Top 50 Best Undergrad Programs for Entrepreneurs in 2022 The Princeton Review and Entrepreneur have again partnered to rank the top programs for studying entrepreneurship as an undergraduate.
By The Princeton Review Staff Edited by Dan Bova
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
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, from unicorns to innovative business models. Students who enroll at these schools will find themselves at the forefront of innovation and development, and often with an interdisciplinary focus that acknowledges the interconnectedness of today's economy. 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.
Entrepreneurship encompasses so much that it's almost 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. 2021 issue of Entrepreneur.)
Photo courtesy of the C. T. Bauer College of Business at the University of Houston1. University of Houston (#1 West)
Cyvia and Melvyn Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship
Houston, TX
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 40
Tuition: $11,569 (in-state); $26,839 (out-of-state)
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 698
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 45% Hispanic or Black, 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:
• committed mentors (we have over 500 who participate with us)
• a staff member to train mentors and manage mentorship programs
• program managers to run extracurriculars
• professional partners such as banks and law firms
• scholarships to enable students to devote themselves to program activities: roughly 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 who work together in a coordinated fashion
• collaborations with other academic units: the Colleges of Engineering and Natural Science and Math, Departments of Computer Science, Industrial Design (College of Architecture), Graphic Arts (School of Art), School of Communications, and the Law Center
Courtesy of Babson College2. Babson College (#1 Northeast)
Arthur M. Blank Center for Entrepreneurship
Babson Park, MA
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 39
Tuition: $55,714
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 256
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. Babson College has the largest number of dedicated entrepreneurial faculty in the world. 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 six entrepreneurial centers where students can pursue their passions for social innovation, startups, 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/theStudio.
Courtesy of Brigham Young University3. Brigham Young University (#2 West)
Rollins Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology
Provo, UT
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 58
Tuition: $5,790 (LDS); $11,580 (Non-LDS)
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 419
What Sets Us Apart
After careful review, we believe Brigham Young University has the finest integrated core for teaching entrepreneurship in the world. The curriculum reflects the latest academic thinking and research in the field and is augmented with real-world experiential learning components and frameworks.
Our curriculum is deeply rooted in lean startup and design thinking principles and practices. In fact, we were one of the first universities to comprehensively adopt this approach in our entrepreneurship education. To this day, many schools around the world continue to teach their students to write static and outdated business plans instead of identifying, testing, and pivoting on key business model hypotheses.
Lean methodologies help entrepreneurs operate more effectively and efficiently within the areas of uncertainty that they face every day as they search for a repeatable and scalable business model and aim to achieve product/market fit. This approach is allowing us to educate smarter entrepreneurs who launch validated ventures that last. Cutting-edge academic offerings combined with deep mentoring is our secret sauce.
We also recently launched a new venture studio program called Blue Forge Studio. While venture studios are popping up these days in the industry, we believe this may be the first program of its kind on a university campus. It is designed to provide startups with access to critical human capital and expertise versus financial capital.
Courtesy of The University of Texas at Austin4. The University of Texas at Austin (#3 West)
The University of Texas at Austin
Entrepreneurship Minor
Austin, TX
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered:
Tuition: $11,448(in-state); $40,032(out-of-state)
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 3700
What Sets Us Apart
The location of the University of Texas is the most distinctive approach to our undergraduate entrepreneurship education. Staff and faculty work closely with government leaders from the capital of Texas, entrepreneurs located downtown, and large companies located in Silicon Hills and at The Domain.
Courtesy of the Marshall School of Business5. University of Southern California (#4 West)
University of Southern California
Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies
Los Angeles, CA
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 24
Tuition: $60,275
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 125
What Sets Us Apart
The University of Southern California is a large institution; however, Greif operates like a startup. We continuously pivot and adapt offerings to meet students' needs, doing our best to find where they are and what works best for them. USC entrepreneurship education is centralized at Greif, a hybrid unit encompassing curricular and co-curricular offerings.
We believe that every student is unique and has different needs, and we partner with other schools to offer seven minors supported by complementary co-curricular programming. Our curriculum caters to each student in their entrepreneurial journey, and we provide entrepreneurial opportunities via a founder pipeline or an entrepreneurial mindset pathway. Bridging theory and practice by utilizing faculty (expert practitioners and academics) who simultaneously have experience in both, students are provided release time to support co-curricular programming.
Every student graduating with an entrepreneurship minor is equipped to either form a venture or use their entrepreneurial mindset in their chosen profession. Either way, Greif produces students who will be more competitive and successful in the California economy (fifth largest in the world) and the global marketplace. Our graduates become part of an extensive, supportive alumni network, including the USC Alumni Entrepreneurship Network with an active membership of 1,700. As well, Marshall has 90,000 living alumni across 101 countries and USC has 437,000 living alumni from 150 countries.
Courtesy of Tecnológico de Monterrey6. Tecnológico de Monterrey (International)
Institute for Entrepreneurship Eugenio Garza Lagüera
Monterrey, Mexico
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 80
Tuition: varies by program
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 1,354
What Sets Us Apart
ENTREPRENEURSHIP IS INGRAINED IN THE UNIVERSITY'S DNA
Entrepreneurial skills are developed in 100% of the 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.
AN UNPARALLELED ECOSYSTEM
Campuses are new-venture generator ecosystems. We are recognized as the leading entrepreneurship university in Latin America, comprising 21 business incubators and 11 technology parks with liaison offices in Silicon Valley and China. Since COVID-19 a virtual alternative has been successfully developed.
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 PARTNERS
We have alliances with top entrepreneurship universities (Babson, BYU, Berkeley) and accelerators (Y-Combinator, 500 Startups). We also have connection programs with China and Israel.
SPONSORING THE BEST GLOBAL RESEARCH
Tec de Monterey sponsored the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM).
INCMTY FESTIVAL
The INCmty festival is the most ambitious entrepreneurial event in Latin America, reaching more than 10,000 people and global leaders.
Courtesy of Washington University in St. Louis7. Washington University in St. Louis (#1 Midwest)
Washington University in St. Louis
Skandalaris Center for Interdisciplinary Innovation and Entrepreneurship
St. Louis, MO
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 61
Tuition: $58,864
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 103
What Sets Us Apart
At Washington University in St. Louis, the most unique and distinctive aspect of our entrepreneurship education is how we combine rigorous academics with an interdisciplinary approach.
