The High Five: March 2023

We’re in the midst of a busy spring semester here at the Robert H. Smith School of Business. We are celebrating outstanding rankings for our online programs. We set new records for the number of master’s students who landed jobs last year and our Office of Career Services is working to help students do the same this year. We are also celebrating our excellent faculty, with 24 recently recognized among the top 2% most productive in the world. We’ve already hired four new professors to join us later this year, and we’re still recruiting others. One faculty member, Sam Handwerger, and a group of his students are working with the Prince George's County State's Attorney's Office to help fraud victims seek justice. We have expanded our Pitch Dingman business competition, run by our Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship, beyond the University of Maryland to other universities in our state.

Prabhudev C. Konana
Dean, Robert H. Smith School of Business

Online Programs Earn Top Rankings

U.S. News and World Report ranked Smith’s online MBA program No. 12 in the nation for the second year running in its Best Online MBA Programs for 2023. The publication ranked Maryland Smith ranks No. 6 in marketing and No. 8 in business analytics in its specialty program rankings. Smith also earned a No. 10 ranking for veterans, No. 11 for general management and No. 16 for grad business. Fortune also ranked the Online MS in Business Analytics No. 4 in the country on its 2023 list. Read more.

Record Number of MS Students Land Jobs

Job placements for Smith students graduating from the business master’s programs soared last year – in some programs, up more than 20%. More than 90% of 2022 job-seeking graduates from four of Smith’s eight business master’s programs accepted jobs, including 100% of graduates of the Master of Science in Accounting program. Read more.

Pitch Dingman Competition Expands Beyond UMD

After hosting nearly a decade of “Shark Tank”-style student pitch competitions, Smith’s Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship is expanding its annual Pitch Dingman Competition to include other University System of Maryland entrepreneurs. The center has added a $10,000 prize for the winner of the new USM All Stars Track, bringing the total prizes for the competition up to over $100,000.  Read more.

New Professors to Join Smith’s Top-Ranked Faculty

Four new professors have already signed on to join the Smith School later this year, with more hires in the works. New faculty are Aneesh Rai (Wharton PhD ’23) and Reuben Hurst (University of Michigan PhD ’23) in management and organization;  and Eaman Jahani (MIT PhD ’21) and Bharti Motwani (currently associate professor at NMIMS University, Mumbai) in decisions, operations & information technologies. They’ll join Smith’s top-ranked faculty, which includes 24 current and emeritus professors who were recently ranked among the top 2% of the most-cited scholars and scientists worldwide in a PLoS Biology study. Read more.

Students Help Fraud Victims Seek Justice

Smith students are working with the Prince George's County State's Attorney's Office, to help victims of financial fraud seek restitution. Led by CPA and accounting lecturer Samuel Handwerger, the Justice for Fraud Victims program gives students the opportunity to use forensic accounting to investigate real-life cases of fraud. Read more.