Top 10 Undergraduate Programs 2009

Profound shifts in the economy are expected to lead even higher numbers of students into both graduate and undergrad programs in entrepreneurship over the coming year, according to Robert Franek, The Princeton Review’s senior vice president and publisher. The top 10 undergrad programs in The Princeton Review’s ranking have fulfilled three main criteria exceptionally well: teaching business fundamentals in the classroom, staffing their departments with successful entrepreneurs and providing experiential or entrepreneurial opportunities outside of the classroom. Here is the class of 2009.

Wellesley, MA
Enrolled students: 1,559
babson.edu/eship 

Student-led entrepreneurial clubs and activities encourage networking and starting business partnerships.  Full-time MBA students learn how to take an entrepreneurial venture from conception to growing it domestically to globally.

Houston
Enrolled students: 1,938
bauer.uh.edu/wce

Offers a major in entrepreneurship, a global business minor and a certificate in corporate entrepreneurship.  The student application process for the entrepreneurship  program begins at the start of students’ junior year, when 35 students are chosen.

Tucson, AZ
Enrolled students: 100
entrepreneurship.arizona.edu

Entrepreneurship classes focus on analysis, decision making and business planning in the fields of arts and humanities, business, engineering, extension, outreach and distance learning, law, medicine and health sciences, science and social sciences.  The one-year program is open to seniors.

Waco, TX
Enrolled students: 250
baylor.edu/business/management

Encourages students to launch startups while still in school.  Offers tracks in family business, technology entrepreneurship, franchising and social entrepreneurship.  Entrepreneurship majors are encouraged to develop a second major. 

Philadelphia
Enrolled students: 259
fox.temple.edu/iei

The Innovation and Entrepreneurship Institute, or IEI, encourages entrepreneurship throughout all 17 colleges and schools on campus, including the arts, life sciences, science and technology and engineering. Provides an Innovation Lab that assists student entrepreneurs with business plan development.
 

Philadelphia
Enrolled students: 278
lebow.drexel.edu/Centers/Baiada/index.php

The center offers mentorship programs, student clubs and a proprietary Web community that pairs MBA students with entrepreneurs who submit specific problems with their technology-related business ventures.

Dayton, OH
Enrolled students: 300
ent.udayton.edu

All entrepreneurship majors participate in a three-year lock-step program in which students take their required entrepreneurship courses together as a class, fostering collaboration and a network of entrepreneurs. 

Chicago
Enrolled students: 151
condor.depaul.edu/~entrepre

Offers courses in family business, global entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship in the arts, personal selling, entrepreneurship law, advertising and promotion and electronic commerce. 

New York
Enrolled students: 443
zicklin.baruch.cuny.edu/faculty/management/programs/undergraduate/entrepreneurship 

The program offers not-for-credit courses for entrepreneurs. Faculty and students from Baruch’s Zicklin School of Business, Baruch’s SBDC Business Advisors, alumni and volunteers are brought together to support the entrepreneurial endeavors of startups and established businesses and the college’s constituents. 

Los Angeles
Enrolled students: 795
marshall.usc.edu/entrepreneur

Offers a major in entrepreneurship with courses that focus on new enterprise and growing a new business. Students must seek out an entrepreneur they do not know in an industry they’re interested in and develop a mentorship relationship.