The co-curricular opportunities provided by the Skandalaris Center for Interdisciplinary Innovation and Entrepreneurship reflect our high standards. The 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, not leave our institution without interacting with students from other levels, disciplines, and the region. And almost all students will engage in entrepreneurship before leaving WashU. This interdisciplinary, inclusive, holistic approach separates WashU from its peers.
Courtesy of University of Michigan8. University of Michigan (#2 Midwest)
CFE & CSED-College of Engineering; EXCEL-School of Music, Theatre & Dance; DNEP-Ford School of Public Policy; OptiMize-College of Literature, Science, & Arts; School of Education; School of Information; ZLI-Ross School of Business
Ann Arbor, MI
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 127
Tuition: $16,948 (in-state); $54,097 (out-of-state)
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 314
What Sets Us Apart
Our approach provides a rich portfolio of programs, leveraging an unparalleled alumni network and global resources unique to the University of Michigan. These programs are coupled with project-based, experiential learning accessible to students in all 19 schools and colleges. U-M's entrepreneurship offerings include interdisciplinary courses, programs, student organizations, and events that incorporate partnerships with startups and innovative ventures. This approach pushes students to apply their learning outcomes to current real-world problems.
Students have access to internship and mentorship opportunities that are specifically designed to develop an entrepreneurial mindset and create pathways to pursue high-growth potential businesses. For example, TechLab pairs student teams with autonomous vehicle startups to deploy state-of-the-art transportation technology, using the world-leading Mcity test track. We also offer OptiMize's Social Innovation Challenge, with ongoing workshops and mentorship, for nearly 40 student-team projects selected for their impact as change-making ventures. Both Ross School of Business/Zell Entrepreneurs and the College of Engineering/Entrepreneurs Leadership Program offer elite fellowships designed to provide students with mentorship, resources, and funding. U-M gives students the opportunity to apply entrepreneurship in order to carve out creative, stimulating futures that enable economic security and the opportunity to contribute positively to society.
Courtesy of Baylor University9. Baylor University (#5 West)
John F. Baugh Center for Entrepreneurship
Waco, TX
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 33
Tuition: $49,246
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. Baylor began offering formal classes in entrepreneurship in 1978. While Baylor's entrepreneurship capabilities have expanded dramatically over the past 40 years, 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 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 students in a rigorous curriculum centered on the belief that the best way to learn entrepreneurship is to experience it. Hence, all Baylor entrepreneurship courses have a heavy experiential learning component. 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 economic function, but also a social purpose in the sense that entrepreneurs' activities can change the world for the better. Our Social Entrepreneurship track is a concrete manifestation of this approach.
Photo by Stephanie S. Cordle/University of Maryland10. University of Maryland (#2 Northeast)
Academy for Innovation & Entrepreneurship
College Park, MD
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 59
Tuition: $10,779 (in-state); $36,891 (out-of-state)
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 328
What Sets Us Apart
Innovation and Entrepreneurship (I&E) is the highest strategic priority of the president of the University of Maryland. I&E at UMD is not limited to 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 this diversity encourages a richer process and leads to superior outcomes. For that reason, UMD launched the Academy for I&E in 2013, reporting directly to the president and provost with a campus-wide purview and mission to engage all 40,000 students in all 12 colleges and schools in I&E. UMD is now about 50% of the way there through extensive campus-wide collaboration across every school and college and systematic embedding of I&E modules in many required general education and prerequisite courses for certain majors. (Learn more at https://innovation.umd.edu/learn/.)
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. The study and practice of 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 their careers. (Read about the Innovation Gateway @ https://innovate.umd.edu.)
Courtesy of Iowa State University11. Iowa State University (#3 Midwest)
Iowa State University Pappajohn Center for Entrepreneurship
Ames, IA
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 94
Tuition: $9,316 (in-state); $24,504 (out-of-state)
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 233
What Sets Us Apart
As part of President Wintersteen's university-wide entrepreneurship initiative, Iowa State University is starting to fully utilize its $84 million four-story multi-disciplinary Student Innovation Center, built in 2019, offering entrepreneurship courses, experiential programs, maker spaces, learning labs, and several student-run retail businesses. Iowa State's entrepreneurship programs are well-established and deeply integrated across all colleges. Iowa State promotes entrepreneurship through its Center for Entrepreneurship (www.isupjcenter.org/), as well as college initiatives such as Ag Entrepreneurship, Engineering Entrepreneurship, Liberal Arts and Sciences Entrepreneurship Academy, and the Apparel, Events, and Hospitality Entrepreneurship Initiative.
The entrepreneurship program is a central component in the university's ecosystem that starts on campus and expands to the ISU Research Park. The 400-acre Research Park has doubled in size over the past five years and is home to 100 companies. The $12 million Core Facility (www.econdev.iastate.edu) houses the Pappajohn Center for Entrepreneurship, IP Offices, Small Business Development Center, CYstarters student accelerator, NSF I-Corps, Startup Factory, and CyBIZ Lab student consulting in one central location. The Ag Startup Engine raised $2.25 million and encourages students to start or work in startup ventures. Students can access scholarships, funding, mentors, industry connections, and alumni supporters.
Courtesy of Texas Tech University12. Texas Tech University (#6 West)
Center for Family Business and Entrepreneurship and Texas Tech University Innovation Hub at Research Park
Lubbock, TX
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 17
Tuition: $11,852 (in-state); $24,092 (out-of-state)
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 52
What Sets Us Apart
The Innovation Hub at Texas Tech University catalyzes new ideas that impact our world creative collision, the integration of tech transfer, new venture creation, company growth, mentorship, and competitive funding. The Innovation Hub is dedicated to house and provide 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. The Hub provides an environment for diverse collaboration. As an example, two undergraduate students from the Texas Tech business school met during a three-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 multidisciplinary approach to I&E education.
Jay Murdock, Miami University13. Miami University (#4 Midwest)
John W. Altman Institute for Entrepreneurship
Oxford, OH
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 49
Tuition: $15,621 (in-state); $35,448 (out-of-state)
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 385
What Sets Us Apart
Miami University doesn't teach students about entrepreneurship. We teach them how to be entrepreneurs. Central to the design of our undergraduate entrepreneurship program is a belief in the transformative power of learning by doing. Miami University is home to the largest university-led celebration of creativity and innovation in the world, World Creativity and Innovation Week (WCIW); two student-led venture funds, RedHawk Ventures and the Social Impact Fund; a startup accelerator; the RedHawk Venture Pitch Competition, ranked among the top entrepreneurship competitions in the nation; and much more.
