Beginning this past fall, second-year students became the first cohort to enter the McIntire School of Commerce under its new three-year undergraduate program, a shift that moves the application process to the spring of first year instead of January of students’ second year. Students have expressed their appreciation for the extra year in the program to have time to better grasp foundational skills, but some say that it was slightly difficult to be the first class to adapt to the new three-year program.
According to the McIntire website, the three-year program allows students to begin Commerce courses earlier and build foundational skills before entering advanced coursework. Under the previous model, students entered McIntire in the fall of their third year after completing prerequisite courses and applying during their second year. The website further explained that the shift aligns with earlier finance and consulting recruiting timelines and gives students more room to explore other academic interests and professional opportunities.
In the new program, second-year students will take six core courses over the fall and spring semesters. The fall schedule includes COMM 2001, “Foundations of Financial Accounting,” and a choice between COMM 2002, “Foundations of Finance” or COMM 2003, “Foundations of Information Systems” — the remaining course is taken in the spring. In the spring, students complete COMM 2004, “Foundations of Quantitative Analysis for Business Decision-Making” along with two shorter courses, COMM 2005, “Foundations of Management Communication” and COMM 2006, “Foundations of Managerial Decision-Making.”
Second-year Commerce student Ryan Chen pointed to the benefit of developing foundational business skills without the pressure of the full Integrated Core Experience — McIntire’s third-year curriculum.
“I think it’s great that we have a whole year to develop this foundation and these basic skills without trying to learn all the foundational skills at the same time as we’re doing that ICE curriculum,” Chen said. “I don’t feel like the courses are too fast or it’s a ton of work at once.”
Pierce Coughter, McIntire director of undergraduate admissions and marketing, explained in a statement to The Cavalier Daily that the new application process included an increase in essays, as well as a shift in focus to extracurriculars.
“There is a broader focus on activities and extracurricular experiences throughout students’ academic careers, rather than a focus only on U.Va.-specific activities,” Coughter wrote. “Students are encouraged to note and discuss experiences from their time prior to U.Va. as well as their first year on Grounds.”
With the program now starting in students’ second year, applications are due at the end of students’ first year and include written essays and a HireVue video response.
Second-year McIntire student Megan Lamberson added that there was uncertainty with being the first class to go through the application process as second-years.
“I think having no upperclassmen [go] through it before was definitely a little bit tricky. But I think … [McIntire was] very open about [the application process],” Lamberson said.
Another change made to accommodate the earlier start date of the program is reduced prerequisite requirements for applicants. Students are only required to take three core courses prior to applying, as several general education and online prerequisites were eliminated. Previously, students were required to apply to the school having already taken a full year of introductory accounting, a full year of economics and semesters in calculus, statistics and general business.
While the earlier deadline necessitates that students commit sooner, second-year Commerce student Hayden Matay noted that this approach is consistent with practices at other leading business schools. He also said the transition has been easier than expected, and emphasized the effort put into the program by faculty and administration.
“You can tell the amount of love they’ve put into the program,” Matay said, noting that administrators had to manage a complex rollout that included introducing new courses and welcoming several hundred additional students into the program.
Matay said that effort has been reflected in the classroom experience.
“The classes have been really well put together, really well run, really well taught. And the transition experience was, for me, rather smooth,” Matay said.
The three-year program gives admitted students certainty about their major earlier in their college careers. For some, that certainty has been one of the program’s biggest advantages.
“When I found out that [the program] was going to be three years, I was really excited,” Lamberson said. “I knew I wanted to study finance and accounting, and I knew I wanted to be in the [Commerce] school, so I was just really excited that I would have the opportunity to be in that earlier.”
Second-year McIntire student Kate Mitchell said the change in classes has not greatly altered her courseload, but it has given her time to survey different concentrations in commerce.
“It also seems that the classes we're taking are all kind of like a survey of the different concentrations we can eventually pick between in our third year,” Mitchell said. “I think it's structured to give us an idea of what we might want to take in the future and how we can shape and personalize our experience in the [Commerce] school.”
According to the University’s Career Center website, recruiting for investment banking internships for the summer after a student’s third year begins during the spring semester of a student’s second year.
Many students saw clear benefits of the three-year program on recruiting for careers in commerce that can occur as early as one’s second year. Matay noted that entering McIntire in a student’s second year provides an advantage, especially for finance roles, as professors actively support students in the recruiting process.
“Whether it's consulting jobs, investment banking jobs, private equity or whatever type of firms students are interested in, having McIntire be on your resume is definitely valuable,” Matay said.
Assoc. Commerce Prof. Roger Martin, who taught second-year students in the fall, said the new courses are specifically designed for students beginning their McIntire experience earlier. Martin also noted he was impressed with the level of engagement and talent of the new cohort of second-year students, as he said they did well in many difficult courses. He added that student feedback will play a central role in identifying how to improve the program in coming years.
“As we gain more familiarity with the new curriculum and how students are experiencing the curricular and co-curricular aspects of the program, we hope to identify ways to improve their experience,” Martin said.
The University has not yet published data on how total enrollment or acceptance rates may have been affected. Coughter noted that with only one admissions cycle for the three-year program, it is too soon to identify definitive trends, but the most recent cycle saw the three-year track receive more applications and have a lower acceptance rate compared with the previous two-year program. Last year’s two-year program admitted 53 percent of applicants from 726 submissions, while the first three-year cycle had a 44 percent acceptance rate from 876 applications, following historically higher acceptance rates of around 60 percent under the old two-year system.
Applications for current first-year students are due April 30, and the school has not announced any changes to this year’s process compared with last year.
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