UW-Madison’s entrepreneurship program rated among nation’s best

The Wisconsin School of Business at the University of Wisconsin–Madison has one of the nation’s top programs in entrepreneurship, according to a survey just published in the Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine.

The school’s Weinert Center for Entrepreneurship was ranked 13th in the nation on a list of “Top 50 Entrepreneurial Graduate Colleges in the U.S.” Among public schools in the ranking, Wisconsin placed seventh.

Now in its sixth year, the Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine rankings are based on a survey of more than 2,300 undergraduate and graduate schools about their offerings in entrepreneurship for the period from December 2007 through June 2008. This is the first year Wisconsin has been ranked in the survey.

As part of the survey, schools were asked to answer questions relating to three basic areas: academics and requirements, students and faculty, and outside the classroom. The questions were refined and the results validated with the help of an advisory board comprised of professionals in the area of entrepreneurship education.

“Wisconsin has a strong heritage of generating ideas and technologies that will drive the future,” says Michael Knetter, dean of the Wisconsin School of Business. “Our business school is focused on bringing students from across campus in close contact with local companies and startups, and building those integral networks for successful new businesses.”

The Weinert Center for Entrepreneurship was established in 1986 and provides a variety of programs and services relating to entrepreneurial management and development. At the graduate level, it offers a career specialization in entrepreneurial management in the school’s full-time Wisconsin MBA program.

“Wisconsin has a history of being at the front of entrepreneurship education,” says Dan Olszewski, director of the Weinert Center. “This high ranking is recognition of the success and accomplishments of our students and alumni.”

The center also works to bring students together with researchers at UW–Madison, one of the world’s leading research universities, to explore potential commercialization of technological opportunities. UW–Madison was recently awarded a prestigious $5 million Kauffman Foundation grant to further expand entrepreneurship on campus.

The Wisconsin School of Business was recently recognized by the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel for its leadership role in bringing entrepreneurial opportunities to the state of Wisconsin.