Financial Times Places Smiths MBA Program Among Worlds Best

The MBA program at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland is ranked #18 among all U.S. MBA programs in the Financial Times MBA 2004 rankings, published Jan. 26. The influential rankings place Smiths MBA program #4 among those of all U.S. public business schools and #27 in the world. The rankings are consistent with the findings of other leading business publications such as The Wall Street Journal, which placed the Smith Schools MBA program #19 worldwide in its most recent rankings.

An extraordinary appetite for innovation characterizes the school, be it in course construction, career development or technology, noted the Financial Times in a Smith School profile article accompanying its 2004 MBA rankings. The building at the Smith school is probably the most technology-intensive of any business school, the Times reported.

The Robert H. Smith School of business is clearly among an elite group of business schools, said Howard Frank, dean of the Smith School. With a world-class faculty and superb academic programs, we provide MBA students with the deep knowledge and skills they need to lead 21st-century organizations, and the rankings reflect that.

In the value for the money category, the Smith School was ranked the highest among the top-25 U.S. business schools. The Financial Times survey found that three years after graduating, Smith MBAs saw their salaries increase an average of 175 percent, the 9th highest increase among all U.S. business schools in the survey. The report also compared the percentage of 2003 MBA graduates who had accepted jobs three months after graduation. The Smith Schools placement rate of 85 percent was the 9th best among the top-30 business schools in the survey.

We give our students a first-class return on investment for their time and expense, said Dean Frank. Our impressive placement rate validates the innovative strategies employed by our office of career management, and the 175 percent salary growth realized by our graduates demonstrates the success of our MBAs after graduation.

The Financial Times rankings are compiled from two questionnaires one for the business schools and the other for the MBA class of 2000. The value for the money criterion is calculated using the salary earned by alumni three years after graduation and course costs. The salary percentage increase is a weighted average, using alumni salary data from the 2004, 2003 and 2002 surveys.