Business school has not always been thought of as the best place to launch a company — billionaire tech investor Peter Thiel will even pay entrepreneurs to drop out of college.

After all, entrepreneurs are synonymous with college dropouts — à la Facebook founder and Harvard University dropout Mark Zuckerberg.

Yet today's business students are increasingly shunning cushy corporate gigs in favour of founding risky entrepreneurial ventures — think Renaud Laplanche of Lending Club or Philip Inghelbrecht of Shazam.

The Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine recently ranked the 25 best graduate schools for entrepreneurs.

Harvard University finished No 1 for the third consecutive year. Babson College is second and Rice University is third.

The survey asked schools to report on levels of their commitment to entrepreneurship studies inside and outside the classroom. Business schools have made big efforts to increase their support for entrepreneurs.

More than 40 data points were analyzed for the tally to determine the rankings, including the percentage of students actively and successfully involved in start-ups; the number and reach of mentorship programs, scholarships and grants for entrepreneurs; and the level of support for business plan competitions.

“These colleges and business schools have superb entrepreneurship programs,” said Robert Franek, The Princeton Review’s senior VP-publisher. “We highly recommend them to any applicant aspiring to launch a business.”

Here’s the top-25: