25 Best Colleges for Entrepreneurship (2024)
I looked at several variables, including capital raised, notable alumni, and programs and resources available, to determine which colleges are best for entrepreneurship.
I also interviewed several faculty and student leaders to inform my opinion better.
Startup count and capital raised provided by Pitchbook.
Full List
1. Stanford University
Location: Stanford, California
Startup Count: 1,297
Capital Raised: $73.5 billion
Notable Alumni: Sam Altman (OpenAI), Phil Knight (Nike), Sergey Brin (Google), Reid Hoffman (LinkedIn), Evan Spiegel (Snapchat), Garry Tan (Y Combinator), Peter Thiel (PayPal), Keith Rabois (Founders Fund), Jerry Yang (Yahoo), Mamoon Hamid (Kleiner Perkins), Katrina Lake (Stitch Fix)
Entrepreneurship Programs:
- Galvanizer: A student-led 8-week virtual accelerator program for female founders. (full interview)
- Stanford ASES: A student-led global entrepreneurship society. (full interview)
- Stanford SENSA: A student-led organization that backs social entrepreneurs. (full interview)
- Stanford BASES: The business association of Stanford entrepreneurial students.
- StartX: A non-profit dedicated to helping tech and medtech startups tap into the Stanford University alumni network.
- Launchpad: A 10-week incubator program for ten companies led by Stanford professor Perry Klebah for Stanford students.
- Cardinal Ventures: A student-founder community. They run an accelerator program, deeptech fellowship, and the College Ventures Network.
2. University of California, Berkeley
Location: Berkeley, California
Startup Count: 1,305
Capital Raised: $47.5 billion
Notable Alumni: Ali Ghodsi (Databricks), Tony Xu (DoorDash), Ryan Petersen (Flexport)
Entrepreneurship Programs:
- Free Ventures: A student-led pre-seed startup accelerator. (full interview)
- Health Engine: A student-led startup accelerator for healthcare startups. (full interview)
- The House AI Accelerator: $1 million check accelerator to Cal alumni, faculty, and students building world-changing AI startups run by The House Fund.
- SkyDeck: An accelerator for Cal students, alums, and faculty to receive $200,000 in investment from its fund.
- AI Entrepreneurs at Berkeley: A student-led AI incubator.
- Blockchain Xcelerator: A non-profit accelerator to support Berkeley-affiliated teams building blockchain ventures.
- Activate Berkeley: A two-year fellowship for Berkeley-affiliated teams to turn their technology concept into a product.
- Accel Scholars: A joint-venture between Accel and UC Berkeley’s EECS department.
- CITRIS Foundry: Accelerator at the intersection of IT and deep tech.
3. Harvard University
Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts
Startup Count: 1,086
Capital Raised: $51.8 billion
Notable Alumni: Mark Zuckerberg (Meta), Alfred Lin (Sequoia Capital), Parker Conrad (Rippling), Sarah Tavel (Benchmark), David Weiden (Khosla Ventures)
Entrepreneurship Programs:
- Harvard College Ventures: A student-run entrepreneurship and venture capital organization.
- Harvard Entrepreneurship Club: A student-led entrepreneurship club.
- HBS ETA: A student club for people interested in entrepreneurship through acquisition.
- Harvard Undergraduate Capital Partners: A student-led early/growth stage investment advisory firm.
4. MIT
Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts
Startup Count: 959
Capital Raised: $46 billion
Notable Alumni: Patrick Collison (Stripe), Fred Wilson (Union Square Ventures), Nat Friedman (AI Grant), Drew Houston (Dropbox)
Entrepreneurship Programs:
- MIT Entrepreneurship Club: A community of students building and connecting students to startups. (full interview)
- MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition: Pitch competition for $100K.
- MIT Sandbox: Seed funding, mentorship, and entrepreneurship education.
- MIT Sloan Entrepreneurship Club: An entrepreneurship club for MIT Sloan students.
- MIT delta v: An accelerator program that runs from June-Sept for MIT students with the ability to receive up to $20,000 in equity-free milestone funding.
- MIT NYC Startup Studio: A startup studio in NYC for MIT students and alums with the ability to receive up to $20,000 in grant funding.
- MIT Fuse: A 3-week micro accelerator for teams with at least one MIT student as a founder.
