UMD / Smith MBA News

The development of leadership skills is heavily emphasized by many MBA programs. In fact, it’s often a selling point. At the University of Maryland R.H. Smith School of Business, leadership development is a core part of the UMD Smith MBA experience, reflected in the recent launch of a new program to help encourage fearless leadership in its students.  Read more

What were more than 200 Girl Scouts doing at the University of Maryland R.H. Smith School of Business? They were attending Cookie College, of course! On December 10, 2016, more than 225 Brownies and Juniors from kindergarten to fifth grade headed to the UMD Smith School of Business to learn about the business of selling cookies. "The girls learned life skills like goal setting and money management that will help them in all aspects of life,” Sara Tyler, program specialist at the Girl Scout Council of the Nation’s Capital, said in a news release. “It sets them up for life.” The girls also received additional benefits, such as learning about higher education and meeting female role models. It was an empowering event that was women-led and girl-attended, and it was all a part of the R.H. Smith School of Business’ broader initiative: 50/50 by 2020. Read more

When getting your MBA, it’s easy to get caught up in the herd mentality. With hoards of classmates heading off to meet with top consulting firms or pursuing careers in investment banking, it can be tempting to simply go with the flow. But while many business school students do choose careers in finance or consulting, those industries are not your only options. Tech opportunities are exploding in a big way. In fact, 12 percent of MBAs accepted a job in the industry in 2015, according to the Graduate Management Admission Council’s (GMAC) annual Global Management Education Read more

In response to our readers’ interests, we are excited to have recently added a handful of new schools to the line-up of MBA programs we cover regularly on Clear Admit. The University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business is one of them. As part of our expanded coverage of Smith, we caught up recently with Full-Time MBA Admissions Director Maria Pineda. A 10-year veteran of the Smith School’s admissions office, Pineda worked in undergraduate admissions in New York City before that. “I wanted a change of scenery, so I was initially attracted to the Smith School’s location, with its traditional campus setting nestled next to a metropolitan city,” she says. She’s also a big believer in Dean Alexander Triantis’s vision of cultivating students to experience transformative change and then applying lessons learned to the workforce. Read more

Current female MBA students and alumni have come out in droves this year for the 2015 Forté Foundation MBA Women’s Leadership Conference, taking place now at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business. Kicking off with a sponsors meeting on Thursday for school and company representatives, followed by a career-focused day of programming yesterday and a day centered around professional development today, the conference this year has welcomed 459 MBA women and alumni, in addition to more than 100 speakers and presenters. For those who don’t know Forté, it is a nonprofit consortium of leading companies and top business schools devoted to launching women into successful business careers. “I think we have pulled together some really interesting topics that a lot people want to hear about,” says Elissa Sangster, Forté Foundation executive director, when asked what contributed to this year’s record attendance. “We are excited to see it all come together.” Read more