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The Princeton Review and Entrepreneur have again partnered to rank the top programs for studying entrepreneurship as an undergraduate.
There are those who describe the current, faster-and-faster-moving marketplace as a fourth industrial revolution. And the best entrepreneurship programs are those that help students appropriately speed up and, when necessary, scale-up their ideas. Students who enroll at these schools will find themselves at the forefront of innovation and development, often with an interdisciplinary focus that acknowledges the interconnectedness of today’s economy. And perhaps more importantly, they will also get opportunities to enrich themselves and their communities, adding economic and social value through innovation, team building, and leadership.
Related: Top 50 Best Graduate Programs for Entrepreneurs in 2023
Entrepreneurship encompasses so much that it’s more than an academic discipline. Studying entrepreneurship involves building self-confidence and business connections alike, developing creativity, and getting real-world results. That’s why we’ve worked with The Princeton Review for fifteen years to point students in the right direction of the top-ranked undergraduate and graduate programs for entrepreneurs. This year’s survey considered more than 250 colleges and universities in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and Europe and evaluated a multitude of factors. We considered not just the school’s programming but also its graduates’ success rates in the business world, the number of mentors available for students, and more. Read on to see which schools made the grade. (To read more about our methodology, pick up the Dec. 2022 issue of Entrepreneur.)
University of Houston
Cyvia and Melvyn Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship
Houston, TX
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 39
Tuition: $11,276.00 (in-state); $26,936.00 (out-of-state)
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 779
What Sets us Apart
Our program at the University of Houston has been built around the needs of students and the desire to help them develop personally and professionally. Our student body is 48% Hispanic or Black, with more than 50% first-generation in college. They typically have not had leadership opportunities and often lack confidence and connections. If we only taught them how to market products or manage cash, we would not be positioning them to succeed. Consequently, we focus on providing tools and resources, so students become well-rounded leaders who can build strong relationships. We encourage and facilitate human development through numerous enrichment and outreach initiatives, including mentoring, retreats, and others. Resources and partners needed to implement our program include:
• Mentors: We have over 500 mentors who participate with us.
• Mentorship Program: Our program is run by dedicated staff members.
• Program Managers: These managers organize and implement our extra-curricular activities.
• Professional Partners: Our many partners include banks and law firms.
• Scholarships: Our scholarships enable students to devote themselves to the program activities. About 80% of our students have jobs to pay their way through school (we demand full commitment to our program and scholarships allow students to work fewer hours).
• Faculty: Our exemplary faculty coordination.
• Collaborations: We collaborate with the Colleges of Engineering, Natural Science, and Mathematics, Departments of Computer Science, Industrial Design (College of Architecture), Graphic Arts (School of Art), School of Communications, and the Law School.
The University of Texas at Austin
Harkey Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies
Austin, TX
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 51
Tuition: $11,752.00 (in-state); $40,996.00 (out-of-state)
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 258
What Sets us Apart
The University of Texas at Austin (UT) offers an exciting range of resources for students across the 40 acres to become a part of the entrepreneurship community. We have powerful institutions working together, including the Entrepreneurship minor housed within the McCombs Business School, where students can take five classes with their specialized major and learn how to utilize their area of interest, collaborate with peers across various disciplines, and innovate within their communities. The Herb Kelleher Center offers more than 20 high-profile entrepreneurship mentors through their Entrepreneur-In-Residence and pre-accelerator programs. Our brand new Kendra Scott Institute is focused on growing female entrepreneurship across campus with female-led entrepreneurship faculty and mentors. The Blackstone Launchpad provides the largest undergraduate startup co-working space on campus within the School of Undergraduate Studies. The 40 acres is conveniently located in one of the fastest-growing technology startup cities in the nation. Undergraduate students have immense access to startup internships, investors, mentors, and customers. Lastly, undergraduate students have access to a strong alum network across the state of Texas, where they can use their entrepreneurial knowledge to pursue a career in consulting, new product development, technology commercialization, corporate innovation, product management, event management, strategy, and business development.
Babson College
Arthur M. Blank Center for Entrepreneurship
Babson Park, MA
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 37
Tuition: $55,714
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 246
What Sets us Apart
Babson College educates entrepreneurial leaders who create great economic and social value everywhere. Entrepreneurship is more than an academic discipline at Babson; it is a way of life. We teach entrepreneurship as a method so that students practice Entrepreneurial Thought and Action® (ET & A) in a variety of curricular and co-curricular settings, both on campus and around the world. Entrepreneurship is a required course for every single Babson student, and 70% of students take one of more than 70 electives. The entrepreneurship department has 51 faculty members; 23 full-time academics and 28 adjuncts, 100% of whom have both entrepreneurial and teaching experience. We have trained over 5,000 faculty from all over the world in our unique pedagogy of teaching entrepreneurship in our Price Babson Entrepreneurship Educators Program. Our campus is a living/learning laboratory with five entrepreneurial centers where students can pursue their passions for social innovation, start-ups, family entrepreneurship, women-led entrepreneurship, fashion, and food solutions, in accelerators, laboratories, and other immersive experiences. The Weissman Foundry is a unique prototyping and experimentation lab for our students. Babson’s students can also pursue their entrepreneurial interest in our living and learning residential communities such as eTower, CODE, and CREATE/the Studio.
Tecnológico de Monterrey
Institute for Entrepreneurship Eugenio Garza Lagüera
Monterrey, Nuevo León, MEXICO
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 78
Tuition: Varies by program
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 1370
What Sets us Apart
Entrepreneurship is ingrained in the University’s DNA. Entrepreneurial skills are developed in 100% of undergrad students. The ‘Tec21’ model enhances entrepreneurship education for everyone, transforming course-classroom-lectures into a challenge-projects-mentorship. The undergrad programs are in English. Our alumni have historically created 2.8 million jobs worldwide.
Our unparalleled ecosystem: campuses are new-venture generator ecosystems. We are recognized as the leading entrepreneurship university in Latin America, comprising 12 coworking systems and 4 technology parks with liaison offices in Silicon Valley and China. Since COVID-19 a virtual alternative has been successfully developed.
Our new incubation model: Ei Zone (Zona Ei) is a new model for new business creation and growth. Incubators and accelerators are transformed in this new venture development model.
Top global partnerships. We have alliances with top entrepreneurship universities and organizations in the United States, China, and Israel.
We create innovation districts. We partnered with MIT REAP to create innovation districts in five cities and we are partners with the first “Venture Café” in Latin America.
We sponsor the best global research. Tec de Monterey sponsored the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), GUESSS, and MIT GED.
We have the most ambitious entrepreneurial event in Latin America. In 2021, the INCmty festival reached more than 8,000 people and global leaders.
The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
CFE+CSED+MDP+Tauber (College of Engineering); OptiMize-College of Literature, Science, &Arts; ZLI-Ross School of Business; EXCEL-School of Music,Theatre & Dance; School of Education; Sch of Information; Sch of Kinesiology; Sch of Nursing; Sch of Social Wk
Ann Arbor, MI
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 209
Tuition: $17,193.00 (in-state); $55,097.00 (out-of-state)
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 445
What Sets us Apart
The Michigan Entrepreneur sees opportunities to innovate and create value while embracing next-generation technology to spark innovation. They step up to tackle big, real-world problems and lead with humility and integrity. They adapt and persevere while acting as champions of solutions that elevate all stakeholders.