Our innovative entrepreneurship programming, which is infused into the fabric of Miami University's undergraduate curriculum, was awarded the NASDAQ Center of Entrepreneurial Excellence Award in 2020 and has earned a "Top 10" ranking among public schools for undergraduate entrepreneurship studies for thirteen consecutive years in The Princeton Review® and Entrepreneur Magazine's annual survey. What sets us apart? We are an interdisciplinary program that engages thousands of students from every major across campus. We embrace a practice-based, immersive model of entrepreneurial learning. And we purposefully integrate our program with entrepreneurial 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.
Courtesy of University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign14. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (#5 Midwest)
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
The Technology Entrepreneurship Center
Urbana, IL
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 111
Tuition: $15,868 (in-state); $31,490 (out-of-state)
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 203
What Sets Us Apart
At the University of Illinois, we form a pipeline from entrepreneurship and innovation discovery courses offered at the dormitory and freshmen experience through product development and ideation to participation in new team-based innovation and development, leading to participation in the new venture competition, proposals for grants for students, and incubation at the research park. Broad-themed, inclusive experiences see the participation of hundreds of student teams each year across a spectrum of experiences and development.
The Midwest is different from other parts of the country with large concentrations of venture capital or in large cities. As a result, the campus is substantially more vibrant than our peers because we provide the resources, opportunities, mentoring, and development all within the university enterprise. The ecosystem is highly collaborative across the university, driven by a campus roundtable on entrepreneurship that meets monthly to make the best use of the resources and find synergies across the campus as a whole. The approach to education prepares students for the opportunities that will be available to them as students and graduates in the Midwest, leading to many more boot-strapped, grant-based companies. While many such ecosystems mirror that of Silicon Valley or other metropolitan area-based ecosystems, ours prepares students who wish to engage in entrepreneurship and understand what it takes to grow into Chicago or other metropolitan areas around the country.
Courtesy of North Carolina State University15. North Carolina State University (#1 Southeast)
North Carolina State University
NC State Entrepreneurship
Raleigh, NC
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 50
Tuition: $9,101 (in-state); $29,220 (out-of-state)
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 70
What Sets Us Apart
Inspired by the university teaching hospital model, North Carolina State University's Entrepreneurship Clinic integrates research, teaching, and real-world experience. It provides a place where faculty, students, and entrepreneurs go to teach, learn, and build the next generation of entrepreneurs.
The NC State Entrepreneurship Clinic serves as a model that integrates disciplines across campus, promoting an entrepreneurial mindset for all students. The Entrepreneurship Clinic engages students in experiential learning, embeds them in the entrepreneurial ecosystem, and provides them the education and tools to execute their own ideas.
Operating this clinical model, NC State Entrepreneurship has created rigorous classes inside the entrepreneurship curriculum, as well as classes in a traditional STEM curriculum, thereby providing students a path to develop an entrepreneurial mindset without an extra burden of additional electives or semesters.
NC State's entrepreneurship curriculum promotes critical thinking that allows students to either develop and launch their own concepts or become valuable team members and leaders in new ventures and larger organizations. In addition to this curriculum focus, NC State has created a research-focused lab for faculty and students to generate practical research for academia and entrepreneurs.
Matthew Modoono/Northeastern University16. Northeastern University (#3 Northeast)
The Northeastern University Center for Entrepreneurship Education
Boston, MA
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 45
Tuition: $55,452
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 531
What Sets Us Apart
Northeastern University is notable in the area of experiential entrepreneurship education. The combination of our more than 350 ventures advancing in the IDEA incubator, the Co-op jobs in startups or VCs, and the project-focused nature of our courses make for a powerful combination.
COURSEWORK
Undergrad courses have four tracks: tech ventures, family business, social enterprise, and corporate innovation. We also have a Semester in Silicon Valley.
ENTREPRENEURSHIP CO-OP
NU is top-ranked in cooperative education. The Sherman Center Co-op provides students the opportunity to focus solely on their own business ventures for a six-month co-op period, and are financially supported via alumni philanthropy during this time.
MENTOR NETWORKS
Our mentor networks have 250 active members working ventures started by Northeastern students and alumni.
MOSAIC
An alliance of 12 student-led organizations complementing the IDEA incubator in which students help ventures with prototyping, Web design, IP, and others. It also has specialty groups in Women's Entrepreneurship, Social Entrepreneurship, and Fintech.
NU's entrepreneurship ecosystem is expanding to new centers of activity in Seattle, San Francisco, Toronto, Charlotte, Portland (ME), and London. The Roux Institute has been funded with over $300 million for deep tech and community venture development. Our interdisciplinary, experiential learning program has been recognized by the Deshpande Foundation and the Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers (Venture Creation Award, 2020.)
Courtesy of Michigan State University17. Michigan State University (#6 Midwest)
Burgess Institute for Entrepreneurship & Innovation
East Lansing, MI
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 46
Tuition: $16,650 (in-state); $41,002 (out-of-state)
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 973
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. It is designed so that students can experience entrepreneurship lightly, such as by attending a lecture series, or by going deep, such as by earning a minor in entrepreneurship and starting a company.
Entrepreneurship at MSU is infused into the university curriculum via 46 courses from 26 different departments. Of particular note is that we have multiple years of data indicating that historically underrepresented students enrolled in the E&I minor tend to have a higher persistence rate to graduation than underrepresented students enrolled at MSU overall. Our entrepreneurship program helps prepare students for dynamic careers in a world that is rapidly evolving and ever-changing and which will demand that they be constantly learning—regardless of whether they start their own business.
Our focus is all about cultivating a student's capabilities, regardless of their academic, social or cultural background, with a varied menu of offerings to suit a diverse student base. This breadth, diversity, and inclusiveness is what makes Michigan State's program unique and distinctive.
Courtesy of Drexel University18. Drexel University (#4 Northeast)
Charles D. Close School of Entrepreneurship
Philadelphia, PA
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 46
Tuition: $56,238
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 41
What Sets Us Apart
Accredited in 2020 by AACSB as the first school of entrepreneurship with that designation, Drexel University's Close School holds the distinction of being the nation's first independent 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, 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 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 and 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 habits of mind and attitude. We guide students in the cultivation of a life approach of innovative thinking, calculated daring, and proactive behaviors.
