The 25 Most Entrepreneurial Campuses

Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard, Ray Kroc sold milkshake machines, and Henry Ford repaired steam engines. None of these legendary entrepreneurs took the standard path to getting ahead in business–they had original ideas, a do-it-yourself spirit, and the desire to succeed.

David M. Ewalt

http://www.forbes.com/lists/2004/10/21/cx_de_102104conncampentreprefeat.html

Unfortunately, those qualities are hard to teach. Most schools instruct business students in finance, accounting, law, and they often provide a strong alumni network. But it’s much harder to train students to go out and start the next Amazon.com , Cisco Systems , or eBay .

To address that problem, a growing number of colleges and universities are tailoring their undergraduate business curricula to encourage young entrepreneurs, providing the training and guidance they need to start their own businesses. The Princeton Review has examined and critiqued these emerging programs, and the result is its new list of America’s Most Entrepreneurial Colleges javascript:popit(‘/lists/2004/10/18/cx_de_1021entrepcampslide.html’,800,600);
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The emphasis in these programs is on the entrepreneurial spirit, and students are encouraged to follow their own path. Mentorships, internships, and experiential learning are emphasized. Students are encouraged to major in other disciplines, like biomedical science, where tomorrow’s great innovations might be born. And prominent entrepreneurs serve on the staff, not just ivory-tower academics, helping students get a feel for what the challenges of the business world are really like.

This year’s winner, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, already offers an undergraduate business degree with a concentration in entrepreneurship, and next fall will allow students in its College of Arts and Sciences to minor in entrepreneurship. The school recently used a $3.5 million grant from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation to create the Carolina Entrepreneurial Initiative, a campus-wide program that focuses on creating entrepreneurs. Students are encouraged to participate in a variety of extracurricular activities, including The Carolina Entrepreneurship Club and Students in Free Enterprise, and to exploit school-sponsored programs like The Carolina Launch Program, designed to guide students through the process of starting up their own venture. The school also partners with a number of prominent companies, including Ernst & Young, which hosts the Master Panel of Entrepreneurs, during which award-winning entrepreneurs share their stories with students.

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The Most Connected Campuses
Edited By David Ewalt
These schools have the best technological capabilities. http://www.forbes.com/lists/2004/10/20/04conncampland.html

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To determine the country’s Most Entrepreneurial Campuses, The Princeton Review solicited data from 357 top colleges and universities around the country, asking them to identify everything from courses of study to prominent alumni. Editors from the Review examined their surveys and awarded points for each question based on its perceived importance to a good entrepreneurial education.

Click here for the complete methodology. http://www.forbes.com/lists/2004/10/21/cx_de_1021_04conncampentrepremeth.html