The Michigan Entrepreneur is shaped through an entrepreneurial ecosystem spanning The University of Michigan’s 19 world-class schools and colleges. Students have access to experiential-learning programs, interdisciplinary courses, student organizations, and events that incorporate partnerships with innovative ventures. The Center for Entrepreneurship’s TechLab pairs student teams with autonomous vehicle startups to deploy state-of-the-art transportation technology using the world-leading Mcity test track. OptiMize’s Social Innovation Challenge, with ongoing workshops and mentorship, supports nearly 40 student-team projects selected for their impact as change-making ventures. Both the Ross School of Business’s Zell Entrepreneurs and the College of Engineering’s Entrepreneurs Leadership Program offer elite fellowships designed to provide students with mentorship, resources, and funding.
Our ultimate goal is to unlock the full entrepreneurial potential at the University of Michigan by helping people to understand, experience, practice, and refine the skills needed to successfully translate their knowledge, ideas, leadership, creativity, and enthusiasm into lasting value in the world.
Baylor University
John F. Baugh Center for Entrepreneurship
Waco, TX
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 34
Tuition: $51,738
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 800
What Sets us Apart
Baylor University was one of the earliest entrants into formal entrepreneurship curriculum development, classroom training, and experiential learning, offering formal classes in entrepreneurship in 1978. We are a leading research university in the field of entrepreneurship and remain committed to providing world-class entrepreneurship education. Our educational focus includes two core objectives: 1) Foster the entrepreneurial spirit and mindset in all students by providing them with the tools needed to start ventures. 2) Provide an intent focus on core values needed for students to build a meaningful life. We seek to achieve the first objective by immersing our student’s in a rigorous curriculum centered on experiential learning. Our second objective is fundamental to Baylor’s Christian Mission and conveys our belief that entrepreneurial pursuits are a reflection of a higher purpose. We believe entrepreneurship serves not just an economic function but also a social purpose in the sense that entrepreneurs’ activities can change the world for the better.
Our internal outreach and engagement programs for non-majors, including students not enrolled in entrepreneurship classes (entrepreneurship lectures, seminars, mentoring programs, etc.), reached approximately 1,850 Baylor undergraduate and graduate students and community members in 2021-22.
University of Maryland
Academy for Innovation and Entrepreneurship
College Park, MD
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 56
Tuition: $10,955.00 (in-state); $38,638.00 (out-of-state)
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 461
What Sets us Apart
Innovation and entrepreneurship (I&E) is the highest strategic priority of the President of UMD. I&E at UMD is not limited to just the business and engineering schools. In fact, non-business and non-engineering students are every bit as important to include in the innovation process because that process isn’t as rich and has inferior outcomes without that diversity. UMD aims to engage all 40,000 students in all 12 colleges and schools in I&E and is about 50% of the way there through extensive campus-wide collaboration. After adapting courses to be available online in 2020, UMD has made I&E significantly more accessible. Demand for certain I&E classes has grown tenfold now that more flexible, accessible, asynchronous options are available with which students can hone their entrepreneurial skills.
We view entrepreneurship as a way of thinking, doing and being that can be applied to most aspects of work and life. It is an exercise in self-expression, team building and problem-solving in order to create new value in the world. Entrepreneurship helps students build self-confidence and develop important personal skills in areas like creativity and leadership. Students learn concepts and methods like need-finding, opportunity recognition, value creation, design thinking, business modeling, and project planning and management. These can be applied throughout careers in industry, non-profits, and government alike.
Washington University in St. Louis
Skandalaris Center for Interdisciplinary Innovation & Entrepreneurship
St. Louis, MO
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 62
Tuition: $60,590
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 174
What Sets us Apart
The Skandalaris Center encourages students to take action on new ideas and become creative problem solvers suited for today’s changing economy. While many students choose to enroll in entrepreneurial programs with the goal of starting ventures, others seek to bring an entrepreneurial mindset to corporations and nonprofits. All of our entrepreneurial undergraduate students, regardless of major, engage with entrepreneurship through a course, an immersive case experience, an internship, or a hands-on startup consulting opportunity. Any student in the entrepreneurship major, or any major, cannot leave our institution without interacting with students from other levels, disciplines, and the region. Increasingly, students can’t leave WashU without engaging in entrepreneurship either. This interdisciplinary, inclusive, holistic approach separates WashU from its peers.
Miami University
John W. Altman Institute for Entrepreneurship
Oxford, OH
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 59
Tuition: $15,621.00 (in-state); $35,448.00 (out-of-state)
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 181
What Sets us Apart
Central to the design of our program is a fundamental belief in the transformative power of learning by doing. Our students experience starting high-growth companies and pitching those companies to hundreds of angel investors and venture capitalists across the nation through programs like Techstars® Startup Weekend Miami, the RedHawk Launch Accelerator, the RedHawk Venture Pitch Competition, and the Business Model Road Test Competition. They work in partnership with professionals from across the nation to solve social problems like homelessness, food insecurity, and mental health and resilience as part of Social Innovation Weekend. They manage deal flow and make valuation decisions that drive investments from two student-led funds totaling $750,000. They lead the largest university-led celebration of creativity and innovation in the world, World Creativity and Innovation Week (WCIW), which is endorsed by the United Nations with an International Day of Observance.
What sets Miami’s entrepreneurship program apart from programs at every other university in the world? We are an interdisciplinary program built on practice-based, immersive learning that engages thousands of students from every major across campus and exposes those students to ecosystem builders across the U.S. Our goal is to unleash students’ entrepreneurial mindsets, ignite their imaginations about what’s possible, and motivate them to innovate, create value, and elevate their impact on society.
Northeastern University
The Northeastern University Center for Entrepreneurship Education
Boston, MA
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 39
Tuition: $57,592
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 589
What Sets us Apart
Northeastern University’s specialty is in the area of experiential entrepreneurship education. This includes (1) Coursework: undergrad courses have four tracks—tech ventures, family business, social enterprise, and corporate innovation. We also have a Semester in Silicon Valley; (2) Entrepreneurship Co-op: NU is top-ranked in co-op education. Entrepreneurship Co-op places students in paid six-month internships at 250 firms; (3) Mentor Networks: there are two networks dedicated to general business and life sciences with more than 250 active members working with ventures; (4) Mosaic: an alliance of 11 student-led organizations where students help ventures with prototyping, design, IP, and more.
NU’s entrepreneurship ecosystem is an interdisciplinary environment, and it is expanding to new centers of activity in Seattle, San Francisco, Toronto, Charlotte, Portland, and London. The Roux Institute in Portland has over $300 million raised from donors for Deep Tech and Community Venture development. Across the Northeastern network, more than half of the students involved in entrepreneurship and the IDEA incubator come from outside the business school. This level of interdisciplinary, experiential learning is the foundation for a promising future and is already the basis for recognition by external institutions such as the Deshpande Foundation (2018 Best Entrepreneurial University & 2022 Student Engagement) and Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers (Venture Creation Award 2020).
