We are all victims of unsolicited advice from time to time, but the term “victim” may be a bit harsh when referring to what you hopefully take away from this blog in the future. Victims are typically the last ones to know that something is going to happen to them – good or bad. So here’s your fair warning: I’m going to tell you stuff that might be useful right now and a little later on from now. Sounds simple, right? I hope it works out that way. I have some things to share as a University of Baltimore Academic Advisor and this open forum should be a good platform for both of us to get it all out there – yes, the good and the bad.
I’m a graduate of UB and have worked in higher education for 14 years assisting students in every population you can name. Currently I advise undergraduate students in the Merrick School of Business. The purpose of this blog is to supplement the information that is already out there on our University website (University policy/procedures, academics, student development), and, whenever possible, I will add an anecdotal twist or a shared observation to help you put your own academic pursuit into perspective.
Here’s something I can laugh about now, but the lesson has truly been learned. I didn’t listen to my dad when he told me I should (oops, wrong word to use with a teenager), “Go into computers”, as a major in college. [Coincidentally, computers in the mid-eighties were just that big that you could crawl “into” them.] By now, I would have taken advantage of the .com bubble in the 90’s building/designing websites, made millions of dollars, lost it all in the stock market crash of 2008 and then bounced back to develop smartphones apps to recoup my losses. I should have listened to my dad. He was right – but where was he getting his information? There was no Google back then. Even without Google, I should have investigated, asked some questions opened an encyclopedia or something (remember those?) to get more information. One more warning about this blog: Most of the stuff I come up with will come out of my head, but I will do my best to give you links that support the topic at hand.
Sometimes listening and doing a little digging saves us some time in the long run. Not everything I write may be meaningful to you. Take the information, put it in your back pocket for a while and mull it over, then post your comment. Hopefully you find something in your digging that may be useful to the group.
Michael Swaby-Rowe MSB Academic Adviser