UVA McIntire Transitions to 3-Year Program: New Application Process Revealed

From the 2024–25 admissions cycle and beyond, the McIntire School of Commerce at UVA is transitioning from a two-year to a three-year program with a significant update to its application process. While visiting commerce classes on grounds to share updates, director of undergraduate admissions Pierce Coughter detailed the upcoming changes.

Given their 97% job placement rate within 3 months and extensive recruitment resources, applicants to the commerce school come in high numbers. As shown by the 43% rate of job recipients post-graduation who enter investment banking, McIntire firmly guides students into lucrative fields. This year, the toned-down prerequisites have made the application much more accessible, as students are only required to complete one introductory commerce and one introductory economics class, as well as their first writing requirement. With that, there’s potential for a more competitive admission cycle.

Under the new system, students will apply at the end of their first year, with their application including two new written essays and two video essays, one of which is a "surprise" prompt unique to each applicant. Although the admissions website has yet to reflect these updates fully, first-years can expect an application experience unique to previous years.

A significant stress point among aspiring first-years aiming for McIntire has been distinguishing themselves through involvement on grounds. Previously, applicants would have to detail their top four extracurricular activities at the end of their second year. Now, applicants have one written essay about their extracurricular involvements, with a very high degree of freedom.

Interestingly, this written portion isn’t discussed on their first-year admissions website. Students can write about any extracurricular and any number of them of their choosing, on or off grounds. While the freedom is appreciated, this is a difficult task for any first-year, as they may be forced to omit some of their impressive involvement. Or, if one writes about too many involvements, it could signal that they haven’t deeply and personally engaged with them because the word count won’t permit them to do so. Another written component mentioned was a standard “tell us about yourself/interests in the school” essay. Here, students should demonstrate how they fit into “McIntire's vision of developing global citizens who can transform commerce and society” by expressing their unique perspective and vision for themselves in the school.

As a first-year student who will be applying, I certainly appreciate how the admissions committee is less strict on involvement, as it’s much harder to stack up an impressive resume after only one year. Still, it’s challenging to track down exactly what kind of essay will improve one’s chances of admission. How do we try to sound impressive and “brag” about our involvement while staying genuine simultaneously?

The video essay section will feature one more standard prompt that students will expect, such as “Why McIntire," and another that the guest speaker claimed was a surprise unique to each applicant. Again, the freedom granted to students on the application is impressive. But with that freedom comes as much ambiguity and uncertainty. It’s much easier for an applicant to anxiously think there won’t be much rhyme or reason behind their admission or rejection.

While the admissions committee will surely put much care into their choices, the lack of a leading example and acceptance rate under the new system leaves much room for applicants to wonder. Because this is the first year under this new admissions process, it’s become difficult for first-years to be confident in knowing what can make them competitive applicants. There’s less advice from current McIntire students available, as nobody is completely sure of the new system.

First-years seeking to maximize their chances of admission should spend their first two semesters achieving a high GPA, meaningfully engaging with the ideals of McIntire, and getting involved on grounds. As an applicant, developing an overarching theme behind your interest and potential unique contribution to McIntire that aligns with how you’ve applied yourself in extracurricular involvements is critical. The admissions committee is in search of a diverse and genuine student body. Many applicants flock exclusively to commerce-related clubs to impress the officers with their existing experience, facing competitive recruitment processes with multiple round interviews. But there’s no one-size-fits-all approach, and you want to ensure that your unique qualities shine through on the application.

The three-year system has generally been accepted as an improvement over the two-year one. An extra year affords more commerce experience to students, and those who end up rejected stand to lose less after just one year of effort instead of two. At the same time, this transition period will leave much for first-years to uncover.

All content is the intellectual property of the Virginia Undergraduate Business Review.

REFERENCES

Destinations Report - McIntire School of Commerce | UVA. (2022). Virginia.edu. https://destinations.mcintire.virginia.edu/bs-commerce.

University of Virginia McIntire — First-Year Student Admissions Process - B.S. in Commerce | UVA. (2024). University of Virginia McIntire School of Commerce. https://www.commerce.virginia.edu/bs-commerce/admissions/first-years.

[IMAGE] UVA McIntire Launches M.S. in Accounting Application for Admission to the Class of 2025. (2023, September 18). Experience Mcintire. https://experience.mcintire.virginia.edu/blogs/ms-accounting/mcintire-launches-ms-accounting-application-class-2025/.