GMAT Forum
2 postsPage 1 of 1
- drea
best programs for entrenpreneurship/vc and nonprofits
I really love UMich and Cornell right now with their experiential learning/immersion programs for venture capital. I know Yale is the nonprofit school. What other programs are good?
- MBAApply
For nonprofit -- Harvard, Stanford
For venture capital and entrepreneurship -- schools that are close to the VC hubs (Bay Area, Boston), which would be MIT, Harvard, Stanford and Berkeley
Keep in mind that "entrepreneurship" can be more marketing hype than reality. The overwhelming majority of students don't start businesses right out of school (it's usually less than 5% even at the schools mentioned above) - it's just the economic realities of student loans for many people. However, a healthy minority of alums from all top schools do become self-employed or small business owners 5+ years out, but that has less to do with what school they went to.
The truth is, no school can "teach" you entrepreneurship. A lot of students get the false impression that a school can be instrumental in giving you a huge leg up -- which is an exaggeration. The book knowledge you gain in b-school can certainly help, but remember that starting and running a growing small business involves four factors:
brains, heart, guts and luck.
The MBA can only help with the brains (knowledge). But you need to put your jaded/cynical self aside and believe in what you're doing (heart), you need to have the fortitude to endure multiple tough times (guts), and you need to be at the right place at the right time (luck) -- the other three equally important things that an MBA cannot give you. In other words, no amount of book knowledge will give you more courage.
With the majority of MBAs, the lack of brains isn't the issue. It's the fact that a lot of MBA students and alums are wired to be way too risk averse to have the heart or guts to use their brains to find lady luck. Even for all the "entrepreneurship" hype at b-schools, most MBA students have been pre-selected (through the admissions process) and groomed to be corporate bureaucrats and gatekeepers. That's what the degree is best for.
Alex Chu
alex@mbaapply.com
www.mbaapply.com
http://mbaapply.blogspot.com
For venture capital and entrepreneurship -- schools that are close to the VC hubs (Bay Area, Boston), which would be MIT, Harvard, Stanford and Berkeley
Keep in mind that "entrepreneurship" can be more marketing hype than reality. The overwhelming majority of students don't start businesses right out of school (it's usually less than 5% even at the schools mentioned above) - it's just the economic realities of student loans for many people. However, a healthy minority of alums from all top schools do become self-employed or small business owners 5+ years out, but that has less to do with what school they went to.
The truth is, no school can "teach" you entrepreneurship. A lot of students get the false impression that a school can be instrumental in giving you a huge leg up -- which is an exaggeration. The book knowledge you gain in b-school can certainly help, but remember that starting and running a growing small business involves four factors:
brains, heart, guts and luck.
The MBA can only help with the brains (knowledge). But you need to put your jaded/cynical self aside and believe in what you're doing (heart), you need to have the fortitude to endure multiple tough times (guts), and you need to be at the right place at the right time (luck) -- the other three equally important things that an MBA cannot give you. In other words, no amount of book knowledge will give you more courage.
With the majority of MBAs, the lack of brains isn't the issue. It's the fact that a lot of MBA students and alums are wired to be way too risk averse to have the heart or guts to use their brains to find lady luck. Even for all the "entrepreneurship" hype at b-schools, most MBA students have been pre-selected (through the admissions process) and groomed to be corporate bureaucrats and gatekeepers. That's what the degree is best for.
Alex Chu
alex@mbaapply.com
www.mbaapply.com
http://mbaapply.blogspot.com
2 posts Page 1 of 1