April 18, 2004

National Alumni Survey Places Smith #1 for Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneur magazine places the Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland, as the #1 business school for entrepreneurship in rankings based on a survey of alumni. The rankings are part of Entrepreneur's 2nd Annual Top 100 Entrepreneurial Colleges and Universities issue, which also places Smith among its distinguished group of 13 schools ranked in the top tier of national Comprehensive programs.

"Five programs, including Babson College; Massachusetts Institute of Technology; The University of Arizona; University of California, Berkeley; and [the] University of Maryland, College Park, repeated as members of the top tier of national Comprehensive programs," noted the magazine in an article accompanying this year's rankings.

More than 825 entrepreneurship programs and curricula were researched from September to December 2003 for the study, according to Entrepreneur. The final rankings are based on such criteria as course offerings, teaching and research faculty, business-community outreaches, research centers and institutes, advisory boards, off-campus programs, other entrepreneurial initiatives, degrees and certificates offered, tangible venture development, access to capital funding, and faculty and alumni evaluations.

"We measure more than 60 separate program dimensions, and schools like Arizona, DePaul, Maryland, and others have made entrepreneurship their flagship effort. They now have some of the best course offerings, faculty, special initiatives, and opportunities for venturing," said David Newton, whose company, Santa Barbara, California-based TechKnowledge Point, compiled data for the 2003 and 2004 rankings.

The alumni rankings, in which the Smith School is #1, are based on surveys of alumni from more than 350 separate schools, who were asked for their top entrepreneurial college picks.

The Entrepreneur magazine rankings are available online. The rankings will appear in the May issue of the magazine, which hits newsstands April 20, 2004.

Media Contact

Greg Muraski
Media Relations Manager
301-405-5283  
301-892-0973 Mobile
gmuraski@umd.edu 

About the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business

The Robert H. Smith School of Business is an internationally recognized leader in management education and research. One of 12 colleges and schools at the University of Maryland, College Park, the Smith School offers undergraduate, full-time and flex MBA, executive MBA, online MBA, business master’s, 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 North America and Asia.

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