Babson College has been named the best undergraduate program for entrepreneurship.
The fifth annual top entrepreneur school rankings, compiled by Entrepreneur (the magazine) and the Princeton Review, named Babson the #1 undergrad program and the #2 MBA program in the nation.
The rankings are based on the areas of academics and requirements, students and faculty, and outside-the-classroom support and experiences.
A total of 50 schools (25 undergraduate and 25 graduate schools) made the list.
Babson College is a top school in entrepreneurial management education that combines business with a strong background in liberal arts. Babson grants BS degrees in its undergraduate program and grants MBA and custom MS and MBA degrees through the F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College.
Many things make Babson the top entrepreneurial school
They host an annual Forum on Entrepreneurship & Innovation, Babson’s biggest annual student-run event that attracts entrepreneurs and students from top business schools across the country, including Cornell, Columbia, Dartmouth, Harvard, Northwestern, MIT, Simon, and Stanford, as well as a slew of keynote speakers from the business world.
Babson also has a very unique curriculum. Babson withdrew its traditional first year curriculum that included marketing, organizational behavior and finance, and in its place created an undergrad program where all first-year students participate in the Foundation Management Experience (FME), a yearlong simulation in the world of business where student teams create their own for-profit ventures.
Babson is also among the Top 10 MBA programs noted for the "Greatest Opportunity for Women". The "Greatest Opportunity for Women" is based on the percent of students who are female, the percent of faculty who are female, and the resources available for female students.
A big complaint about current college curriculum nationally is that colleges train people to be good employees, not entrepreneurs. It seems the standard is to get a real job after college, rather than do the daring task of starting your own business. This is the case as new grads feel the financial pressure of student debt and the other expenses of beginning a lifelong career after college.
Many new tech startups do form while the founders are still in college, though. College is a great place to form and start a new business, mainly because you are surrounded by very intelligent people and the collaboration of smart people can always be a good thing.
In other college rankings, U.S. News & World Report has ranked the college #1 in the "Entrepreneurship" category for 12 years in a row, ever since the ranking was created.
If you are the kind of person who dreams up business ideas all the time, or someone who is a self-starter, maybe Babson or the other colleges on this list may be a good fit for you.