All Of The Data Behind This Year’s MBA Entrepreneurship Ranking

We say it all the time: No ranking is perfect. As journalists first, we approach rankings as a reporting exercise. We gather data from as many schools as possible to present in a digestible way for our readers. Part of that process includes opening the notebook, so to speak and sharing all of our data used to calculate actual rankings and the weights we used for each dataset.

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 the 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.

Startups Launched (15%)

Weighted at 15% is the average percentage of students to report launching a business within three months of graduation for the Classes of 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020. During that four-year span, Washington University in St. Louis had an average of 19.75% of students launch a business immediately after graduation. 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.