2 Questions

#1 - It's 5:15 in the morning. Why am I still working on this ridiculous Petro-Canada paper?
#2 - Given that I have to finish this paper, why am I writing in my blog?

Red Tapes Blues...The Conclusion?

Over the past couple of weeks, I have continued my struggle to transfer 3 credits from Ryerson University to McGill (to get a background, read this post).
After more meetings with my advisor and many more unanswered e-mails, it seems that I have finally succeeded.
Just yesterday the advisor told me that my McGill transcript would show 3 credits from Ryerson. Surprising, today my transcript online actually showed those 3 credits!

I did it. All it took was 8 months of nagging, screaming and crying.

Thanks McGill, you're great!

What do you study?

This question is inevitably asked when two university students meet for the first time. (It tends to follow “what school do you go to?” and “where are you from”?)

The question is simple enough, but I don’t like answering it. That is why I hesitate before I finally respond “I’m majoring in accounting”.

I know that there is nothing wrong with studying accounting in university, but I sometimes worry that people will immediately draw conclusions about me based on my major.

Here are some possible conclusions:

1) this guy is boring
2) he loves money
3) he is nerdy
4) he is uncultured
5) he will likely commit corporate fraud one day and steal my money


Note: I realize that it is unfair of me to assume that people make judgments like these. In fact, I’m sure that most do not. However, I know that if I were studying something else, and somebody told me that they were majoring in accounting I would probably draw many of the above conclusions. That is why I worry.

I am not posting to argue that the above 5 statements do not accurately reflect my personality. (In fact, by virtue of having a blog about essentially nothing, #3 is probably pretty accurate…). I will, however, use this space to answer some questions that I am commonly asked after I tell someone about my accounting major.

Q: Umm…so you want to be an accountant?
A: Yes. Within the next few years I plan to pursue a C.A. (Chartered Accountant) designation in Ontario.

Q: Wait, so you want to be an accountant for the rest of your life?
A: Likely not, unless I really love it. I think that I eventually want to take the business skills that I learn and work for a non-for-profit organization.

Q: So you can do my taxes, right?
A: No

Q: Why did you choose accounting?
A: Good question. It just sort of happened. Once I started business school, I thought that I would do something more creative, like marketing.

Unfortunately, I hated marketing at McGill.

Surprisingly, I found accounting to be somewhat interesting. It also helped that I was good at it, and it involved playing with numbers which is something that I like (refer to #3 on conclusions list above).

Q: Besides taxes, what do accountants do?
A: Lots of things. In fact, a lot of accountants don’t do taxes. A specific field of accounting that interests me is called “forensic accounting”. Forensic accountants are hired to detect and prevent corporate fraud. They’re the good guys who catch the bad guys in the business world.

Q: Do you like what you’re studying?
A: The subject matter can be dry at times, but for the most part, its intellectually stimulating.

Q: Are you interested in other things?
A: Yes. Just ask me.

Q: So you’re going to be rich right?
A: Not any time soon. Although I am very happy to have a job coming out of university, accounting is one of the lower paying entry level “business school jobs” (versus finance, consulting etc.) I am definitely happy with my salary, but if I were looking for quick cash, I would have applied for a job in investment banking.

To sum up:

1) Yes, I major in accounting.
2) No, it doesn’t define who I am
3) Yes, I realize that nobody actually makes assumptions about me based on my major
4) Yes I am a bit paranoid
5) Yes, I think I made the right choice for me
6) No, I won’t do your taxes.

The t-shirt

Some people have asked me about the origin of my blog's name.

Although it's certainly not so clever, I should still admit that I didn't come up with it on my own.

Over the summer, I interned at an accounting firm.
As a gift, they gave me this t-shirt.
For some reason, I think that it's hilarious

Red Tape Blues

That's it. I simply don't think that I can deal with McGill's administration anymore.

Let me explain...

Over the summer, I took two courses:
1) Business Law offered by correspondence from the University of Windsor.
2) Finance II offered at Ryerson University in Toronto.

I need both of these courses in order to become an accountant in Ontario one day.

Anyway, in March (ie well before I took these courses), I asked the nice people at the Bachelor of Commerce office here at McGill if I would be able to transfer the credits from my summer classes to my McGill transcript. If they said "yes", then I would be able to take 4 courses per semester in my last year (as opposed to the regular 5).

