Applications for admission into the University’s Commerce School are due soon — Jan. 26 at noon. The sources of those applications will come from addresses on Grounds, around Virginia and even across the country.
Admission into the Commerce School — which BusinessWeek magazine has named the second-ranked undergraduate business school in the country just behind the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania — is a highly sought-after commodity. According to the Commerce School Web site, nearly 500 University students applied last year, as did 272 transfer students. Rising numbers of applicants have made the admission process more competitive; the acceptance rate dropped 9 percent between 2007 and 2008, from 71 to 62 percent.
This year’s application became available in early November, according to the admissions Web site, and aims to discover “the applicant’s potential for success in the Commerce program.” Factors that are weighed include GPA, the difficulty of those courses and extracurricular activities.
Most students apply to the school during their second year, according to the school’s Web site. This break between admission into the University and the move to the Commerce School gives students time to complete prerequisite courses, which range from surveys of commerce and economics to fine arts and foreign languages.
The application also considers grades specifically from the commerce-related classes already taken, said second-year College student Nicole Smith, a Commerce School applicant.
“I try a little harder in all of the prerequisite classes ... just knowing that they pay particular attention to them, but I never feel particularly stressed,” Smith said, adding that she expects the real stress would come after admission to the school.
Another second-year Commerce School applicant, who declined to be named because of his application’s pending status, agreed.
“Hopefully between my performance thus far and the way I fill out the application it will be sufficient to get me in,” he said. “There’s not too much to stress about because there’s not much I can change.”
While most applicants have spent only two years at the University, some students apply during their third year, meaning they will have to stay for a fifth year at the University to complete the school’s two-year program. Other students can apply during their first year at the University, particularly if they completed many of the required classes before coming to the University. Third-year Commerce student Jervis Bay applied during his first year and plans to graduate at the end of this semester.
“I’m Singaporean,” Bay said. “And I came over to the U.S. when I was 21.” By that time, he said, he simply “wanted to get it over with.”
Students can also apply to transfer to the school from other colleges and universities; the Commerce School encourages students to take the equivalent prerequisites at their own schools before applying. The transfer application process seems more competitive than for students already at the University, because more students apply every year and just 13 percent were offered admission last year. Seventy percent of transfer students who were admitted came from the Virginia Community College System.
Fourth-year Commerce student Justin McDougall, who applied to the school as a transfer student, noted that students applying from other universities should be prepared to wait for a final decision from the Commerce School.
“One thing I don’t think most students understand is that most transfers will get deferred and not find out until June,” he said. The reason? There are not enough grades for admissions officials to make an “educated decision” on your acceptance, he said.
Having already filled out his fair share of transfer paperwork, McDougall said the school’s application “comparatively wasn’t that painful.” The short word limits enforced brevity in the essays, he added, but looking back, “that’s one thing the [Commerce] School is going to teach you: to get to the point very quickly.”
Students are notified of the school’s decision in mid-March. Some students, though, will have to resort to Plan B.
“You get so deep into the commerce classes that it’s hard to make backup plans,” Smith explained. She added, however, that the school allows students to complete a major or minor in the College while enrolled in the Commerce School, so classes taken as backup will not go to waste.
The anonymous applicant, however, has not made any alternative plans.
“I’m one of those people that set a goal and work toward that,” he said. “So far the [Commerce] School has been my goal, and everything I’ve done has been to work toward that, and if that doesn’t work out then I’ll have to reevaluate my path.”
For students who are admitted, the school’s two-year program begins with the Integrated Core Curriculum, which puts students in a set of classes together, where professors can “team-teach” and students can learn about real business problems in small teams, according to the school’s Web site. Students in their final year choose one of six concentrations: accounting, finance, information technology, international business, management and marketing.
Commerce classes are advertised as challenging, Smith said, and she expects that the little stress she has experienced from her prerequisites should pale in comparison to the Commerce School program itself.
But Bay, nearing the completion of the program, disagrees.
“The school does play [the difficulty] up,” he said, adding, “It’s hard to make it in at first ... but after that, it’s actually not that hard.”
He said he believes this is done to make sure students give their best effort heading into the school.
Bay said he found that the experience is well worth it through his summer internship experience in investment banking.
“You can really see the difference between someone who knows and someone who just has book smarts,” he said, noting that he and other University Commerce School students were “at least equal to the Wharton people, and far above the liberal arts people” in terms of preparedness.
Read More
Breaking my silence
By Cecy Juárez | 12 hours agoI, Cecy Juárez, am one of the three “squirrels of U.Va.” running the @thesquirrelsofuva page.
Lending a hand during the finals push
By Abby Snowdon | 2 days agoThe race to the end of the year has begun, and University groups have set up pit stops along the course to help students get to the finish line.
The spring fashion trend for you based on your college lifestyle
By Malone Morchower | 3 days agoIn 2024, decades of different styles have come back, culminating in a casual yet exciting fashion.
