Making The Grade
College programs offer real-world business experience.
University students today no longer covet management positions
with high salaries and stable pension plans. Scared off by the
downsiz- ing of corporate America, they're becoming
entrepreneurs instead.
Nationwide, schools of entrepreneurship are turning these
talented students--and their fledgling businesses--out into the
world. And because students who double as business owners can
access state-of-the-art computers, research libraries and
entrepreneurial professors who give free business advice,
they're in a critical position to prepare themselves for the
real world.
But even with such incentives, college entrepreneurship has its
pitfalls. "It's difficult to give the business the
attention it needs," says William D. Bygrave, director of the
Arthur M. Blank Center for Entrepreneurship at Babson College in
Wellesley, Massachusetts. "And if the business grows rapidly,
the student might drop out of school."
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Jeremy Weiner, founder of Cover-It, a textbook-cover
manufacturer in Boston, agrees. "At times, I was very close to
quitting college," he says. "I had to say no to sales,
and it hindered my company's growth."
Upon graduating, students must decide whether to continue
without the support of parents and college loans. "When
[college entrepreneurs] leave school, they're no longer
surrounded by friends and family," says Bygrave. "They
suddenly have overhead, and the business has to support them with
an adequate income."
For most students schooled in entrepreneurship, however, the
independence is well worth the risks.
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