Cox School of Business

History

The Cox School was founded in 1920 as the Department of Commerce at SMU, at the request of the Dallas, Texas business community. In 1921, the Department was renamed the School of Commerce. In 1941, the Board of Trustees established the School of Commerce as a separate entity from the University, thereby creating the School of Business Administration. At the same time, the Trustees also approved the Bachelor of Business Administration degree (BBA). The graduate program began in 1949 with the approval of the Master of Business Administration (MBA) program.

In 1965, the SMU Foundation for Business Administration was created. Once again, the School worked in partnership with leading Dallas businesses, as this group of corporate advisers helped guide the School's direction and strategy. Today, this group is called the Cox Executive Board, and it consists of corporate executives, successful entrepreneurs, and civic leaders from around the world. Renamed in 1978 in honor of Dallas businessman Edwin L. Cox, SMU Cox has in recent years solidified its position as one of the top business schools in the country and worldwide.

Academic programs

The Cox School of Business offers a variety of MBA programs including the Full Time MBA, the Professional MBA (designed for working professionals and offered evenings on a part-time basis), and the Executive MBA (offered on Fridays and Saturdays). In addition to the more traditional MBA programs, there are also a variety of master of science programs including Business Analytics (MSBA), Management (MSM), Entrepreneurship (MSE), Accounting (MSA) and Finance (MSF). A specialized Master of Science in Business Analytics will launch in 2014.

At the undergraduate level, SMU Cox offers Bachelor's degree (BBA) through majors in accounting; finance; information systems; management and organizations; marketing; real estate, insurance, and business law; strategy and entrepreneurship; and business and financial reporting. Other majors may also take a business minor. In addition, SMU Executive Education offers the Summer Business Institute, a business "boot camp" for non-business majors.

Non-Degreed Programs

SMU Cox also offers extensive non-degree Executive Education programs, including custom education solutions and open courses in areas such as finance, accounting, marketing, and energy, as well as extensive leadership and executive coaching programs.

In addition to the other programs, the Cox School brings business professionals an array of certificate programs in a variety of disciplines. The Business Intelligence Certificate Program is a vendor-agnostic certificate program for making the most of a company's investment in business intelligence and data mining software. The KPMG Institute for Corporate Governance is introducing the Accounting Ethics Certificate Program. Today's business environment calls for an increased awareness of professional ethics and responsibility. In no discipline is this requirement more crucial and timely than accounting. These two newer offerings complement the Graduate Finance Certificate and Graduate Marketing Certificate.

Rankings

The Cox School of Business is consistently recognized as a leader in business education by publications such as BusinessWeek, Forbes, and The Wall Street Journal. SMU Cox houses a nationally/worldwide-ranked MBA program as well as a BBA honors program and extensive Executive Education offerings. The MBA program is consistently ranked in the Top 100 Worldwide by the Financial Times and The Economist.

Major publications such as BusinessWeek, Financial Times, Forbes, U.S. News & World Report, and The Wall Street Journal release business school rankings based on their own unique methodology and criteria, ranging from career advancement and return on investment to recruiter satisfaction and program reputation and Cox performs relatively well on nearly all such measures.

Peak of Success from 2008-2010

The Cox BBA program was ranked among the top 20 nationally in BusinessWeek's 2008 rankings and its MBA program had been ranked in the top 15 nationally, peaking at #12 before a major methodology change. It ranked #12 in the 2010 Bloomberg national ranking ahead of Cornell, Dartmouth, NYU and other quality MBA programs. The school rose to #11 in the world in 2008, up from #18 in BusinessWeek's EMBA ranking in 2003. This had put SMU Cox ahead of quality programs such as NYU Stern, Cornell, and Purdue. The Cox Professional MBA (PMBA) Program offers an opportunity for students to earn their MBA degree while maintaining full-time employment. Financial Times in 2008 also ranked Cox EMBA #5 in the world for top salaries in industry. U.S. News & World Report in 2008 ranked the Cox PMBA #9 in the nation, the only program in Texas named in the category.

The Cox School was, at one time, also one of only eight programs (the others being Harvard Business School, Stanford Business School, UCLA Anderson School of Management, University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business, NYU Stern School of Business, University of Michigan's Ross School of Business and the MIT Sloan School of Management) to rank in the top 30 according to whom? source needed for research impact in the specific areas of information systems, marketing, strategy, finance, and business economics.

Research Centers & Institutes

The Alternative Asset Management Center focuses on investments in alternative assets-including hedge funds, venture capital, private equity, real estate, and oil and gas so that companies can maximize their profits by investing.

The Caruth Center for Entrepreneurship highlights the Cox School's emphasis on entrepreneurship.

The Center for Research in Real Estate and Land Use Economics is led by Professor William Brueggeman and was created to focus on major issues in the real estate industry.

The J.C. Penney Center for Retailing Excellence (under the leadership of Professor Ed Fox) studies marketing and the effects of retailer behavior.

The KPMG Institute for Corporate Governance led by Professor Wayne Shaw, focuses on the effect that corporate ethics and decision making has on the balance sheet.

The Maguire Energy Institute under Director W. Bruce Bullock has found a new mission to educate and inform the public, students, community leaders and others on the critical energy issues the world faces. Bullock succeeds longtime director Mark Baxter.

The O'Neil Center for Global Markets and Freedom is exploring political economics and the impact of competitive market forces on freedom and prosperity in the global economy.

The SouthWestern Graduate School of Banking Foundation under the leadership of Professor Scott MacDonald, focuses on providing banking education to all levels of bank staff.

Faculty & Research papers

Location and connections

The main SMU campus is located minutes from downtown Dallas, Texas just off the corner of Mockingbird Lane and Central Expressway (I-75).

However, SMU Cox maintains other campuses - SMU-in-Taos, SMU-in-Legacy, as well as close ties with other business schools in exchange and study abroad programs. Programs operate in locations such as the UK, China, Cuba, and India.

Dallas–Fort Worth is the "Fourth Best Metropolitan Area for Business," according to Forbes magazine, and "SMU is all but the official alma mater of the Dallas business and professional elite," states The Fiske Guide to Colleges.

American Airlines Global Leadership Program: SMU offers the only MBA program that requires and funds international study for all first-year full-time students. In 2007, students visited China (Beijing, Chengdu, Chongqing, Shanghai), another trip visited China (Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Shanghai), another to Europe (Frankfurt, Milan, London), and the last visited India (Bangalore, Delhi, Mumbai) on their GLP.

Some notable SMU Cox alumni