Iowa State University
Pappajohn Center for Entrepreneurship
Ames, IA
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 95
Tuition: $9,316.00 (in-state); $24,504.00 (out-of-state)
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 634
What Sets us Apart
Iowa State University’s president has made entrepreneurship and innovation a strategic priority for the entire university. Following her “Innovate at Iowa State” campaign in 2018, she has now launched the campus-wide “Start Something” initiative to link activities at the Entrepreneurship Center to all of the Start Something entrepreneurship programs in each of the seven colleges. The Entrepreneurship Center serves as one central entrepreneurship hub for all students and faculty while also directly supporting startups. The university’s entrepreneurship ecosystem includes the vibrant ISU Research Park. The 400-acre Research Park, home to 120 companies, has doubled in size over the past five years. The $12 million core facility houses the Pappajohn Center for Entrepreneurship, Tech Transfer Offices, SBDC, CYstarters student accelerator, NSF I-Corps, Startup Factory incubator, Go-To-Market accelerator, and interdisciplinary CyBIZ Lab student consulting. Thus, Iowa State has two dedicated hubs, Student Innovation Center and Pappajohn Center for Entrepreneurship, that bring students from different majors together, enabling them to work together and access scholarships, funding, mentors, industry connections, and alum supporters, all to encourage and enable them to start new ventures now or in their future. At Iowa State, students are part of a truly interdisciplinary, highly-integrated, and rich university-wide entrepreneurship ecosystem.
Texas Tech University
Alderson-Griffin Center for Family Business & Entrepreneurship and Texas Tech University Innovation Hub at Research Park
Lubbock, TX
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 25
Tuition: $11,852.00 (in-state); $24,092.00 (out-of-state)
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 46
What Sets us Apart
The Innovation Hub at Texas Tech University catalyzes new ideas that impact our world through creative collision, the integration of tech transfer, new venture creation, company growth, mentorship, and competitive funding. The Innovation Hub is dedicated to housing and providing access to education and resources for students, faculty/staff, alum, and entrepreneurs for the entire West Texas region. We work with high schools and the community to support entrepreneurs. We assist in the formation of technology and startup companies critically relevant to the local and regional economy. The Hub offers 12 unique programs for co-curricular activities that fund startups in ideation, commercialization, and accelerator and provides an environment for diverse collaboration. As an example, two undergraduate students from the Texas Tech business school met during a 3-day startup event at the Hub, collaborated, and now run a business with $2.4 million in annual revenue. Braxton Manley and Grant Andrews, founders of Braxley Bands, are stellar examples of the creative collisions that occur at Texas Tech University through the multi-disciplinary approach to I&E education. Another example is a company called BlueVerse that is comprised of undergraduate students currently participating in our TTU Accelerator Program and has raised over $200,000 in investments within the last academic year.
University of Washington
Arthur W. Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship
Seattle, WA
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 65
Tuition: $12,076.00 (in-state); $39,906.00 (out-of-state)
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 301
What Sets us Apart
For more than 150 years, the University of Washington has demonstrated an extraordinary track record of entrepreneurial impact across the globe. We serve student founders with respect, whether they are working on a unicorn or a small business. The unique and distinct access undergraduate students have to one of the top globally-ranked health, computer, and engineering-based innovation ecosystems on campus extends to the surrounding Seattle and Pacific Northwest areas as well. The impact of a region in which UW finds itself a core component cannot be understated. Seattle is a biotech, cleantech, space, retail, hardware, and software entrepreneurial juggernaut. UW students are at the heart of many of these companies, which in turn, collaborate on-campus with dozens of departments through workshops, guest lectures, hackathons, mentorship, and more. Undergraduate students quickly find themselves in an inclusive place where they can achieve personal and professional growth without judgment. This is true no matter which of the four campuses UW operates around Seattle. Creative Destruction Lab-Seattle is just one example of the kind of unique experience at UW that only a handful of others can match. From maker spaces to student-run organizations to diverse and collaborative cross-departmental course offerings, workshops, competitions, communities, and post-graduation opportunities, the University of Washington embraces the core pillar of innovation from their first year to their last.
Georgia Institute of Technology
CREATE-X
Atlanta, GA
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 30
Tuition: $12,852.00 (in-state); $33,964.00 (out-of-state)
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 275
What Sets us Apart
The CREATE-X initiative has three philosophies that distinguish it from programs in peer institutions around the country: (1) emphasis on deep entrepreneurship. In other words, entrepreneurship that is likely to have a long-term impact as opposed to short-term gain; (2) engage with students early and provide a continuous sequence of curricular programs so that entrepreneurship education is a part of the fabric of education at Georgia Institute of Technology; and (3) entirely based on experiential education, a pedagogical methodology critical for the successful entrepreneurship education.
The mission of CREATE-X from its inception has been to instill entrepreneurial confidence in its students and launch real startups. This approach was fundamental in first creating a culture in the student body that entrepreneurship can be a viable option for them. This has been key to creating a methodology and ability to permeate throughout the different colleges with programming elements for students to identify as entrepreneurs while having a pathway to explore and pursue.
We believe that entrepreneurial confidence is a life skill that all of our students need to possess when they graduate and enter the workforce, regardless of whether they will launch a startup right away or not. Toward this vision, the entrepreneurial education capacity at Georgia Tech is unparalleled, with thousands of students being engaged every year.
Florida Gulf Coast University
Rist Family Foundation Institute for Entrepreneurship
Fort Myers, FL
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 85
Tuition: $6,170.00 (in-state); $21,022.00 (out-of-state)
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 338
What Sets us Apart
The Florida Gulf Coast University Daveler & Kauanui School of Entrepreneurship (DKE) houses our degree programs and Co-Curricular Institute for Entrepreneurship and is independent of the College of Business. This independence allows the DKE to partner with other departments and faculty from across the University to provide students the interdisciplinary experiences and certificates that will help them succeed in the multi-faceted world of entrepreneurship. DKE programs aim to instill an entrepreneurial mindset founded on lean startup techniques. DKE students take courses in their field of interest (arts, health, STEM, etc.) along with the core entrepreneurship courses, which count towards the major. Students learn to develop value-adding and economically sustainable businesses. DKE faculty spend a minimum of 5 hours per week working with students in our incubator to fully understand their needs. Our programs and courses match students with mentors from a pool of over 50 community members that are skilled in different areas of entrepreneurship. Many community members and foundations provide donations to fund student businesses.
Drexel University
Charles D. Close School of Entrepreneurship
Philadelphia, PA
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 39
Tuition: $57,136
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 40
What Sets us Apart
Accredited in 2020 by AACSB as the first School of Entrepreneurship with that designation, the Close School holds the distinction of being the nation’s first dedicated degree-granting School of Entrepreneurship among 3,000 colleges and universities offering entrepreneurship programs. Independent from our business school, entrepreneurship is a unique discipline, rather than an amalgamation of business disciplines, distinct from other professions. The “fourth industrial revolution” reinstates the value in and demand for personal initiative, independence, innovation, and the intellectual dexterity to reimagine ways of working, thinking, and doing. Close has pioneered an approach to entrepreneurship education that addresses these traits and skills by teaching students to be
entrepreneurial thinkers and doers, preparing them to meet the global market on a solid personal and professional footing to design their own futures. This is in line with the current philosophy of entrepreneurship, an intentional shift from venture creation to thinking/acting entrepreneurially. We have the responsibility to develop skills of discovery, reasoning, and execution so that students graduate to excel in highly uncertain, unstable environments. Students leave Close with an expansive view of what it means to be entrepreneurial, which comes to represent both a habit of mind and attitude. We guide students in the cultivation of a life approach of innovative thinking, calculated daring, and proactive behaviors.
Syracuse University
Blackstone Launchpad powered by TechStars; Couri Hatchery; Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship
Syracuse, NY
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 32
Tuition: $57,591
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 185
What Sets us Apart
Entrepreneurship is an academic signature of Syracuse University. It is at the core of the programs at multiple schools on campus. This cross-campus commitment to entrepreneurship results in many student ventures starting and growing every year, thousands of students enrolled in entrepreneurship courses, many full-time faculty involved in programming, and dozens of community-based experiential opportunities for students. The Chancellor recently announced a $100M investment in scholarships, and entrepreneurship is central to that. We also recently launched a centralized incubator and resource center (Blackstone Launchpad) to provide additional help across campus. The coming years will also see a push for additional faculty.