FSU Photography Services19. Florida State University (#2 Southeast)
Jim Moran College of Entrepreneurship
Tallahassee, FL
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 87
Tuition: $6,517 (in-state); $21,683 (out-of-state)
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 169
What Sets Us Apart
Jim Moran College of Entrepreneurship is a limited-access program. Students apply for entry into the program during their sophomore year. The process utilized to select students involves an application and writing an essay as to why they wish to be a part of our program. Submissions are reviewed by a committee of full-time faculty, resulting in students who are passionate and excited about entrepreneurship. Classes are hands-on and experiential, and all of our juniors must begin a business and keep it running throughout the year. JMC funds all of the student businesses, so the students must be able to justify the funds that they request and pitch their idea in front of the other students. This provides experience for each of the students to be able 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.
Our approach to multidisciplinary collaboration sets JMC apart from programs around the country. JMC serves as a melting pot for entrepreneurs from across 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 because our academic approach is to make sure our curriculum delivers skills and confidence. Another example is FSU's Innovation Hub, supported by JMC, which provides the tools necessary for our student entrepreneurs to build out their products in a Virtual Reality Lab and Hackerspace.
Courtesy of The University of Utah20. The University of Utah (#7 West)
Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute
Salt Lake City, UT
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 28
Tuition: $9,498 (in-state); $30,132 (out-of-state)
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 254
What Sets Us Apart
The University of Utah's approach to entrepreneurship education is unique in its pedagogy, academic strengths, and vast resources available to students. We challenge four basic assumptions about entrepreneurship by approaching differently 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 lean startup and 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 academic strength includes how we merge award-winning entrepreneurship and strategy faculty, creating a blended department, and giving students a broader understanding of value creation, and business formation and development. Our courses focus on helping students develop skills essential to success: market entry, competitive advantage, supply chain management, digital marketing, data analytics, and fundraising.
We add to these qualities unmatched resources for startups available to all students in our five-story Lassonde Studios building. The link between learning and doing is evident in all our courses and activities–from global challenges to business model innovation to entrepreneurship and economic development.
Courtesy of Pennsylvania State University21. Pennsylvania State University (#5 Northeast)
Penn State has 25+ entrepreneurship centers across our 24 campus locations
University Park, PA
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 43
Tuition: $18,450 (in-state); $35,514 (out-of-state)
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 215
What Sets Us Apart
The breadth of undergraduate education offerings is very unique at Pennsylvania State University. With ten tracks in the ENTI minor, 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, 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.
Courtesy of Florida Gulf Coast University22. Florida Gulf Coast University (#3 Southeast)
Institute for Entrepreneurship
Fort Myers, FL
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 56
Tuition: $6,170 (in-state); $21,022 (out-of-state)
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 275
What Sets Us Apart
The Florida Gulf Coast University Daveler & Kauanui School of Entrepreneurship (DKE) houses our degree programs and Co-Curricular Institute for ENT and is completely independent of the Business College. This independence allows the DKE to partner with other departments and faculty from across the university to provide students interdisciplinary degrees and certificates that will help them succeed in the multifaceted world of entrepreneurship.
DKE programs aim to instill an entrepreneurial mindset founded on lean startup methods through practice. DKE students take courses in their field of interest (arts, health, STEM, etc.) along with core ENT courses, which count toward the ENT major. Through our university-wide ENT faculty, students learn to develop value-adding and economically sustainable businesses. Students are taught a strong framework for starting and scaling a business or working in a family business, using current textbooks and curriculum. ENT faculty spend a minimum of five hours per week working with students in our incubator to remain student-centered and current. Our programs and courses match students with mentors from a pool of over 50 community members that are skilled in different areas of ENT. Many community members and foundations provide donations to fund our student businesses through competitions, and in 2021 the DKE won a bronze Edison Award for its Innovative Model of ENT education. And one of our ENT majors won a gold Edison Award for a feature in his social media application.
Courtesy of University of St. Thomas23. University of St. Thomas (#7 Midwest)
Schulze School of Entrepreneurship
St. Paul, MN
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 39
Tuition: $48,609
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 87
What Sets Us Apart
As the first university to offer entrepreneurial studies at both the undergraduate and graduate levels taught by a dedicated entrepreneurship department, the University of St. Thomas has entrepreneurship deeply embedded in its DNA. 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 to use their entrepreneurial skills to create positive change in the world. With our commitment to experiential, real-world, and interdisciplinary learning, our students gain the knowledge, skills, and confidence they need to successfully pursue entrepreneurial opportunities and venture creation and growth.
In addition to our major, the eighth largest at the university, the Schulze School provides an experiential introduction to entrepreneurship and innovation as part of the required core curriculum in every academic program within the business school. Through our Teaching Fellowships, students across the university can access entrepreneurship education through modules taught in an array of classes including biology, music, computer science, engineering, and others. Students deepen their knowledge and skills through year-round workshops, mentoring, subsidized startup internships, a summer accelerator program, and five competitions that give away over $400,000 in scholarship and cash awards each year. Our full-tuition Schulze Innovation Scholarship provides unique developmental opportunities for 40 students each year.
Courtesy of The University of Texas at Dallas24. The University of Texas at Dallas (#8 West)
The University of Texas at Dallas
UTD Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Richardson, TX
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 21
Tuition: $13,992 (in-state); $38,970 (out-of-state)
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 297
What Sets Us Apart
At The University of Texas at Dallas, we value experiential learning. Students in our program are required to complete a practicum. All School of Management undergraduates must complete an internship and 100 hours of nonprofit service, and our program has the only course (ENTP 4340) that satisfies this requirement (students work with local nonprofits on real-world projects). We launched a new course, "Venture Fellows," that places students in venture capital firms for a semester, conducting due diligence with the partners. Our approach to real-world experience gives our students great advantages.
Partnerships
We closely partner with the business community including hosting joint programs.
Outstanding Events
The Institute hosted multiple outstanding "live online" events, like the Fall Women's Summit held during Women's Entrepreneurship Week (with over 300 public attendees), and our Big Idea Competition with Mark Cuban as our keynote speaker.
Ever-Evolving Incubator
The UTD on-campus incubator completed its third expansion with additional lab and office space.
Inclusive Courses
We work with all students across campus — the Mechanical Engineering and Arts and Performance departments now list our business pitch course as a Preferred Elective for their degree. Our programs leverage five different sites across campus, maximizing the opportunity to engage students across all eight schools.
