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DePaul Entrepreneurship Programs Earn Top 25 Rankings

The entrepreneurship programs at the Driehaus College of Business have earned top 25 rankings in the Princeton Review’s annual survey. DePaul's entrepreneurship  programs have been top ranked by Princeton Review and/or its partner Entrepreneur magazine since 2003.

The undergraduate entrepreneurship program was ranked No. 22, up three spots from the previous year. The MBA entrepreneurship program, offered within the Kellstadt Graduate School of Business, was ranked No. 20.

“I’m delighted with the current entrepreneurship rankings and give much credit to the alumni who are building businesses and creating jobs,” says Dan Heiser, associate professor and chair of the Department of Management & Entrepreneurship. “Their success is proof of the job our faculty are doing.”

DePaul University was one of the earliest founders of entrepreneurship education in the United.States when it offered the first entrepreneurship course in 1971 and the MBA concentration in entrepreneurship in 1982. Today, Kellstadt also offers the Master of Science in Entrepreneurship and Driehaus offers an undergraduate major in management with an entrepreneurship focus. These programs prepare students to develop business plans and identify innovative business ideas, investment strategies and techniques.

To keep up with market needs, Heiser says the college recently refreshed the curriculum within Kellstadt’s MS in Entrepreneurship program. The business college is also in the process of developing a new undergraduate major solely focused on entrepreneurship.

New academic collaborations include the MS in Product Innovation & Computing, a joint degree offered by Kellstadt and the College of Digital Media and Computing (CDM). Kellstadt also has also collaborated with CDM to offer the MFA in Creative Producing, which prepares students for leadership careers in digital entertainment.

In addition to the college’s academic programs, DePaul’s Coleman Entrepreneurship Center provides a range of resources for students and alumni hoping to start businesses. Supported by a $5 million-plus grant from the Coleman Foundation, the center launched in 2003 and opened a 5,000-square-foot facility in 2016. The center also oversees DePaul’s memberships in 1871 and 2112, two Chicago incubators for start-ups. The memberships provide students with access to a DePaul office, networking resources and programming at each of the incubators.

Over the last 10 years, undergraduate entrepreneurship alumni started 194 companies and graduate entrepreneurship alumni started 157 companies, and raised a total of $276 million in collective funding, according to a recent Coleman Entrepreneurship Center survey of alumni.

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