We work with thousands of military veterans per year, helping to manage their transition to civilian life. We’ve worked with more than 120,000 military veteran entrepreneurs over the past few years and have been acknowledged for this at the highest levels of government and private industry. The Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities has been in existence since 2007 and is now offered at 10 universities around the United States, inspiring similar programs in other countries.
The University of St. Thomas
Schulze School of Entrepreneurship
St. Paul, MN
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 46
Tuition: $50,366
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 87
What Sets us Apart
The University of St. Thomas is committed to unlocking the entrepreneurial potential of all students across campus, with entrepreneurship currently the 5th largest major and hundreds of students participating in entrepreneurial co-curriculars each year. Our full-tuition scholarship program provides 4-year, full-tuition scholarships and specialized cohort programming to 10 incoming Entrepreneurship majors each year. As a Catholic institution open to all, we stress entrepreneurship for the common good and challenge our students to find problems that matter to them and use their entrepreneurial skills to create positive change in the world. Our classes emphasize entrepreneurial purpose, ethics, and values; human-centered design and lean startup; locally-based case studies featuring alum ventures; and experiential learning and fieldwork with customers and other stakeholders. Our co-curriculars engage students through multiple avenues, including developmental workshops, mentorships, subsidized internships with startups, seed capital and pre-seed grants, an accelerator program and a series of increasingly challenging competitions, including the national eFest competition that we host annually, and the multinational Fowler Global Social Innovation School, that we host every other year. Our five student competitions, with associated developmental workshops and mentoring, give away over $400,000 in scholarship and cash awards each year.
Florida State University
Jim Moran College of Entrepreneurship
Tallahassee, FL
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 65
Tuition: $6,517.00 (in-state); $21,683.00 (out-of-state)
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 213
What Sets us Apart
Jim Moran College is a limited-access degree program to which students apply for entry. The process we utilize to select students involves their application and essay. These are reviewed by a committee of our full-time faculty resulting in students who are passionate and excited about entrepreneurship. Our classes are hands-on and experiential; 100 percent of our juniors begin a business and keep it running throughout the year. JMC funds all the student businesses, so the students must justify the funds they request and pitch their ideas to students and faculty. This provides experience for each student to verbalize their idea for a business and why it is important. The students in this class are encouraged to work in teams and analyze, as well as support their peers. In addition, our approach to multidisciplinary collaboration sets JMC apart from programs around the country. JMC serves as a melting pot for entrepreneurs from our institutions’ disciplines, gathering faculty expertise from across the campus. Every JMC major is required to complete a full semester internship at the end of their junior year; our academic approach is to ensure our curriculum delivers skills and confidence to each of our students. Another example of uniqueness is FSU’s Innovation Hub, which is supported by the JMC and provides the tools necessary for our student entrepreneurs to build out their products in a virtual reality lab and Hackerspace.
North Carolina State University
NC State Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Raleigh, NC
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 56
Tuition: $9,128.00 (in-state); $30,869.00 (out-of-state)
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 52
What Sets us Apart
Allowing uniquely specialized entrepreneurship efforts to flourish within an overarching, university-wide entrepreneurship ecosystem is a cornerstone of North Carolina State University’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship philosophy. NC State I&E strongly believes that entrepreneurship is an option that every undergraduate student should have the opportunity to explore. For those interested in gaining a deeper understanding of the entrepreneurial world, there should be activities and opportunities that allow students to customize a program tailored to their specific needs. Whether they want to gain a deeper understanding of technology entrepreneurship, arts entrepreneurship, corporate entrepreneurship, or a mix of the many specialized programs offered on campus, they should be able to do so. Undergraduate students also have varying degrees of flexibility in their academic requirements, so opportunities both inside and outside the classroom are critical. In addition, we strongly believe that entrepreneurial education is nothing if students are not able to put their education into practice in a supportive community. To minimize duplication of efforts and maximize resources and interdisciplinary opportunities, NC State I&E prioritizes high-impact activities that are equally available to all students to support their integration of academic learning into real-world experiences in entrepreneurship.
Michigan State University
Burgess Institute for Entrepreneurship & Innovation
East Lansing, MI
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 41
Tuition: $17,083.00 (in-state); $41,922.00 (out-of-state)
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 947
What Sets us Apart
Michigan State University’s approach to entrepreneurship education is distinctive because it expands a student’s academic platform, regardless of their major or enrolled college, and adds an element of entrepreneurship to their formal education. Entrepreneurship at MSU is infused into the university curriculum via 42 courses from 22 different departments. The goal of the program is to prepare students for dynamic careers in a rapidly evolving and ever-changing world, which will demand that they be constantly learning—regardless of whether they start their own business. With this mission in mind, we have truly embraced the development of the “entrepreneurial mindset” as our goal. However, this term has been used very loosely over the past few years amongst university entrepreneurship circles. Therefore, over the last two years, we have developed a formal assessment project focused on determining whether or not we can measure and influence the “entrepreneurial mindset” in our student body. This has led to the development of proprietary scales and surveys grounded in research from organizational psychology and behavior. These tools are now being tested with students in the minor and our first working paper has been accepted at an educational conference. We think this commitment to truly measuring mindset impact will lead to the long-term success of our program and provide a level of differentiation for an MSU degree.
The University of Iowa
John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center (Iowa JPEC)
Iowa City, IA
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 35
Tuition: $9,889.00 (in-state); $31,852.00 (out-of-state)
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 376
What Sets us Apart
The University of Iowa believes all undergraduate students should have access to entrepreneurship and innovation curricula. We offer multiple interdisciplinary undergraduate academic programs designed to teach the entrepreneurial mindset and to develop the key technical and leadership skills necessary for students to pursue entrepreneurship as a career or to become entrepreneurial leaders within an existing organization. In addition, entrepreneurship coursework has been incorporated into several other undergraduate majors and degree programs across campus. In almost all entrepreneurship courses, students are required to work in teams to identify a new entrepreneurial opportunity and develop a business model and/or plan for launching the venture. Students are required to “get out of the building” and complete customer discovery as part of most projects; students are also encouraged to consider the societal and environmental aspects of their proposed ventures.
Iowa JPEC offers a broad scope of campus-wide co-curricular programs, including ideation events, startup weekends, new venture competitions, summer student accelerator, clubs/organizations, mentoring programs, speaker series, business consulting, international social entrepreneurship, and networking events. This breadth of programming is designed to develop entrepreneurial leaders prepared to pursue their dreams and impact the world. Entrepreneurship at Iowa—campus-wide, experiential, innovative, and impactful.
The Pennsylvania State University
Penn State has 25+ entrepreneurship centers across our 24 campus locations
College Park, PA
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 48
Tuition: $18,898.00 (in-state); $36,476.00 (out-of-state)
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 220
What Sets us Apart
The undergraduate education offerings are very unique at The Pennsylvania State University. With ten tracks in the ENTI minor, as well as the CIENT major, there is an entrepreneurship focus for every student. We offer tracks in food and bio-innovation, biotech, hospitality, engineering, social entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship as advocacy, media entrepreneurship, digital innovation, art and architecture, and new ventures. Course offerings work to incorporate creation tools like the Adobe Creative Suite, Website development, and other content creation, like podcasting, into the course assignments. Building on the base of synthesizing things and leading by creating is highly encouraged. Several campuses have deep experiential learning opportunities, such as the Sheetz Fellows and Graham Fellows programs at Penn State Altoona and Penn State York. We encourage our students to be entrepreneurial in all aspects of their personal and professional lives. If we can teach students to think like entrepreneurs, they will be successful no matter what endeavor they pursue.