Training and Resources
The Institute provides training and resources beyond the classroom, including funding and space, which enabled four student-formed companies to be acquired this year totaling over $100 million.
LaunchPad Program
UTD is now leading the Blackstone LaunchPad program for all UT System universities, sharing our best practices with others.
Ray Meese at Virginia Tech25. Virginia Tech (#4 Southeast)
Apex Center for Entrepreneurs at Virginia Tech
Blacksburg, VA
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 30
Tuition: $13,750 (in-state); $32,290 (out-of-state)
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 201
What Sets Us Apart
The interdisciplinary approach and culture created around entrepreneurship at Virginia Tech have made for a comprehensive set of programs for students at each stage of the entrepreneurial journey. Our portfolio of programs is interdisciplinary and provides any Hokie, from any major and any year, the opportunity to engage in all phases of the entrepreneurship and innovation process. It also encourages alumni to interface with the next generations of entrepreneurs.
Our approach at VT brings together successful alumni entrepreneurs and investors to work with our students to help advance their ideas and products to the marketplace. We engage our alumni and industry leaders through our Entrepreneur in Residence program, Venture Mentor program, judging competitions, guest speaking, and more.
We believe great companies can start and scale anywhere, aided by the fact that startups in emerging venture communities are often more capital efficient, offer a lower cost of doing business, and attract talent looking for a better quality of life. Our geographic and sector diverse approach means we work with student entrepreneurs from all over the country who chose Virginia Tech because of our fantastic programs (apex.vt.edu/programs).
Courtesy of University of Washington26. University of Washington (#9 West)
Arthur W. Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship
Seattle, WA
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 32
Tuition: $11,745 (in-state); $39,114 (out-of-state)
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 319
What Sets Us Apart
The University of Washington grows entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs. For more than 150 years, we have 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. Courses are offered in the Business School and beyond where students can ideate and create actionable plans. Examples include the multi-section, wholly unique Creating-a-Company course taught by current and former entrepreneurs. Students are required to team up, ideate, operate, and even pitch for funding for their companies. The Engineering Innovation in Health program gives undergraduates a chance to develop solutions and prototypes for unmet health or healthcare needs and learn about medical entrepreneurship at one of the top medical, health, and healthcare institutions in the world.
Undergraduate students in the new Business minor and the popular long-standing Entrepreneurship minor come together from dozens of different majors across campus to put a cross-disciplinary, team-oriented approach into practice. The annual Consumer Product Workshop teaches students how to launch small, but impactful businesses that partner with their communities. Accessibility and equity are a top priority. Undergraduates engage in the Foster Schools Undergraduate Young Executives of Color Program (YEOC), Business Bridge and Brotherhood Initiative program, and Women's Leadership Summit. The experience is as impactful as it is distinctive.
Courtesy of The University of Tampa27. The University of Tampa (#5 Southeast)
John P. Lowth Entrepreneurship Center
Tampa, FL
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 7
Tuition: $30,884
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 27
What Sets Us Apart
In an educational environment, there is a healthy tension between formal knowledge acquisition in a classroom (curriculum) and practical experiences (co-curriculum). This is a system of learning that allows our undergraduate students to immerse themselves in theory and practice. Our highly engaging co-curriculum is mapped to our competency model allowing our program to create a personalized curriculum based on their strengths and areas of learning opportunities. The co-curricula consists of the following:
• speaking series by entrepreneurs
• international, national, and state competitions
• intern programs
• entrepreneur in residence programs
• entrepreneurial shadowing opportunities
• involvement in national conferences
For the entrepreneur in today's complex marketplace, it is no longer acceptable to be able to perform when things are going well. Successful entrepreneurs have to predict their performance requirements far ahead of the current market demands. Doing this requires a level of experience gained through knowledge-based reflective processes then solidified in meaningful activities. While entrepreneurship education at thousands of educational institutions has been attempting to produce companies, our focus has been on creating and building talent that when mixed into an entrepreneurial ecosystem establish leaders, innovators, and educators. You see, our programs are born out of research and are continuously refined through practice.
Courtesy of University of Iowa28. University of Iowa (#8 Midwest)
John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center (Iowa JPEC)
Iowa City, IA
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 33
Tuition: $9,606 (in-state); $31,569 (out-of-state)
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 352
What Sets Us Apart
The University of Iowa believes all undergraduate students should have access to entrepreneurship and innovation curriculum. 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 their 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 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 and 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.
Courtesy of Ball State University29. Ball State University (#9 Midwest)
The Entrepreneurship Center, Miller College of Business
Muncie, IN
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 19
Tuition: $9,594 (in-state); $25,368 (out-of-state)
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 157
What Sets Us Apart
At Ball State University, "E-Day" makes us distinctive. At the end of each student's last semester is a "one of a kind" experience. As a senior, you will take on Evaluation Day. Students present venture proposals (their plans) to a panel of alumni entrepreneurs. The plan represents the culmination of each student team's venture concept, business model validation, sales forecasting, networking with industry experts, and it is complete with financials.
The expert panel reviews each venture proposal and financials in advance. Students then present their proposals and discuss feedback. Based on the proposal, presentation, and overall discussion, the external panel recommends a final grade. 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.
A second aspect that makes us unique is the high degree of mentors (non-professors) that engage with our students throughout the entrepreneurship program. On average each senior engages with at least eight mentors (per our required programming), each of whom has substantial entrepreneurial experience or industry expertise related to the student's venture proposal or goals. Many of these mentors provide funding for venture development to students, help build their businesses, or hire our graduates. Creating these connections—between students and startup ecosystem leaders—is a distinctive effort of our program.
Courtesy of Belmont University30. Belmont University (#6 Southeast)
Belmont University Thomas F. Cone Sr. Center for Entrepreneurship
Nashville, TN
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 29
Tuition: $32,820
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 196
What Sets Us Apart
Belmont University's Massey College of Business provides ETP students with a comprehensive ecosystem that creates hands-on, experiential learning opportunities, and real-time entrepreneurial activities through the Hatchery and Accelerator, student-run businesses, clinics, speakers, mentorship, and advising.
Our faculty are actively engaged in the Nashville community and have fostered a network of successful entrepreneurs who mentor our students. Students are connected to the resources in the city through partnerships, such as the Nashville EC, Social Enterprise Alliance, and Nashville Tech Council. The remarkable rate of sustainability of our first-time entrepreneurs indicates that our program is preparing students to start and sustain new businesses. Our on-campus student-run businesses provide a unique real-life experience for students to actively run a small business before graduating.
