best programs for entrepreneurship

According to Financial Times:
Best in entrepreneurship **

1 Babson College: Olin
2 UCLA: Anderson
3 Stanford University GSB
4 UC Berkeley: Haas
5 MIT: Sloan
6 University of Arizona: Eller
7 Instituto de Empresa
8 University of Texas at Austin: McCombs
9 Imperial College London: Tanaka
10 Iese Business School

I'm saying to endorse these ranking, but they are a good staring point. I would take a high ranked school any day, even for entrepreneurship. Brand will help you open the doors that much easily

So I would suggest start from UCLA, Stanford, UC Berkeley, MIT, University of texas at Austin to begin with,

Solid advice from riverripper, +1. I'm a budding entrepreneur myself and I completely agree with what he said. The rankings are pretty meaningless when it comes to "learning" something like entrepreneurship.

Virtually any business school worth its salt will give you the classes, clubs and business plan competitions you need to refine your entrepreneurial goals. But in the end it's all about the network. For instance, I already have a very strong professional network within my industry of interest in New York City - so Columbia, NYU and Cornell even though they aren't specifically known for specialties in entrepreneurship are probably the schools that make the most sense for me. If for nothing else then because they give me the most opportunities to maintain and build upon my professional network in New York.

Furthermore, if your business plans don't involve tech or "products", then it's not even a requirement to get access to venture capital. You should just have lots of potential clients who are familiar with what you have to offer, and you can start out small. Of course an MBA can help you figure all this out, but it doesn't need to be from the school ranked #1 in Entrepreneurship.

These specialty rankings are usually completely arbitrary anyway. Look at the schools ranked highest in "International Business."

Also to add to RR's post, the Best school in the location you want to setup your venture makes the most sense. This way you can make connections with local PE/VC firms while still in school.

is starting a biz right out of an MBA program possible? what about all the b-school loans?

second buffdaddy and river. If you want to consider VCs, definitely consider the location of your school as well as the general brand and entrepreneurship "atmosphere" at the school (meaning, do a lot of people try out entrepreneurial ventures for their internship or right out of school?) Remember, VCs and Startups generally have very limited recruiting budgets, and face time is VERY important for getting a job at the company you want to work for. Thus, it's much easier to drive to a company for coffee on a whim than to fly over during some long break to visit the company. That is one key reason why I picked Berkeley over Kellogg, simply because I wanted to work on the West Coast after school.

With that said, if you want West Coast, you can't beat Stanford, Berkeley-Haas, or UCLA-Anderson. For the East Coast, MIT and Harvard and maybe Wharton are tops. Kellogg and Chicago are both improving their entrepreneurship and VC programs dramatically, so you won't be in trouble if you end up there either .

How is working in VC industry different from working as technology consultant/manager in startup? Is the learning (eg venture creation, business development, evaluate business idea etc.) involved in these two fields the same? What I am trying to find out is what should be the realistic short term goal if somebody eventually wants to start his own venture in technology ?

Thanks for your responses.