Rice University Graduate Entrepreneurship Program Ranked No. 5 in the US

by | Sep 20, 2009 | Community Circle

Great news! Rice University has been named the number five for Graduate Entrepreneurship Programs by the Princeton Review and Entrepreneur Magazine. This year they jumped from 16 to five. That’s 11 spots! I’ve posted their press release below. Congratulations!

Rice University Graduate Entrepreneurship Program Ranked No. 5 in the United States by Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine

Jones Graduate School of Business graduate entrepreneurship program moves up 11 spots.

HOUSTON – September 21, 2009 – Rice University Graduate Entrepreneurship Program is ranked No. 5 in the United States by Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine (www.entrepreneur.com/topcolleges). Within the last two years the program has moved up a total of 17 spots, from No. 22, in 2007, to No. 16, in 2008 and currently No. 5. 

Further, Rice University is the No. 1graduate entrepreneurship program in Texas and again the only Texas graduate entrepreneurship program to make the Top 25 ranking.

 The rankings, released today, review 2300 entrepreneurship programs on key criteria in the areas of curriculum, faculty and student involvement with entrepreneurial activities and extra-curricular support for entrepreneurship, the survey showcases the strengths of our program. 

The Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship (Rice Alliance) is the flagship entrepreneurship center at Rice University and was formed as a strategic alliance of three schools: the George R. Brown School of Engineering, the Wiess School of Natural Sciences and the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business.  

The Rice Alliance hosts a number of programs each year:

  • Annual venture capital forums in four sectors: Energy and Clean Technology, Information Technology and Web 2.0, Nanotechnology and Sustainability, and Life Sciences
  • Facilitating more than 100 programs attended by over 24,000 individuals in last nine years
  • Hosting more than 750 companies benefiting from participation and mentoring provided through the Rice Alliance
  • Assisting in the launch of more than 235 start-up companies that have raised more than half-a-billion dollars in early-stage funding
  • Rice Business Plan Competition – largest and richest competition in the world
    • Over 85 new ventures have been successfully launched after competing at Rice
    • These companies have raised more than $150 million in early-stage funding
  • Program funding and sustainability – more than 150 corporations support the Rice Alliance
  • Professional and media recognition

“We are extremely pleased and humbled to be recognized by Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine as the No. 5 best graduate entrepreneur program. The best entrepreneurship programs in the U.S are represented in this prestigious ranking,” said Brad Burke, managing director of the Rice Alliance. “We are committed to helping build successful technology start-up companies through education, guidance and connections. To be acknowledged by this esteemed organization is a confirmation of our work to advance entrepreneurial education and new business ventures.” 

Other academic programs to the Rice University Graduate Entrepreneurship Program contributed to the ranking including a course in social entrepreneurship, a novel initiative to develop education entrepreneurs for K-12 school leadership, and two new concentrations – one in Entrepreneurship and a related concentration in Mastering Innovation and Creativity.    

“Entrepreneurship has become an important area of excellence for our school,” said Bill Glick, dean of the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business. “Our mission has been to build a quality curriculum, taught by the best professors and entrepreneurs. We felt adhering to this one principle would ultimately be recognized not only by those familiar with the Jones School but by the larger community involved with entrepreneurship. Today, we are honored to be ranked #5 among graduate programs by The Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine.”

About the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship
The Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship is Rice University’s flagship initiative devoted to the support of entrepreneurship. The Rice Alliance’s mission is to provide entrepreneurship education and to support the commercialization of technology innovations and the creation of new companies in the Texas and Houston region. Since its inception in 1999, the Rice Alliance has assisted in the launch of more than 235 new technology companies, which have raised more than half-a-billion dollars in early stage funding.  Of these, approximately 35 companies have been launched based on technology developed by Rice faculty and researchers and licensed from the Rice Office of Technology Transfer.

Unique among many entrepreneurship centers, the Rice Alliance was formed as a strategic alliance of three schools at Rice University: the George R. Brown School of Engineering, the Wiess School of Natural Sciences and the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business.

In 2009

  • Jones Graduate School of Business and Rice Alliance were named the named No. 5 Graduate Entrepreneurship Program in the United States by Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine.
  • Rice Alliance named top the Outstanding Specialty Entrepreneurship Program for technology entrepreneurship in the U.S. by the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship.
  • Rice Alliance awarded Houston’s Greatest Economic Development Ally by the Greater Houston Partnership.

In 2008 and 2007

  • Rice University was recognized as having one of the top 25 graduate entrepreneurship programs in the U.S. by The Princeton Review and Entrepreneurmagazine (No. 16 in 2008, No. 22 in 2007).

In 2007

  • Rice Alliance was recognized as the No. 1 university entrepreneurship center in the U.S. for enterprise creation by the Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers.

 About the Jones Graduate School of Business

The Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business, one of seven academic units of Rice University, excels in developing principled, innovative thought-leaders in global communities. In 2009, the Financial Times ranked the Rice Full-Time MBA program top 10 globally and the Rice MBA for Executives program 4th globally in ‘Top Salaries in Finance’, in 2008. The Economist 2008 survey ranked the Rice MBA program the best in Texas and the Southwest.

 The Jones School offers the Full-Time Rice MBA, MBA for Executives, and MBA for Professionals degrees as well as joint MBA degrees in mechanical engineering and medicine. The Jones School also offers a Ph.D. in Management, an undergraduate business minor, and a full schedule of non-credit executive education and customized courses for business and industry. The wooded campus is located in Houston, the nation’s fourth-largest city, and home to more Fortune 500 headquarters than any other U.S. city except New York.

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