The Fox School of Business has climbed up rankings released yesterday by the Princeton Review. The entrepreneurship programs at both the graduate and undergraduate levels have been ranked: graduate at number 10, and undergraduate at number 8.
These rankings come as the Fox School’s entrepreneurship programs have grown 380 percent in graduate and 220 percent in undergraduate enrollments, said Dr. Robert C. McNamee, assistant professor of entrepreneurship at Fox and Managing Director of Temple’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship Institute, in a university press release.
“Fox is the engine of growth we have grown tremendously in the past five to ten years and we hope to stay that way,” said Dr. Moshe Porat, dean of the Fox School of Business. “This is an important ranking for the entire university because many students are thinking about starting their own business and we have here in the Fox School, in the University the tools that can help them start their businesses.”
The entrepreneurship program is ranked alongside other noteworthy business schools, at both the graduate and undergraduate level. Some of the schools Temple is ranked with include Harvard University, Brigham Young University, Northeastern University and Babson College.
Temple has exclusive programs that contributed to its Top 10 rankings. The IEI has an annual competition called the Be Your Own Boss Bowl that gives students the chance to win $200,000 to start their business. Some of the other programs affiliated with the entrepreneurship program include the Blackstone LaunchPad and Robin Hood Ventures. These programs give guidance and sometimes investments to students on their entrepreneurial ventures.
Sarah Leonard, a junior finance major, was a participant in the 2015 Be Your Own Boss Bowl and jumpstarted a non-profit organization called “Jazz Lives Philadelphia” after her participation. She also still involved with the IEI.
“I had this idea that I had no idea how to move it forward or even start with it at all,” she said. “I learned about the Be Your Own Boss Bowl through a class I was taking, I never had any intention to start my own business—now I have a nonprofit.”
Leonard said she also believes the rankings should be higher for the Fox School’s entrepreneurship program because of the resources Temple and Fox School have to offer students on their business ventures.
2015 Be Your Own Boss Bowl winner and senior economics major Andrew Nakkache has produced his own app with other Fox School students called Habitat, which provides a service that delivers from all food trucks across campus.
Nakkache said he didn’t hear about the entrepreneurship program until it was “too late.”
Porat said the Princeton Review’s rankings show students’ success outside of the classroom.
“We are all proud when we are successful in rankings,” Porat said. “But there is nothing that brings more pride than students starting businesses with the help of the university that are now very successful in these endeavors.”
Gillian McGoldrick can be reached at gillian.mcgoldrick@temple.edu or on Twitter @gill_mcgoldrick.
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