Stanford University topped the list of the most entrepreneurial American universities of 2014 by Forbes, followed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and University of California, Berkeley.
Taking the number of students and alumni who list themselves as business owners or company founders on LinkedIn and comparing it to the total number of undergraduate and graduate students who attend the university is how Forbes determines the entrepreneurial rankings.
The top 20 entrepreneurial universities this year are:
- Stanford University
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- University of California, Berkeley
- Cornell University
- University of California, Los Angeles
- California Institute of Technology
- Brown University
- Princeton University
- Pepperdine University
- Dartmouth College
- Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
- Yale University
- Clark University
- Syracuse University
- Southern Methodist University
- New York University
- Howard University
- San Diego State University
- University of Colorado, Boulder
- University of California, Santa Barbara
- University of San Francisco
- University of Southern California
- The University of Texas at Austin
- Carnegie Mellon University
- University of Miami
Some of the universities are tailoring programs or events to meet the needs of budding entrepreneurs. The No. 2-ranked MIT hosts a $100K entrepreneurship competition that is run by students. More than 130 start-ups and 2,500 jobs have been created as a result of this competition.
UC Berkeley, ranked No. 3 on the list, has three start-up incubators on campus: Free Ventures, SkyDeck and The Foundry @ CITRIS. These programs offer undergraduate and graduate students mentorship, workshops, workspace, technology and potential funding.