Smith Business School

<p>Oh. Yea. it says smith. thanks a lot =]</p>

<p>congrats! Whats your major. I am in general business but I think I will change to something else. maybe finance or Information systems. Do you think you will be going to Maryland? If so we might be in some of the same classes!</p>

<p>Hey lindz, I saw you just posted in another thread so i just hope i catch you. I have one question. IN the last post above this one I said I want to change my major. I am in the Smith school now but I don't really want to do general business as much as some other majors. Is it relatively easy to swith majors and can i do that early on? What about duel majoring? I know that general business students can't duel major.... </p>

<p>Thanks</p>

<p>heyyy i'm still here (and still grinning at the fact that you mentioned me)</p>

<p>for now it's pretty easy to switch out of general business. marketing & finance are limited enrollment, so it's a little harder to get into those. you can definitely dual major--a lot of people do it with international business and something else. you should check with the smith school to see when you'll be able to change your major.</p>

<p>cheapseats, Iunno what I want to do if I go to Smith. I might end up going dual degree. I have like 11 AP classes that I think UMD gives credit to.</p>

<p>you have been very helpful lindz, thanks!</p>

<p>Yah, Dylin I too have a good number of APs. I'll have 9(a lot this year so i better do good). If I get good AP grades I will have around 34 credits there plus 13 from my college classes i take at a local community college that transfer</p>

<p>do you know how many credits we need to graduate from UMD?</p>

<p>I think 120. I said think***</p>

<p>So someone at smith right now can you explain this for me? I found it on this board and 'Goblue81' got it from a board on USnews .com. Here is some opinion from a current Smith student. This is the post posted by goblue81 on this thread <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?p=568598#post568598%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?p=568598#post568598&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<hr>

<p>There is a thread on UMD's Smith School of Business on the "US News college forum" that may be of interest to you. The poster, mw1516, is a current UMD b-school student:</p>

<p>mw1516 (21603.2):
"I'm a University of MD business student right now and if you want to get into the Smith School of Business, all you need is a 3.0 gpa and completion of most of the pre-req courses. No activities or essay is required. However, I would recommend you to transer simply because the Smith School is not what its all cracked up to be. There are a lack of jobs for graduates because the career center is terrible and unhelpful. This is partly due to the large amount of business students, making the administration focused on shuffling students in and out as fast as possible. In fact, many companies don't even recruit at UMD and instead go to lower ranked Towson University because that school has better connections with the large companies in Towson and Baltimore (T.Rowe Price, JP Morgan, ect.) Companies come to Towson weekly to seek prospective students for internships and full-time jobs. UMD on the other hand is located in low income College Park...I suggest you transfer if possible, don't make the mistake of staying at UMD. Every other school you listed has a much superior business program but more importantly, better job placement and career experience."</p>

<p>mw1516 (21603.11):
"The Smith School ONLY admits freshmen with SATs of over 1300 into it and they account for less than 10% of the Smith students. It even states that on their website for gods sake! From the Smith website "The average SAT score for an entering Smith freshman in 2003 was 1360." Where do the majority come from? They get admitted in their sophmore and junior years and all you need is completion of 75% of the prereqs (ie accounting I, business stat) and a 3.0 gpa and you are in. And yes, Towson University gets students into firms in Towson and Baltimore because they have strong relationships with many of the companies."</p>

<p>GoBlue81 (21603.14):
"You must be referring to Smith's Spring 2001 Admission Standard ... which is still applicable to all current UMD students up until 2007. You can indeed get in with a 3.0 cumulative GPA! New Fall 2005 admits, however, must meet the more stringent Fall 2005 Admission Standard. Looks like they will become more selective later on.</p>

<p>As you pointed out, freshmen directly admitted into Smith come in with a much higher GPA and standard test scores. However, to stay in the school, they have to demonstrate 'satisfactory' progress...which is a meager 2.0 GPA or better; and for the Gateway courses, a mere "C" or better!!!</p>

<p>Smith has 2,800 undergraduates in College Park and Shady Grove (4,000+ total including MBA, eMBA and PhD students). This is a very large b-school (compared for example to Michigan's Ross with 600 undergrad). This is a school that ranks #20 un undergrad business. How do they accomodate so many students? How large is their placement service?"</p>

<p>mw1516 (21603.15):
"Exactly, you pretty much summed up the admissions criteria. Not so rigorous for a ranked business school eh? As for how they accomodate so many students, I can only describe their process like that of a processing plant. They attempt to get you in and out as quick as possible. For example, my advisor once tried to get me to take extra credits so I would graduate early. As for placement service, it is basically non-existant, you are on your own."</p>

<hr>

<p>does anyone feel like it is a 'processing plant"? Do they force people out? I have heard very few bad things about smith but this current students seems to hate it. Is this the general perception by students at smith or this just one overblown opinion? Does recruiting stink? Do recruiters not go to UMD? Whats up?</p>

<p>I plan on getting my MBA though, will lack of recruiting at UMCP still hurt my chances later on? Assume that I will be going to a more prestigious graduate school than UMCP.</p>

<p>boot. At my internship someone told me his niece went to smith UG and is going to UCLA for her MBA. I am sure you can go just about anywhere if you do good, get a good gmat, and a good job. Now, like you said, will UMCP not have good recruiting? I went up to their recruiting center and it seems to be the only thing on the third floor. THey have numerous conference rooms and brochures from places like accenture. </p>

<p>Lindz or anyother current student, what do you think about what he had to say??</p>