5. University of Michigan
Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan
Startup Count: 736
Capital Raised: $25.3 billion
Notable Alumni: Larry Page (Google), Jeff Lawson (Twilio), Brad Keywell (Groupon), Frederic Latta Smith (General Motors)
Entrepreneurship Programs:
- UpRound Ventures: A student-led VC firm. (full interview)
- V1 Product Studio: A product studio designed to help Michigan students build software products.
- Shift Creator Space: A community of designers, hackers, artists, and entrepreneurs.
- Desai: A university-led 7-month accelerator program for companies with at least one founder who is an upcoming graduate or alums of the University of Michigan
- StartUM: A student-run incubator for Michigan students.
- TechArb: A university-led student accelerator program.
- goblue.vc: Leveraging Michigan alumni to invest in startups.
6. University of Pennsylvania
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Startup Count: 933
Capital Raised: $34 billion
Notable Alumni: Elon Musk (Tesla), Andy Rachleff (Wealthfront), Josh Kopelman (First Round Capital)
Entrepreneurship Programs:
- Wharton Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Club: A student-led club that fosters innovative thinking.
- PennSEM: A student-led club for social entrepreneurship.
- VIP-C: Penn's incubator program. Open to all Penn students.
- VIP-X in Philadelphia: A 3-month startup accelerator in Philadelphia for select alums and current students.
- VIP-X in San Francisco: A 3-month startup accelerator in San Francisco for select alums and current students.
7. USC
Location: Los Angeles, California
Startup Count: 564
Capital Raised: $28.8 billion
Notable Alumni: Aaron Levie (Box), Marc Benioff (Salesforce), Max Mullen (Instacart)
Entrepreneurship Programs:
- Spark SC: An accelerator for 5 USC startups each semester with advisors from USC faculty. (full interview)
- Viterbi Startup Garage: A one-year incubator for USC-affiliated startups focused on deep technology, machine learning, and AI-enabled companies.
- TroyLabs Accelerator: A student-run 8-week accelerator program for USC-affiliated startups that provides the necessary education, network, and resources to get started.
- USC Rossier Education Technology Accelerator: A university-led education tech accelerator that does not require USC affiliation.
- Marshall Grief Incubator: An incubator for startup teams with at least one USC student, alum, or faculty member.
- Incubate USC: Offers several incubator and accelerator programs to showcase USC's startup ecosystem.
8. Tel Aviv University
Location: Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel
Startup Count: 692
Capital Raised: $26.3 billion
Notable Alumni: Shlomo Kramer (Cato Networks), Ronni Zehavi (HiBob), Emanuel Timor (Vertex Ventures Israel)
Entrepreneurship Programs:
- Coller Ignite: Helping students at Tel Aviv University explore the entrepreneurship path.
- TAU Ventures: Tel Aviv University’s venture capital fund that provides pre-seed and seed funding to Israeli tech companies.
- Ramot: Tel Aviv University’s tech transfer company.
- jumpTAU: A four-month accelerator program for Tel Aviv University students and recent alums.
- Dan Launchpad: A venture-enhancement program.
- Coller Startup Competition: A competition to win $100,000 for startups in DeepTech, Online, and Foodtech.
9. Cornell University
Location: Ithaca, New York
Startup Count: 807
Capital Raised: $30 billion
Notable Alumni: Paul Graham (Y Combinator), Josh Wolfe (Lux Capital), Scott Belsky (Adobe), Jenny Lee (GGV Capital)
Entrepreneurship Programs:
- Cornell Venture Capital: A student-led venture capital club.
- Life Changing Labs: An 8-week startup accelerator.
10. Yale University
Location: New Haven, Connecticut
Startup Count: 594
Capital Raised: $24.0 billion
Notable Alumni: Michael Seibel (Y Combinator), Ann Miura-Ko (Floodgate), Justin Kan (Twitch), Jonathan Swanson (Thumbtack), Joseph Tsai (Alibaba), Ben Silbermann (Pinterest), Anne Wojcicki (23andMe), Kevin Ryan (MongoDB), Max Rhodes (Faire)
Entrepreneurship Programs:
- Yale Entrepreneurial Society: A student-led organization supporting student innovation and entrepreneurship. (full interview)
- Tsai Center for Innovative Thinking at Yale: Inspiring students to seek innovative ways to solve problems. (full interview)
11. Princeton
Location: Princeton, New Jersey
Startup Count: 571
Capital Raised: $30.4 billion
Notable Alumni: Jeff Bezos (Amazon), Sridhar Vembu (Zoho), Joseph Lubin (Consensys), Mark Caputo (US Renal Care), Geoff Yang (Redpoint Ventures), Evelyn Rusli (Yumi), Fabrice Grinda (FJ Labs), Jack Altman (Lattice)
Entrepreneurship Programs:
- Princeton Entrepreneurship Club: A student-run entrepreneurship club.
