The Methodology Behind P&Q’s Top MBA Programs For Entrepreneurship In 2025

Just as no two MBA programs are exactly alike, it stands to reason that MBA programs across the world have their own unique approach to entrepreneurship. For some, it’s more of an elective endeavor; for others, it’s infused into the core of the MBA itself.

It also stands to reason that there is simply no perfect way to measure how one MBA program stacks against another when it comes to their entrepreneurial offerings. There’s a myriad of data points, strengths, available resources, and philosophies.

After first developing our MBA entrepreneurship ranking in 2020, Poets&Quants spent years soliciting and using feedback from business schools to develop the methodology we use today.

MBA ENTREPRENEURSHIP MEASURED IN 16 DATA POINTS

P&Q made one significant change to its methodology for last year’s ranking: In previous years, we ranked about 10 schools that did not submit data directly to us. We collected what we could from public websites and other reporting, but these schools were given no points where no reliable data could be found. That led to rankings where entrepreneurship powerhouses like Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business ranked in the teens and Harvard Business School struggled to crack the top 10. So we decided not to rank those schools.

That is why you won’t find the large, prestige programs in the M7 who have lots of entrepreneurship resources and a lot of students in our ranking. Each was invited, but they declined to fill our data survey.

This year, 31 schools submitted data for our ranking – three more than last year. 2025’s result also includes four brand new schools: EDHEC Business School and INSEAD in France, University of Oregon (Lundquist), and Johnson Cornell Tech MBA.

Our methodology uses 16 data points collected via our school survey. Weights range from 15% to 2.5%.

We believe these data points create a well-rounded methodology and ranking that measures many parts of the entrepreneurial experience. Like previous years, the two heaviest-weighted categories are the average percentage of MBAs launching businesses during B-school or immediately after, and the percentage of MBA elective courses that are 100% focused on entrepreneurship and/or innovation.

Some of the other higher-weighted categories include data looking at the number of members of the school’s main entrepreneurship club; incubator or accelerator space available to MBAs; entrepreneurs in residence available to MBAs; and startup award money available to MBAs.

We use ratios and percentages for all metrics used in the methodology. We do this to get a sense of what resources are like for individual students.

2025’s METHODOLOGY

Here is how we evaluated the 31 MBA programs that submitted data for our 2025 ranking of the Best MBA Programs For Entrepreneurship. (Unless otherwise specified, the academic year evaluated is 2023-2024.)

15 PERCENT WEIGHT

  • Average percentage of MBA students launching businesses during their program or within three months of graduation between 2019 and 2023
  • Percentage of MBA elective courses with 100% of the curriculum focused on entrepreneurship or innovation during the academic year

10 PERCENT WEIGHT

  • Percentage of MBA students active in the B-school’s main student-run entrepreneurship club in the academic year
  • Ratio of square feet of incubator or accelerator space available to Class of 2024 MBA graduates
  • Ratio of entrepreneurs-in-residence to MBA grads
  • Ratio of startup award money available to MBA grads

5 PERCENT WEIGHT

  • Average percentage of MBA students accepting a position in venture capital or private equity within three months of graduation between 2019 and 2023
  • Percentage of full-time MBA faculty teaching an entrepreneurship or innovation course during the academic year

2.5 PERCENT WEIGHT

  • Average percentage of students accepting a job at a startup within three months of graduating between 2019 and 2023
  • Percentage of MBAs taking an elective in entrepreneurship and/or innovation
  • Percentage of core MBA courses with 100% of the curriculum focused on entrepreneurship or innovation
  • Percentage of MBA students involved in a startup or startup project in some capacity during the academic year
  • Ratio of entrepreneurship-focused mentor hours to MBA grads during the academic year
  • Ratio of entrepreneurship-focused mentors available to MBA grads
  • Percentage of MBA faculty involved with a startup or a startup project in the academic year
  • Ratio of startup and/or entrepreneurship funding available to MBA grads in the academic year

We are actively looking to grow our ranking of MBA entrepreneurship programs. We’ll continue to reach out to schools who have so far not participated, as well as new schools who want to highlight their entrepreneurial chops.

If your school would like an invitation to next year’s ranking, please email kristy@poetsandquants.com.

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