with
a professor at the engineering school in
order to get practical experience in
computer science most of the time I've
only taken two computer science classes
so far so you can take my word with a
grain of salt admittedly but so far
we've had different labs and different
Studios where we've been sitting down
and we've been working and actually
coding things out and working on
different projects to try to really get
a feel for the code rather than just
sitting in the lecture room and
listening to somebody groan on you know
it's not like that it's very much a
practical experience even in the
classroom setting but in terms of
working with a professor and getting
that sort of experience I would say that
your best option in that regard would
probably be looking into research of
some sort because if you do a research
opportunity with a professor who's in
the computer science school or
alternatively if your TA for somebody
for a computer science program or
something of that nature then you really
do get a lot of best sort of hands-on
experience yeah I also agree that like
like pretty much the best way to learn
computer
Sciences to learn by doing but I also
think that's something that McKelvey
like embodies so and like all the
classes that you take even the classes
that I've taken so far we're creating
code we're like doing projects we're
building things so if you really want to
like take it upon yourself to like take
it to the next level and get involved
with the professor and do research or
work on some type of independent project
then it will only help you but you
definitely a lot of practical experience
just within the classes here's a good
question but living in the door was the
question is do bug students live in the
same doors I think there are some
schools that cluster people together in
the same dorms does that happen at Wash
U yeah I think you basically you can
choose from me I can go either random
roommate in the building you're living
in it's gonna be random don't make sense
you can't bomb have preference between
traditional and more than and I think
that's about if you don't have dorms
specific to the box program yeah I would
also like to say that for case comm you
for the second part of a question where
you're basic where you basically ask
about how we're really getting close
together case comp is one of those types
of events
we're grouped together with other
students from business and computer
science for our groups in that
competition and while one of the
students within that come within my
group who was in the same res hall as me
the rest of them lived in different ones
and I'm still very much in contact with
all of them you know it's not like you
end up losing contact or you end up not
really spending time with them you do
end up spending a lot of time both
inside and outside of classes because we
do start off with a very similar sort of
schedule what do you wish could be
different about the program
okay tough for them to answer with the
two of us sitting here Jessie no you
don't honestly one of the main things
that I would say I want to be doing I
would probably want to be different
would be I and this is surprising to me
as well I'd actually want for a little
bit more on the computer science a few
more mandatory classes and fewer
electives mainly because I'm so new to
the whole computer science shindig as it
goes that it means that I have a little
bit of difficulty deciding okay what
direction do I want to take this and
really locking down where my focus needs
to go in the future
but again that's more so a personal
thing rather than something that I feel
the program itself should change alright
so here's kind of an answering question
what's the difference between a buck
student in the engineering school verse
it versus in the business school and
just to explain a little bit I think
what this question means basically we
have to house the student in one school
in the sense that they're either going
to be my advisee or Jessie's advisee so
I think that's kind of what the question
is getting to and of the students in
this panel two of them technically Jacob
and Lisa are in the engineering school
and Christina were in the business
school wants to take um so the only
difference that at least I've seen is
yeah like for me and allene Jesse's our
counselor versus for Jacob and Lisa it's
Ron but other than that we all do the
same thing yes and we get both benefits
from either school so like especially
I've talked about this before the free
tutors and the engineering school for
your higher level math classes your Comp
Sci classes are super super helpful but
it really
just means like which school you applied
through so like I applied through Olin
so like I had Olin and then I clicked a
little checkbox that was like the joint
program and the other to apply through
McKelvey and hit that same box but
content wise and experience wise it's
the same yeah I don't think there's much
difference between business department
and I mean there is the various
difference but if you want a major in
like box program there isn't much
difference if you want to be a part of
business cohort or engineering cohort
like for example engineering students
you will be able to take our writing
placement test over the summer to wade
out of on college ready requirement most
positions don't get that but if you are
in box program even if your department
is business you will be able to take
that test so that's like one example if
there's advantage in engineering school
the Business School box students will be
able to get that and the vice versa so
there isn't really most difference if
you are a part of box program yeah just
to touch on that like you're getting the
complete set of resources that like any
other bucks student would get so there's
really no difference I think you can
switch am i right Ron or Jesse like you
could like switches on point in time but
it really wouldn't change anything other
than and actually just to be honest with
you Jesse and I spend a lot of time a
lot of this year is this is a new
program making sure that everything is
the same between the two and sometimes
there are these little idiosyncrasies
for example the students who are
classified as in business weren't
getting the mass emails from the School
of Engineering and vice versa just kind
of a conflict and some of them were
Portland somewhere we're not as
important and we made sure that those
students business got on that that list
so really it's more common for the
students to reach out to their it buys
you whoever that is in either school but
Jesse and I are constantly collaborating
to make sure everyone has the same
resources Jesse you ready for me to kick
it over to the QA to you all right well
yeah I think we're actually right at
time so I know a few of our panelists
have some five o'clock obligations that
I want to be mindful of someone did
request though to our panelist if you
are comfortable leaving at least your
email within chat and people can
continue to reach out to you appreciate
you taking the time to do that I also
threw my email in there run if you want
to throw yours in so if we didn't get to
any of your questions that you want to
send our way we'd be happy to continue
to field those otherwise I hope this was
a valuable use of your hour wishing you
all well as you continue to make some
decisions and hoping you all stay
healthy to another one hope to see you
in the fall thank you guys
