<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>
<p>You can find out most of the "facts" from the UMD Smith website.</p>