Financial Times Ranks Smiths MBA Program Among Worlds Best

College Park, Md. January 30, 2006 The MBA program at the University of Marylands Robert H. Smith School of Business is ranked No. 21 among all U.S. MBA programs in the Financial Times MBA 2006rankings, published today. The influential rankings place Smiths MBA program 4th among the top 25 U.S. schools in the value for money category. This is the fifth consecutive year the Smith School has placed among the top five.

The Smith School also placed highly in aims achieved, which measures how alumni fulfilled their goals in pursuing an MBA. Eighty-two percent of Smith alumni surveyed felt the program helped them to meet all of their goals, giving Smith the 10th best score among all U.S. business schools.

Not only do the Financial Times rankings place the Smith School among the worlds best business schools, said Howard Frank, dean of the Smith School. But results also show that our graduates are among the most satisfied with how their degrees are helping them to succeed in todays digital economy. Our graduates are highly pleased with the return on their investment and offer a real-life testimony to the remarkable value a Smith School MBA brings. 

The Financial Times survey also compared the percentage of 2005 MBA graduates who had accepted jobs three months after graduation. The Smith Schools 92 percent placement rate for MBAs was the 11th best among the top 25 U.S. schools.

The Financial Times rankings are compiled from two questionnaires one for the business schools and the other for the MBA class of 2002. The value for the money criterion is calculated using the salary earned by alumni three years after graduation and course costs. The aims achieved category measures a total number of achieved points, where a respondent has given a rating for a reason for studying an MBA and ticked the achieved box on the questionnaire, as a percentage of the total points awarded by the respondents.

About the Robert H. Smith School of Business
The Robert H. Smith School of Business is an internationally recognized leader in management education and research for the digital economy. One of 13 colleges and schools at the University of Maryland, College Park, the Smith School offers undergraduate, full-time and part-time MBA, Executive MBA, PhD, and Executive Education programs, as well as outreach services to the corporate community. The school offers its degree, custom and certification programs in learning locations in four continents including North America, Europe, Africa and Asia. More information about the Robert H. Smith School of Business can be found at www.rhsmith.umd.edu.

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