University of Utah
Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute
Salt Lake City, UT
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 28
Tuition: $9,816.00 (in-state); $31,389.00 (out-of-state)
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 278
What Sets us Apart
Our approach to entrepreneurship education is unique in its pedagogy, academic strengths, and vast resources available to students. We challenge four basic assumptions about entrepreneurship with our approach to business discovery and creation.
First, we teach students how to experiment and pivot, not to focus on creating business plans. Second, we teach students the principles of a lean startup and the modern methods of fundraising such as crowdsourcing, because large amounts of capital are no longer required. Third, we believe students should learn by doing—including starting businesses while in college. Fourth, we believe successful entrepreneurship is a team activity requiring many types of people—not the product of a “lone genius.”
Our strengths include how we merge award-winning faculty, create a blended department, and give students a broader understanding of value creation and business formation. Our courses focus on helping students develop skills essential to success: market entry, competitive advantage, supply chain management, digital marketing, data analytics, and fundraising. Students can utilize what they’re learning in the classroom to obtain funding for their ventures through our programs. The Lassonde for Life program aims to permanently provide graduates with workshops and support.
The University of Texas at Dallas
UTD Institute for Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Richardson, TX
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 22
Tuition: $14,564.00 (in-state); $39,776.00 (out-of-state)
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 249
What Sets us Apart
The University of Texas at Dallas has:
Belmont University
Thomas F. Cone Sr. Center for Entrepreneurship
Nashville, TN
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 33
Tuition: 32820
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 105
What Sets us Apart
This year, we launched the Belmont Data Collaborative and Transformational Innovation Hub (TIH). The Data Collaborative provides students with comprehensive data analysis skills, while the TIH guides our students in utilizing entrepreneurial skills for community development. Through these new initiatives, we are equipping students with entrepreneurial skills, data literacy, and a redemptive mindset to become a force for positive change.
Our faculty actively engages in the Nashville business community and connects students with community partners. Our two on-campus, student-run businesses provide a unique experience for students to develop and launch a business. This opportunity allows any undergraduate to build entrepreneurial expertise. We expanded our Entrepreneurs-in-Residence program to consist of alums from four majors who run businesses in four industries. The diversity of these alum mentors provides an opportunity for students from across campus to connect with like-minded mentors. The Hatchery provides support for students of all majors and at all stages of the entrepreneurial process. Our Accelerator program combines mentorship and a dynamic curriculum to accelerate their entrepreneurial growth. In addition, our Thomas F. Cone Sr. Center for Entrepreneurship provides workshops, clinics, speakers, and mentorship. Entrepreneurship is woven across campus to engage all students. Whether someone is starting with an idea or actively growing their business, we have the tools to guide them to success.
Florida Atlantic University
Adams Center for Entrepreneurship
Boca Raton, FL
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 12
Tuition: $5,986.00 (in-state); $21,543.00 (out-of-state)
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 92
What Sets us Apart
Our distinctive approach to entrepreneurship education consists of initial primary research (FAU Wave program), a dozen entrepreneurship courses, and educational and financial resources and support provided by the Adams Center for Entrepreneurship. The Center provides student entrepreneurs with a boot camp, professional mentorship, an activity-filled Global Entrepreneurship Week, networking organizations, pitch competitions, and support for many external competitions. Our students grow their ventures through FAUs Accelerator (Tech Runway), and receive full operational support from FAU Research Park. In combination, these university-wide programs provide comprehensive support to all student entrepreneurs at FAU whether they are in business, engineering, computer science, Honors College, physical science, liberal arts, education, or other programs.
Purdue University
Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship
West Lafayette, IN
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 59
Tuition: $9,992 (in-state); $28,794 (out-of-state)
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 88
What Sets us Apart
Started in 2005, Purdue’s Certificate in Entrepreneurship and Innovation is one of the largest multidisciplinary entrepreneurship programs in the country. It is the primary vehicle for delivering entrepreneurship education throughout the campus. Distinctive features include (1) small classes sizes, despite their size and scale; (2) a project-based focus with multidisciplinary student teams; (3) capstone courses tailored to different career paths, e.g., students can choose from courses focused on short-term business planning, consulting for small business, or planning for an entrepreneurial career; (4) one of the first entrepreneurship programs in the country to be administered centrally by an Office of the Provost; (5) access to the award-winning business incubation and startup activities of Purdue Research Foundation and Purdue Research Park (top 10 in patents, licensing and startups); (6) growth driven by entrepreneurship education, evaluation, research, and scholarship. Dr. Nathalie Duval-Couetil, a leading scholar in the field, has taken a data-driven approach to program development that has involved collecting pre- and post-program data from thousands of entrepreneurship students for over a decade. She has published on topics such as entrepreneurship education program assessment, STEM and entrepreneurship, gender and entrepreneurship, technology commercialization, and student IP policy.
DePaul University
Coleman Entrepreneurship Center
Chicago, IL
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 42
Tuition: $41,202
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 137
What Sets us Apart
“DePaul has a long history of entrepreneurship education in the US, offering its first course in the subject in 1971. We now offer a combined bachelor’s and master’s degree in Entrepreneurship (4+1) and recently launched three entrepreneurship degrees: a BS major, and two minors, one for business students and one for non-business students. The entrepreneurship program collaborates with DePaul’s CDM College, one of the largest computer science schools in the nation, for joint programming-technology commercialization. Partners in the entrepreneur ecosystem in Chicago include the 1871 tech incubator, 2112 music/film incubator, Illinois Science and Technology Coalition (ISTC), and the mHub maker space. Our 100-member Campus Advisory Team from across the university and our 60 CEC Mentors implement entrepreneurship education across all DePaul Colleges and also support our alumni. Student entrepreneurship organizations include CEO and NetImpact. The CEC’s Internship Program pays DePaul students to work in new ventures and we had over 75 participants this year. Our Spring business plan competition, The Purpose Pitch, focuses on the cause behind forming a business and strength of purpose beyond just making money. Over 40 student/alumni teams applied and the final 8 teams presented to over 100 people in person. DePaul and the CEC, along with IIT hosted the 2018 GCEC Conference in Chicago and is a leadership school member. DePaul also hosts University Pitch Madness each summer with 10 midwest universities competing.
New Jersey Institute of Technology
VentureLink
Newark, NJ
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 23
Tuition: $17,674.00 (in-state); $33,386.00 (out-of-state)
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 17
What Sets us Apart
New Jersey Institute of Technology provides students in all the university’s disciplines a pipeline of entrepreneurship experiences that span from innovation to business model testing to venture creation. Students learn skills valuable in both a new venture setting and in the management of innovation in a corporate setting (intrapreneurship). In keeping with the university’s overall mission, the entrepreneurship program at NJIT focuses on technological innovation with societal significance. The alignment of program focus and university mission permits entrepreneurship education at NJIT to build upon the many resources across the campus for innovation development and commercialization. These include the largest new venture incubator and maker space in the state and funding and mentorship from NJIT’s own National Science Foundation I-Corps site and other internal and external sources of investment. NJIT is located in the heart of the nation’s pharmaceutical, telecommunications, and fintech corridors, and entrepreneurship students hone their skills in this vibrant startup ecosystem. Accredited by AACSB, ABET, MSCHE, and NAAB, NJIT offers undergraduate students a bachelor of science with a major in entrepreneurship through its Martin Tuchman School of Management, and also a minor in entrepreneurship that students in other disciplines can easily add to their fields of study.
