Fort Worth, TX May 14, 2012
The Neeley Entrepreneurship Center can add another honor to its growing list. TCU's Neeley School of Business' undergraduate entrepreneurship program jumped to No. 9 in Bloomberg Businessweek's 2012 ranking of the top undergraduate business programs, ahead of all other Texas business schools. The Neeley School also ranked highly in marketing at No. 26.
Each year, the publication surveys more than 85,000 students at 124 top business schools and asks them to rate their program’s performance in undergraduate academic disciplines.
In the entrepreneurship top 10, Babson is first, followed by Syracuse/Whitman, Cornell/Dyson, USC/Marshall, Richmond/Robins, Rensselaer Polytechnic/Lally, Washington U.-St. Louis/Olin, North Carolina-Chapel Hill/Kenan-Flagler, TCU/Neeley and Baylor/Hankamer. Other Texas business schools are Houston/Bauer at 19, SMU/Cox at 25, and UT Dallas at 31.
The ranking reflects the success of several initiatives of the Neeley Entrepreneurship Center:
· The Collegiate Entrepreneurs’ Organization national conference in October 2011 brought 900 college students and faculty from across the nation to Fort Worth.
· The Values and Ventures program launched last year and includes an annual competition for undergraduate students to present a plan for a values-based, for-profit business, and the Bolin Innovation Forum. The 2012 Richard Barrentine Values and Ventures Business Plan Competition welcomed teams from 17 U.S. universities, one from Mexico, two from Canada, one from Croatia and one from The Netherlands. Total prize money was $42,500, and 26 judges presided.
· The Coleman Faculty Fellows, begun in 2010, integrates entrepreneurship education across the TCU campus to engineering, chemistry, nursing, English, journalism, theatre, political science, and design, merchandising and textiles.
· The TCU Collegiate Entrepreneurs Organization (TCU CEO), the largest chapter in the U.S., hosts events such as Dinner with a CEO, Entrepreneur’s Road Trip, a mentor program and more.
Neeley is ranked No. 21 in the nation by Entrepreneur magazine, and the entrepreneurship program was honored as the 2011 National Model Entrepreneurship Program by the U.S. Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship.