As we noted in Top MBA Program Career Placement Outcomes: Graduates Seeking Employment, many young professionals are interested in pursuing an MBA degree as a way to advance their professional career. In most cases, this involves MBA graduates seeking to land a high paying job post-MBA. But what about the MBA graduates who are not seeking employment? In particular, how about the MBA graduates pursuing entrepreneurship?
MBA Graduates Pursuing Entrepreneurship: Starting a Business
Many MBA students consider becoming an entrepreneur and MBA programs offer a nice array of entrepreneurial programs to cater to this interest. While a number of MBA graduates start businesses eventually, a few students actually start companies soon after graduating from business school. Here is a chart showing the % of MBA graduates starting a business right after graduating:
Stanford has a whopping 18% of its Class of 2021 graduating class who are starting businesses upon graduation, followed by HBS with 8% and then Haas, UCLA and MIT with over 4% of their Class of 2021 graduates starting business.
But since these schools have different graduating class sizes, it is helpful to see the total number Class of 2021 graduates who are starting businesses:
Harvard (75) and Stanford (70) really lead in terms of the total number of Class of 2021 entrepreneurs starting business right after graduation. The next largest graduate entrepreneurship cohort is Booth (22 grads) followed by Wharton (20 grads). Meaning Stanford and HBS generate both the highest percentage and the greatest number of entrepreneurs in the Class of 2021 by far.
In summary, there is a wide variation across MBA programs in the number of MBA graduates who launch entrepreneurial careers right after graduation. Stanford and HBS really stand out from other top MBA programs in terms of the large number of graduates launching entrepreneurial ventures upon graduation. “It is clear that both Stanford GSB and HBS are doing a great job of fostering entrepreneurship among their students,” noted Graham Richmond, Clear Admit Co-Founder.
