Princeton Review Identifies Top 25 Campuses for Entrepreneurship

The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill received top honors as the most entrepreneurial campus in a Princeton Review survey of 357 schools and universities across the country. Moving UNC-Chapel Hill to the top of the list were such things as offering entrepreneurship as a major for its undergraduate business degree and several programs to help students launch their own careers as entrepreneurs.

With the exception of the Pacific Northwest, every section of the country is well represented among the remaining top 24 schools, in rank order: 2.) University of Notre Dame; 3.) Louisiana State University and A&M College; 4.) Northeastern University; 5.) Indiana University-Bloomington; 6.) Carnegie Mellon University; 7.) Syracuse University; 8.) University of Arizona; 9.) University of Iowa; 10.) University of New Hampshire; 11.) Xavier University; 12.) University of San Francisco; 13.) University of New Mexico; 14.) University of North Dakota; 15.) University of Dayton; 16.) Stanford University; 17.) Georgia Institute of Technology; 18.) Stevens Institute of Technology; 19.) Loyola Marymount University; 20.) Temple University; 21.) University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; 22.) University of Missouri-Rolla; 23.) Drexel University; 24.) Bradley University; and 25.) Boston University.

The full criteria used by the Princeton Review includes:

• Does the school offer a specific four-year degree in entrepreneurship or entrepreneurial studies, or a concentration in entrepreneurship within the framework of an undergraduate business degree?
• Does the school have any alumni who are prominent entrepreneurs?
• Are there any prominent entrepreneurs on the school's undergraduate teaching faculty?
• Does the school have any officially recognized clubs or organizations specifically for entrepreneurial students?
• Does the school have any officially supported mentorship programs for entrepreneurial students?
• Are there any school-sponsored programs specifically designed to help students launch businesses?
• Does the school participate in any experiential learning programs for entrepreneurs, like internships or work-study?
• Does the school have any official research grant relationships with corporations or government agencies?
• Does the school rank any of three disciplines identified as hotbeds for innovation and entrepreneurship--Engineering, Biological and Biomedical Science or Physical Science-- among its most popular majors?
• How many of the school's alumni rank on The Forbes 400 list of richest Americans?

While any ranking based on subjective review criteria that also uses superlatives like "Most" or "Best" are likely to draw critics, the examples the Princeton Review uses for why it considered these particular 25 campuses as most entrepreneurial may spark new initiatives at other schools across the country.

More information, including a web video "Universities for the Entrepreneurially Minded," is available at: http://www.forbes.com/entrepreneur