Rice #4 Best Entrepreneurship Program in U.S.
Rice continues its climb in the 2012 rankings by Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine. I had to republish this message I just received from the Rice Alliance about by Alma Mater Rice University. I was the MBA class of 1996 with a focus in Entrepreneurship – way to go Rice!
– Kevin
Rice University and the Jones Graduate School of Business is the No. 4 best graduate entrepreneurship program in the country, according to survey results released this week by the Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine.
Rice has been ranked in the top ten for the past 4 years, one of only 4 universities to achieve this status. The new ranking as the #4 program is the highest ranking to-date. The 2012 ranking is based on a review of more than 2,000 U.S. undergraduate and graduate programs.
Unlike other graduate school rankings, the Princeton Review places an emphasis on providing students with real world education and for real-world entrepreneurship opportunities. The Princeton Review analyzes several factors including business plan competitions, mentoring programs, number of new businesses started by students and number of faculty that have business experience.
The Jones School’s entrepreneurship program includes nationally recognized entrepreneurship faculty led by Dr. Ed Williams and Dr. Al Napier and co-curricular experiential learning supported by the Jones Graduate School Entrepreneurs Organization and the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship. The Jones School began teaching entrepreneurship in 1978.
The Rice Alliance was one of the first campus-wide entrepreneurship programs, initiated in 1999 as strategic alliance of three schools at Rice: the George R. Brown School of Engineering, the Wiess School of Natural Sciences and the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business in collaboration with the Vice Provost of Research and Technology Transfer, and is host to the Rice Business Plan Competition.
Students have an opportunity to participate in the Rice Business Plan Competition (RBPC) which has grown to become the world’s richest and largest intercollegiate business plan competition. More than a competition, the RBPC has served as a launch pad for new startups. More than 128 student-based companies have successfully launched and are in business today, having raised more than $460 million in funding.
Students also participate the in the Rice Alliance Technology Venture Forums, a series of industry venture capital conferences. More than 1,030 startups have presented at these conferences and raised more than $2.1 billion in funding. These venture forums have attracted thousands of venture capital and angel investors, and startups from all over the world.
This award comes on the heels of Rice winning top honors at last fall’s Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers Conference by winning the premier award, the NASDAQ OMX Center of Entrepreneurial Excellence Award.
Also, in 2011, the Jones School at Rice was recognized as the “National Model MBA Program” by the United State Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship.
A recent survey showed that more than 22% of all Jones School alumni have started one or more entrepreneurial businesses, creating thousands of jobs and generating an economic impact of more than $1 billion.
To your Health,
The Team at imagine.GO