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SALT LAKE CITY — A new set of rankings from U.S. News and World Report recognized the University of Utah’s David Eccles School of Business as one of the nation’s top programs for entrepreneurship.

The school’s undergraduate program for entrepreneurship came in as the seventh-best program overall and fourth-best among public schools for 2024.

The latest rankings also show a slight rise from related rankings released earlier this year that slated the MBA program at the Eccles School as the 12th-best program for entrepreneurship overall and fifth-best among public schools.

“Our tradition for entrepreneurship continues to be recognized in our top 10 ranking,” said Rachel Hayes, dean of the David Eccles School of Business, in a news release. “At the Eccles School, we welcome students from across campus to learn about entrepreneurship inside and outside the classroom. We have something for every student to learn the values of entrepreneurship, including what it means to innovate and persevere through any challenge.”

The Eccles school’s lauded entrepreneurship program is provided through a partnership between the Department of Entrepreneurship and Strategy and the Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute — combined to offer a wide range of programs from grants and workshops to elective courses, a unique graduate program and a living-learning community that fosters innovation.

Lassonde Studios — part of the Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute — is a living and learning community where students from any major or background can live while creating and launching their business ideas. It’s housed in a five-story building at the center of campus, with an innovation space on the first floor and dorm space on the upper levels.

The institute was started as the brainchild of U. alumnus and Canadian businessman/philanthropist Pierre Lassonde, who said he and his wife were looking for a way to give back to the university that had given them what they needed to achieve.

“We’re trying to find a way to incorporate in our vision the things that really mattered to us, which was entrepreneurship,” Lassonde said. “We wanted to have a center that was combining all of the university — not just the business school, not just the engineering, but everything else.”

The recently launched Lassonde+X offers a three-class program designed for students from any major to add an entrepreneurial mindset to any field of study and career path.

Additionally, the Eccles school launched its Master of Business Creation program in 2019. Participants in the program benefit from scholarships to launch and scale their companies with the support from in-depth mentoring, coursework, grants and more.

“We are proud to have one of the largest entrepreneurship departments and as great a number of opportunities as any university,” said Jennifer Brown, chair of the Department of Entrepreneurship and Strategy at the Eccles school, in the release. “We offer students many ways to learn about entrepreneurship, including the opportunity to see entrepreneurship in action. Many students start in our introductory entrepreneurship classes, then they progress to a minor, major or master’s.”

Another program stemming from the Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute is the Lassonde Founders program — a residential community for incoming student entrepreneurs who are already active in their businesses.

Sade Bowler started her company Sadie B. Personal Care before coming to the U., with a mission to change the message in the personal care industry by providing not just personal care hygiene, but “mental hygiene,” as well.

She never expected the opportunity to be able to focus on her company as part of her academic experience but found just that through the Lassonde Founders program.

“I really hope to become the personal care brand that all Gen Z girls look to and, you know, the products that they use,” Bowler said. “Our goal is to go into retailers in the next few years after we launch. Think places like Target and Ulta, just very accessible.”

The U.S. News and World Report’s best business school rankings are based on the judgments of deans and senior faculty members at peer institutions. This year, they surveyed deans and senior faculty members at each of the 523 undergraduate business programs accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business to determine the rankings.

“Entrepreneurship is not just something students do in the classroom at the University of Utah,” said Troy D’Ambrosio, executive director of the Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute and an assistant dean at the Eccles School, in the release. “Students can take the lessons they learn in class and work with us to prototype their idea, build a team and launch a thriving business.”

More information and complete rankings can be found usnews.com.

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