University of Maryland Ranks Among Nation’s Best in Entrepreneurship for Undergrads and MBAs

College Park, Md. – September 21, 2011 – The University of Maryland is among the top in the nation for its leading entrepreneurship programs for undergraduate and graduate students, ranking No. 18 and No. 22 respectively by The Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine. The Robert H. Smith School of Business is a major driver of entrepreneurship education at the university, with its 25-year-old Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship championing programs university-wide for students, faculty and regional entrepreneurs.

The rankings were released in the October issue of Entrepreneur magazine.

The Dingman Center, located at the Smith School, helps lead the university’s entrepreneurship efforts and is recognized nationally for its innovative teaching methods that combine classroom activities, practical experience and cultural immersion programs. The center’s programs include:

• Dingman Center Angels: The region's leading angel network connecting entrepreneurs seeking seed and early-stage funding with angel investors.
• Technology Commercialization: In conjunction with the Clark School of Engineering’s Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute and the Office of Technology Commercialization, a program that has MBA students helping to create businesses out of university research and technologies.
• Pitch Dingman Program: Weekly sessions that invite students campus-wide to pitch business ideas for immediate feedback from seasoned entrepreneurs-in-residence. The program hosts competitions twice per semester where students compete for funding.
• Cupid’s Cup Business Competition and BB&T Invitational: The culmination of the Pitch Dingman Program, this annual competition has students vying for $25,000 in funding provided by Under Armour founder and Smith alumnus Kevin Plank ’96.
• Dingman Jumpstart: An intensive weeklong program to help students create business plans and kickstart a viable venture.
• China Business Plan Competition: An annual business plan competition that has Smith MBA students traveling to Beijing to compete against their counterparts at Peking University for the best business plan to incorporate the China market.
• Israel Global Technology Entrepreneurship Fellowship: A summer program that has Smith MBA students working on technology commercialization at the Technion Institute in Haifa, Israel.

In addition to taking MBA and undergraduate courses in entrepreneurship, Smith students are active in several student entrepreneurship clubs. Undergrads can participate in Smith’s Entrepreneurship Fellow Program, which offers courses and co-curricular activities that explore venture creation and innovation.

MBA students participate in experiential learning programs through the six-credit, required, Smith Experience program, which includes entrepreneurship consulting experiences through the Dingman Center and the Center for Social Value Creation, opportunity to work with a venture capital fund through the New Markets Growth Fund, and global study trips that focus on entrepreneurship abroad.

The Princeton Review surveyed 2,000 schools for the rankings, which are based on key criteria in the areas of teaching entrepreneurship business fundamentals in the classroom, staffing departments with successful entrepreneurs, excellence in mentorship, providing experiential or entrepreneurial opportunities outside of the classroom, as well as non-traditional, distinguishable aspects of their programs. The University of Maryland rankings are attributed to strong programs at both the Smith School and the A. James Clark School of Engineering and fruitful collaborations between the schools.

The University of Maryland’s rankings can be seen at www.entrepreneur.com/topcolleges and www.princetonreview.com/entrepreneur. Additional information about the Smith School’s entrepreneurship programs and initiatives through the Dingman Center.