COMM 4660

Great class that achieves the main purpose - to prepare students for a career in consulting or any professional career. The best part is that it is not a course that is meant to be stressful or too difficult. At the end of the day, you get what you give in the course. Professor Boler is awesome

Prof. Boler is really approachable outside of class and designs the class in a very systematic way so that the students can progress along the way and still enjoy the material. A lot of deliverables for the class but really prepares you well for consulting and case competitions

Boler is fantastic. He designs the course really well so you can develop skills along the way that are helpful not just for consulting, but for literally whatever field you want to go into after graduating. You'll definitely go outside of your comfort zone during the class, but it's so worth it. And the advice he gives is truly invaluable and he's a great resource to have in the future. He takes participation into account a great deal in your final grade, so make sure you participate in class a lot. Do all the work, participate, and put effort into the presentations and you'll come out with an A-.

Professor Boler was a good professor - he's a bit forgetful (in an endearing way), but he tries to get to know all of his students (even those who don't participate much in class). He is eager to help all of his students, regardless of where they are in the job search process, and provides ample opportunities for you to consult him on any of your concerns (both regarding the class and other inquiries regarding your personal goals or ambitions). I did not participate in class as much as the other students, but Boler made an effort to reach out to me to get to know me, which I really appreciated.

As for the class, I have mixed feelings. Boler is certainly an expert on consulting and recruiting, and has a lot of cool experiences and lessons from both the military and consulting that he loves to share in his lectures. However, I would say that the course is true to its name "Basics of Strategic Consulting." This course is designed for people who haven't opened a page in Case in Point and really don't have a clue about the "basics" of consulting or case interviews, or for the matter, proper networking etiquette. As a Commerce student, I was kind of bummed that the first few weeks of class were dedicated to "how to interview," and that we had to do tedious modules that teach you how to create clean and professional PowerPoints. After all, those are both things that I not only read in literature like Case in Point, but also what Commerce students are already trained to do in ICE (I took the course as a 4th year). That being said, I was frustrated by the number of modules and readings that I had to do to reinforce concepts that I was already skilled in.

However, I quickly realized that the numerous group projects required in the course that not all of my peers were as familiar with consulting basics and interviewing as I was. In fact, the majority of the COMM 4660 class were non-Commerce fourth-year students. I was in a group where I was the only Commerce student, and I felt like I had to lead our projects (especially in the first half of the semester) because my group-mates did not know much about how to use Excel, how to make professional PowerPoints (or general formatting, for the matter), or how to structure an approach to a problem. On that note, group projects, and the overall class for the matter can seem frustrating or repetitive for Commerce students. However, I would highly recommend the course to any non-Commerce students or those who literally know nothing about case interviewing or consulting if they would like to be better prepared to pursue a career in the field.

People say that Boler is a pretty strict grader, and I guess that is true in regards to participation. However, like I said earlier, I did not participate as much as others in class, and I still managed to do well in participation because I actually attended every session. My class was at 9:30 AM, and a lot of students skipped a lot. On that note, I think Boler really appreciated those who actually showed up for class (which should be a given lol), and that was reflected in our grades. The other assignments were tedious busy work, but I got through them and got an A in the class. On that note, if you show up to class, participate regularly, and make sure to complete your assignments, the course will be an easy A.