Gifted Leadership Science, art, business, sports, government ... SMU has reasons to be proud.

Pride Points
Read on to learn more about our points of pride and marks of distinction.

Academic accolades
Prominent partnerships
Athletic achievements
Alumni of record
Campus Capital

Academic Accolades

Business best
In the first ranking of undergraduate business programs by BusinessWeek, Cox School of Business ranked 23^rd in the nation. The undergraduate, graduate, and executive education programs at Cox also rank among the top nationally and internationally by major publications, including BusinessWeek, the Fisk Guide to Colleges, Forbes, U.S. News & World Report, The Economist, and The Wall Street Journal.

Acting acclaim
SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts ranks among the best in the nation for its graduate theatre program, according to U.S. News & World Report.

Dollars for scholars
The Guide to America’s Best Scholarships lists SMU's President's Scholars Program among the best in the nation.

Nationally noteworthy
SMU is nationally ranked in U.S. News & World Report’s Guide to Colleges.

Appealing attorneys
The SMU Dedman School of Law received top rankings in the 2007 America’s Guide to Best Graduate Schools, issued by U.S. News & World Report.

Lone star lizard
SMU paleontologists identified a new prehistoric lizard that completes an evolutionary puzzle. The lizard, christened Dallasaurus, represents a missing link in the evolution of a group of animals called moasaurs, which began as land creatures but evolved into sea animals that dominated the oceans 92 million years ago.

Polymer detective
Assistant chemistry Professor Brent Sumerlin is leading a team researching polymers that could detect dangerously high glucose levels in the blood stream and automatically release insulin. If successful, this method may decrease the number of insulin injections Type I diabetics require.

Get connected
SMU is among the top 25 most connected campuses in the nation, according to a Princeton Review survey.

	Math to a Higher Power A computerized differential equations project based on the work of SMU Math Professor Lawrence F. Shampine was named “one of the nine best digital projects on the planet” by New Media magazine.

Felicidades
History Professor David Weber received the Order of the Aztec Eagle, the highest award the Mexican government bestows on foreign nationals. Weber is renowned for his research and publications on the history of the American Southwest and the borderlands with Mexico.

Digging it
SMU-in-Taos at Fort Burgwin Research Center in New Mexico is the site of a 13th-century Indian pueblo being excavated by SMU anthropology students. Also offered are summer courses in the arts, humanities, and sciences.

Going global
Nearly 450 SMU students participate each year in the University’s 30 international study-abroad programs throughout Europe, Australia, Asia, and Mexico.

Business abroad
The Cox School of Business provides full-time M.B.A. students with study-abroad opportunities in Latin America, Europe, and Asia.

Laws of the lands
A leader in international law since the 1950s, SMU’s Dedman School of Law has graduated more than 1,300 international lawyers from its comparative law program. Representing more than 60 countries, many have become high-level public officials when they return home.

Bilingual Best
A new model for bilingual instruction, developed by Shelley Wright, lecturer, School of Education and Human Development, received accolades by the U.S. Department of Education. The model combines content and language, helping students with limited English skills whose performance on standardized tests lags behind the scores of their peers.

Stopping Cybercrime
Responding to increasing demands to stop computer virus attacks, which are the greatest source of cybercrime, SMU’s School of Engineering has created an academic major in security engineering as part of the Master’s degree in Computer Science Engineering.

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Prominent Partnerships

	Up to the Challenge Through SMU’s Honors Program, invited students participate in an enhanced curriculum that further challenges their intellectual abilities.

SRO for VIPs
Presidents, prime ministers, and other global leaders in fields ranging from science to business are frequent speakers visiting campus for lectures open to students as well as the community. Speakers at SMU have included former presidents  Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush and international leaders Desmond Tutu, F.W. de Klerk, and Mikhail Gorbachev.

Artists among us
Winners of SMU’s distinguished Meadows Award for Excellence in the Arts visit campus for workshops with students. They’ve included Wynton Marsalis, Angela Lansbury, Stephen Sondheim, and Leontyne Price.

A BRITE idea
SMU and UT Southwestern’s Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences sponsor the Biomedical Researchers in Training Experience (BRITE) of SMU's Dedman College. BRITE undergraduates study and perform research at both schools and receive provisional admission to UT Southwestern's graduate program.

e-Novation
The Linda and Mitch Hart e-Center focuses on Internet technology research, applications, and their impact on society. It brings together disciplines such as law, business, engineering, and the arts.

Infinite possibilities
With Texas Instruments, SMU’s School of Engineering initiated the Infinity Project, a one-of-a-kind program that brings engineering concepts and advanced technology into high school curricula. More than 50 high schools in 14 states participate.

Breaking news
The Belo Foundation has established a partnership with SMU to develop one of the leading applied journalism programs in the country, including a state-of-the-art digital studio.

Mentoring minds
Through the award-winning Inter-Community Experience (ICE) Program, students tutor children in a multiethnic, low-income neighborhood in East Dallas as part of their SMU urban issues classes.

Living and giving
The first of its kind at a Texas university, SMU Service House provides a community living experience for 28 upperclass students who each devote at least 30 hours each term
 to volunteerism.

Maya Mystery
“The Mystery of Site Q, long-speculated as a Maya city, was solved by SMU archaeologist David Freidel and Yale University archaeologist Marcello Canuto. They discovered the proof – a panel carved with 140 glyphs – on a joint expedition to Guatemala.

