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Makeover A Business School Transforming a good undergraduate program into a great one requires an attention to politics, the ability to make tough choices, a willingness to risk the anger of stakeholders— and an unwavering commitment to the best interests of the school. Smith School to provide adequate services.We did not have the fund- ing or personnel to provide appropriate levels of advising, mentoring, and career management and placement services for so many students. In addition, the faculty carried higher than desirable teaching loads. While the trend at major public business schools was toward get around the minimum qualifications. The result was a steady increase in undergraduate business students, which created signifi- cant problems. The unwieldy size of the student populationmade it difficult for the 50 BizEd MARCH/APRIL 2002 the minimum GPA requirement for acceptance as a business major was 2.8, students could find numerous exceptions to n 1997, the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the Uni- versity of Maryland was suffering from too much success. Business had become one of the most popular undergraduate majors at the university, and the school was experiencing over- whelming pressures to satisfy an incredible demand for cours- es. That year, the Smith School enrolled 3,500 junior and sen- ior majors, more than double the number it had enrolled just five years before. Our problem was compounded by the fact that, although