Entrepreneurship Ranking: Best MBA and Undergraduate Programs

Austin is considered the epicenter for entrepreneurship in Texas. That’s where all the action is, it seems. The home of SXSW and the “Live Music Capital of the World”, Austin is infused with a dynamic “Keep Austin Weird” culture that fosters creativity, experimentation, and optimism. To nurture early-stage startups, the city boasts a support system of investors like Silverton Partners and innovation centers like the Austin Technology Incubator. On top of that, you’ll find operations for top tech firms like Amazon, Apple, Dell, Google, IBM, and Tesla, which employ a combined 40,000 professionals in the region.

Know-how, support, connections, funding – a platform to showcase solutions smack dab in a rich talent pool. That’s Austin for you. Underpinning it all is the University of Texas, one of America’s top research institutions, and the Texas State Capitol – the engine behind the state’s successful low tax and low regulation formula.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP: AS TEXAN AS BRISKET

Strangely enough, Austin isn’t the driving force behind entrepreneurship education in the state. According to the 19th annual Top 50 Entrepreneurship Schools Ranking conducted by The Princeton Review in partnership with Entrepreneur, that action takes place two hours away in Houston. Released this week, the ranking pegged Rice University’s Jones Graduate School of Business as the top MBA startup program for the 6th year in a row. At the undergraduate level, the University of Houston’s Bauer College of Business held onto the top spot too.

Don’t feel too sorry for Austin. The University of Texas McCombs School of Business was the runner-up at the undergraduate level, along with finishing 7th among graduate business programs.

“Entrepreneurship often begins in the classroom, which is why prominent colleges and universities are prioritizing entrepreneurial training,” writes Jason Feifer, editor-in-chief of Entrepreneur magazine, in a press release. “These institutions offer the support, knowledge, and tools to shape ambitious people into impactful leaders. We hope this ranking helps future students find the right university, and therefore the right launching pad, for their world-changing ideas.”

THEY RANK HIGH…WE JUST DON’T KNOW WHY

What sets the top schools apart from the pack? Well, that’s where the methodology gets a little vague. In both the MBA and Undergraduate rankings, The Princeton Review notes, the ranking is “based on institutional survey data, including academic offerings, experiential learning opportunities, and career outcomes, among other factors.” Problem is, The Princeton Review shares little underlying data, nor does it include the weights given to each variable. In contrast, Entrepreneur supplies the number of entrepreneurial-themed courses and the number of companies started by graduates over the past five years for each school, both at the MBA and undergraduate levels. To delve into the details, Entrepreneur directs readers to its December issue, which hit the newsstands on November 12th.

As a whole, The Princeton Review–Entrepreneur Ranking breaks their evaluation into six dimensions:

* Academics and Requirements: Availability of majors and minors, access to an entrepreneurship center, number of course options, and inclusion of a team-based approach.

* Students and Faculty: Number of students and faculty members involved in entrepreneurship coursework during the 2023-2024 academic year; the percentage of faculty who have “started, bought or run a business”; and the percentage of students who have “developed an actionable plan.”

* Alumni Entrepreneurship Ventures: Number of companies that graduates have launched over a five- and ten-year period, including funding and the percentage still in business.

* Student Mentoring: School-sponsored and ongoing mentoring offered during the 2023-2024 academic year.

* School-hosted competitions: These include business plans, pitch decks, hackathons, new ventures, Shark Tanks, and startup week events, with special attention paid to prize money.

* Scholarships and Aid: Number of scholarships and grants and the dollar amounts involved.

In sum, The Princeton Review and Entrepreneur relied on 40 separate data points to produce its 2025 Entrepreneurship Ranking. The data was compiled during the summer of 2024 from administrators at over 300 schools globally.

“Since we debuted these rankings nearly two decades ago, the number of colleges and universities offering entrepreneurship courses has grown tremendously,” explains Rob Franek, The Princeton Review‘s editor-in-chief. “We highly recommend the schools that made our lists for 2025. Their faculties are outstanding. Their programs have robust experiential components. Their students have access to extraordinary mentors as well as networking contacts that will serve them well into their careers.”

SMALL CLASS, HUGE IMPACT

Among graduate business programs, Rice University’s Jones Graduate School continues to set the bar in the entrepreneurship ranking. That starts with resource allocation. In recent research conducted by Poets&Quants, Rice Jones devoted more award money – $3,715,400 – to student startups than any other graduate business school, all while ranking 2nd for per-student funding ($10,769). The faculty and students are equally enthusiastic about entrepreneurship; over 90% of each is involved in startups. Even more, the school maintains the 2nd-highest ratio of mentor-to-student hours among business schools. Even more, 21% of all Jones graduate electives focus on entrepreneurship and innovation.

Many of these investments are centered around the Liu Idea Lab, which provides over three dozen entrepreneurship courses along with sponsoring competitions, workshops, clubs, and speakers. University-wide, the university maintains the Rice Alliance, which connects the entrepreneurial elements across its various schools. Along with running the OwlSpark Accelerator, the Alliance also sponsors the Rice Business Plan Competition – the largest event of its kind – that doled out $1.5 million to founders across the world this past spring.

“At Rice Business, our students learn both inside and outside the classroom, drawing on our strong industry and community connections in Houston and beyond,” explains Peter Rodriguez,  dean of Rice Business, in a press release. “With small class sizes and tailored programs, we aim to equip our students with the skills to create new ventures and excel in a fast-changing business landscape.”

UCLA AND DEPAUL GAIN GROUND

Rice’s success isn’t just rooted in structure, support, and setting. It is also based in an all-encompassing spirit, say Yael Hochberg, Head of the Rice University Entrepreneurship Initiative, and Ralph S. O’Connor, Professor in Entrepreneurship – Finance, in a 2024 interview with P&Q.

