UNH named a top entrepreneurial school

The University of New Hampshire has been named one of the Top 25 Most Entrepreneurial Colleges by The Princeton Review and Forbes.com, ranking 10th in the nation. The two organizations released their Top 25 picks this morning.

According to The Princeton Review, schools named to the Top 25 show a commitment to creating programs to encourage young entrepreneurs on campus, as well as looking at how their alumni have fared in the real world.

UNH – whose ranking was based on the efforts of the Whittemore School of Business and Economics — was the only public university in the Northeast to make the top 10.

“The hallmark of the Whittemore School is its ability to offer both undergraduate and graduate students theoretical coursework combined with extraordinary experiential learning opportunities in high-visibility companies throughout the region,” UNH President Ann Weaver Hart said. “UNH sits in the heart of the Northeast’s high-tech corridor and we are thrilled that our efforts to integrate this entrepreneurial spirit into our university environment is being recognized at the national level.”

To identify the schools, The Princeton Review surveyed the colleges ranked in The Best 357 Colleges based on the type of on-campus entrepreneurial activities available, including mentoring, experiential learning and campus clubs – as well as the number of successful alumni entrepreneurs and industry/school partnerships.

“Beginning with their first day of classes and continuing throughout their tenure at the Whittemore School, students are exposed to a wide range of industry people — from founders of start-up companies such as New Hampshire Governor Craig Benson of Cabletron Systems to executives from corporations such as BAE Systems,” said Steve Bolander, dean of the Whittemore School of Business and Economics.