The Financial Times released its second-annual Top MBA Programs for Entrepreneurship rankings earlier this week. The ranking is based on information gathered during the FT’s 2016 Global MBA Ranking, and features the top 25 MBAs for entrepreneurship, an increase from the 10 programs ranked in 2015. In the 2016 rankings, IPADE was ranked number 15, ahead of prestigious programs including INSEAD (France/Singapore), NYU, Columbia Business School, and HEC (Paris), and was the only Mexican business school to appear on the list. US schools accounted for 15 of the 25 programs. IE Business School, based in Spain, was the highest ranked non-US program at No. 8. IPADE ranked the best business school in Latin America in start-up spirit.
Stanford Graduate School of Business, FW Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College, and The University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business held the top three positions. The ranking, based on data gathered from MBA graduates of the class of 2012, took into consideration 12 different criteria, including the percentage of MBA graduates that started a company, the percentage of companies still operating, and how the skills gained during the course of the MBA program encouraged the respondents to start a company, among others. A list of the full criteria can be found here.
Proportionally, 23% of the graduates of the class of 2012 at the top 25 programs started their own company, compared with 15% of graduates of the other programs. At IPADE, nearly half of its graduates – 41% – started their own companies. Of those companies, an impressive 86% were founded in 2014 or earlier and still operating in 2015, and 32% were their founder’s main source of income.
The FT ranking also considered the importance of the school and its alumni network, from motivating the entrepreneur to start a company to providing support for hiring team members and raising funding. In the top 25 MBA programs, 56% of entrepreneurs rated their school and alumni network as extremely helpful, in comparison with only 44% of entrepreneurs from the other MBA programs.
IPADE’s alumni network ranked well in terms of supporting entrepreneurs, with respondents giving alumni input an average score of 7.4 out of 10, compared with an average of 7.5 across the 25 ranked programs. 2016 marks the first year that IPADE was included in the FT’s Top MBA Programs for Entrepreneurship Ranking, as well as in the publication’s Global MBA Ranking.
The program was ranked No. 80 overall in the Global Rankings, and No. 55 in value for money.
