When I was determining which university program to pursue, I loved reading forums about people’s experiences. It was pretty difficult to find someone talk about their BMOS Consumer Behaviour degree experience online though. I decided to be that person and
Overall Western University Review
I remember when I was touring the Western campus for the first time, the tour guide told me that everyone who goes to Western, says they love it. Looking back, I can’t say that I disagree. I loved my Western University experience, but I definitely don’t think it’s for everyone. Western to me had a good balance of student experience with challenging academics. There wasn’t a crazy amount of pressure to perform in school, and there wasn’t too much pressure to party. I think everyone’s Western experience is unique to them. What’s great is that Western provides so many opportunities to make your experience what you want it to be. Whether you want to focus on academics, or be involved in school clubs, or just party all the time.
Aside from the academics and student experience, I think Western’s facilities and campus are absolutely gorgeous. It feels great attending classes in nice (except Social Science) buildings on a beautiful campus. I think the tools and facilities are great as well, with nice science equipment and a huge gym. They have lots of options for study spots around campus and the nature is really refreshing to walk across.
Moreover, the administration at Western is “good enough,” I’d say. It’s not the best, but I think it does a relatively good job at handling situations that affect the students. It’s hard to give an opinion because the president of Western at the time that I was there is now gone and I haven’t experienced what the new president is like. But overall, I think the administration is not necessarily worse than what other school’
Overall BMOS Program Review
Program Structure
Looking at the overall, Bachelor of Management and Organizational Studies program at Western, it’s a pretty decent program. The program structure is similar to what I think a lot of other business programs are like. In the sense that they start with general classes that cover all the different realms of business, before moving into specialized courses for your desired specialization or major.
Pros:
First, I think the program offers many different ways you can personalize your degree to what you want. You can do double majors, add a minor to your specialization and also choose a unique specialization. The program also makes it pretty easy to switch between specializations, which I did. Despite what you choose as your specialization, you have a lot of options to enrol in classes that are offered to all specializations to diversify your course load. There is also the option to go on an exchange program to the Netherlands. This exchange is specifically designed for BMOS students so that’s a plus if you’re interested in studying abroad!
Cons:
One of the biggest cons I find with the BMOS program is in its name. No other schools offer a Bachelor of Management and Organizational Studies. With no other program with the same name, it makes our BMOS program look very strange. It’s also hard to appeal to employers if they’re unfamiliar with the program. Most employers are more familiar with a BBA or a Bachelor of Commerce, but are unfamiliar with a BMOS degree.
Furthermore, all the degree specialization options available are not well advertised. This leads to learning about them too late if you wanted to graduate within 4 years.
Classes
When looking at the classes available in the program, I think there is a large variety of fundamental and interesting classes! The BMOS program offers many classes on the core business principles like accounting, finance, marketing and HR. Other interesting courses offered that I have taken are fraud examination, personal finance, and brand management. Ultimately, it depends on your interests and if the courses available for your desired specialization meet those interests.
Professors
The BMOS professors are mostly great! I think with every program, there’s always going to be a professor that doesn’t match your learning style. Most of the professors that I have met in this program are qualified and very kind to talk to. Many are very open to building a relationship with their students to help them in their career. Whether it be to dive further into academia or to give advice on jobs in the industry. When looking at specific professors for a certain course, I would recommend you search them up on the Rate My Professor website to get a sense of their teaching style. Or, reach out to someone who may have taken the course and ask for their opinion (me included)!
Support/Network
I believe the network of those in the BMOS program is not as exceptional as it is compared to Ivey. But, I think it’s still pretty great! The BMOS program offers various recruiting and networking events throughout the year. You can attend these to meet BMOS alumni and make connections. Most of the BMOS alumni are willing to help you in your career, as they understand that the program is not as easily recognized.
Also, as BMOS students, we are able to go to company recruiting events held at Ivey as well so we’re not limited to the companies that our program brings in. This can help get your foot in the door at larger companies who may not have heard of the BMOS program.
Consumer Behaviour Review
Diving into my specific specialization, consumer behaviour is definitely a double-edged sword! Part of me wishes that Western simply called it “marketing”. But, I have heard feedback from recruiters that the “consumer behaviour” title interested them and were curious about the program. This absolutely aligns with Western as a school being more research focused. The consumer behaviour program is more research and psychology focused. Rather, than focusing on tactical and skills that are used in a daily basis by marketing professionals. This has its pros and cons, but I can see how those who are just graduating may find it not as useful because you can’t necessarily use all of those theories in your entry level marketing jobs.
Overall, the program definitely helped build my overall marketing mindset and I do believe that I use parts of my education on a regular basis, if not all of it.
Classes
The classes offered in the Consumer Behaviour stream of BMOS are a bit limited. I think there’s a total of about maybe 5 specialized courses for Consumer Behaviour, which can be a bit frustrating. But, the courses that are offered are pretty great, and you can supplement your degree with other practical courses. I would recommend some from the Digital Communications curriculum, if you’re interested in that route. A few of the consumer behaviour courses are very psychology and research based (like consumer behaviour and market research), so if that’s not your cup of tea, you will have to only suffer a little bit.
Lots of the third and fourth year consumer behaviour courses include a few assignments and a large group project, so you will definitely meet a lot of the people in BMOS that way. You’ll also get used to working in teams and presenting, which I think are very valuable skills for the real world. Many of the classes in third and fourth year don’t require extensive readings, but there will still be a fair amount of reading material from textbooks or external sources. I think this structure is pretty comparable to most other university classes at that level. In these consumer behaviour courses, you typically get a lot of freedom to be creative and research really interesting companies!
Professors
Similarly to the professors in the overall BMOS program, I think the consumer behaviour course professors are very qualified and passionate about the subject matter that they teach. Although these professors do change from time to time, I think the ones who have been there for a long while are great. They are all very willing to help students out however they can and they are very understanding of your concerns. Many have either experience in the industry or have extensive research experience in the academia side, so they can speak to you about their specific careers and give you guidance about them. Overall, these professors are great and wonderful to learn from.
2 Years Post Grad
Now, I think the biggest question that some people have is “will graduating from the BMOS program get you a good job?” To answer this question, I think it really comes down to the individual. I don’t think that a specific program will be the driver to landing a good job. Although Ivey prides itself in preparing its students to secure great jobs, not everyone is guaranteed one just because they went to Ivey. Similarly with BMOS, if your goal is to land a really good job, it’s possible, as long as you put in the work for it.
For me, I was looking for a entry level marketing job that could give me a good perspective in the world of marketing in order to determine what I wanted to specialize in. I’ve been able to do that and ultimately chose to specialize in social media marketing and graphic design. Many of my other friends have also landed good jobs post grad, at large companies or smaller agencies, just depending on what they were looking for. From my experience, many BMOS graduates are successful in finding full time employment upon graduation.
Recommendations for You
When choosing a university program, you have to first determine your priorities. What are you looking for in a program? Is it one where the classes are superior, one where you’re able to customize your degree the way you want it, or one where you will be studying at a great school? After you’ve determined these priorities, you can start comparing programs at different schools.
I would recommend Western’s BMOS program if you’re interested in attending Western and getting a business degree. If you’re very interested in going to a top business school, this BMOS program is not for you. But if you want more a relaxed, well-rounded program and love Western as a school, then I think BMOS would be a great fit for you.
Overall, it’s really dependent on your priorities but I would say that Western’s BMOS program is great if it matches what you’re looking for! I hope you gained some insights on my review of Western and this program through this blog post. Let me know what you think in the comments below, by emailing me or by sliding into my Instagram DMs!
