Wharton MBA - 7.15% Self-Employed or Starting their own Business

Wharton is among the pioneers in entrepreneurial education, formulating the world’s first completely integrated curriculum for entrepreneurial studies all the way back in 1973. As a result, its trademark entrepreneurial support environment - Wharton Entrepreneurship is one of the top-rated Business schools for Entrepreneurs.

In 2011, 61 out of 853 MBA students (7.15%) did not seek employment as they were either self-employed, or starting their own business. Wharton ensures an entrepreneurial perspective across concentrations and disciplines. Graduates are therefore, imbibed with a flexible, adaptive management style that leads to career success, irrespective of whether the path chosen is entrepreneurial or not. As a result, other departments like Operations, Marketing, Information Management and Legal Studies also offer courses that dwell on entrepreneurship.

At Wharton, entrepreneurship is considered so important; it is one of 4 scholarship sub-fields under the ‘management’ discipline. Every MBA student must take MGMT 801, which is the basic entrepreneurial course where students complete a comprehensive business plan. The school offers an Entrepreneurial Management major as well as an individualized major entirely of the student’s choice.

The Goergen Entrepreneurial Management Program

The Goergen Entrepreneurial Management Program offers 20+ courses for over 2,000 students and entrepreneurs, making it the world’s largest academic entrepreneurial program. The program also has a faculty of more than 20 professors and practitioners, making it one of the biggest courses among top B-schools. The program combines theory and practice, starting with a Pre-Term Information Session that have in the past been conducted by alumni like Neil Blumenthal, Co-founder, Warby Parker, and Davis Smith, Founder, Baby.com.br. What makes the program especially innovative is that it has designed entrepreneurially relevant courses for a variety of career tracks including Entrepreneurship/Start-ups (12+ subjects), Private Equity/Investment Banking (10+ subjects), Corporate Venturing/Intrapreneurship (7+ subjects) and Consulting (7+ subjects).

The Entrepreneur-in-residence (EIR) program

The Entrepreneur-in-residence program allows students with the opportunity of meeting successful entrepreneurs. Since 2001, 1700 students have interacted with 170+ entrepreneurs, gaining critical feedback and developing wide networks. Any student of the University of Pennsylvania can avail this resource where well-established entrepreneurs visit the campus once a week. Students can ask questions, discuss their ideas and seek advice on strategies for their new ventures. Past EIR’s include, David Gilboa -Co-Founder & Co-CEO, Warby Parker, Lucinda Duncalfe - Founder & CEO, Real Food, and Andrew Trader - Co-founder, Zynga.

The Sol C. Snider Entrepreneurial Research Center

The Sol C. Snider Entrepreneurial Research Center is headed by Ian MacMillan, the Founding Editor-In-Chief of the Journal of Business Venturing, one of the top-rated publications in entrepreneurship. The center aims to advance entrepreneurship and wealth creation around the world. Besides extensive research, Wharton faculty and students have published as many as 12 books, including Unlocking Opportunities for Growth: How to Profit from Uncertainty While Limiting Your Risk by Ian C. MacMillan himself. What is interesting about the center is its cross-disciplinary approach besides Management.

The faculty involved includes professors in Accounting, International Management, Operations and Information Management, Real Estate, Marketing, the Global Consulting Practicum, Legal Studies and Business Ethics and Management, Finance, Entrepreneurship and eCommerce.

Current research includes Family business, Venture capital financing, eBusiness, New venture management, Start-up innovation, Intellectual Property Rights and Entrepreneurial strategy. The center runs the Wharton Small Business Development Center (SBDC), where 20,000 small businesses and entrepreneurs have been supported over the past 10 years. This allows students to gain real-life perspectives while working on these projects.  

The Wharton Business Plan Competition

The Wharton Business Plan Competition was established in 1998, and is a 7-month long support structure to help students fulfill their entrepreneurial dreams. It starts with entrepreneurship workshops that showcase leading entrepreneurship stalwarts including Wharton professors and alumni who are entrepreneurs. The Mentor Program gives access to experienced entrepreneurs and established VCs. They are trained in writing business and financial plans, as well as legal issues. The top three finalists win a lion’s share of the $100,000+ prize money, and receive wide publicity for their ideas. Winning ideas that came to fruition include Warby Parker, Semi-Finalist, 2008-2009, RightCare Solutions, Michelson Grand Prize Winner, 2011-2012 and baby.com.br, Third Prize Winner, 2010-2011.

Entrepreneurial Intern Fellows

The Wharton Entrepreneurial Intern Fellowships is meant to encourage students who wish to spend the summer internship in an entrepreneurial setting in companies with below $25 million in revenues, as well as less than 200 employees. The Prequalified Intern Fellowship gives up to 4 intern fellows $4,000 each, with the startup at least matching the fellowship funding. The Traditional Intern Fellowship awards $500 to $5,000. Among the class of 2013, 61 students chose to work with an entrepreneur.

Wharton Venture Award

The Wharton Venture Award (WVA) rewards students who start their own ventures instead of taking up internships with $10,000.

Wharton eClub

Wharton’s eClub nurtures a supportive environment for Wharton students who can team up with like-minded peers, brainstorm over ideas, entrepreneurial programs, classes, resources and alumni networking. The club also organizes Startup Treks, which is all set to go to New York City this year.

The Wharton Venture Initiation Program

The Wharton Venture Initiation Program (VIP) is a business incubator for students’ startup ventures. They get office space, professional mentorship, networking and educative events. Once enrolled, students get support from ‘idea to implementation’, that lasts for 5 semesters, including after graduation.

Recent examples of VIP’s success include startups like CommonBond (raised $3.5 million) and VerbalizeIt (raised $1.5 million).

VIP runs the following additional funding programs:

VIP Snider Seed Award: It gives up to $2,500 in seed funding for each venture to help in the initial execution of the business plan.

The Emil K. Woods Award:  Awards for students in VIP who demonstrate considerable progress in their startup development.

The Edward B Shils/Leonard L Zeidman Fellowships in Entrepreneurship: Fresher MBA students belonging to under-represented developing countries, US minorities, and Israel, who require financial assistance and show the desire to study entrepreneurship, can get up to $10,000.