Best Schools for Entrepreneurs

Fortune Small Business magazine has named the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to its list of the top 25 schools for entrepreneurs. Citing its technology entrepreneurship and management programs, rich double-major offerings, and record of entrepreneurial achievements, Fortune Small Business counted the U of I among the top programs for undergraduates, double-majors, and executives seeking to get a leg up in the start-up world.
Computer Science students are no small part of the reason that the U of I tops the ranks. Alumni Jawed Karim and Steve Chen of YouTube renown and Max Levchin of PayPal and Slide.com are just a few examples of Illinois computer science alumni whose start-ups have influenced an entire industry.

Proclaims Fortune Small Business:

"In this college community, entrepreneurship is a town-and-gown affair. Illinois has innovative centers to aid both students and area entrepreneurs. The Hoeft Technology & Management Program at Urbana gives the top undergraduate students from the business and engineering schools the training to comfortably inhabit both worlds. The University Business Developers, a student-run group, provides "workout partners" for student entrepreneurs. Like the friend that keeps you going to the gym for a workout, the entrepreneur buddy helps students stick with a difficult regime. . . . It doubled the amount of cross-disciplinary entrepreneurship courses to more than 75, spanning 32 departments. To learn how to integrate business principles into other areas of studies, faculty members go through a year of training in entrepreneurship education. Last year, graduate and undergraduate students launched 28 ventures, including a record label and a tech start-up built around a communication tool for disabled people."
Entrepreneurship resources available to computer science students at the University of Illinois include:

Technology Entrepreneur Center : The Technology Entrepreneur Center (TEC) courses and co-curricular activities expose students to the complex concepts inherent in the simultaneous processes of technology innovation and market adoption. The TEC hosts outreach activities for students and alumni, such as the Illini-TEC forums, in several major cities. The TEC also hosts the annual Cozad business plan competition, as well as the Lemelson-Illinois Student Prize for Innovation. Although part of the College of Engineering, the center is interdisciplinary, having affiliated faculty members from several departments and colleges.

University Business Developers : An ACM Special Interest Group (SIG), University Business Developers UBD is the student-run business development and entrepreneurial group at the U of I. UBD serves several groups of people, including startups, technical students, and student entrepreneurs.

Hoeft Technology and Management Center: The Technology & Management Program at the University of Illinois bridges the gap between traditional engineering and business education by offering a unique curriculum to a select group of highly qualified undergraduates drawn from the Colleges of Engineering and Business. Teams of business and engineering students work together to develop comprehensive solutions to real world problems. There is an emphasis on experiential learning and the inclusion of hands-on elements in each of the courses in the program.

Academy for Entrepreneurial Leadership: The Academy for Entrepreneurial Leadership offers entrepreneurial programs, services, and resources to faculty, students, and community members on U of I campus. The Academy's mission is to encourage entrepreneurial awareness and initiatives across all disciplines of the University of Illinois. The Academy sponsors events for faculty, students, and staff throughout the year, including workshops, public discussions, business plan competitions, symposia, professional FastTrac courses, and lectures.