October 18-20 | Tucson, AZ

The Research Institution GAP Fund and Accelerator Program Summit

Pitchbook: What are the best universities for startup founders?

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October 18-20, 2023 / Tucson, AZ
The annual summit for research institution gap fund and accelerator programs, including proof of concept programs, startup accelerators, and university venture funds

The Story

Great entrepreneurs can come from anywhere, but some universities have a truly exceptional track record of producing future entrepreneurs.

PitchBook’s annual university rankings compare schools by tallying up the number of alumni entrepreneurs who have founded venture capital-backed companies. The undergraduate and graduate rankings are powered by PitchBook data and are based on an analysis of more than 144,000 VC-backed founders.

Stanford-educated founders top both the undergraduate and graduate lists. UC Berkeley took the No. 2 spot for undergraduate programs, and Harvard was second among MBA and other graduate programs. MIT ranks in the top four for undergraduate and graduate school rankings, despite having a total enrollment of just 11,934 in 2021.

Outside the US, Israeli colleges Tel Aviv University and Technion are among the highest-ranking undergraduate programs. Cambridge and Oxford in the United Kingdom made the top 10 in our graduate list.

For more insights, read our analysis of the 2022 PitchBook university rankings.

Full story: PitchBook Universities: Top 100 colleges ranked by startup founders | PitchBook

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