Southern Methodist University: Ranking, Academics, and Campus Life
Southern Methodist University (SMU) is a private research university located in University Park, a suburb of Dallas, Texas. Founded in 1911 by the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in partnership with Dallas civic leaders, SMU is now a non-sectarian institution known for its strong academic programs, vibrant campus life, and commitment to research. As SMU enters a second century of achievement, it is recognized as a university of increasing national prominence.
Ranking and Recognition
In the 2025 edition of Best Colleges, Southern Methodist University is ranked No. 91 in National Universities by U.S. News & World Report. It's also ranked No. 57 in Best Colleges for Veterans. While a new methodology used by U.S. News & World Report in its 2024 rankings caused some shifts in the rankings of many universities, with public institutions rising and private universities dropping, SMU remains committed to providing a premier education to its students. Overall, many public institutions rose in the rankings, whereas many private universities dropped under the methodology. Public universities in Texas moved up in the rankings on average 35 places, while private institutions on average dropped about 14 places. SMU now ranks 89th out of 439 national universities and remains the No. 1 university in North Texas and No. "While this new methodology has changed SMU’s position in the USNWR rankings, we remain committed to providing a premier education to our students,” President R. Gerald Turner said.
SMU has also received recognition for specific programs. The Cox School of Business is highly regarded, with its Executive M.B.A. program earning accolades. SMU Guildhall is another area of distinction, consistently ranking among the top graduate programs for game design in the world. In 2020 The Princeton Review in its 11th edition ranked SMU Guildhall as the No. 4 "Graduate Program for Game Design" in the world. Since the rankings debuted in 2010, the SMU Guildhall has ranked in the top 10, earning N0. 7 in 2013, No. 3 in 2014 and 2015, No. 2 in 2016 and 2019, and the No. 1 spot in 2017, and 2018 for two years in a row in a survey of over 150 institutions. In 2016, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked the Cox School B.B.A. program No. 21 in the nation - the second consecutive ranking at No. 21 in that publication, and No. 5 in the nation for post-graduation B.B.A. schools based heavily on career outcomes. Bloomberg Businessweek also ranked the SMU Cox Professional MBA program No. 7 in the nation; the SMU Cox Full-Time MBA program No. 31 in the nation; and ranked the SMU Cox Executive MBA program no.
Academics and Programs
SMU offers a wide array of undergraduate, graduate, and professional degree programs through its seven schools. The University offers a strong foundation in the humanities and sciences and undergraduate, graduate and professional degree programs through seven schools. The learning environment includes opportunities for research, community service, internships, mentoring and study abroad. SMU supports more than 200 student clubs and organizations and students can participate in campus traditions that include a Celebration of Lights event, where students watch thousands of lights appear on campus, or SMU’s springtime festival, PerunaPalooza. The university is eager to expand its research prowess, making plans to achieve the “Research One” (R1) status issued by the Carnegie Classification system.
Undergraduate Studies: SMU is home to around 12,000 students and offers more than 90 undergraduate majors. Some of the top majors at SMU include finance, economics, and accounting. Thirty percent of first-year students receive need-based financial aid, and the average net price for federal loan recipients is $40,849. First-year undergraduate students admitted to SMU are automatically reviewed for admissions into the highly selective University Honors Program (UHP). Generally, first-year students that rank in the top 10% of their incoming class will receive a formal invitation to join the UHP. Students that do not receive an invitation must have completed at least one full-time semester on campus with a cumulative GPA of 3.5 or higher before formally applying for admissions.[68] The University Honors Program is a liberal arts honors experience that serves to supplement the basic SMU University Curriculum. Students are required to take honors courses throughout their time at SMU, and the program culminates with a final senior project or experience.
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Graduate Studies: SMU offers over 32 doctoral and over 120 masters programs from eight schools: the Edwin L. Cox School of Business, the Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, the Dedman School of Law, the Bobby B. Lyle School of Engineering, the Algur H. Meadows School of the Arts, the Moody School of Graduate and Interdisciplinary Studies, and the Simmons School of Education and Human Development. The university granted over 3,827 degrees, including 315 doctorates, 1,659 master's and 1,853 bachelor's degrees in the 2020 academic year.
Research: SMU is a research-oriented higher learning institution. SMU prepares students for leadership in their professions and in their communities. SMU operates on a budget of $843 million for fiscal year 2023. SMU is also home to one of the most esteemed Dance programmes in the United States, offering both conservatory dance instruction and liberal arts education.
Libraries and Collections: SMU boasts an extensive library system, including:
- Cary M. Maguire Business Information Center (BIC) - Business school library.
- CUL Digital Collections - Central University Libraries Digital Collections provide anyone around the world the ability to access a variety of text, videos and images.
- DeGolyer Library - The DeGolyer Library is the principal repository at SMU for special collections in the humanities, the history of business, and the history of science and technology.
- Fondren Library Center - The largest collection of resources on campus, Fondren Library houses materials in the humanities, social sciences and business, as well as government information resources. Fondren Library also houses the Science and Engineering Library which includes collections in biology, chemistry, physics, earth sciences, mathematics, statistics, computer science, and civil, mechanical, and electrical engineering. The library has particularly strong collections in the earth sciences, electronics, general science and technology. The Norwick Center for Digital Collections is also housed in Fondren. Fondren Library is open 24 hours, and is a common study place for students. Students have been known to call Fondren Library Center "Club Fondy" due to the social nature of the library.
- Hamon Arts Library - Hamon Arts Library supports the undergraduate and graduate programs of the Meadows School of the Arts in the disciplines of art, arts administration, cinema, dance, music, and theater. The Library's circulating and reference collections contain more than 180,000 items relating to the visual and performing arts.
- Underwood Law Library - The Underwood Law Library's more than 640,000 volumes support the instruction and research of the Dedman School of Law and the general SMU community.