<p>Cheapseats - why not check out their alumni association - my Mom (who went to Wharton Grad for her MBA and who has worked in human resources in the DC area before) says a lot of times its who you know that leads to jobs - and networking the alumni assoc could be one way to open doors. Also - the big question is where can you get internships - according to my older cousins, thats the best way to get in the door! My friends who go to Towson have the same complaints about their placement people as the kids at CP - in fact - my one friend has been trying to meet with a career advisor for 4 months and they just keep telling her to check the website for job stuff. Its prob like everything else - you get out of it what you put into it. Just my 2 cents. GGT</p>

<p>damn, didnt know any of that about smith business school. thats a downer, but I'm still going there. hopefully someone comes back to this thread with some good news</p>

<p>don't let what one or two people say destroy the whole credibility of the school.. i know plenty of people who went to smith and got very lucrative offers from big time corporations.. maybe those people were expected to be HANDED down jobs when they graduated.. u gotta put some effort into it too, noone is GURANTEED anything..</p>

<p>I got this from somewhere once and copied it but I don't know where. IT was some site evaluating smith and its MBA program. For what it is worth here are the top 23 recruiters that go to smith. MBA remember</p>

<p>Top 23 Recruiters
Air Products & Chemicals
America Online
Avaya
Bank of America
Beers & Cutler
Booz Allen Hamilton
Boston Consulting Group
CapitalOne
Cigna Corporation
Citigroup
Constellation Power Source
Decision Path Consulting
General Electric
FannieMae
FreddieMac
Johnson & Johnson
Intel Corporation
Nextel Communications
PepsiCo
Pfizer
PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP
UBS
World Bank</p>

<p>sorry cheapseats, i've been MIA :)</p>

<p>i think that's one disgruntled student. i've never heard anyone feel that way before--i have friends who are 5th year seniors in the business school and they're still around.</p>

<p>maybe that guy had a bad experience, or maybe he did poorly in a course and had to repeat it and got screwed up somewhere. maybe his advisor told him that if he wanted to graduate early, he could take extra credits. they do try to get you to graduate in 4 years, but i don't see what the problem with that is. if you can't do it, you can't do it.</p>

<p>i also don't know how towson has better "connections" than UMD does. towson is not a highly-ranked school. it doesn't have the same caliber program that UMD does. for all i know, an advisor at towson has a brother that does recruiting for a company, and that's how towson gets so many students there. i do know that UMD has recruiters all over the place, all the time.</p>

<p>i also agree with skinsnation: you aren't handed anything. if you want to be handed grades and an internship and a job/MBA, don't come to UMD. if you want a challenging education where you might not get a 4.0, but you'll learn skills and information for your career, and are continously given the opportunity to better yourself, come to UMD.</p>

<p>why would you kick someone out of their major because their GPA drops a little? maybe they're having a rough semester. 2.0, a C average, is a fair GPA for being put on academic probation in the business school. the honors program has a much higher standard, obviously. the business school has a lot of students in it, not all of whom are A students....there's nothing wrong with that!! if the 2.0 requirement to stay in the business school upsets you, then set yourself apart by staying above a 3.5 and getting into business honors for your junior year.</p>

<p>as far as those statistics go, with # of people in the business school, the 2800 is including shady grove (a satellite campus, basically). i don't know offhand how many there are excluding shady grove students (and don't feel like looking right now). but the reason UMD can accomodate so many, compared to other schools, is pretty simple. we have more facilities (classrooms, labs, a bigger building) and more faculty (the DC area and the prestige of UMD as a research institution, plus its excellent MBA program, draws a lot of professors to our school). in my opinion, it's pretty simple. more resources = more students. nothing wrong with that.</p>

<p>sorry this was so incoherent but i'm trying to set the record straight :) i think those guys complaining about the smith school had a few problems, handled them incorrectly, and then went ballistic on a message board.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.rhsmith.umd.edu/career/about_employstats.html#Undergraduate%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.rhsmith.umd.edu/career/about_employstats.html#Undergraduate&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>That's the top 15 recruiters for undergraduates. </p>

<p><a href="http://www.rhsmith.umd.edu/career/pdfs_docs/Recruiting_Guide_05_06.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.rhsmith.umd.edu/career/pdfs_docs/Recruiting_Guide_05_06.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>There's the recruiting guide(mainly for employers but has some good statistics). Other companies listed which aren't listed as top 15: JP Morgan Chase, Hecht’s, Freddie Mac, Pulte Homes</p>

<p>Companies that recruit at UMD(MBA + Undergraduate)</p>

<p><a href="http://www.rhsmith.umd.edu/career/about_recruit.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.rhsmith.umd.edu/career/about_recruit.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Now UMD doesn't seem to get the elite top notch companies(Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch), but they still get solid companies with prestige to recruit them. But if you want a job with a company that doesn't recruit at UMD, get internships and a job on your own. Since I am in the Northeast, I will have do a lot on my own to ensure a job/internships in the NY/NJ area(where I live). All about effort you put into your search.</p>

<p>Thanks playa. I have been using those pages the last few days and didn't say thanks before. Some of those ug recruiting companies have dealt with the company i intern for. </p>

<p>And thanks lindz. its good to know that most people don't feel this way. I guess that kid just had a bad experience. I figured some people would be off to some place for spring break. My cousin is down in new orleans.</p>

<p>most of my friends are in (well just now got back from) acapulco.... i was home for break, and now i'm back in CP :)</p>

<p>I just got my letter today and it said im into smith already. anyone know how hard it is to get in for freshman year and aprox how many people get this? thanks a lot</p>

<p>-matt</p>