In a bid to attract applicants in a culture that worships entrepreneurship, top business schools such as MIT’s Sloan School of Business are pushing programs specifically designed for wannabe entrepreneurs.
But for all the stories of recent graduates starting companies, a Bloomberg survey of 118 international and US MBA programs in 2016 showed that at the median school only 3% of recent graduates start new businesses.
Babson, whose MBA program touts the “proven tools, real-world perspectives, and the focused knowledge required to become successful entrepreneurs,” tops the ranks with 19% of its class of 2015 starting business soon after graduation. Stanford, which offers specific entrepreneurial classes, advising, and coworking space, came in second with 16.4%.
But it might not be a bad thing that B-schools really aren’t launchpads for entrepreneurs. There’s a growing consensus that entrepreneurs don’t need an MBA because business school are geared towards equipping graduates for careers in large corporations.