Direct admit would be so much better. As it is, you have roughly 2000 kids taking microeconomics freshman year for the chance to apply to 300 McIntire spots and everyone is smart and made the cut-off to get into UVA in the first place.

Anonymous wrote:Business is all about risk management. If kid truly wants to major in business applying to direct admit schools is an indication that they properly understand risk management.

The schools are being pushed to direct admit because:

1) Students and parents become angry with the university when they can't get into their preferred programs after matriculating. This creates unneeded stress and ill-will with enrolled students.

2) Business students often don't really care about the exact nature of their liberal arts distribution requirements. I know this personally because I dropped an undergrad BBA degree to focus only on liberal arts/Economics. I think business classes can develop many of the same skills as liberal arts classes. And I agree that business is a solid undergraduate track even at elite schools. But the business students rarely match the interest pattems of, say, people who go on to humanities PhDs. They are very interested in prestige jobs and acquiring the exact skills and grades needed to access them.

3) Direct admit helps to manage the amount of applications and channel them properly. This is important in the current era of overwhelming application counts.

I have an MBA from Michigan. I have watched their BBA program evolve out of an LSA transfer to full direct admit program. It's been purely a demand and expectations management decision. Among other reasons, they need to make sure the LSA Economics majors really want to be Economics majors. There are plenty who do but there were also a lot rolling the dice to transfer to the BBA.

I also watched as Cornell eventually decided to add undergraduate business. (I also considered Cornell for an MBA.) That was a very deliberate strategic decision and it's consistent with student interest. Looks very popular. I think that was a good decision and fits Cornell's "Any Person, Any Study" mantra.

Regarding the AI analysis above, I don't think there's any need to wait for a year of college to make sure that kids are qualified to enter a business undergrad. There's nothing more special about a business program than engineering, for example.

Business is all about risk management. If kid truly wants to major in business applying to direct admit schools is an indication that they properly understand risk management.

Wharton grad in the White House!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your daughter or son is at UVA, do they plan to apply to Mcintire? Or would love to hear from someone whose child stayed with economics as a major and what job they have now. Thank you!

Not quite what you are seeking, but my kid was a UVA Econ major and studied under Ken Elzinga who wrote her LOCs to Oxford for grad work in Econ. She’s going to a T3 law school to study law & Econ and perhaps become a professor. She had many friends in McIntire.

Write Dr Elzinga before you go and ask to visit him on campus. He did for my kid. You’ll never meet a kinder man.

I think he taught his final classes this fall! I think taught there for 70 yrs.

That would be difficult since he got his PhD in 1967. I just saw him at church and he said nothing about teaching his last class. But pp
is right - I bet he would meet with the applicant.

Ok, so just shy of 60 years, not 70.

He tag-team taught micro this fall. It was told to the kids or inferred that the guy teaching with him (McKay) is his replacement.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your daughter or son is at UVA, do they plan to apply to Mcintire? Or would love to hear from someone whose child stayed with economics as a major and what job they have now. Thank you!

Not quite what you are seeking, but my kid was a UVA Econ major and studied under Ken Elzinga who wrote her LOCs to Oxford for grad work in Econ. She’s going to a T3 law school to study law & Econ and perhaps become a professor. She had many friends in McIntire.

Write Dr Elzinga before you go and ask to visit him on campus. He did for my kid. You’ll never meet a kinder man.

I think he taught his final classes this fall! I think taught there for 70 yrs.

That would be difficult since he got his PhD in 1967. I just saw him at church and he said nothing about teaching his last class. But pp
is right - I bet he would meet with the applicant.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aside: UVa should take the next step and make McIntire a direct admission program.

[url]

That’s a step backwards. All of the better schools avoid direct admit because they don’t need direct admit to fill their classes - they want the best, seasonal Ed applicants after they’ve experienced college. UVA dropped direct admit precisely for this reason just a few years back.

What are you even talking about? All the top business schools are direct admit! It is the reason my DC may not accept their spot at UVA. Too risky given the 60% chance they won’t get in.

+1
I got a good laugh from the PP!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aside: UVa should take the next step and make McIntire a direct admission program.