- The START Entrepreneurs: A 12-month program for post-college students to build under the guidance of Lauren Bender and other Princeton faculty.
- Prospect Student Ventures: A student-led club investing in Princeton startups.
12. Duke University
Location: Durham, North Carolina
Startup Count: 506
Capital Raised: $17.4 billion
Notable Alumni: Tim Cook (Apple), Fred Ehrsam (Coinbase), Howard Lerman (Yext)
Entrepreneurship Programs:
- The Cube: A community for Duke student entrepreneurs.
- Duke I&E Summer Accelerator: A university-led accelerator program providing students $5,000 and mentorship to further their venture.
- Duke-UNICEF Innovation Accelerator: An accelerator made in partnership between Duke and UNICEF to support social entrepreneurs.
13. Brown University
Location: Providence, Rhode Island
Startup Count: 487
Capital Raised: $31.5 billion
Notable Alumni: Dylan Field (Figma), Andrew Hunt (Warby Parker), Evan Stites-Clayton (Teespring), Irving Fain (Bowery Farming)
Entrepreneurship Programs:
- Brown EP: Student entrepreneurship club. (full interview)
- Van Wickle Ventures: A student-run venture fund that invests in Brown-affiliated startups.
- B-Lab: 8-week summer accelerator program for Brown and RISD students.
- Brown Angel Group: Brown alumni funding Brown startups.
- The Brown Venture Prize: $50K pitch competition.
14. University of California, Los Angeles
Location: Los Angeles, California
Startup Count: 615
Capital Raised: $17.2 billion
Notable Alumni: Travis Kalanick (Uber), Mike Morhaime (Blizzard Entertainment), Todd Mackey (GoGuardian)
Entrepreneurship Programs:
- Bruin Entrepreneurs: A student-led organization to support student entrepreneurship. (full interview)
- Bruin Ventures: A student-led venture capital and technology club.
- UCLA Ventures: A community-built venture fund to support UCLA startups.
- UCLA Anderson Venture Accelerator: A university-led accelerator initiative to support UCLA-affiliate startups with grant funding through various programs (Activate, Accelerate, Showcase, Advisory Program).
- UCLA Health TechQuity Accelerator: An accelerator for UCLA-affiliated teams working on healthcare solutions regarding prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and community impact.
- Startup UCLA: A 10-week summer accelerator for UCLA-affiliated startups.
- Scale LA Aerospace Accelerator: An aerospace accelerator for pre-seed and seed-stage companies in collaboration with UCLA Samueli School Of Engineering.
15. New York University
Location: New York, New York
Startup Count: 513
Capital Raised: $16.8 billion
Notable Alumni: Jack Dorsey (Twitter), Robert Kalin (Etsy)
Entrepreneurship Programs:
- NYU SVS: A student-led venture capital and tech club. (full interview)
- NYU EEG: A student-led entrepreneurship, tech, and venture capital club. (full interview)
- Stern Venture Fellows: A 10-week fellowship that provides each fellow a $10,000 non-dilutive personal stipend and access to up to $5,000 in prototyping expenses for NYU entrepreneurs.
- Summer Launchpad: A 9-week accelerator providing $10,000 in non-dilutive funding for scalable startups led by NYU students and researchers.
- NYU Startup Sprint: A two-week program for NYU students and faculty to receive skill-building workshops, grant funding, and peer support.
- Biomedical Entrepreneurship Program: An accelerator program to help accelerate the commercialization of biomedical discoveries and inventions made at NYU
16. University of Chicago
Location: Chicago, Illinois
Startup Count: 232
Capital Raised: $12.3 billion
Notable Alumni: Evan Sharp (Pinterest), Chris Maguire (Etsy), Matthew Prince (Cloudflare)
Entrepreneurship Programs:
- UChicago Startup Investment Program: Investing $25 million from its endowment in Series A rounds of startups from UChicago founders.
- New Venture Challenge: An accelerator program.
17. Columbia University
Location: New York, New York
Startup Count: 569
Capital Raised: $19.3 billion
Notable Alumni: Robert Reffkin (Compass), Jon Oringer (Shutterstock), Ben Horowitz (a16z)
Entrepreneurship Programs:
- Columbia Healthcare Ventures: A student-led community for healthcare entrepreneurship. (full interview)
- CORE: A student-led entrepreneurship organization.
