Entrepreneur Magazine and the Princeton Review ranked the Poole College of Management’s entrepreneurship program ranked No. 1 in the Southeast and 15th nationally in their 2022 rankings. The rankings are based on surveys administered in the summer of 2021. About 300 NC State students with involvement in the entrepreneurship program participated. 

According to Jeffrey Pollack, a professor of entrepreneurship in the department of management, innovation & entrepreneurship, the program’s ranking can be credited to its organization over the recent years.

“There was a big effort here at NC State, among faculty, alumni and students, to compile all of the data across all of the categories that were captured by the survey that created the basis for the rankings,” Pollack said. “I attribute the rankings to the organization that we now have at NC State, as well as an increased level of activity across faculty and students, and alumni with regards to entrepreneurship that really move the needle on the rankings.”

According to Jason Caplan, a professor in the entrepreneurship program, another trait that sets the entrepreneurship program apart from others is its effort to make its classes as accessible and inclusive as possible during the pandemic. 

“They had a very formal training for those of us who are transitioning over to the online asynchronous trade, teaching, and that was very valuable,” Caplan said. “We understand how Zoom works, we understand how to record things. And we understand that we must try to make as inclusive an environment as we can to reach out to students, so they have the ability to participate online given the current pandemic. The University has done a really good job in providing the tools to allow an optimal online experience.”

According to Pollack, the program has recently started trying to assist students after graduating instead of focusing only on undergraduate studies. 

“There wasn’t really a lot of transition,” Pollack said. “One of the main things that’s happened recently is something called the Andrews Launch Accelerator. Andrews gave a million dollars, which gets used through the NC State entrepreneurship clinic to provide non-equity funding for student and alumni ventures. We really have done a better job of enabling students to have a softer landing after they graduate.” 

One of the unique things about NC State is the department isn’t the sole location of this work, according to Pollack. 

“It’s not the only place where entrepreneurship happens,” Pollack said. “It’s engineering, it’s design, it’s textiles, it’s cows. The unique thing about NC State, there’s entrepreneurial stuff happening all over the place, which is the main function of the NC State entrepreneurship program, to sort of coordinate and enable all of the things to be more visible, which really has enabled us to do well in the rankings.”