When it comes to starting your own company, it does seem to matter what you did in college…

New research from the US Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy’s Chad Moutray takes a look at self-employment among a cohort of adults who graduated from college in 1993. Ten years later, the self-employed among this cohort shared a number of characteristics. They were more likely to have majored in fields outside of business, science and engineering, and also tended to have lower grade point averages while in college. Business and management majors were among the least likely to consider self-employment. This finding offers further evidence in support of ongoing efforts to “infuse entrepreneurship across the college curriculum,” i.e. to introduce entrepreneurship training to all students, not just those in business majors.

Download the October 2008 US Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy report, “Baccalaureate Education and the Employment Decision: Self Employment and the Class of 1993,” by Chad Moutray.