18. Northwestern University
Location: Evanston, Illinois
Startup Count: 444
Capital Raised: $18 billion
Notable Alumni: Gary Beasley (Roofstock), Jon Soberg (MS&AD Ventures), Jay Hoag (TCV)
Entrepreneurship Programs:
- The Garage: Northwestern’s base for student entrepreneurs and home to 1,500+ startups. (full interview)
- Student Holdings: A student-run holdings company that manages a portfolio of four businesses.
19. University of Texas at Austin
Location: Austin, Texas
Startup Count: 677
Capital Raised: $15.8 billion
Notable Alumni: Michael Dell (Dell), Bill Gurley (Benchmark)
Entrepreneurship Programs:
- Austin Technology Incubator: An incubator affiliated with UT Austin for its students and alums.
- SEAL Summer Accelerator: A 9-week summer accelerator run in partnership with the Austin Technology Incubator.
- The LaunchPad at UT Austin: A hub for UT Austin undergraduate and graduate students to explore and scale their ventures with the chance to win up to $5,000 in grant funding.
- Texas Venture Labs Accelerator: A zero-cost, zero-equity 14-week startup accelerator for Texas startups that want to work with UT Austin graduate students.
- Texas Momentum: A student-led 10-week accelerator program for UT Austin student startups.
20. University of Notre Dame
Location: Notre Dame, Indiana
Startup Count: 234
Capital Raised: $5.1 billion
Notable Alumni: Joe Schmidt IV (Andreessen Horowitz), Patrick O'Shaughnessy (Invest Like The Best), Joe Montana (Liquid 2 Ventures)
Entrepreneurship Programs:
- Notre Dame Venture Capital: A student-led venture capital firm. (full interview)
- Race to Revenue: Notre Dame’s summer accelerator run by the IDEA center.
- McCloskey New Venture Competition: $50K pitch competition.
- Student Pre-Accelerator: A 6-week pre-accelerator designed to prepare you to grow a business.
21. California Institute of Technology
Location: Pasadena, California
Startup Count: N/A
Capital Raised: N/A
Notable Alumni: Shaun Maguire (Sequoia Capital), Ilya Fushman (Kleiner Perkins), Adam D'Angelo (Quora)
Entrepreneurship Programs:
- Rothenberg Innovation Initiative: Seed funding for high-risk, high-reward projects.
- Gates Grubstake Fund: Program to assist faculty in advancing projects. Avg check size is $50K.
- The Caltech Seed Fund: Deploying $1.5 million over the next 5-6 years to Caltech-affiliated startups.
22. Georgetown University
Location: Washington, DC
Startup Count: 341
Capital Raised: $9.3 billion
Notable Alumni: Katherine Boyle (a16z), David Wehner (CSO at Meta), Chris Sacca (Lowercarbon Capital)
Entrepreneurship Programs:
- Georgetown Ventures: A student-led startup accelerator program. (full interview)
- Rocket Pitch: $1,500 pitch competition.
- Georgetown Entrepreneurship Challenge: Compete for $20K in prize money.
- Bark Tank: Compete for $100K in prize money.
23. Carnegie Mellon
Location: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Startup Count: 439
Capital Raised: $16.5 billion
Notable Alumni: Lucy Guo (Scale AI), Sohail Prasad (Forge), Brian Olsavsky (CFO at Amazon)
Entrepreneurship Programs:
- ScottyLabs: A student organization to help students learn about and explore technology.
- CMU Venture Challenge: Compete for $6,000 in prize money and perks like AWS credits and legal services.
- CMU Graduate Entrepreneurship Club: A community to support CMU graduate students interested in entrepreneurship.
- CMU Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Association: A community to support CMU undergraduate students interested in entrepreneurship.
24. University of Illinois
Location: Champaign, Illinois
Startup Count: 552
Capital Raised: $20.8 billion
Notable Alumni: Marc Andreessen (a16z), Max Levchin (Affirm), Scott Banister (IronPort Systems)
Entrepreneurship Programs:
- iVenture Accelerator: An educational accelerator for student startups.
- Cozad New Venture Challenge: Compete for $330K in prize money.
- SocialFuze: A recurring pitching and networking event.
25. University of Waterloo
Location: Waterloo, Ontario
Startup Count: 428
Capital Raised: $17.0 billion
Notable Alumni: Chamath Palihapitiya (Social Capital), Matei Zaharia (Databricks)
Entrepreneurship Programs:
