All Of The Data Behind P&Q’s 2025 Top MBA Programs For Entrepreneurship

Poets&Quants’ entrepreneurship ranking for MBA programs is essentially a reporting exercise: We gather data from as many schools as possible and try to present it in an easy-to-digest way for our readers. Part of that process includes sharing the data used to calculate actual rankings and the weights we use for each dataset.

While no ranking is perfect, we believe transparency gives credibility while providing valuable information to schools and school seekers alike.

This year’s Best MBA Programs for Entrepreneurship includes 16 data points. In the pages to follow, you’ll see all the data we used to calculate the rankings, the weights assigned to each dataset, and a brief explanation of why the data point was included. We truly view rankings as a jumping-off point into a research deep dive. So dive into the data as you examine and consider the different business schools and MBA programs.

You can also see how schools fared by category in last year’s entrepreneurship ranking in this data dump. And return to the full ranking of the Top MBA Programs For Entrepreneurship in 2025 here.

STARTUPS LAUNCHED (15%)

Weighted at 15%, this is the average percentage of full-time MBAs to report launching a business within three months of graduation over the last five years: The Classes of 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023.

Clemson University’s Wilbur O. and Ann Powers College of Business reported the highest 5-year startup average for the second straight year at 29.6%. That’s 1.6% lower than the 31.2% average it reported last year, its first year in this ranking.

Clemson is followed by Washington University in St. Louis’s Olin Business School at 22.8% and University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business at 22%.

This is obviously one of the most crucial data points to consider in an entrepreneurship-related ranking as it’s the most pertinent data point to launching a business while earning an MBA.

ELECTIVE COURSES (15%)

Also weighted at 15% is the percentage of elective courses focused solely on entrepreneurship or innovation offered to MBAs during the 2023-2024 academic year.
Ranking newcomer EDHEC Business School in France led this category with 55% of its elective MBA courses being 100% entrepreneurial focused.

Offering plenty of entrepreneurship-focused courses for MBAs is one of the most basic ways to foster an entrepreneurial environment, which is why this also gets the highest weight given to a data point.

EDHEC was followed by University of Virginia’ s Darden School of Business at 43.5% of elective courses. Another ranking newcomer, University of Oregon’s Lundquist College of Business, reported the third highest percentage at 42%.

ESMT Berlin, which topped this category last year, fell to seventh, reporting 33% of its electives being devoted to innovation and entrepreneurship.