[url]

That’s a step backwards. All of the better schools avoid direct admit because they don’t need direct admit to fill their classes - they want the best, seasonal Ed applicants after they’ve experienced college. UVA dropped direct admit precisely for this reason just a few years back.

What are you even talking about? All the top business schools are direct admit! It is the reason my DC may not accept their spot at UVA. Too risky given the 60% chance they won’t get in.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aside: UVa should take the next step and make McIntire a direct admission program.

[url]

That’s a step backwards. All of the better schools avoid direct admit because they don’t need direct admit to fill their classes - they want the best, seasonal Ed applicants after they’ve experienced college. UVA dropped direct admit precisely for this reason just a few years back.

This is just NOT true. All of the best undergrad business programs have direct admit - Penn/Wharton, Michigan/Ross, Berkley/Haas, Cornell/Dyson, USC/Marshall, Indiana/Kelley, etc. UVA/McIntire is a complete outlier in this regard.

Disagree. Undergraduate business schools often lack direct admission to manage high demand, maintain high-quality cohorts, and ensure student success through prerequisite performance. By requiring admission after one or two years, schools can evaluate college-level academic performance and maturity, rather than just high school performance, and filter applicants to meet capacity constraints.
Key reasons for requiring a separate application include:

High Demand and Capacity Limitations: Many popular, top-tier programs (e.g., UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business) receive more applicants than they can accommodate, requiring a secondary screening process.

Academic Performance Evaluation: Universities often want to see that students can handle college-level coursework—particularly in challenging subjects like math, economics, or introductory business courses—before granting admission.

Ensuring Student Maturity and Fit: A two-step process allows students to explore other majors during their freshman year, ensuring those who apply to the business school are truly committed.

Competition and Prestige: Schools may use this structure to ensure their program remains elite and high-achieving, requiring a high GPA to gain entry.

Your AI response doesn't mean anything when you've just been given a list of the *best* business schools that are direct admit.
DP

Anonymous wrote:From an applicant perspective i would rather apply to a direct admit than take a risk.

Same. I would rather do one of two things: apply to a direct admit program, or apply to a school that has no undergrad business school but has good outcomes.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aside: UVa should take the next step and make McIntire a direct admission program.

[url]

That’s a step backwards. All of the better schools avoid direct admit because they don’t need direct admit to fill their classes - they want the best, seasonal Ed applicants after they’ve experienced college. UVA dropped direct admit precisely for this reason just a few years back.

McIntire was a 2-year program decades ago. One applied to transfer to it during 2nd year college. Now it is a 3-year program. McIntire has not been direct admit at least in recent decades.

From an applicant perspective i would rather apply to a direct admit than take a risk.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aside: UVa should take the next step and make McIntire a direct admission program.

[url]

That’s a step backwards. All of the better schools avoid direct admit because they don’t need direct admit to fill their classes - they want the best, seasonal Ed applicants after they’ve experienced college. UVA dropped direct admit precisely for this reason just a few years back.

Oh, please. Wharton - arguably the best there is - is a direct admit. Other direct admit business schools: Ross, Dyson, Kelley, McDonough, Stern, Tepper, Mendoza, Marshall, and more. These are "the better schools."

Agree...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aside: UVa should take the next step and make McIntire a direct admission program.

[url]

That’s a step backwards. All of the better schools avoid direct admit because they don’t need direct admit to fill their classes - they want the best, seasonal Ed applicants after they’ve experienced college. UVA dropped direct admit precisely for this reason just a few years back.

Oh, please. Wharton - arguably the best there is - is a direct admit. Other direct admit business schools: Ross, Dyson, Kelley, McDonough, Stern, Tepper, Mendoza, Marshall, and more. These are "the better schools."

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your daughter or son is at UVA, do they plan to apply to Mcintire? Or would love to hear from someone whose child stayed with economics as a major and what job they have now. Thank you!

Not quite what you are seeking, but my kid was a UVA Econ major and studied under Ken Elzinga who wrote her LOCs to Oxford for grad work in Econ. She’s going to a T3 law school to study law & Econ and perhaps become a professor. She had many friends in McIntire.

Write Dr Elzinga before you go and ask to visit him on campus. He did for my kid. You’ll never meet a kinder man.

I think he taught his final classes this fall! I think taught there for 70 yrs.