Contact:
Jeff Fowler
Phone: 314.977.2540
fowlerjl@slu.edu

April 21, 2004

ST. LOUIS -- In its latest issue, Entrepreneur magazine again ranks Saint Louis University’s entrepreneurship program among the best in the country.

In the magazine’s “2004 Top 100 Entrepreneurial Colleges and Universities” issue, SLU’s program, in the John Cook School of Business, is ranked in the top tier of major regional universities, a list that also includes Marquette University, Iowa State and the University of Houston.

In the same issue, alumni and faculty from around the country gave high marks to SLU with alumni ranking the program second in the nation and other entrepreneurship program directors and faculty placing it third.

“It is particularly pleasing to see that fellow entrepreneurship educators who know us well ranked us third in the nation,” said Robert Brockhaus, Coleman Foundation Chair in Entrepreneurship and director of the Jefferson Smurfit Center for Entrepreneurial Studies. “This recognition is based in part upon the quality of the various programs that the Jefferson Smurfit Center for Entrepreneurial Studies offers to entrepreneurship professors from throughout the United States.”

Among the center’s offerings are the Gateway Series for Entrepreneurship Research, the Global Student Entrepreneur Award and the annual mentoring retreat conducted for the most outstanding and promising junior entrepreneurship educators in the country.

Entrepreneur’s 2nd annual evaluation of the best entrepreneurship programs at U.S. colleges and universities is the most credible and comprehensive analysis of its kind. The study was conducted from September to December 2003 by TechKnowledge Point Corp. Founded by in 2001, TechKnowledge Point is the world’s first and only 24/7 online research and referral exchange for entrepreneurship and enterprise development.

“With this ranking from Entrepreneur magazine, the entrepreneurship program at Saint Louis University has received a dozen national rankings since 1997, making it the most recognized entrepreneurship program in Missouri and one of the highest rated programs in the nation,” said Jerome Katz, the Mary Louise Murray Endowed Professor of Management. “This success reflects not only the contributions of the University and the John Cook School of Business, but also the enormous contributions of time and support given our program and students by the St. Louis community.”

Earlier this spring, the SLU graduate entrepreneurship program was ranked 24th in the country by U.S. News & World Report.

Entrepreneur magazine researched more than 825 entrepreneurship programs and curricula for these rankings, and the final rankings are based on more than 70 separate criteria. The full rankings can be viewed at http://www.entrepreneur.com/topcolleges.