Entrepreneur Magazine just released its ninth annual rankings of entrepreneurship programs across the country, listing the top-25 for both undergraduate and graduate programs.

McCombs rose one rank to number eight for graduate programs, and fourth nationwide among public schools. The top three spots, in order, went to Babson College, Brigham Young University and University of Virginia.

Other Texas schools in the graduate ranking include Rice University (no. 9) and the Acton MBA in Entrepreneurship (no. 13).

The Princeton Review actually handles the survey for the magazine, reviewing more than 2,000 programs across the country. Criteria used in the ranking include teaching entrepreneurship fundamentals in the classroom, staffing departments with successful entrepreneurs, excellence in mentorship, providing experimental or entrepreneurship opportunities outside the classroom, and other non-traditional aspects to the programs.

“Behind the top-ranked schools is not only a great formal classroom experience, but a cross-disciplinary approach to teaching entrepreneurship that embraces and encourages a student’s vision to build a successful business,” said Robert Franek, the Princeton Review’s senior vice president of publishing and a nationally recognized expert on college admissions.

Publisher Melinda Garvey, who recently joined McCombs' Herb Kelleher Center for Entrepreneurship as entrepreneur-in-residence, credits the school’s philosophy of making entrepreneurship accessible to students. “We want them in daily contact with business innovators who are living it, breathing it, doing it," Garvey said. "People who are passionate about what they do and bring that drive to campus.”

Entrepreneurship bridges all business disciplines at McCombs. Associate Professor Edward Anderson helped finance senior Kelley Rytlewski transition her learning to a real-world venture. “He is the professor of an operations management class, and he is great at agile development,” she says. “He gave me blogs and books to read and even helped me with my spreadsheets. He showed me that professors are excited to see us applying what they’ve taught us in the classroom.”

McCombs offers rich opportunities for graduate students interested in all things entrepreneurial. A few examples include:

• Venture Fellows, which helps MBAs get a leg up in the venture capital arena by offering internships with venture capital and private equity luminaries.
• Texas Venture Labs, a campus-wide initiative that helps link students to the entrepreneurial, business, technology and legal resources available on campus and provides mentoring, team-building, business plan validation and technology commercialization.
• The Venture Labs Investment Competition, which is held in Austin each May. Founded in 1984 as Moot Corp, it is the first and longest operating, inter-business-school, new-venture competition in the world.
• Austin Technology Incubator, which was the first university-based incubator in the country. Established in 1989, it has raised more than $725 million in capital and spawned 210 companies, including many new ventures created by Texas MBA students.
• Master of Science in Technology Commercialization (MSTC). Established in 1996, this one-year alternating weekend program is designed for aspiring entrepreneurs who want to identify new technologies with market potential, bring them to market, and create wealth in the process.