Thursday, March 12, 2009

weee are the champions

News that the Commerce school has made it to the top of business school rankings has pretty much swept UVa in the past couple of days. There's a banner from the comm school's secret society that proudly congratulates us in the fourth floor lobby. I just finished reading an article in the Cav Daily that delves slightly into the reasons for the comm school's success. But my sweetest taste of being at the top? My ever so obnoxious high school friend who attends Wharton has stopped jeering at me on Facebook. Haha. =D

A lot of publications and student opinions point to our new facilities and strong curriculum as a big reason for our success. I like to think it's all the opportunities we have at the comm school. The faculty and admin are so student oriented that it's easy to feel spoiled here. Admin work overtime to make sure we're attracting recruiters from all places, and our faculty genuinely listen and make changes according to student opinion. It's one of the reasons that's made our curriculum so strong. (Of course, it's not easy to think of our curriculum lovingly when you're deluged with work.. but I'm sure I'll look back on this year easily next year, maybe even with a bit of fondness. ..maybe.) It's the combination of all these factors that make the McIntire School of Commerce so strong.

The Cav Daily article brought up an interesting point -- how other schools could learn from the comm school. Of course, money might make the world go 'round and would definitely give the College a nicer building than Cabell Hall, but the same could be said for any school. The biggest difference I feel between the College and the comm school? Probably a sense of unity. Of course, the College is also huge, and I've never experienced the other undergraduate schools at UVA, but in my two years there, I've never really met a teacher who would work all her connections to get notable guest speakers in class. Or a professor who would endlessly tie in concepts we're learning in class to real time events - constantly bursting the college bubble. I haven't seen teams of professors get together for meetings and brainstorm how to best approach this semester's curriculum. But I must insert a disclaimer here and say that it's likely this occurs after you declare your major in the College, of which I never bothered to and thus will never find out how major departments function. (I do hear my sorority sister raving about the religious studies department's cake on Fridays though. Potential religious studies majors, take note.)