Saint Louis University
Chaifetz Center for Entrepreneurship
St. Louis, MO
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 126
Tuition: $47,124
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 55
What Sets us Apart
Keeping with our Jesuit roots (“Men and women for and with others”), we teach how to create social and non-profit ventures as well as for-profit ones. Those efforts, as well as helping others to do this, landed us at #9 on The Princeton Review’s 2022 Top 20 Schools for Making an Impact we teach how to create social and non-profit ventures as well as for-profit ones and to help others do this as well as how to pursue entrepreneurship for yourself. To make entrepreneurship education available to graduate students who might want this for their futures, we have grown it far beyond the business school, delivering the education and experiential training where they are academically based to prepare them for the entrepreneurial roles they will pursue in their professional careers. This means teaching students how to identify opportunities and launch startups not only in business but also in 18 departments. Our network of 75 faculty collaborate to connect students to an extensive set of on-campus resources (instructors, mentors, advisors, competitions, clinics, labs, centers, coworking spaces, shared-use kitchens, maker spaces, accelerators, etc.) as well as locally off-campus (in one of the top-10 startup cities is the USA—with all that implies) to help students achieve their goals and dreams. We connect students nationally through programs like our MedLaunch Medical Accelerator and our own nationally recognized Service Leadership Program to help them access opportunities everywhere.
Florida International University
StartUP FIU, Pino Global Entrepreneurship Center, Small Business Development Center at FIU, and FIU CARTA Ratcliffe Art + Design Incubator
Miami, FL
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 53
Tuition: $6,566.00 (in-state); $18,964.00 (out-of-state)
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 33
What Sets us Apart
FIU’s undergraduate entrepreneurship education spans five schools/colleges. It is distinguished by its interdisciplinary nature and agility to create a curriculum in real-time. The Chaplin School of Hospitality and Tourism Management and Honors College offer new entrepreneurship courses every year, ensuring courses are relevant and responsive to today’s fast pace of change. The courses are designed with a high level of engagement, giving students real-world experience. For example, the Chaplin School’s “POD” (Programming on Demand) are 1-credit courses, usually one or two weekends, each one with a unique or creative focus.
The College of Business and College of Engineering and Computing approach entrepreneurship education through an interdisciplinary lens. For example, the entrepreneurship certificate at the College of Business is only available to FIU students not enrolled in the College to teach students from any discipline the skills to start their own companies, while entrepreneurship concentrations in the College of Engineering provide engineering students with business skills and know-how. Additionally, the College of Engineering’s new Interdisciplinary Engineering program fosters entrepreneurship by exposing students to business, science, and engineering fundamentals while developing their skills as leaders, systems thinkers, and engineering designers through a project-based course sequence.
University of Delaware
Horn Entrepreneurship Venture Development Center
Newark, DE
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 38
Tuition: $14,280.00 (in-state); $35,710.00 (out-of-state)
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 189
What Sets us Apart
Horn Entrepreneurship’s mission focuses on empowering all University of Delaware students through entrepreneurship education. Horn’s degree programs, courses, and co-curricular offerings draw enrollment/participation from nearly 1,500 students representing almost 100 majors and all 7 colleges. Our distinctive approach combines four components:
University of Connecticut
Peter J. Werth Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Storrs, CT
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 39
Tuition: $17,226.00 (in-state); $39,894.00 (out-of-state)
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 38
What Sets us Apart
Access to entrepreneurial classes, programs, and opportunities defines the University of Connecticut’s approach to undergraduate entrepreneurship. An inclusive approach to encouraging entrepreneurial behaviors that allow students to prepare to be a part of the dynamic workforce of the future through skill development, competency achievement, and self-awareness of their abilities. UConn strives to remove self-imposed limitations from a student by enhancing their inquiry into the applied world through student entrepreneurship.
Be Good. Make a Difference. Change the World. As stated by Peter J. Werth, it is a set of core values that we strive to introduce into our students’ lives. Positive impact on a global scale through small steps while you learn to run is how we translate this into action.
Loyola Marymount University
Fred Kiesner Center for Entrepreneurship
Los Angeles, CA
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 19
Tuition: $52,577
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 60
What Sets us Apart
At Loyola Marymount University, we value the following principles:
Texas A&M University – College Station
McFerrin Center for Entrepreneurship
College Station, TX
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 52
Tuition: $13,178.00 (in-state); $40,087.00 (out-of-state)
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 39
What Sets us Apart
Our approach to undergraduate entrepreneurship education is unique in that it focuses on real-world experiential opportunities. All of our programs are extracurricular so we minimize traditional instruction and rather use a flipped classroom to educate them on Lean Startup and other business principles. We then create an environment in which the students are exposed to different trends and opportunities in entrepreneurship and those with ideas can gather data to evaluate customer and market needs. Our environment encourages creativity, the exchange of ideas/talent, and multi/cross-disciplinary collaboration among the students. Peer feedback and leadership are also integral to our programs, and we leverage an extensive mentor network that enables students to seek feedback and learn from the experience of other entrepreneurs, business professionals, and entrepreneurial faculty and staff at Texas A&M. At our Center, students are encouraged to learn but are also provided with the ability to earn access to advanced programs and resources (including financial support) that can help them to launch their own companies. With this approach, we are able to focus resources that support the diverse needs of the entrepreneurial students on campus, ranging from those who want to use their skills to help others to those that are already running a business to those who wish to participate in other college- or topically-focused entrepreneurship programs.
University of Dayton
L. William Crotty Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership, The Hub powered by PNC Bank, The Greater West Dayton Incubator
Dayton, OH
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 37
Tuition: $44,890
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 199
What Sets us Apart
The University of Dayton’s approach is that the only way to learn how to be an entrepreneur is to be an entrepreneur. Students get first-hand knowledge of the entrepreneurial process at UD. It begins with the Sophomore Experience, where students pitch ideas, form teams, receive funding, and then launch and operate a micro-company over the course of an academic year. To date, these micro-businesses have generated more than $500,000 in revenues and $250,000 in profit. Through the UD Capstone in Entrepreneurship, students deliver more than 2,000 supervised consulting hours each semester to area businesses. Projects include capital investment recommendations, writing business plans, market validation of new ideas, growth strategies, and any other challenges small business owners can encounter.
Because of the cross-disciplinary nature of entrepreneurship, students are given multiple opportunities to practice entrepreneurship with students from other majors. The Stitt Scholars program brings business, engineering, and liberal arts students together to work with startups. Based in the center of the region’s ecosystem, students help with product testing and design, business plans, market validation, and other challenges around innovation or business. These experiences are embedded in our core curriculum and co-curricular programming. Our approach is to ensure every student experiences being an entrepreneur before graduation; the best way to learn it is to experience it!
