Many of today’s college graduates won’t spend adulthood working in an established company and following a well-traveled professional path to success. They will forgo tradition and join the startup community, according to a recent report from the Kauffman Foundation, which supports entrepreneurship and innovative approaches to problem solving.
The study’s authors found that in 2014, 33 percent of new entrepreneurs were college graduates, up from 23.7 percent in 1996.
A number of undergrads start working on new ventures and participating in business competitions while simultaneously earning their bachelor’s degrees, which requires a certain kind of passion and focus.
[Find out which schools have the best undergraduate business programs.]
“You ask them what their spring break plans are and, for the large part, if they’re app-minded or tech-minded they’re not going to Cancun. They’re going to Silicon Valley to just hang out and network,” says Mark Pottschmidt, who oversees one of the U.S. regions for the Global Student Entrepreneur Awards, which run regional, national and global competitions for college entrepreneurs.
Some schools specialize in supporting young entrepreneurs and readying them for life at a startup. Prospective students interested in working with or creating a new business should consider institutions that will provide this type of support, experts say.
At Syracuse University’s Whitman School of Management, undergraduate students can major in entrepreneurship and emerging enterprises to learn what it takes to start a company.
“You’re going to have this entrepreneurial mindset which will allow you to be innovative, be bold, be proactive and create your own future,” says says Alex McKelvie, chair of the entrepreneurship and emerging enterprises department at Whitman, of students in the major.
Students have the option of studying entrepreneurship in a broad way or through one of four specialized tracks: new venture creation, corporate entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship and family business.
[Decide as an undergraduate business major if you need an MBA.]
They work on their own business ideas, look at case studies and do entrepreneurial audits of real corporations to evaluate how the companies are succeeding at maintaining an entrepreneurial spirit. Students are also required to have an internship to graduate, says McKelvie.
Gabriela Escalante, 28, was impressed with Whitman’s nurturing approach to budding entrepreneurs and moved from El Salvador to attend the school. While researching colleges and universities online, she found that Whitman offered an education for entrepreneurs that other schools didn’t.
“They were talking about being exposed to other businesses and having these consulting classes where you can help another entrepreneur. And they had an incubator in-house,” says Escalante, who finishes school in May.
Before coming to Whitman, she started a T-shirt business, but since coming to the school she’s branched out. She’s now in charge of the activewear clothing company EB Active.
She encourages prospective college students who are also interested in starting a company to consider schools that focus on hands-on learning opportunities.
“There’s no textbook that can tell you what to do as good as the opportunity to be there and get your hands dirty and actually learning by doing,” she says.
[Apply to these scholarships if you’re a future entrepreneur.]
Applicants should also look for schools that will help them interact with people from various businesses, she says.
“For every entrepreneur, it’s important to network,” Escalante says. “You want to find a university that’s going to provide you with the opportunity of meeting more people and getting exposed to different industries and has a variety of networking events.”
For Connor Bernstein, the network that comes with focusing on entrepreneurship as an undergraduate at Georgetown University has been an important part of his college experience. Bernstein is one of the school’s entrepreneurial fellows.
“It’s really been incredible, the amount of resources that we’ve been able to take advantage of,” says Bernstein, who graduates this year. He can speak with the school’s entrepreneurs-in-residence, for example, about fundraising, pitching, how much to charge for a product and other topics that can be challenging for a business owner.
“These questions just kind of come up on a regular basis,” says Bernstein, whose company Connor’s Kits for Kids offers science kits for children.
At Georgetown, students can’t major or minor in entrepreneurship, but the entrepreneurial fellows program is one way for students to learn more about this career path, says Alyssa Lovegrove, associate director of the university’s entrepreneurship initiative. “They can apply to the program, and if they’re selected they take a series of entrepreneurship electives. They also have the opportunity to work in a startup environment.”
Speaking with current students can help college applicants learn if a school they’re considering will give them these types of opportunities, experts say.
During a campus visit, applicants can ask, “How much help have the faculty and staff been for helping you achieve your goals? What have been the biggest issues that you’ve faced at that university or at that school trying to get your startup running?” says McKelvie of Syracuse.
It often comes down to one factor when searching for a college as a soon-to-be business innovator.
“Try to look for a place where entrepreneurship actually matters,” McKelvie says.
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Find the Right College for Becoming an Entrepreneur originally appeared on usnews.com
