Mar 14, 2005
DePaul Is One Of The Top 13 Entrepreneurial Colleges In The Nation, According To Entrepreneur Magazine
DePaul University’s entrepreneurship program has been ranked among the best 13 in the nation in Entrepreneur magazine’s annual evaluation of the “Top 100 Entrepreneurial Colleges,” published in the April edition of the magazine.
DePaul outranked Harvard (second tier), Northwestern (second tier), University of Chicago (fourth tier) and Stanford (third tier), among other schools, by landing a place in the first tier of “comprehensive entrepreneurial programs at nationally prominent colleges and universities.” Within each tier, the magazine considers programs comparable and did not assign individual numerical rankings. DePaul has been highly ranked all three years that the magazine has published the annual honor roll of best programs.
“DePaul was among the early universities to embrace entrepreneurship education,” said Management Professor Harold Welsch, DePaul’s Coleman Entrepreneurship Chair and founder of the program. “Our consistently high rankings from Entrepreneur and other media validate our efforts to build a comprehensive and innovative program.”
Founded in 1982 at the College of Commerce, DePaul’s entrepreneurship program has grown to encompass 12 undergraduate and graduate courses taught by 16 faculty members. Courses cover business plan development, entrepreneurial strategy, new venture financing, business growth and management, creativity, innovation, and technological change, among other important issues. More than 400 students take courses in the program each year.
The program is enhanced by DePaul’s Coleman Entrepreneurship Center, which is funded through a $2.5 million matching grant received from the Coleman Foundation in 2003. The center sponsors educational, mentoring and networking opportunities, as well as links to an array of resources to help student, alumni and community entrepreneurs start and grow businesses.
The entrepreneurship center’s programs include a seminar series called Angel Academy, to increase investments made to Chicago-based entrepreneurs, and the Private Enterprise Network, which enables early-stage companies to present their business plans for investment opportunities.
The magazine noted that many of the highly ranked entrepreneur programs stress experiential learning, and this is one of the hallmarks of DePaul’s program. DePaul’s Coleman Entrepreneurship Center links groups of student consultants with area businesses and organizations that need assistance with market research, strategy and business planning. More than 250 Chicago-area businesses and organizations have been aided by student consultants in the past two years, and interest in the program is growing, according to Raman Chadha, executive director of the Coleman Entrepreneurship Center and a professor in the entrepreneur program.
“Students see the value in gaining hands-on experience through exploration of real issues facing business owners,” he said. “In turn, the owners appreciate help in finding solutions to their business challenges that work within their budgets and time limits.” Chadha said the faculty and staff at DePaul’s Coleman Center provide structure for the 10-week projects, ensuring that businesses receive good quality consulting assistance.
Examples of recent student consulting projects include researching the most marketable location for a popular Lincoln Park restaurant to open a second eatery in the suburbs, and helping Cartridge World, the first franchise of a recycled inkjet cartridge business in Chicago, identify its market and customer base.
Entrepreneur’s rankings were based on data from more than 1,000 entrepreneur programs gathered by TechKnowledge Point Corp. for the magazine. Rankings were based on an evaluation of course offerings; teaching and research faculty; business-community outreach; research centers and institutes; advisory boards; off-campus programs; entrepreneurial initiatives; degrees and certificates offered; venture development; access to capital funding; and faculty and alumni feedback.
Editor’s Note: To arrange interviews or receive a copy of the rankings, contact Robin Florzak, DePaul Media Relations, at 312/362-8592 or rflorzak@depaul.edu. The 2005 rankings will be posted in April on Entrepreneur’s Web site at www.entrepreneur.com/topcolleges .
Entrepreneur's "Top Entrepreneurial Colleges" National Programs, first tier, were (listed alphabetically):
The University of Arizona
Babson College (Mass.)
Columbia University (N.Y.)
DePaul University (Ill.)
University of Maryland, College Park
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
The Ohio State University
The Pennsylvania State University
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (N.Y.)
University of South Carolina, Columbia
University of Southern California
Syracuse University (N.Y.)