Top 10 MBA Programs for a Career in Entrepreneurship

Situated in the heart of Barcelona, IESE Business School prides itself on its innovative ethos, inspiring the leaders and start-up entrepreneurs of tomorrow.

IESE’s Entrepreneurship Department focuses on new venture creation, intrapreneurship and entrepreneurial management within existing organizations. Interestingly, a third of IESE alumni have participated in the creation of a company at some point during their career.

The entrepreneurship course – taught since 1974 – covers such topics as:

• Fundamentals of Entrepreneurial Management
• Entrepreneurial Strategies for Social Impact
• Entrepreneurial Negotiations
• Financing Entrepreneurial Opportunities

Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard Business School has long been regarded for its stellar MBA program.

There are 450 students in entrepreneurship club at HBS, as well as 35 different professors teaching entrepreneurial management electives.

HBS’ Rock Centre for Entrepreneurship supports faculty research, fellowships for MBA and doctoral students, the annual New Venture Competition, and symposia and conferences.

Harvard’s class of 2020 cohort is huge with 930 students enrolled. Within the cohort, 69 countries are represented, as well as 41 percent female students and 37 percent international students. Tuition fees for the 24-month program are US$146,880.

Situated in the Spanish business hub of Barcelona, ESADE’s Entrepreneurship Institute (EEI) is dedicated to excellence in entrepreneurship through research, teaching, new venture ideation and creation, and outreach activities.

Budding entrepreneurs choosing to study for their MBA at ESADE Business School can make the most of the ESADECreapolis ecosystem – ESADE’s business and knowledge park which helps companies innovate – which boasts 260 companies and start-ups. Similarly, the ESADE Ban – the ESADE Alumni business angels’ network – has invested €28.7 million (US$32.5m) and holds 260+ events per year.

The entrepreneurship integration module at Saïd Business School looks at entrepreneurship as the ability to effectively deploy resources to devise business solutions to complex and multifaceted challenges. It focuses on two main areas of entrepreneurship: social entrepreneurship and technological entrepreneurship.

Saïd’s MBA class profile for 2018-19 featured a class size of 315, 62 nationalities, 93 percent international students, 39 percent female students, an average of five years’ work experience, and a median GMAT of 690.

Located in London, England’s capital and global business hub, Imperial College Business School is ranked joint second in this year’s ranking for entrepreneurship, having scored highly across all three rankings indicators (and managing a perfect score of 100 for employer reputation).

The fees for the full-time MBA (September 2019 entry) are £52,000 for both UK and international students. If you have your own business ideas, the school’s entrepreneurship club may be a good place to start.

Also in second place, and sharing the honor of being the top European business school in this year’s ranking, is IE Business School. The school scored achieved perfect scores for career placements and employer reputation, and an impressive 25 percent of IE graduates continued with entrepreneurial ventures.

The Madrid-based full-time MBA program at IE takes one year to complete, with intakes in September and January. Tuition fees for the 2018-19 academic year are €72,200 (approx. US$82,000).

Landing the top spot in the MBA specialization rankings for entrepreneurship is Stanford Graduate School of Business. Stanford scored highly in all ranking indicators, with perfect scores in employer reputation and career placements, and an impressive score of 92 for research strength.

There are many entrepreneurial-themed courses you could study at Stanford including Social Ventures Practicum; Creativity Rules: Inventing the Future; The Lean Launchpad: Getting Your Lean Startup off the Ground, and many more.

Based in Stanford, California, the two-year program has tuition fees of US$73,062 per academic year (US$146,124 in total).