Museums and Centers: SMU is home to several museums and centers that enrich the academic and cultural life of the university and the surrounding community.
- George W. Bush Presidential Center - Located on 23 acres on the east side of the SMU main campus, the center includes a presidential library, museum, institute, and the offices of the George W. Bush Foundation. The library and museum are privately administered by the National Archives and Records Administration, while the university holds representation on the independent public policy institute board. The center serves as a resource for the study of the George W.
- Meadows Museum - The Meadows Museum's collection was assembled by its founder, Algur H. Meadows. It houses several collections including a collection of Spanish art from the tenth to the 21st centuries. The museum holds different exhibits for periods of time every year. In 2018 it held the exhibition "Dali: Poetics of the Small, 1929-1936", followed by Mariano Fortuny y Masal's artwork in the "Fortuny: Friends and Followers" exhibit. This exhibit will run from February 19 to June 6. It also includes a sculpture collection including works by David Smith, Henry Moore and Claes Oldenburg, as well as by contemporary sculptors such as James Surls.
- Pollock Gallery - The Pollock Gallery provides an ever-changing display of works by the faculty and students of the Meadows School of the Arts, as well as by outside artists.
Campus Life
SMU offers a vibrant and engaging campus life with a wide range of activities and organizations for students to get involved in.
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Student Body: As of the Fall 2020 semester, the university's 12,373 students are 6,827 undergraduates and 5,546 postgraduates from all 50 states and 83 countries. As of the Fall 2020 semester, the university's international student population of 1,117 (9%) comes from 83 countries and includes 392 undergraduate and 725 graduate students. As of the Fall 2020 semester, SMU's female to male ratio is approximately 1:1 and its student-faculty ratio is 11:1.
Residential Commons: Since the autumn of 2014, Southern Methodist University's undergraduate housing system has operated on a residential commons model rooted in the colleges of Oxford and Cambridge universities in England. Undergraduate students are required to live on campus for their first two years, and they must live their first year in one of the eleven residential commons that they are randomly sorted into after enrollment. Each commons houses a faculty-in-residence and a residential community director that organize events and interact with the residents. The eleven residential commons are Armstrong, Boaz, Cockrell-McIntosh, Crum, Kathy Crow, Loyd, Mary Hay-Peyton-Shuttles, McElvaney, Morrison-McGinnis, Virginia-Snider, and Ware. Built in 1926, Virginia-Snider Commons is the oldest of the current residence halls.
Student Organizations: Southern Methodist University is home to almost three hundred student organizations, including academic, professional, fraternal, sporting, ethnic themed, religious, service, and political diversity groups. Student organizations such as Student Foundation and Program Council frequently sponsor all-student events on various weekdays and weekends as well as boulevard tents. The Office of the Chaplain and Religious Life house religious organizations on campus. There are multiple Christian organizations, Hillel, and a Muslim Students Association.
Student Media: The Daily Campus was the independent student newspaper between 1915 and 2018. The frequency of the publication changed throughout the years and with the change in semesters. Publishing less frequently over the summer, for example. KSMU, a student-radio station, operated from 1964 to 1989.
Greek Life: SMU has a vibrant Greek life, with a number of fraternities and sororities on campus. Starting in 2010, the NPC sororities began updating and rebuilding their older sorority houses.
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Traditions: SMU has a number of campus traditions, including a Celebration of Lights event, where students watch thousands of lights appear on campus, or SMU’s springtime festival, PerunaPalooza.
Athletics: The SMU Mustangs compete in a number of Division I American Athletic Conference sports. Sports teams at SMU are known as the Mustangs, and compete in the NCAA Division I. Among the sixteen sports programmes is the American football team, which play at the 32,000 seater Ford Stadium. The Mustangs’ official mascot is Peruna, a Shetland pony that leads the football team onto the field for home games. In 1987, the university football program's repeated, flagrant recruiting violations led to the NCAA administering what is called the death penalty against the program.
Campus Location and Facilities: The main campus of Southern Methodist University is mostly located in University Park, a municipality in Dallas County, Texas. Most of the campus is centered around Bishop Boulevard, an elongated, tree-lined loop road that also serves as the site for "Boulevarding", SMU's version of the tailgating seen on many American college campuses. The campus was ranked as the most beautiful campus in America by Condé Nast Traveler in 2016 and also hosts the George W. Bush Presidential Center, located on the east side of the campus. Since 1973, the university has owned a 423-acre campus located at Fort Burgwin, just outside of Taos, New Mexico. This campus hosts classes during intersessions between semesters and during the summer. Along with the normal academic courses offered at the site, students attending classes at this campus during the winter can opt to attend wellness classes centered around winter sports. The Deason Innovation Gym is a 24/7 “makerspace” for aspiring student entrepreneurs and is stocked with 3D printers, laser cutters, and more.
Notable Alumni
Alumni of SMU include ten congressmen and two US Senators, physicist and Nobel Laureate James Cronin, and Oscar winning actress Kathy Bates. first lady Laura Bush, business billionaires Whitney Wolfe Herd, the founder of Bumble, and Indianapolis Colts owner James Irsay.
A University on the Rise
SMU is celebrating the centennial of its founding in 1911 and its opening in 1915. As SMU enters a second century of achievement, it is recognized as a university of increasing national prominence. SMU prepares students for leadership in their professions and in their communities. The University’s location near the heart of Dallas - a thriving center of commerce and culture - offers students enriching experiences on campus and beyond. Relationships in the Dallas area provide a platform for launching careers throughout the world. SMU was founded by what is now The United Methodist Church, in partnership with civic leaders, and was shaped by the entrepreneurial spirit of the region. The University is nonsectarian in its teaching and committed to academic freedom and open inquiry.
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