Well, the B.Com office was certainly less than helpful. Every person that I spoke to told me that I needed to speak to someone else. I got thrown around in circles for at least 3 weeks.
Every single day I would walk into the office and demand to speak to someone who could help me and everyday I was told that I would have to make appointment or send an e-mail.

First I tried to send e-mails but I would either get no response or very unhelpful and often rude ones.
Then I asked how I could make appointments and I was told that I had to do it through e-mail! (Which clearly was not going to work).

Finally one day in April when I was making a bit of a scene in the office (which had become normal at this point) an advisor came out of his office and asked me what he could help me with.
I explained my situation and he told me to come back the next day.

My first meeting with this advisor did not go very well.
He told me that there is no way that I would be able to transfer credits from either class.
His explanation for the correspondence class was that McGill does not recognize correspondence classes as "real courses". Although I was disappointed, I figured that it was not worth arguing over.

So then I asked him what was wrong with the Ryerson course.
He told me that there were two problems with it.
#1 The course was offered both by correspondence and in standard lecture format, and he would have no way of knowing which way I took the course (even though that was a crap excuse because I showed him my online registration).
#2 This one is even worse...He told me that McGill does not recognize Ryerson University as a valid academic institution.
What the hell?!?!
Ok, I'll admit that Ryerson isn't regarded as Canada's top school, but give me a break. McGill accepts credits from all sorts of schools. The last time that McGill reviewed Ryerson as an institution was more than 10 years ago when it was still Ryerson Polytechnic Institute.

Well, after the meeting I decided that this was still a cause worth fighting for.
I was not going to let McGill push me around like this (especially because the advisor also mentioned that "it's a revenue issue for McGill" ie, if they don't transfer the credits then I have to take more classes at McGill and thus give McGill more money).

Reader's note: I was really not trying to screw with the system. I looked into taking the Finance course at U. of T. (a school that McGill does recognize), but I couldn't get into it. That is why I had to take it at Ryerson.

Skip ahead 2-3 weeks.

After my continual arguing, bothering and kvetching I finally got a hint of good news:
McGill would transfer the credits from my Ryerson course but only under 2 conditions:
#1 I had to get into the course without the help of McGill (normally they write "letters of permission" which makes the registration process much easier).
#2 I had to get a letter from the registrar at Ryerson stating clearly that I did not take my course by correspondence.

With this good news, I thanked the advisor for all of his "help" (keep in mind, I had already been dealing with this for well over a month).

Skip ahead 4 months.

I've finished both my summer courses and have done well in both of them (although the Business Law course ended in near disaster...Perhaps a story for a later post).

I know that McGill will not transfer credits from the Bus. Law course so I don't' even bother asking again.
I also know, however, that they will transfer my credits from Ryerson.

So, in early September I present my Ryerson transcript along with a letter from the registrar (which cost me $15) to the B.Com office.

I breath a sigh of relief because I think that my ordeal is over.

Skip ahead 2 months.

Its now the middle of November and the credits still have not transferred.
The advisor seems to have forgotten our little agreement. He now tells me that I may not be able to transfer the credits (using the same excuses as before)
I've had to write more letters and continue with my daily e-mails.

How is this possible?
How do these people function?
Why are they trying to screw me over?

I realize that this post is long but I wanted everyone to get a small sense of the ridiculousness that I have gone through. I, of course, left out a lot of frustrating details in order to conserve space.
The truly unfortunate thing is that so many McGill students have similar stories to mine.
McGill is infamous for the insane bureaucracy and its really starting to piss me off.
I'll keep you posted on this saga as it continues to unfold...

Now onto happier news...

Yesterday as I was checking out Jewlicious, I read a post about the winner of the Israeli version of the reality series "The Bachelor".
Turns out, the girl who won is somebody who I went to highschool with.
Its pretty funny.
You can read an article about it the Jerusalem Post, or watch the a video from the final episode on the show's website.

In the beginning...

So, I've finally joined the dark side.
In recent weeks, I have been spending my procrastination time reading my friends' blogs. I had no idea that so many people had them.

For a while now I've been toying with the idea of starting my own blog. I never really had the desire to because I didn't think that I had anything interesting to say. In fact, now that I have started a blog, I still don't think that I have anything interesting to say... but I guess my readers can decide that for themselves (if I can find any).

So, come and visit some time, especially if you are procrastinating.