The Hatchery and Accelerator provide on-campus support to our student entrepreneurs. The spaces are designed to enhance ideation and provide basic business needs for developing a business plan; we offer guidance through clinics, workshops, and Entrepreneurs-in-Residence. Students compete to join the Accelerator after launching a company. Weekly meetings, private workspace, mentorship, and one-on-one sessions with experts provide a unique opportunity to grow their ventures.
Whether a student is starting with an idea or actively growing their business, we have the tools to guide them to success.
Courtesy of Syracuse University31. Syracuse University (#6 Northeast)
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: 140
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. While the numbers provided above represent the Whitman School's offerings as part of the Entrepreneurship and Emerging Enterprises program, the cross-campus numbers are greater. 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 SU chancellor has set aside a $100 million investment in scholarships, and entrepreneurship is central to that initiative. We also launched a centralized incubator and resource center (Blackstone Launchpad) to provide additional help across campus and we have hired four new entrepreneurship faculty in the past four years.
We work with thousands of military veterans each year, helping to manage their transition to civilian life. We've worked with more than 120,000 military veterans 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 ten universities around the United States and has inspired similar programs in other countries. A large number of our graduate students are military veterans.
Courtesy of Loyola Marymount University32. Loyola Marymount University (#10 West)
Fred Kiesner Center for Entrepreneurship
Los Angeles, CA
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 20
Tuition: $52,577
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 55
What Sets Us Apart
Commitment to Students
At Loyola Marymount University, we care about each individual student as a whole person: their mental and physical health, spiritual growth, and development as entrepreneurial leaders. We form a close family-like atmosphere between students, alumni, and faculty.
Commitment to Our Mission
We are committed to instilling the entrepreneurial spirit in all our students—developing leaders with moral courage and creative confidence—to help them become the business leaders and role models of tomorrow.
Focus on Entrepreneurial Mindset
We are experts in strengthening our students' entrepreneurial mindset to help them become more proactive, innovative, and resilient in all aspects of their lives.
Real-Life Experiences
Our students build real businesses and work on real-life projects with businesses. Most of our instructors have extensive business/entrepreneurial experience.
Freshmen Entrepreneurs
Our students are involved in Entrepreneurship from their freshmen year through official courses and award-winning co-curricular programs to develop their talent over four years!
Startups and Beyond
Our students are able to apply entrepreneurial capacities in a variety of environments including in startups, large organizations, and social enterprises.
Interdisciplinary
At Loyola Marymount University, the various departments work together to create professional development opportunities for our students. We have clubs, courses, and events that bring students together from various majors.
Courtesy of The University of Oklahoma33. The University of Oklahoma (#11 West)
Tom Love Center for Entrepreneurship
Norman, OK
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 36
Tuition: $9,063 (in-state); $24,444 (out-of-state)
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 45
What Sets Us Apart
The undergraduate entrepreneurship program at The University of Oklahoma is one of the few in the nation that explicitly links entrepreneurship and economic development. Along with educational initiatives that promote and support entrepreneurial launch, 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, creative problem solving, and a can-do spirit and bias for action aimed at economic development through entrepreneurship.
The Tom Love Center for Entrepreneurship, the Irani Center for the Creation of Economic Wealth, and the Tom Love Innovation Hub support 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, build prototypes, iterate, and pivot as much as may be needed 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.
Courtesy of New Jersey Institute of Technology34. New Jersey Institute of Technology (#7 Northeast)
New Jersey Institute of Technology
Martin Tuchman School of Management
Newark, NJ
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 22
Tuition: $17,674 (in-state); $33,386 (out-of-state)
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 10
What Sets Us Apart
The 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 a new venture setting and in the management of innovation in a corporate setting. 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, including 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.
Courtesy of DePaul University35. DePaul University (#10 Midwest)
Coleman Entrepreneurship Center
Chicago, IL
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 37
Tuition: $41,202
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 112
What Sets Us Apart
DePaul University was one of the earliest founders of entrepreneurship education in the U.S. with the first entrepreneurship course offered in 1971. We now offer a combined bachelor's and master's degree in entrepreneurship (4+1) and recently launched our BS major in entrepreneurship and minors in entrepreneurship for business students and 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, 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 the strength of purpose beyond just making money. Over 40 student/alumni teams applied and the final 8 teams presented to over 300 people virtually. DePaul also hosts University Pitch Madness each summer with ten Midwest universities competing.
Courtesy of Saint Louis University36. Saint Louis University (#11 Midwest)
Chaifetz Center for Entrepreneurship
St. Louis, MO
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 110
Tuition: $47,124
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 69
What Sets Us Apart
Keeping with the Jesuit roots ("Men and women for and with others") of Saint Louis University and its placement as a highly ranked school for service values, we teach how to create social and nonprofit ventures as well as for-profit ones, how to help others do this, and how to pursue entrepreneurship for yourself.
To make entrepreneurship education available to undergraduate 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 not only in business but also in 17 other departments how to identify opportunities and launch startups.
Our network of nearly 100 faculty across the campus collaborates to connect students to an extensive set of resources to help them achieve their goals and dreams. This is done both on-campus (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 ten startup cities in the U.S.—with all that implies). We connect students nationally through programs like our MedLaunch Medical Accelerator, the SXSW Student Startup Madness, and our own nationally recognized Service Leadership Program to help them access opportunities locally and nationally.
Courtesy of Texas Christian University | Photo by Leo Wesson37. Texas Christian University (#12 West)
TCU Neeley Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Fort Worth, TX
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 38
Tuition: $51,660
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 77
What Sets Us Apart
At Texas Christian University, there are three distinctive features of our program. The first is our effort to ensure that all students are led on a personal journey to identify, expand, and integrate their core identity into the creation and appropriation of economic and societal value, whether that be launching their own companies, working as agents of innovation in established firms, or engaging in social enterprises. By helping our students to identify and leverage their core identity, we are able to place them on a path toward creating a life of meaning.
The second is our focus on encouraging entrepreneurship through the university. Three years ago, we transitioned our entrepreneurship center into a campus-wide institute for entrepreneurship and innovation—with the intention of supporting students from all corners of the university. Further, we launched a new minor in entrepreneurship and innovation for non-business students. These students take courses side-by-side in the same classes as entrepreneurship and innovation majors in our business school.
