“Why would I ever get an MBA?”
If you’re a self-starting entrepreneurial visionary type, you may have an image of business school as a credential for stuffed shirts. With no interest in clawing your way to the top of the corporate ladder, you may have thought of business school as a wasted investment of time and money that might even have the result of shackling you to a dull job in middle management.
But the fact is, there are now many MBA programs specifically designed for entrepreneurs. Here are the top five such programs, according to the Princeton Review:
1. Babson College
The Arthur M. Blank Center for Entrepreneurship at Babson College in Babson Park, Massachusetts is named for the co-founder of Home Depot, a Babson alumnus. Convenient to the tech-heavy business ecosystem of Boston, Babson encourages learning through doing with the John E. and Alice L. Butler Venture Accelerator Program.
2. Brigham Young University
At the Rollins Center for Entrepreneurship at BYU’s Marriott School of Business, well over $100,000 is awarded every year in business plan competitions. BYU’s hometown of Provo, Utah recently topped Forbes magazine’s 14th annual listing of The Best Places for Business and Careers. This program also has the lowest tuition of any of these top five.
3. University of Virginia
100% of the faculty at the Batten Institute’s Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership at UVA’s Darden School of Business are entrepreneurs themselves. The Institute has the highest amount of scholarship money available of all the schools on this list, with $1.15 million dollars awarded each year.
4. University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is world-famous for its economic acumen, and the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship at the Booth School of Business is no exception. Booth began offering entrepreneurship courses as far back as the 1970s, and these activities were gradually consolidated until the center was endowed and named for alumnus and clean-energy tycoon Michael Polsky in 2002.
5. University of Michigan – Ann Arbor
The Samuel Zell and Robert E. Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies was established at Michigan’s Ross School of Business in 1999 and offers a masters degree in entrepreneurship. In addition, the Center for Entrepreneurship, or CFE for short, was founded in 2008 on the recommendation of the University of Michigan College of Engineering’s Committee on Entrepreneurial Environment and Programs, in order to provide the state of Michigan with economic stimulus by incubating new ventures by young innovators.
These are the best (for now), but with entrepreneurship degrees popping up all over the place just like the start-ups they cultivate, there might be another program near you that suits your needs!
As one of the most knowledgeable bloggers on online business degrees, Amanda Watson knows a thing or two about small businesses and entrepreneurship on the web. She writes for many publications that discuss business education from an online perspective, including an online mba blog. Send her an email at watsonamanda.48@gmail.com.
