Plan of study

Fangyue zhu
7/17/2019

1. Introduction of Major Program.

Business administration includes many different disciplines such as accounting, finance,

project management and marketing (“Management”, 27 April 2019). Usually graduate

students would take Master of Business Administration (MBA) course if they want to have

master’s degree of management, but for those students who have no work experiences or

have work experiences less than three years, George Mason University has an alternative

program—Master of Business Management for them. This discipline offers basic knowledge

of business management in a global environment, covering core discipline of all graduate

programs that are included in Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business

(“Management, MS”, 2019). The reason why I attracted by this program is because my

undergraduate major is Accounting, but I don’t want to just be an accountant in my future.

Since I want to achieve a higher level such as senior manager, I want to have more

knowledge about management. Moreover, this project provides me some valuable internship

opportunities, which attracts me very much.

2. Academic Goals.

My first academic goal is getting A grade in all my course when I graduate. To achieve

this goal, I would focus more on knowledges I learn, reviewing them after class and try my

best to finish assignments. Although my advantage is that I can finish the task quickly, I have

a big disadvantage, that is, I cannot focus on one single issue for a long time. This would
make me could not perform best in my assignment, according to my experiences from this

semester, it led most of losing point on my grade. I can overcome this problem by setting

learning rewards for myself. For example, I could set a bonus meal for every time I get

enough points for assignment. Now I'm trying, and it works well. I want to really master

these knowledges, not only for good grade, but also to improve my personal ability. In

addition, as a student, learning is our primary task now.

My second academic goal is to continue to read relevant articles and accumulate

knowledge about future trends in my academic field. I hope that by the time I graduate, I will

be ready to enter the industry with my professional knowledge. To achieve this, I think I need

to make sure I have time to read relevant magazines, news and pay attention to relevant

accounts on social networking sites. I think it's very important to keep myself in touch with

the latest facts so that I can know in time what additional knowledge and capabilities I need

to improve in order to succeed in my academic field.

My third academic goal is to pass the American Certified Public (CPA) Accountant

exam before graduation from George Mason University. Because my undergraduate major is

Accounting, and I want to start my career with being an accountant, I want to get as more

useful certifications as I can before I start to work. It is hard to separate my energy into two

parts after I start to work, and certification would help me to find a good job. So, I consider

getting certifications first is a good idea. But Chinese CPA is only tested in November every

year, so I have no chance to get Chinese CPA at present. In addition, my university has taught

Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and International Financial Reporting

Standards (IFRS), so I think I can pass the American CPA exam after review. So far, I don't
know exactly where I can get support resources, but a friendly professor told me I could write

email to Accounting advisor. She gave me an email address, and I would try to contact with

Accounting advisor after I am finishing the final exam this semester. To achieve this goal, I

will set a clear timetable and task schedule, and do a lot of online exercises.

3. Disciplinary Resources List

As a student of George Mason University, there are lot of available academic resources

that students could use here:

i. University Libraries, George Mason University (n.d.). Retrieved from:

https://library.gmu.edu/

This is the school library website, through which students could find many free

academic resources, such as databases, periodicals and some e-books. To use this

website, first of all, students need to log in with their student account. Many times

the website itself does not have those resources, but it generates a page that guides

you to website where you can find them.

ii. ELSEVIER (2019). Retrieved from: https://www.elsevier.com/

Established in 1880 as a publishing company, it publishes many periodicals and

articles every year. I often use this website to find some articles. This is a very

convenient website. For example, I found “Corporate social responsibility and CEO

compensation structure” (Khondkar Karim, Eunju Lee, Sanghyun Suh, 2018) from

it.
iii. Mergent Online (n.d.). Retrieved from:

http://www.mergentonline.com/compsearch.asp

Mergent Online is an online data base where information about company finances

and competitors could be found on it. It's a good research resource for students who

want to get that information, and it's free for George Mason's students. The

company it belongs to was founded in 1900. This online data base is a trustworthy

source of information.

iv. Statista (n.d.). Retrieved from: https://www.statista.com/

According to the Wikipedia, “Statista is a German online portal for statistics, which

makes data collected by market and opinion research institutes and data derived

from the economic sector and official statistics available in English, French,

German and Spanish.” (“Statista”, 29 March 2019). It established in 2007 by one

entrepreneurs and one professor from Germany.

v. Academic Writing for Graduate Students, 3rd Edition: Essential Skills and Tasks

John M. Swales & Christine B. Feak. Retrieved from:

https://is.muni.cz/el/1411/podzim2016/VLAW051/um/academic_writing_for_gradu

ate_students_essential_tasks_and_s.pdf

This is a book about how postgraduates could write their academic writing. There

are many details in it. For example, what kind of sentence structure can make the

article look more professional and easier to understand.

 vi. Purdue Online Writing Lab (2019). Retrieved from:

https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_style_introduction.

html

This is a branch of Purdue University Library website. It provides guidance on

Citation formats. It's open to everyone, and it's very professional and clear. Anyone

can easily find the knowledge they want about quotation.

4. Course Plan.

Module 1 Module 2 Module 3 Module 4 Module 5

Aug-Oct Oct-Dec Jan-Mar Mar-May May-June
633 603 643 638 678
653 613 612 623 695
662 692 692
9 credits 6 credits 6 credits 7.5 credits 7.5 credits

BMGT 603 Economics for Successful Firm Management

BMGT 612 Performance Evaluation Through Cost Management
BMGT 613 Financial Reporting and Firm Analysis
BMGT 623 Marketing and Firm Performance
BMGT 633 Statistical Analysis for Management
BMGT 638 Managing Business Operations in a Global Environment
BMGT 643 Financial Management in a Global Environment
BMGT 653 Fundamentals of Behavior in Organizations
BMGT 662 Management of Information Technology
BMGT 678 Business Strategy and Firm Leadership
BMGT 695 Global Business Perspectives
BMGT 692 Professional Development Experience
Total: 36 credits.

5. Academic Reflection.
 In last semester, professor of EAP 099 asked us to read some articles or watch some

videos before class. During the classes, we were asked to answer the questions posed by

some professors and to ask our own questions about those materials. There are four

people in my class, and we always be required to discuss, to express our ideas. By doing

these, we could find what is the short of our communication skill. And the professor

would give feedback about our advantages and disadvantages that we show when

discussing. Once, we were divided into two groups, four roles, including leaders, note

takers and questioners. The leader would guide the conversation, the note taker would

write down everyone’s ideas, and the questioners would summarize all those ideas that

have been mentioned, at the same time, make their own questions. We shared our views

about the topic that the article talks about and discussed the questions that have been

mentioned. However, we didn’t managed time well because we sometime gone beyond

the article.

Although this is not the first time that I participated in a discussion, it is the first time

that I participated in a discussion just to share views, rather than focusing on making

decisions or solving problems. I'm a little overwhelmed. And I don't know what or how I

should say. But I tried to share my views. What’s more, the professor's feedback made

me realize my weaknesses. So, I think this activity really helped me to know how to

improve my discussion skills. In addition, I need to apply what I have learned to my

future discussions. Because it is very important to learn to communicate, summarize

other people's ideas and express your own opinions, whether you are a good student or a
good staff member. So, by learning and using what I learned, I could become a better

person.

Reference：

Management, MS. Retrieved from: https://catalog.gmu.edu/colleges-

schools/business/management-ms/#text

Statista. Retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statista

Management. Retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Management