The third is the teacher-scholar model that guides the intellectual foundation of our work. We frequently rank among the leading entrepreneurship groups in the world for both our academic programs and research output. Our faculty leverage evidence from their research expertise along with practical knowledge that many of them possess from prior startup experiences to provide fresh and uniquely informed insights to our students.
Evan Krape/University of Delaware38. University of Delaware (#8 Northeast)
Horn Entrepreneurship Venture Development Center
Newark, DE
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 35
Tuition: $14,280 (in-state); $35,710 (out-of-state)
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 150
What Sets Us Apart
Horn Entrepreneurship (Horn) was founded in 2012 with the central aim of empowering all University of Delaware students through entrepreneurship education. Horn's degree programs, courses, and co-curricular offerings draw enrollment/participation from over 1,500 students representing more than 100 majors and all seven colleges. Our distinctive approach involves combining the following elements:
(1) Personalized experience. Students develop personal working relationships with Horn faculty and staff who aim to do everything possible to support their pursuits. They also make connections with the many business leaders, alumni, and community members who serve as speakers, mentors, instructors, and judges in our courses and co-curricular programs.
(2) Dynamic, holistic curriculum. Horn courses utilize experiential learning and incorporate evidence-based best practices to help students develop their skillsets, entrepreneurial capacities, and connections.
(3) Robust enrichment and venture support. Students benefit from extensive enrichment programming, including professional development and internship opportunities. Horn also provides mentorship, resources, and funding to support students' social and business ventures.
(4) Lifelong support. Entrepreneurship students and alumni are members of a lifelong community of innovators and entrepreneurs. Horn provides educational opportunities, mentorship, and venture support prior to matriculation to the University of Delaware and beyond graduation.
Courtesy of Purdue University39. Purdue University (#12 Midwest)
Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship
West Lafayette, IN
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 67
Tuition: $9,992 (in-state); $28,794 (out-of-state)
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 95
What Sets Us Apart
Started in 2005, Purdue University's Certificate in Entrepreneurship and Innovation is one of the largest, multidisciplinary entrepreneurship programs in the country. It's the primary vehicle for delivering entrepreneurship education throughout the campus. Distinctive features include:
- small class sizes, despite its size and scale
- project-based focus with a multidisciplinary student team
- 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
- growth driven by entrepreneurship education evaluation, research, and scholarship (Dr. Nathalie Duval-Couetil, is a leading scholar in the field, who 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 and she has published on topics such as entrepreneurship education program assessment, STEM and entrepreneurship, gender and entrepreneurship, technology commercialization, and student IP policy)
- one of the first programs administered centrally by an Office of the Provost
- provides access to award-winning business incubation and startup activities of Purdue Research Foundation and Purdue Research Park (top ten in patents, licensing, and startups)
Courtesy of University of Kansas40. University of Kansas (#13 Midwest)
KU Center for Entrepreneurship
Lawrence, KS
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 24
Tuition: $11,166 (in-state); $28,034 (out-of-state)
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 77
What Sets Us Apart
The University of Kansas teaches leading-edge entrepreneurial concepts such as lean startups. Each student in each class must produce a commercialization plan for their own created new venture, enabling them to launch their businesses post-graduation. University of Kansas students who lack curriculum flexibility can participate in the Startup School @KU evening seminar series provided by the Center and successful KU alums to explore and develop their own new ventures without conflicting with their student schedule.
All KU students can participate in The Catalyst, KU's student new-business incubator with myriad attendant resources. Advanced entrepreneurship students can receive paid entrepreneurial internships to apply their in-class learning and can assume startup ownership post-graduation.
Courtesy of Texas A&M University - College Station41. Texas A&M University - College Station (#13 West)
Texas A&M University - College Station
McFerrin Center for Entrepreneurship
College Station, TX
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 33
Tuition: $13,178 (in-state); $40,087 (out-of-state)
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 32
What Sets Us Apart
Our approach to undergraduate entrepreneurship education at Texas A&M University—College Station is unique in that it focuses on real-world experiential opportunities. All of our programs are extracurricular so we minimize traditional instruction and instead use a flipped classroom to educate students on business principles like the lean startup. 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 assessment 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 given 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 entrepreneurial students on campus, ranging from those who want to use their skills to help others to those who are already running a business or participating in other college or topically-focused entrepreneurship programs.
Courtesy of Florida International University42. Florida International University (#7 Southeast)
Florida International University
StartUP FIU, Eugenio Pino and Family Global Entrepreneurship Center, Small Business Development Center at FIU, and FIU CARTA Ratcliffe Art + Design Incubator
North Miami, FL
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 47
Tuition: $6,566 (in-state); $18,964 (out-of-state)
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 36
What Sets Us Apart
Florida International University's undergraduate entrepreneurship education spans five schools and colleges. It is distinguished by its interdisciplinary nature and its 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 one-credit courses, usually one or two weekends, each one with a unique or creative focus. One such POD, The David Grutman Experience, is taught by one of today's hospitality icons at his unique properties, such as Komodo, Swan, and LIV, with guest speakers such as David Beckham and Pharrell Williams. Students get to develop a concept plan for a restaurant or club and present it to the team for professional review and feedback.
The College of Business and College of Engineering and Computing approaches entrepreneurship education through an interdisciplinary lens. For example, the entrepreneurship certificate at the College of Business is available to all students, regardless of major or program, 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.
Courtesy of Boston University43. Boston University (#9 Northeast)
Innovate@BU
Brookline, MA
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 29
Tuition: $58,072
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 18
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 newly created Innovate and Entrepreneurship (I&E) minor. The I&E minor will enable 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.
I&E 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 40 courses, allowing students to study the "flavor" of entrepreneurship that suits their interests.
The I&E minor, although only two years old, is growing rapidly and is already in the top ten of the most popular minors on campus.
Courtesy of University of Connecticut44. University of Connecticut (#10 Northeast)
Peter J. Werth Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Storrs, CT
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 26
Tuition: $17,226 (in-state); $39,894 (out-of-state)
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 34
What Sets Us Apart
Entrepreneurial access to entrepreneurial classes, programs, and opportunities defines the University of Connecticut's approach to undergraduate entrepreneurship. An inclusive approach to creating opportunities beyond the standard major, internship, and job paradigm, allows UConn students to find themselves through entrepreneurship. In doing so, they develop a greater range of skills and competencies to go along with their classroom knowledge.
