UMD Celebrates 10 Years as Top-10 School for Innovation and Entrepreneurship

The University of Maryland again stands among the best in the nation at promoting student entrepreneurship, according to 2025 rankings released today by The Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine.

UMD placed No. 7 across all institutions, No. 5 among public universities, No. 17 for graduate entrepreneurship education and No. 1 in the mid-Atlantic for both undergraduate and graduate programs. This marks Maryland’s 10th straight year in the top 10.

“Being a mainstay in the Top 10 for an entire decade is a testament to our unique approach and commitment to empower all 50,000 of our students, faculty and staff as innovators in their fields,” said Dean Chang, UMD’s chief innovation officer. “In the very decentralized world of universities, we focused on two things: one, making accessible and complementary investments in innovation and entrepreneurship (I&E) all across campus, and two, intentionally fostering an I&E ecosystem of relationships, trust and collaboration.”

While many entrepreneurship rankings focus only on a university's business school, The Princeton Review’s reflects a university’s campus-wide entrepreneurship ecosystem, analyzing a variety of factors including academic offerings, mentorships, competitions, programs, centers and faculty support.

Nearly one in four undergraduates—more than 7,000—in 82 majors are enrolled in undergraduate entrepreneurship courses at UMD, taught by 51 faculty members across 28 departments. Beyond traditional entrepreneurship, UMD also offers over 100 courses in innovation-related areas like creativity, entrepreneurial mindset, social value creation, business models and design thinking.

“Innovation and entrepreneurship drive UMD’s undergraduate academic experience, from interdisciplinary living-learning programs to Big Question general education courses, which are designed to spark imagination, demand intellect and inspire creativity,” said William Cohen, associate provost and dean for undergraduate studies. “Drawing from hundreds of opportunities embedded in the curriculum as well as outside the classroom, our students are inspired to become fearless thinkers and doers, working toward practical solutions to current and future challenges."

New I&E programs continue to be launched regularly at UMD, including the xFoundry@UMD at the IDEA Factory, the university’s first venture capital fund and the Mokhtarzada Computer Science Hatchery—all added within the last two years.

In honor of UMD’s decade amid the top 10, take a look at 10 milestone moments from the university’s history in innovation and entrepreneurship education:

1. 2024: UMD earns the Entrepreneurial University Award at VentureWell’s annual National Innovation Symposium.
2. 2023: National Academy of Inventors ranks UMD/USM No. 9 among all public institutions for the nation's top patent-producing universities.
3. 2021: A U.S. Economic Development Administration award to UMD creates the UMD I-Corps Innovation Extension, which partners on I-Corps programming with Maryland HBCUs and minority-serving institutions Bowie State, Morgan State, Coppin State and the University of Baltimore.
4. 2017: The Economic Impact Committee is formed across roughly 20 campus units involved in innovation, entrepreneurship and economic development. It meets monthly to foster cross-campus relationships.
5. 2013: UMD is selected by the National Science Foundation to help the country create a national innovation ecosystem. That NSF I-Corps award has now evolved into the NSF Mid-Atlantic Innovation I-Corps Hub.
6. 2012: The Academy for Innovation and Entrepreneurship is founded out of the Office of the Provost and the Office of the President with the aspirational goal of engaging all students, faculty and staff in a campuswide culture of design and innovation.
7. 2012: The Startup Shell is launched. The 24/7, student-run, student-led incubator has created over 300 ventures, including the Bitcamp and Technica hackathons.
8. 2010: The School of Public Policy launches the first Do Good course, now a key part of the Do Good Campus initiative, a campuswide effort focused on social innovation and ventures and societal impact.
9. 2006: The Office of Undergraduate Studies creates the Hillman Entrepreneurs Program (now Southern Management Leadership Program), which awards roughly half a million dollars in scholarships each year to transfer students from community colleges to allow them to earn their degrees with a minor in technology entrepreneurship. Most students are from low-income or immigrant households.
10. 1980s: The Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship out of the Robert H. Smith School of Business and the Mtech entrepreneurship institute out of the A. James Clark School of Engineering are both founded. Dingman hosts an annual “Shark Tank” -like competition called Pitch Dingman, and Mtech’s introduction to entrepreneurship course enrolls over 4,000 students each year.

To learn more, visit UMD’s Innovation Gateway at innovate.umd.edu.

Story by Maryland Today