<p>@PurpleTitan : You should probably include VU and ND as well. However, with high finance, location seems to matter a lot (and then whether or not the school has a culture/student body that really likes the idea of IB or high finance as opposed to other lucrative careers). Being in NE or near a huge US city (like Chicago or NYC) can benefit you there, so I don’t know if it[s all about brand. You shouldn’t include biotech start-ups because JHU nor Emory (and probably not WashU) aren’t going to perform that badly there unless you’re talking about undergrads (Emory does especially well in the drug discovery area of patents and start-up companies. The BME program between us and Tech also does not hurt) in which case it’s no surprise because at schools like these, most natural science majors are pre-health and needless to say, these are not the types trying to start up biotech companies (no offense) more so than trying to get into med. school. However, at least Solazyme was created by Emory College alum, even though it was in the 90’s before Emory’s science curriculum went kind of soft (which mainly just corresponds to significantly higher enrollment numbers. You don’t see honors and project labs in the biol department anymore, but at least they exist in neuroscience I guess which is relatively new. However, most neuro majors are the hardcore pre-health types so likely would not take a project lab over the clinical practicum course) and all science students became pre-med or something: <a href=“Oil Change | Emory University | Atlanta GA”>Oil Change | Emory University | Atlanta GA;
<p>Also, considering the fact that Emory’s incoming stats. is much lower than other elite schools, the current level of entrepreneurial spirit (and its growth) on the campus is actually not bad (as in better than some others with much " better" incoming students). I think some of the same things could likely be said for JHU (which has excellent BME program). However, I suspect great schools suffer in the start-up/entrepreneurial spirit arena when they admit students with high stats who simply don’t have the mindset to want to take risks like that. Like when you admit a bunch of hardcore pre-professionals who see themselves on a single proven track to success, many will claim that they don’t have time to dedicate to doing or thinking about such things because they must focus on getting high grades and building their resume in more traditional, “safe” ways associated with admissions to whatever professional school or employment by certain companies. Turning it around at such schools takes having or developing an atmosphere that promotes students who come in like this becoming a bit bolder. It could be elements of the curriculum that inspire students (as it appears to have for the Solazyme guys and the latest girl who is trying to “revolutionize” packaging at Emory) or administrative or student driven support for entrepreneurship. Our business school now hosting a more serious business plan competition is not bad (HackAtl) because as we know, most UG business programs are known for the innovation they crank out (but often A and S colleges and engineering schools are) and students from a robotic club (mind you that we don’t have an engineering school) started HackEmory which focuses on learning to create apps that incorporate a cool idea. The attendance at the event skyrocketed compared to its first with people coming from other schools in Atlanta and other schools within Emory to participate. The girl who created the alternative type of box also was one of the driving forces behind the theme of the almost complete freshman dorm at Emory which will be themed Social Entrepreneurship (we already have one for sustainability which has had an effect and has churned out students who successfully received grants for initiatives that promote that on campus, and we have one dorm that focuses on Creativity and Innovation, but I think they have a lot of work to day to truly promote that and bigger dorms tend to do better promoting and emphasizing their themes. Smaller dorms do better when the theme is accommodated in the curriculum. Turman encourages students to take freshman seminars on matters of citizenship for example and there are many of those. Hamilton experimented with this by selecting several students to take the ORDER freshman seminar which has students design a project, run the experiment, and defend the findings/results while the in-class component approaching a central topic from the perspective of many disciplines). </p>
<p>In other words, there are ways to improve those things, it just takes time and effort and both student and administrative (Or faculty. Like science faculty who use inquiry and discussion based methods know that if they do so successfully, they will promote more creativity and innovation among students. Interested faculty just have to be encouraged or offered incentives to use such methods of teaching) participation or demand. What shocks me is that high stats. schools like WashU and some others seem not to really catch on and draw amazing students but many then remain in an almost stereotypical pre-prof. mode. Perhaps the influence of the arts and the size of the liberal arts entity plays a role. As in, maybe many schools with more UG professional/non-CAS entities don’t do as well because students are too busy specializing in those areas to perhaps be inspired by liberal arts (which includes sciences, especially when taught differently from traditional style STEM courses) courses and experiences.</p>