In trying to develop rich entrepreneurial ecosystems, many institutions are following a playbook established years ago by Stanford and M.I.T., which involves academic courses, practical experience and an extended alumni advisory network.

Some universities are redoubling their efforts.

Princeton offers a variety of entrepreneurship courses. But, in a report released in May, a university advisory committee concluded that Princeton had fallen behind competing schools that had made “major upgrades” to their programs.

Among other issues, the report said, Princeton had allotted “only 1,500 square feet” for student incubator and accelerator programs, “whereas Cornell has 364,000; Penn 200,000; Berkeley 108,000; Harvard 30,000; Stanford 12,000; Yale 7,700; N.Y.U. 6,000; and Columbia 5,000.”

In November, Princeton celebrated the opening of a 10,000-square-foot Entrepreneurial Hub near campus. The university is also starting a summer internship program in Manhattan so that students can spend time at young companies. Mung Chiang, the director of the Keller Center for Innovation in Engineering Education at Princeton, said the university wanted to help students, faculty and alumni become more entrepreneurial in business, government and nonprofit work.

“It’s about broadening people’s mind-sets and capabilities,” Professor Chiang said.

The growth in campus entrepreneurship is clear, administrators say. In 1985, college campuses in the United States offered only about 250 courses in entrepreneurship, according to a recent report from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, which finances entrepreneurship education and training. In 2013, more than 400,000 students were taking such courses.

The prospect of starting the next Snapchat or Instagram is one attraction for students. But in a tight job market, where young adults say they expect to change employers every few years, some undergraduates are signing up for start-up training in the hope of acquiring self-employment skills.