Harvard University and MIT are among the top producers of startup founders in the world, according to the latest edition of PitchBook Data's annual report on higher education and entrepreneurship.
Harvard ranked third worldwide and MIT followed close behind in fourth place for their number of undergraduate students who went on to become founders. The two Massachusetts colleges were bested by Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley.
A total of 1,184 students from Harvard's undergraduate programs went on to found a startup, according to PitchBook Data's report, while 3,222 from its graduate programs did so.
MIT is not far behind Harvard on the undergraduate founder count, with 1,065. MIT remained behind Harvard in terms of founders who came from its graduate programs, with 2,459. But both Massachusetts colleges moved up a spot ahead of Berkeley in the rankings for graduate student founders.
Boston University and Tufts University also cracked the top 50 on the undergraduate founders list, ranked at No. 35 with 385 and No. 48 with 273 respectively. Northeastern University, the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Boston College and Babson College were in the top 100.
All of these schools produced far fewer female founders than male founders, according to PitchBook. Stanford's undergrad schools are No. 1 in this regard, but only 219 female founders came through there. Harvard is No. 2 with 204 and Cal came in at No. 3 with 198.
Harvard had the most female grad students who founded companies, with 579, beating No. 2 Stanford with 498. Cal drops to No. 6 in this category, with 197 female founders.
PitchBook revamped the methodology for its annual report this year but the results still were similar to last year's.
This year's report tallied the number of founders who were enrolled in the schools in the past 10 years, rather than a 15-year review as it had in the past. This year's report also included founders who attended any type of graduate school, not just ones in MBA programs.