Kettering University
School of Management
Flint, MI
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 5
Tuition: $44,380
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 75
What Sets us Apart
Our approach to interdisciplinary undergraduate entrepreneurship education is distinctive. First, we ask students to recognize the potential shortcomings in their own thought processes that can get in the way of entrepreneurial success and, second, to engage in self-analysis, study, instruction, and practice to overcome these shortcomings to improve the odds of entrepreneurial venture success. The program requires students to engage in the business process of creating value through new products, processes, and market development within the existing enterprise. The students also experience business through the required coops. Project & Operations Management, along with Leadership, are built into the curriculum. The capstone social entrepreneurship consultancy project is a project and problem-based course where the students act as business consultants, working with nonprofit organizations in the Flint, Michigan, community. Student team consulting is an active learning pedagogy that promotes innovative and creative thinking—a foundation of entrepreneurship. Students are provided with an experience to discover, evaluate, exploit opportunities, and develop professional skills. Working with local nonprofits allows the students to see their impact holistically, assist the community organizations in strengthening the local community, and gain an appreciation for social and civic responsibility.
The University of Miami
The Launch Pad
Coral Gables, FL
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 58
Tuition: $57,194
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 11
What Sets us Apart
Our approach is unique based on four core values: 1. Global mindset, 2. Interdisciplinary, 3. Data-driven, and 4. Diversity and Inclusion.
Our undergraduate students come from 47 states, the District of Columbia, 3 territories, and 100 other countries, and our programming, speakers, and mentors all have international experience, and the cross-cultural conversations and validation for products and services take on a different trajectory with that focus at the core. Secondly, 86 of 106 majors take entrepreneurship courses and our minor in entrepreneurship has representation from every school and college—more than 70 majors are engaged. This allows for strong concept development and validation across technology and business in addition to topics like sustainability, music, and many others at the core of solving customer problems. Finally, we spent the 2021-22 school year developing a plan for data collection to create a data-driven curriculum and program integration to track the information needed to create real-time support and intervention solutions for our student and alumni entrepreneurs and innovators. We look forward to showcasing this in our next report.
East Carolina University
Crisp Small Business Resource Center
Greenville, NC
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 22
Tuition: $7,239.00 (in-state); $23,516.00 (out-of-state)
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 156
What Sets us Apart
The Miller School at East Carolina University is committed to an experiential-based curriculum and multidisciplinary co-curricular activities. Our BS degree has multiple pathways available, and we serve students interested in business startups and small and family business development. We focus on building an entrepreneurial mindset and skill set through highly engaging learning activities. In the 2021-22 academic year, we worked with students from 35 distinct majors in our academic programs and competitions, including the Pirate Entrepreneurship Challenge. This signature competition has included over 350 teams and almost 900 students from 50 different majors across the campus since starting in 2018 and provided more than $300,000 in cash and in-kind prizes.
We have various programs that work directly with regional businesses, and in 2020-21 our students worked with 30 clients and accumulated approximately 22,400 fieldwork hours. Over the past four years, our students have completed 160 consulting projects and approximately 75,000 hours of fieldwork. We have linked courses with other academic units completed through sponsored research, with over $7 million in grant proposals and the creation of a faculty alliance program. Our unique school structure includes strategic linkages across campus and a multidisciplinary steering committee. We also have regional advisory councils across our state consisting of distinguished entrepreneurs and business leaders who serve as dedicated mentors.
Boston University
Innovate@BU
Boston, MA
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 23
Tuition: $58,072
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 21
What Sets us Apart
A key attribute of our entrepreneurship programs is driven by Boston University’s “One BU” mission, which embraces our belief that entrepreneurship applies to a wide variety of disciplines. Through this mission, we actively engage and intermix students from across the University in entrepreneurial classes and activities. At the heart of this is the Innovation & Entrepreneurship (I&E) minor, which enables students pursuing any undergraduate major from all BU schools and colleges to develop their ideas, regardless of their field of expertise, and create tangible economic or social impact. This minor is not just for those who want to launch a startup but for students who want to learn how to be more entrepreneurial in all aspects of their lives. The minor teaches students a set of life skills, including identifying unmet needs and new opportunities, leading creativity and ideation, collaboration, prototyping, and testing, which can prepare students for careers in many domains. The minor is developed with a thin core, allowing great flexibility for students as they choose their classes. The core class is a newly developed class called Ideas2Impact; after this class, students pick four electives from a choice of over 70 courses, allowing students to study the various flavors of entrepreneurship that suit their interests. Although only three years old, the minor is growing rapidly and is already the sixth most popular minor on campus.
Temple University
Innovation and Entrepreneurship Institute
Philadephia, PA
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 34
Tuition: $19,749.00 (in-state); $34,049.00 (out-of-state)
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 47
What Sets us Apart
We see innovation and entrepreneurship as two sides of the same coin. Temple University’s university-wide academic programming balances creating an entrepreneurial mindset to recognize opportunities and develop differentiated, innovation-based, purpose-focused, value-creating business models with practical, next-generation management skills and behaviors that help students launch and fund ventures or implement their innovative ideas in existing organizations.
Our academic courses and degrees are integrated with our Institute’s co-curricular programs. Our focus is on experiential learning and launching while in school. We say, “Don’t come to Temple to learn about E-ship — come to Temple to launch your venture!” We know that learning must be hands-on and experiential, so we offer a range of experiences from New Venture Internships to Launching a Venture in 100 days to Solving Wicked Social Problems so students can experience entrepreneurship from many angles.
Entrepreneurship is threaded into Temple’s core curriculum. We have collaborated with multiple schools and colleges to integrate entrepreneurial content into our various courses and degrees. We also have the Temple University Entrepreneurship Academy—a novel approach to training and supporting faculty. TUEA supports the creation of new courses and degrees throughout Temple that bring entrepreneurship together with all disciplines—from art to engineering to healthcare to liberal arts.
The University of Oklahoma https://www.princetonreview.com/schools/1023726?ceid=entrepreneur-ugrad
Tom Love Center for Entrepreneurship
Norman, OK
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 24
Tuition: $9,062.50 (in-state); $24,443.50 (out-of-state)
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 27
What Sets us Apart
The undergraduate entrepreneurship program at The University of Oklahoma links entrepreneurship and economic development. Along with educational initiatives that promote and support entrepreneurial launches, the Tom Love Division of Entrepreneurship and Economic Development focuses on business development, ownership, and job creation. Our programs emphasize the value and importance of an entrepreneurial mindset to enhance critical thinking, opportunity recognition, and creative problem-solving. The Tom Love Center for Entrepreneurship, the Irani Center for the Creation of Economic Wealth, and the Tom Love Innovation Hub supports a wide variety of entrepreneurship and economic development endeavors. We also have programs aimed at extending the runway beyond graduation through coaching, incubating, funding, and the award-winning OK Catalyst SBIR/STTR training program. The pedagogy places a strong emphasis on experiential learning consistent with the latest principles of lean startup and design thinking. Students learn to pitch ideas, develop hypotheses, collect data, and build prototypes to develop strong, viable business concepts, then showcase their ideas to the OU community through our Entrepreneurship EXPO. Regardless of prior experience or field of study, entrepreneurship and economic development students can thrive at OU.
Rowan University
Rowan Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Glassboro, NJ
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 22
Tuition: $12,939.00 (in-state); $21,971.00 (out-of-state)
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 73
What Sets us Apart
We remove barriers and provide access to students from all disciplines. While many of our entrepreneurship courses are housed in the School of Innovation and Entrepreneurship within the College of Business, those courses are open to students from all majors. Junior standing is the only prerequisite we put on our entrepreneurship courses, and only on select courses. Unlike many other schools that require students wanting to take upper-division business courses to first complete business foundation courses, we focus on access and interdisciplinary collaboration, removing barriers and enabling added diversity and interdisciplinarity in our classrooms.