A Message in the Opera
Meadows School of the Arts teamed up with The Dallas Opera to warn school-age children about Internet predators. In productions of the opera Red Carnations at area schools, a message about meeting strangers alone is mixed in with costumes and arias.

	Artistic Vision World-renowned musician Wynton Marsalis worked with students while at SMU to receive the Algur H. Meadows Award for Excellence.

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Athletic Achievements

Leading Conference USA
SMU ranks as the top school in Conference USA in the U.S. Sports Academy Director’s Cup Division 1 Final Standings.

Get your kicks
The SMU men’s soccer team won the regular 2007-08 season ranked 18th in the Nation.  C

Pooling Success 
In the pool, SMU continued its dominance with the women finishing 11th and the men finishing 14th at the 2008 NCAA Championships.

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Alumni of Record

SMU goes to Washington
Several SMU alumni hold positions of prominence in the White House, among them:

Laura Bush, a 1968 elementary education major, First Lady of the United States
Harriet Miers ’67, ’70, Assistant to the President and Staff Secretary
Mindy Tucker ’92, Director of Public Affairs for the U.S. Department of Justice
Jeanne Johnson Phillips ’76, former Executive Director of the Presidential Inauguration Committee and current U.S. Representative to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris

Several SMU alumni are members of the U.S. House of Representatives, among them John Culberson, Ralph Hall, Sam Johnson, Eddie Bernice Johnson, and Lamar Smith.

Stars of stage, screen, and television
SMU alumni shine in the entertainment arts, among them:

Kathy Bates ’69, Academy Award-winning actress
Powers Boothe ’72, Emmy Award-winning actor
Beth Henley ’74, Pulitzer Prize-winning dramatist
Milton Justice ’68, Academy Award-winning filmmaker
Dorothy Malone ’45, Academy Award-winning actress
Debra Monk ’75, “NYPD Blue” television star and Tony winner
Jeffrey Nordling ’87, “Now and Again” television star
Patricia Richardson ’72, “Home Improvement” television star
Leeanna Smith ’98, Broadway dancer
Aaron Spelling ’49, Legendary television producer
Regina Taylor ’81, Emmy Award-nominated actress
Stephen Tobolowsky ’73, Television and movie actor
Scott Waara ’79, Tony Award-winning actor
Deborah Yates ’92, actress, Tony Award-winning Broadway musical “Contact”
John Davis ’84, wrote and directed “Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius”, the first 3-D animated feature film ever made outside Hollywood. The feature film was produced with Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies and was nominated for a 2002 Academy Award.

Scientific Americans

Dr. James W. Cronin ’51, SMU physics graduate, won the Nobel Prize in 1980 for his studies of the properties of subatomic particles.

Robert Dennard ’54, ’56, engineering graduate, invented the dynamic random access memory chip, known as RAM, which is found in virtually every computer in the world.

Dr. Robert W. Haley ’67, was the principal investigator on research that linked symptoms found in Gulf War veterans to exposure to chemicals used in the war.

And even more leaders

Ward Huey ’60, retired Belo Corporation broadcast executive, is a member of the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame and was named 2000 Broadcasting Pioneer of the Year.

Believe it or not
While students at SMU, siblings Bill and Julie Ann Brice founded I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt, a chain that grew to more than 400 locations throughout the United States and 17 foreign countries.

Craig Flournoy ’86, won the Pulitzer Prize in Journalism for a series of articles written for The Dallas Morning News.

Thaddeus Arroyo MBA ’89, chief information officer for Cingular Wireless has been dubbed one of “The Three Amigos,” a team of Latino executives leading the company’s push into the multibillion-dollar Hispanic market in the U.S. and abroad. They also are three of the highest-ranking Hispanic executives among Fortune 500 corporations.

	SRO for VIPS Presidents, prime ministers, and other global leaders in fields ranging from science to business are frequent speakers visiting campus for lectures open to students as well as the community. Speakers at SMU have included former presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and George H.W. Bush and international leaders Desmond Tutu, F.W. de Klerk, and Mikhail Gorbachev.

Supreme Justice
Nathan Hecht, one of nine justices on the Supreme Court of Texas, graduated from SMU’s Dedman School of Law.

Sports legends
The late golfer Payne Stewart ’79, won the 1991 U.S. Open and the 1999 Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, U.S. Open Championship.

National Pro Football Hall of Fame members from SMU include Raymond Berry ’55, Eric Dickerson ’84, Forrest Gregg ’59, Lamar Hunt ’56, and Doak Walker ’50, who also won the Heisman Trophy in 1948.

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Campus Capital

Blooming Grounds
Colorful and creative landscaping earned SMU the Grand Award from the Professional Grounds Management Society and Landscape Management magazine.

A Greener SMU
The new J. Lindsay Embrey Building is a model of green design and energy efficiency. A living laboratory for environmental, civil, and mechanical engineering students and faculty, the building is projected to be the first Gold Level Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design facility on a Texas campus.

The Geniuses
Three SMU students won $3 million in the August 2006 season finale of NBC’s reality show, “Treasure Hunters.” Known as “The Geniuses,” the team’s members have near perfect SAT scores, multiple majors, and high GPAs – and all plan to use their winnings to further their education and help their families.