David Eccles School of Business One of the Nation’s Best Entrepreneurship Programs

University of Utah Business School graduate and undergraduate programs both land in the Top 25 of the Princeton Review’s ranks, as featured in Entrepreneur magazine

SALT LAKE CITY--(BUSINESS WIRE)--For the second year running, the University of Utah’s David Eccles School of Business has made The Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine’s 2012 Top 25 rankings of entrepreneurship programs, and this time the school has won rankings for both its graduate and undergraduate experience-based programs. The rankings are based on surveys of administrators of nearly 2,000 schools about their entrepreneurship offerings.

“Once again, our emphasis on offering real world experience within our curriculum has earned the attention of this prestigious business publication”

In 2011, the David Eccles School of Business debuted on the publication’s list for best undergraduate entrepreneurial programs. A year later, the school holds down No. 17 in that category—and added laurels as the nation’s 15^th-ranked Graduate Entrepreneurial College.

“Once again, our emphasis on offering real world experience within our curriculum has earned the attention of this prestigious business publication,” said Taylor Randall, dean of the David Eccles School of Business. “Our students graduate with a solid understanding, beyond mere academics, of how an enterprise operates. That gives them confidence to create their own businesses as our next generation of entrepreneurs.”

Key to the school’s success are such programs as its Pierre Lassonde Entrepreneur Center (http://www.lassonde.utah.edu/), and The Foundry (http://www.business.utah.edu/the-foundry), a hands-on collaboration of students and entrepreneurs which has launched 43 companies in its two years of operation. Thirty-four of those startups remain in operation, having generated $5.1 million in revenue, along with dozens of jobs.

The Foundry’s parent, the Lassonde Center, is in its 12^th year, having earned an international reputation for successful student-faculty partnerships in conceiving, planning, marketing and launching startups based on university research. In addition to The Foundry, the Lassonde Center oversees several competitions, including the Utah Entrepreneur Challenge, an annual business plan contest with cash prizes; and the New Venture Development Center, which pairs MBA students and faculty in developing inventions.

Lassonde Center Executive Director Troy D’Ambrosio sees the latest Entrepreneur Magazine rankings as a continuing testament to the university’s business education approach. “We have focused on creating opportunities for students to engage in activities they are passionate about, including starting companies and commercializing university technologies, which has helped the university be a leader in this area and in helping social ventures succeed. We enhance the classroom by engaging students within a culture of innovation and commercialization,” he said.

Since 2006, The Princeton Review has annually reported these lists in partnership with Entrepreneur magazine. The rankings are based on surveys of administrators of nearly 2,000 schools about their entrepreneurship offerings, and the lists recognize 50 programs in all—25 undergraduate and 25 graduate—for their excellence in entrepreneurship education. Among the criteria, schools are asked about the levels of their commitment to entrepreneurship inside and outside the classroom, the percentage of their faculty, students and alumni actively and successfully involved in entrepreneurial endeavors, the number of their mentorship programs, and their funding for scholarships and grants for entrepreneurial studies and projects. The Princeton Review conducted its entrepreneurship program survey from April through June 2012.

For more information on the David Eccles School of Business, visit www.business.utah.edu. For news, tips and promotions, follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/desb_uofu and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/ubusiness.

About the David Eccles School of Business

From its beginnings in 1896 as part of the Economics and Sociology Department, what is now the David Eccles School of Business (http://www.business.utah.edu/) educates nearly 4,000 students a year, and boasts more than 25,000 alumni. Students manage a university venture fund of $18.3 million, the largest of its kind in the nation. In January, the school opened its new, $72 million Spencer F. Eccles Building, offering students a cutting-edge learning environment packed with state-of-the-art technology.