Temple Makes List of Top Colleges for Entrepreneurs

It also has "serious cash" for business competition winners.

Temple University's Alter Hall, from the Fox School of Business.

Temple University’s Alter Hall, from the Fox School of Business.

Temple University has been making great strides to support startups, and now the school has been recognized on a new Princeton Review ranking of the top colleges for entrepreneurship. Temple’s undergraduate program ranked 8th and its graduate program ranked 10th.

It was the only Philadelphia-area school to make the top 25 list.

The undergrad program offered its first entrepreneurship class in 1997 and currently has 48 entrepreneurship-related undergraduate courses, according to Princeton Review, which published the list in Entrepreneur magazine.

“Over the last five years, its graduates have started 157 companies and have collectively raised $3,000,458 in funding,” the Princeton Review said. “Over the last ten years, its graduates have started 168 companies and have collectively raised $7,990,458 in funding.”

On the graduate side, there are currently 65 entrepreneurship-related courses. Graduates have started 126 companies over the last five years, raising more than $1.5 million in funding. “Over the last ten years, its graduates have started 151 companies and have collectively raised $35,389,000 in funding,” the article said.

To rank the colleges, the Princeton Review surveyed thousands of schools from May through August 2015. Colleges were judged on criteria like “the number and percentage of students enrolled in entrepreneurship offerings and the number of officially recognized clubs and organizations for entrepreneurship students,” the Princeton Review said.

Temple also made the organization’s list of “5 Schools that Offer Serious Cash for Business Plan Competitions.” Total cash awarded by Temple was $161,500, the organization said. It’s highlighted by the Be Your Own Boss Bowl, an annual competition where participants “discover the ins and outs of entrepreneurship, network with fellow innovators and mentors, and learn how to pen a strategic business plan.” It offers a grand prize is $40,000 along with professional services and admission to the schools Innovation & Entrepreneurship Institute accelerator.

The only other school near Philadelphia to make the list was Lehigh University, which ranked 22nd for undergraduate programs. It has 41 entrepreneurship-related undergrad courses and graduates have started 158 companies over the last five years.
The top five undergrad programs were:
  1. Babson College
  2. Bringham Young University
  3. University of Houston
  4. Baylor University
  5. Northeastern University

The top five grad programs:

  1. Harvard Business School
  2. Babson College
  3. University of Chicago
  4. University of Michigan
  5. Northwestern University