These Boston-area schools produce the most startup founders

Eight Massachusetts universities are among the top producers of venture capital-backed startup founders, according to PitchBook's annual rankings.

Driving the news: Harvard is No. 3, behind Stanford University and University of California-Berkeley in the rankings, which tallied the number of alumni who have founded venture-backed companies.

• MIT ranked No. 4, ahead of University of Pennsylvania (5), Cornell University (6) and Yale University (10).

Why it matters: PitchBook's annual ranking gives a glimpse at what schools are churning out the largest number of entrepreneurs, at least those getting funded to launch and grow their startups.

Yes, but: Correlation does not equal causation, and Pitchbook isn't trying to determine whether any of these institutions are the best or worst for entrepreneurs.

• PitchBook analyzed its data based on more than 144,000 VC-backed founders, but did not analyze the program offerings.

Details: Boston University (35), Tufts University (48), Northeastern University (58), UMass Amherst (61), Boston College (62) and Babson College (96) made the list focusing on undergraduate programs.

When it comes to graduate programs, Harvard ranked second and MIT ranked third, behind Stanford.

Some Massachusetts colleges fell off the list when ranking by the largest number of female-founder alumni, but others moved up.

• At the undergraduate level, Harvard moved up to No. 2, while MIT dropped to No. 6. BU (19) and Tufts (36) also moved up.
• At the graduate level, Harvard topped the list, followed by Stanford and MIT. BU (27) also made the list.