“Our top rankings in entrepreneurship are a testament to our long-standing commitment to cultivating innovators and visionary leaders. We emphasize an entrepreneurial mindset in everything we do. Our curriculum, community, and industry connections empower students to take risks, think strategically, and launch impactful startups…Ultimately, our goal is to ignite entrepreneurial minds across every discipline so graduates can learn to ideate and implement innovative solutions, and mobilize resources to make the world more just and sustainable, regardless of their career aspirations.”

UCLA’s Anderson School of Management climbed three spots to rank 2nd in the Princeton Review-Entrepreneur Graduate Ranking. This knocked the University of Michigan’s Ross School down a spot in the process. Long known for career services excellence, Anderson also features a faculty where 38% teach entrepreneurship and innovation courses according to P&Q. Not surprisingly, nearly 10% of Anderson graduates from 2019-2023 started or joined a startup. Over that same period. 22% of Ross grads did the same. In fact, Entrepreneur reports that 504 Ross graduates started their own companies over the past five years, larger than any other graduate business school. In fact, P&Q found 80% of Ross MBA students were part of entrepreneurship-focused clubs during the 2023-2024 school year. The faculty were even more committed to the cause. 100% of Ross professors were involved with a startup in one form or another, with 37% teaching courses around entrepreneurship and innovation.

Overall, the Graduate Entrepreneurship Ranking didn’t stray far from the previous year. Only one school – Northeastern University – dropped out of the Top 10 (falling just three spots to 13th at that). In its place, the Rotterdam School of Management at Erasmus University climbed from 11th to 9th. DePaul University’s Kellstadt Graduate School of Business and Arizona State’s W. P. Carey School rose from 20th to 15th and 24th to 18th respectively. By the same token, the University to Arkansas’ Walton College of Business jumped 10 spots to 22nd. Santa Clara University’s Leavey School of Business made the splashiest debut at 25th, while the University of Oklahoma’s Rainbolt Graduate School of Business tumbled out of the Top 50 altogether. For graduate students seeking quantity, Saint Louis University offers 111 courses around entrepreneurship and innovation – more than any other business school – according to Entrepreneur.

WHY BAUER SETS THE PACE

At the University of Houston’s Bauer College of Business – a program that caters heavily to first-generation students – 785 graduates over the past five years have started their own companies. That was second only to Mexico’s Tecnologico de Monterrey, where 1,306 graduates tried their hand at launching a business over the same period. The school also offered the 3rd-most entrepreneurship courses – 133 – among the 300-plus undergraduate business schools surveyed by The Princeton Review.

No doubt, Tecnologico de Monterrey’s numbers stand out. However, Bauer represents a true model of consistency. Like Rice, the 2025 Undergraduate Ranking represents the 6th consecutive year where Bauer has held the top spot. In fact, Bauer has finished either 1st or 2nd in 16 of the past 18 rankings. The program is designed to arm students with wide-ranging experience in starting a business, whether it is authoring and implementing business plans, running pop-up shops, or scaling a business at the Red Labs summer accelerator. The formula clearly works. The school notes that the Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship has churned out over 2,000 businesses over the past decade, with aspiring founders supported by over 600 mentors in the Houston startup ecosystem.

However, Bauer’s mission is bigger than simply producing entrepreneurs, explains Dave Cook, executive director of the Wolff Center, in a press release. “There are things that go beyond money and profit and business,” he said. “Do you know your values? Do you have dreams? Do you have a vision for your life? And can we set goals to get you there? That is the crux of our program. We’re not just producing good business leaders, we’re producing good people, good citizens.”

The University of Texas McCombs School ranked 2nd in the 2025 Undergraduate Ranking, besting Babson College. The University of Michigan’s Ross School and the University of Maryland’s Smith School rounded out the Top 5, with Ross offering a jaw-dropping 269 undergraduate courses in entrepreneurship.

MAJOR DIFFERENCES BETWEEN TWO RANKINGS

In both the graduate business and undergraduate business school rankings, just two non-American schools cracked the Top 50. That said, several programs crossed over to make the Top 10 in both rankings: University of Texas (McCombs), University of Michigan (Ross), Babson College (F.W. Olin), University of Washington (Foster), and Washington University (Olin).

Earlier this week, Poets&Quants released its annual MBA Entrepreneurship Ranking. Here, you’ll find several marked differences – and a few similarities. In P&Q, France’s EDHEC Business School reigns as the top graduate program for entrepreneurship. In The Princeton Review, EDHEC doesn’t even make the Top 50. Arizona State’s W. P. Carey School scored the #2 spot with P&Q, 17 spots higher than The Princeton Review. At the same time, The Princeton Review missed out on several highly-respected, international graduate entrepreneurship programs that rated highly in P&Q’s methodology: IE Business School (4th), ESADE Business School (7th), and ESMT Berlin (8th). That said, Washington University’s Olin School held the 3rd and 4th spots with P&Q and The Princeton Review respectively. The same was true for the University of Michigan’s Ross School, where just two spots separated the schools between the rankings.

Click on the following links to see the following rankings:

PRINCETON REVIEW TOP 50 GRADUATE ENTREPRENEURSHIP PROGRAMS

PRINCETON REVIEW TOP 50 UNDERGRADUATE ENTREPRENEURSHIP PROGRAMS

POETS&QUANTS VS. THE PRINCETON REVIEW RANKING

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POETS&QUANTS 2025 WORLD’S BEST MBA PROGRAMS FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP

ALL OF THE DATA BEHIND P&Q’S 2025 TOP MBA PROGRAMS FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP