Rutgers MBA Program Climbs to No. 10 in the World for Entrepreneurship in Poets & Quants Ranking

The ranking highlights the strength of a university-wide ecosystem enriched by interdisciplinary collaboration and Rutgers Business School faculty members who bring their own entrepreneurial experience into the classroom.

Poets & Quants considered programs at 38 schools and used 16 different data points to measure various parts of the entrepreneurial experience, including the average percentage of students launching businesses during their MBA program as well as the amount of accelerator space and startup award money available to MBAs.

The ranking puts Rutgers Business School in the company of such schools as Olin Business School, Harvard Business School, Ross School of Business and Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

"We are extremely proud to be ranked by Poets & Quants as one of the top 10 MBA programs in the world for entrepreneurship," said Lei Lei, the dean of Rutgers Business School. "Our faculty collaborate across Rutgers to create an eco-system that fosters entrepreneurial thought and allows the ambitions of our student entrepreneurs to flourish."

Mukesh Patel, who teaches entrepreneurship to graduate students, is one of the faculty members who provide Rutgers with a unique strength in developing entrepreneurs and graduates with entrepreneurial mindsets.

Patel brings 30 years of experience as an entrepreneur, small business owner and venture capitalist. He also brings the insights of someone who sits on boards helping to fund and grow startups. "It's a 360-degree perspective," Patel said. Other faculty members who add to the entrepreneurial ecosystem include professors, Jeffrey Robinson and Ted Baker, who are known for their research in the field of entrepreneurship.

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Rutgers MBA students who pursue studies in entrepreneurship benefit from an expansive, interdisciplinary ecosystem that includes graduate-level courses that allow teams of students to identify opportunities to launch tech-related start-ups, to develop business plans and gain experience pitching to investors.

Patel is director of the graduate-level Collaborative for Tech Entrepreneurship and Commercialization. C-TEC reflects the popularity of entrepreneurship across Rutgers, attracting graduate students who come from engineering as well as business. In two years, the program has expanded from one semester to two and the cohort of students has quadrupled, forcing Patel to create a waiting list.

During the past year, Patel and Doug Miller, associate professor and associate dean of MBA programs, have worked together to create a new student organization called CeO Forum as a way of strengthening the networks of entrepreneurial students. (CeO is short for Chief Entrepreneurial Officer.) The forum offers a unique platform for connecting current students and Rutgers alumni through speaking and networking events, and case competitions.

"We're so grateful to the many alumni and other entrepreneurs that mentor our MBA students. They're the people that create the ecosystem of opportunities," Miller said. "With many virtual meetings over the last 18 months, we've seen an expansion of the number of RBS alumni connecting with current students. Building a new business is all about networking."

Students also benefit from competitions outside clubs and classrooms. Rutgers Business School's annual business plan competition has helped to grow a number of companies started by MBA students and Rutgers alumni, including P-nuff Crunch (Juan Salinas); Emma's Premium Services (Anton Kogan); Playa Bowls (Rob Giuliani) Surf, Turf, and Earth (Paul Auriemma); Bibi Beverages (Jen Du); Zwiren Title Agency (Paula Zwiren).

Miller said the ranking also recognizes the value of having excellent facilities, including business incubator space. Rutgers MBA students have access to Newark Venture Partners, which is housed within Rutgers Business School-Newark.

The ecosystem across Rutgers University fuels the MBA program's strength in entrepreneurship, according to Professor Patel.  "The fact that Rutgers is a large institution with different schools and disciplines creates a compelling incubator for ideas," he said.

SOURCE Rutgers Business School