If you pick of a copy of the October issue of Entrepreneur magazine, you'll see Miami University's name in headlines. In a survey of over 2,000 schools, The Princeton Review places the entrepreneurship program at Miami 15th in the nation for undergraduate programs.
"It reflects on the prestige of Farmer School and its faculty," said Joe Kowalkowski, a first year business major.
This review adds to the 20 distinguished teaching awards already held by the faculty of the Entrepreneurship program. The criterion for the rankings is based on teaching in the classroom, mentorship and immersion in real world experiences for students. Miami's faculty is made up of professors who have entrepreneurship experience themselves and professors who are familiar with the academic side, Dr. Alan Oak, executive vice president for academic, said.
"I think FSB's rank is so high amongst other business schools because the professors truly care. They carve students to become the best critical thinkers as well as teach them how to be professional," said Ty Simonton, undergraduate business major and member of Miami's Entrepreneurship club.
Miami has five mentorship programs and 11 entrepreneurship organizations and clubs on campus. These are not only made up of business students, but draw students from all majors across the university to promote an environment with a wide variety of ideas similar to an ideal workplace, Oak said.
"It is an opportunity for an engineering student to learn skills techniques and concepts to help him or her take a passion that they have and enhance it and make it into something they can do when they graduate," Oak said. "It is an outstanding program in that respect. It is a great opportunity for all Miami students."
The entrepreneurship program in the Farmer School of Business allows students to engage in real-world client projects, internships in start-up companies and in the developing world and create their own businesses through the Red Hawk Hatchery, Dr. Brett Smith, director of the entrepreneurship program said.
"We throw students into the deep end of the pool and the idea is that then they learn how to swim," he said. "We want to give an outlet for students who want to leave campus and not work for someone else but start their own business."
The Hatchery is a series of three courses where students can design and launch a business to enter into after graduation.
"We are trying to build the best undergraduate entrepreneurship program," Smith said. "I think we are making great strides and the rankings are a reflection of that."
Students are just as enthusiastic about the program's high ranking.
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"The ranking should help attract more companies to recruit our students, which is a bid deal for us since our economy is still suffering and job placement is down across the country," Kowalkowski said.
Although the economy is never certain, the ranking by the Princeton Review is certain to affect the entrepreneurship program and Farmer School of Business in a positive way.
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