McIntire School of Commerce

The McIntire School of Commerce provides students with passionate and engaging faculty who are very approachable and know the students by name. The school has an integrated approach to teaching different functional areas of business, which gives the students a much better understanding of how different areas of business work together and influence each other. The Commerce school provides students with real world business experience where we work in a team to solve a real business case for our corporate sponsors (ABB, MLB, Rolls-Royce, Alcoa, etc.) The McIntire School prepares student extremely well for a business career by emphasizing teamwork, collaboration, and ethics.

I think less reliance on grades would be better. Every student enrolled in the program had to be exceptional to be accepted. With less emphasis on grades, I think it would be easier to assimilate some of the material. As opposed to stressing about concepts to make a good grade, a student could concentrate on greater mastery of the material free of the burden of a rating.

Our ICE program for 3rd years has an integrated curriculum and I feel like you get a real sense for how all different areas of business combine when you are making business decisions. Being able to present for a corporate sponsor at the end was a very unique opportunity, which you cannot find at other schools.

Due to the popularity of the commerce program at my university, classrooms tend to get crowded and space is not always available for everyone to take all the classes they want to. Throughout my time, I have never been able to not take a class I truly wanted to take, but I have had to wait another semester to enroll.

The level of teamwork integrated into the program has been very helpful. Increasingly in business, teamwork is a key aspect that many programs do not stress. The ability to lead and work within groups for a common outcome is highly valued by prospective employers.

The most important thing I think the program could do to improve is to allow more academic freedom in its concentrations. For example, one of my concentrations is finance, and while I will not be going into investment banking or trading, I am required to take two investment classes instead of selecting two other finance classes that would aid me more in my chosen career path.

Career services are unbelievable and extremely supportive. Even more, professors are always available and even try to help us in our own career search.

The business program at my school, in my opinion, is focused more on finance and accounting. A more holistic approach, extending the focus to marketing and management as well would make the program balanced. I also think that McIntire can stand out by creating partnerships with our Engineering School, Architecture School, and College of Arts and Sciences, to encourage interdisciplinary study. After all, business doesn't exist in isolation. Today's business leaders need to understand various fields and be able to apply their skill set across disciplinary boundaries.

Our curriculum is determined by real word demand for those skills/knowledge and the attractiveness that they have toward potential employees as well as to the job market as a whole.

While there are a good variety of companies present in the recruiting process, I wish there are more companies from the west coast.

I think the overall culture of UVA is what makes McIntire unique. From reading about other business programs, it seems that all of the top caliber programs are relatively similar in terms of course rigor, teaching quality, and employer visibility. However, the culture is more laid back and competition among students is growth-oriented, not cutthroat. While this wasn't my first choice school when I was applying to schools, I can't imagine anywhere else being a better fit for me, and I can't imagine that I would have been as successful as I am at anywhere other than McIntire.

An earlier emphasis on alternative careers would be a nice diversification of career opportunities. It seems that investment banking and consulting are really the only two fields that are pushed in the beginning. However, McIntire provides a wealth of alternative career paths through its alumni.

It's only a two-year program so it allows students to try out other paths before committing to a business degree. I think this makes a much more diverse and interesting student body and it produces well-rounded graduates because we still have to fulfill arts, humanities, writing, and other requirements outside of the commerce school before graduation.

There are a significant number of international students in the Commerce school and we're left pretty much on our own when it comes to looking for jobs, especially when in areas outside of Finance. I believe career services should make a bigger effort to attract firms that sponsor visas.

The first thing that separates the McIntire School of Commerce is its designation to be a 2-year rather than a 4-year program. The two years spent taking other classes at the University give McIntire students a much more refined viewpoint from which to view the business world. Also the Internal Core Experience (ICE) program in our first year within McIntire immediately puts students into a very dynamic environment from which we work on team projects that contain facets of just about every single business skill from Finance and IT, to Communications and Strategy.

The business program attracts the best investment banks and consulting firms - for students looking for jobs in these areas, I can't think of how McIntire could be any stronger. However, it should do more to also bring in leading marketing firms. It should also keep up with the times and adding a course in online marketing.

The professors are always available, even on weekends and weeknights. The caliber of the students is outstanding. The material that they taught has always challenged me. The honor system that they use makes me feel trusted.