University of Arizona
McGuire Center for Entrepreneurship
Tucson, AZ
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 36
Tuition: $12,404.00 (in-state); $35,153.00 (out-of-state)
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 28
What Sets us Apart
University of Arizona‘s McGuire Center for Entrepreneurship continues to be recognized as one of the nation’s elite entrepreneurship centers, offering a variety of educational opportunities that are both rigorous and enriching. McGuire’s academic and co-curricular offerings are experiential in nature and are taught and led by dedicated faculty. McGuire’s hallmark program, New Venture Development, is an engaging year-long academic experience open to University of Arizona students from all disciplines. Students learn the principles of entrepreneurship and innovation through the immersive process of turning their ideas into ventures with the support of multiple specialized mentors in residence. McGuire also offers a senior-level integrative Entrepreneurship and Innovation (EI) capstone course. Through this initiative, approximately 1,000 business students each year develop innovative solutions to industry problems in an applied classroom setting. Additionally, McGuire’s elective courses integrate elements such as micro-business marketplaces and customer/product validation activities. McGuire also provides students with mini-immersive events such as Startup Weekends, Hackathons, and our signature trade show, Innovation Expo. McGuire does not merely develop programs for students who already have a strong interest in entrepreneurship. Rather, McGuire’s approach is to bring entrepreneurship and innovation education to students who may not realize the value of a new set of skills.
Ball State University
The Entrepreneurship Center, Management Departments and The Entrepreneurial Leadership Institute
Muncie, IN
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 13
Tuition: $9,594.00 (in-state); $25,368.00 (out-of-state)
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 17
What Sets us Apart
An aspect that makes us distinctive is E-Day. The end of each student’s last semester is a one-of-a-kind experience. As a senior, you will take on E-day (i.e., Evaluation Day). Students present their venture proposals to a panel of alumni entrepreneurs. The plan represents the culmination of each student team’s venture concept, business model validation, sales forecasting, and networking with industry experts and is complete with financials. The expert panel reviews each venture proposal and financials in advance. Students then present their proposals and discuss feedback. The external panel recommends a final grade based on the proposal, presentation, and overall discussion. This is one of the most intense experiences of any undergraduate program in the nation and sets us apart in preparing students for their future entrepreneurial endeavors.
Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD)
SCADpro
Savannah, GA
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 24
Tuition: $35,190
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 161
What Sets us Apart
Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) has ascended and endured because we’re crystal-clear about our mission, we prioritize innovation, and we realize outcomes. Entrepreneurialism, creativity, and calculated risk are defining characteristics of a SCAD education, and these are the catalysts that launch tomorrow’s business leaders to the pinnacles of their chosen professions. The SCAD School of Business Innovation stands as a beacon for the utility and necessity of design education with entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial emphases.
SCAD fuels data-driven exploration and cross-discipline collaboration for all our majors and degree programs. SCADpro has guided more than 6,500 students through more than 600 corporate engagement experiences, from design challenges to full-fledged partnerships. More than 320 companies have chosen to partner with SCAD, 40 percent of whom are among “The World’s Most Valuable 100 Brands,” according to Forbes. BMW, Coca-Cola, Deloitte, Disney, Google, HP, and JCB. All of these top-tier companies have collaborated on at least ten SCADpro. Chanel, Capital One, Delta, Gulfstream, Home Depot, Microsoft, and more return to SCADpro because they recognize our penchant for research and development and business acumen. Every SCAD degree program is oriented towards business: the business of architecture, the business of entertainment, and the business of art. Entrepreneurship is our DNA.
State University of New York – University at Buffalo
Blackstone Launchpad
Buffalo, NY
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 7
Tuition: $10,782.00 (in-state); $28,702.00 (out-of-state)
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 76
What Sets us Apart
Our approach to undergraduate entrepreneurship education is based on personal development methods and experiential learning models. Our curriculum develops the student’s personal capability set and then teaches them to develop ventures that are desirable, technically feasible, and financially viable. State University of New York–University at Buffalo courses include life planning tools, personal financial management guidance, growth-oriented mindset and habit development, confidence management techniques, and the development of collaboration skillsets. It is important to align the entrepreneurial activities required to successfully launch new ventures with the life plans and goals of the entrepreneur. We demonstrate that venture creation is a means to realize the significant themes of an entrepreneur’s life. This association amplifies the desire for student entrepreneurs to launch a new venture or join an early-stage company.
To develop the confidence of the students, we immerse them in experiential programming, where they practice new capability sets and work in environments of ambiguity, uncertainty, and change. All of our courses and experiential programming encourage the students to develop an action-oriented perspective and to focus on constant progress toward launching their new venture. Our approach helps students develop a growth mindset, a high level of grit, adaptability, the ability to work through vulnerability, an action orientation, and a collaboration-based leadership skillset.
Oklahoma State University
Riata Center for Entrepreneurship, 36 Degrees North (Tulsa, OK), Institute for Global Social Entrepreneurship
Stillwater, OK
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 27
Tuition: $9,244.00 (in-state); $24,764.00 (out-of-state)
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 23
What Sets us Apart
Our classes provide a blend of experiential activities and classroom instruction. Our class in the undergraduate core, which enrolls over 1,000 students per semester, requires students to engage in activities in our entrepreneurship center as part of their grade. For example, most of the students in the class learn how to pitch a business idea. Some of the activities are physical, like indoor rock climbing, which teaches students responsible risk-taking. The most positive comments we receive from students are that our classes aren’t like the other classes they take—they are much more hands-on and experiential. The breadth of the curriculum we offer is also impressive. Several courses are unique to our program, such as Launching a Business: The First 100 Days, Dilemmas and Debates in Entrepreneurship, and The Entrepreneur: Hero or Villain. We also have two student incubators, one in Stillwater (main campus) and one in Tulsa.
Each year, we offer several entrepreneurship-specific study-abroad trips. Destinations have included Israel, New Zealand, and Nicaragua. There is also an internship program and a student club that sponsors entrepreneurship-focused events for students. We involve our students in outward-facing programs and activities—each year we host a Veterans in Entrepreneurship (VEP) program, bringing up to 35 veterans to campus for a week of intensive entrepreneurship training. Our students assist with running the program and benefit by interacting with the veterans.
University of Rochester
University of Rochester Ain Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Rochester, NY
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 57
Tuition: $61,678
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 0
What Sets us Apart
The University of Rochester encourages entrepreneurship across disciplines and provides opportunities for students to collaborate with other innovators, including faculty, staff, and community members with whom they may otherwise not interact. These interactions are facilitated by university-wide initiatives, including the Ain Center for Entrepreneurship and Barbara J. Burger iZone, a centrally located innovation space on campus. Courses and programs are led by academics, industry leaders, and experienced businesspeople, ensuring a well-rounded and current take on entrepreneurship as a field of study and professional practice.
Students are also encouraged to build strong networks among their peers through on-campus organizations. Programs such as e5 and The Grand Challenges Scholars Program emphasize a multidisciplinary approach to entrepreneurial learning and welcome students from any class year in any discipline. Team members then pursue innovative projects and provide input on entrepreneurial programming at UR. This approach is also evident in training programs that utilize a cohort model to provide ongoing feedback in conjunction with instructor lessons and frequent pitches.
UR believes entrepreneurship is a flexible framework that can be applied to any interest area, so courses, events, and co-curricular offerings are open to all undergrads. UR also offers a wide range of unique opportunities to undergraduates, ranging from NSF I-Corps training and grant funding to incubator space.
Gabrielle Bienasz
Entrepreneur Staff
Sachin Dev Duggal
Jyoti Bansal
Steve Huff
Steve Huff
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