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Moving on Up: WashU Climbs Top Entrepreneurship Program Rankings

Sydney Everett (Staff)
November 13, 2019
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Washington University in St. Louis continues to be a top school for entrepreneurship – ranking #6 for undergraduate studies and #16 for graduate studies in the Princeton Review and Entrepreneur rankings for Top Schools for Entrepreneurship Studies. The rankings were announced online Tuesday, November 12, 2019 and will be featured in the December issue of Entrepreneur magazine.

WashU’s place on this year’s lists marks a significant movement for the university. In five years, the university moved nine spots in the graduate studies rankings and four in undergraduate studies.

“The WashU community is key to this recognition. Across the university innovators and entrepreneurs come together and support one another in a way that is unmatched”, II Luscri, Assistant Vice Provost for Innovation & Entrepreneurship and Managing Director of the Skandalaris Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. “The Skandalaris Center is proud to do our part in supporting WashU founders and aspiring entrepreneurs at every stage of their entrepreneurial journey.”

Support of WashU student entrepreneurs has been crucial for venture success. In the last 10 years, over 200 companies founded by undergraduate students have engaged with the Skandalaris Center and gone on to raise a combined nearly $5 billion. Of those 200 companies, 67% are still in business today. 

On the graduate side, 120 companies started by Olin Business School students have engaged with the Skandalaris Center and eventually raised a combined total of nearly $200 million.

The official ranking profiles recognized WashU for the commitment to “encourage creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship at all levels and across all disciplines. This distinguishes it from its peer institutions that limit entrepreneurship education to the business school.” 

Washington University in St. Louis offers 39 courses focused on entrepreneurship for graduate and undergraduate students. These courses are offered across the university and students and faculty from all seven WashU Schools are engaged in the entrepreneurship curriculum. 

In an official press release about the rankings The Princeton Review’s Editor in Chief Rob Franken shared, “These schools have truly robust offerings in entrepreneurship studies. Their faculties are outstanding. Their courses are rich with in-class and out-of-class experiential components, and the financial and networking support their students receive is extraordinary.”

To comprise the rankings the Princeton Review & Entrepreneur magazine conducted a survey of more than 300 schools, who reported data about their entrepreneurship offerings. The survey methodology is based on academics and requirements, staff and faculty, and support outside the classroom.