From the on-ramps to entrepreneurship created through our focus on entrepreneurial access, we are now exploring programs that allow for student and entrepreneurial transformation. In the last year, we have experienced significant growth through the creation of a student venture fund focused on edtech, insurtech, and sustainability investments. We also developed the prototype for an entrepreneurial co-op program in which we teach students to become product managers while working on construction technology products in our new Startup Studio. At UConn, we see this as far more than a startup ecosystem and look toward this as a talent development program for the workforce of the 21st century.
Courtesy of University of Dayton45. University of Dayton (#14 Midwest)
L. William Crotty Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership
Dayton, OH
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 35
Tuition: $44,890
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 102
What Sets Us Apart
Entrepreneurship for the common good that is rooted in the community and committed to social justice, where students don't just watch from the sidelines—they are immersed in the process. University of Dayton students leverage the entrepreneurial mindset to create profitable ventures and take on initiatives that will have a positive impact on the community. They provide loans and support to entrepreneurs in one of the most impoverished communities in Nairobi, Kenya, they leverage their business skills to support nonprofit organizations and community initiatives through business consulting, and they serve underrepresented entrepreneurs with funding, mentoring, and community connections.
This university-wide commitment to leveraging entrepreneurship for the common good can be seen in the university's ten-year, $12 million investment to create a hub for the region's startup ecosystem, where entrepreneurs, investors, collaborators, and students work together and support each other to move ideas forward. This commitment is also evident in the creation of the Greater West Dayton Incubator, a university-funded community initiative to support women and entrepreneurs of color through a neighborhood space that provides a pathway into a broader network of resources to support their startups and ongoing ventures. At UD we don't just teach students how to create profitable ventures, we teach them how to leverage those skills to help build community and create positive change where their support is needed most.
Courtesy of East Carolina University46. East Carolina University (#8 Southeast)
Miller School of Entrepreneurship
Greenville, NC
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 22
Tuition: $7,239 (in-state); $23,516 (out-of-state)
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 99
What Sets Us Apart
The Miller School at East Carolina University is committed to an experiential-based curriculum and multidisciplinary co-curricular activities. Multiple pathways are available in our BS degree and we serve students interested in business startup, small and family business development, and corporate entrepreneurship. We focus on building an entrepreneurial mindset and skillset through highly engaging learning activities.
In the 2020-2021 academic year we worked with students from 33 distinct majors in our academic programs and competitions, including the Pirate Entrepreneurship Challenge. This signature competition has included over 300 teams and almost 900 students from 50 different majors across the campus since starting in 2018 and has provided more than $300,000 in cash and in-kind prizes.
We have various programs that work directly with regional businesses, and in 2020-2021, our students worked with 30 clients and accumulated approximately 22,400 fieldwork hours. Over the past four years, our students have completed 156 consulting projects and approximately 71,000 hours of fieldwork. We have linked courses with other academic units 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.
Courtesy of Florida Atlantic University47. Florida Atlantic University (#9 Southeast)
Adams Center for Entrepreneurship
Boca Raton, FL
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 12
Tuition: $5,986 (in-state); $21,543 (out-of-state)
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 97
What Sets Us Apart
Our distinctive approach to entrepreneurship education consists of initial primary research (the Florida Atlantic University Wave program), a dozen entrepreneurship courses, and educational and financial resources and support provided by the Adams Center for Entrepreneurship. The Center provides a boot camp, professional mentorship, global entrepreneurship week activities, networking organizations, pitch competition, veterans' entrepreneurship program, business plan competition, and support for numerous external competitions.
Our graduates grow their ventures through FAU's Accelerator (Tech Runway), and receive full operational support from FAU Research Park. Together, these university-wide programs provide comprehensive support to all undergraduate entrepreneurs at FAU whether they are in business, engineering, computer science, the Honors College, physical science, liberal arts, education, or other programs. In addition, entrepreneurship students work with local startups on consulting projects and are invited to take part in our weekly Boca Raton Shrimp Tank podcast interviews with South Florida entrepreneurs.
Courtesy of Kettering University48. Kettering University (#15 Midwest)
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
1. Kettering University requires that students engage in both entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial coursework in order to understand the different pathways open to students of innovation and entrepreneurship, unlike many programs that focus only on new venture creation.
2. Our students by default have the opportunity to see real businesses at work as part of our co-op requirement and have a context for their entrepreneurial studies that most students at other institutions lack.
3. The interdisciplinary approach to entrepreneurship education in which students take courses in accounting-finance, management, marketing/market research, statistics, international business, operations and supply chain management, project management, business analytics, leadership, and strategy, along with courses focused on entrepreneurship.
4. The extended scope of the program to take courses with STEM students.
5. A Kettering Student's integrated experiential learning opportunity to apply their knowledge and understanding of all their academics and hands-on co-op experiences.
6. The built-in project management experience in the curriculum.
7. The required one-year-long senior thesis requirement may be focused on areas such as new product development, process improvement, research, and new business planning.
8. The Entrepreneurship/Business Plan Thesis option entails an idea brought forth by the student to prepare a formalized business plan with the help of a faculty advisor along with an SBDC consultant.
Courtesy of Temple University49. Temple University (#11 Northeast)
Innovation and Entrepreneurship Institute
Philadelphia, PA
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 32
Tuition: $19,749 (in-state); $34,049 (out-of-state)
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 37
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 the entrepreneurial mindset to recognize opportunities and develop differentiated, innovation-based, purpose-focused, value-creating business models. Here, students will learn practical, next-generation management skills and behaviors that help students launch or 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 integrated entrepreneurial content throughout TU GenEd courses and collaborate with multiple schools and colleges to incorporate entrepreneurial content into courses and degrees throughout the university.
Temple University Entrepreneurship Academy is 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.
Courtesy of Rowan University50. Rowan University (#12 Northeast)
Rowan Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Glassboro, NJ
Number of Entrepreneurship Courses Offered: 14
Tuition: $12,939 (in-state); $21,971 (out-of-state)
Companies Started by Graduates Over the Last 5 Years: 17
What Sets Us Apart
We at Rowan University remove barriers and provide access to students from all disciplines. While many of our entrepreneurship courses are housed in the College of Business, those courses are open to students from all majors. The only prerequisites we put on our entrepreneurship courses is a junior-standing for some of them. 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 in our classrooms.
