US Midwest

University of Dayton

School of Business Administration

Dayton, Ohio

Entrepreneurship Overview

October 2008

Program Overview

In the fall of 1999, the University of Dayton started both an undergraduate major and minor in Entrepreneurship (ENT), opened the L. William Crotty Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership and established the first Entrepreneur-In-Residence position.  The summer of 2005 started an official concentration in Entrepreneurship for the UD MBA program.  The Princeton Review and Entrepreneur Magazine have ranked the Dayton undergraduate entrepreneurship program as a top five program for the years 2006, 2007 and 2008. 

Organization

The ENT major is one of ten majors within the School of Business Administration undergraduate program of 1600 undergraduates.  Students apply as second semester freshmen for the ENT major, must have a GPA of 2.7 or higher, and start the major at the beginning of their sophomore year.  The major requires each student take seven ENT courses out of a current offering of twelve different courses.  Five of the twelve courses are ‘required courses.’  Robert Chelle serves as the Director of the Crotty Center, Entrepreneur-In-Residence and as an instructor for certain academic courses.  The Crotty Center also has a 20 member Advisory Council that meets twice a year.

Outreach

The Crotty Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership has sponsored a seminar series of selected ENT topics for local emerging entrepreneurs.  It also sponsors an active Entrepreneur Internship Program, the U.D. Entrepreneurship Club (a C-E-O affiliate), an internal UD business plan competition, a commercial real estate challenge contest for ENT majors and an Entrepreneur Mentorship Program.  In 2005 the Center created the Entrepreneurs-At-The-Table (EATT), where local entrepreneurs have lunch and network with ENT majors on a periodic basis.  The Crotty Center also operates a web site used by students and local entrepreneurs as a resource for other information: www.crottycenter.com.

Curriculum – Undergraduate Programs

As of August 2008, UD has 165 ENT majors from the sophomore, junior and senior class.  As the 2.7 GPA eliminates 1/4 of freshmen from applying for the major, the typical 300 students entering the School of Business freshmen class will have 50 to 60 apply from the eligible pool of 225 freshmen.  The current overall GPA of all ENT majors is 3.3.  As students do not have to declare minors until their senior year, it is estimated we have another 125 students as ENT minors, with these students primarily from the business school.  A popular and distinctive feature of our undergraduate program is the first ENT curriculum course, the Sophomore Entrepreneurial Experience.  The University lends venture capital of $5,000 to each team of seven students running for-profit micro-companies under a yearlong course taught by the Crotty Center Director.  At year’s end, the University is paid back its venture capital and profits are donated to local charities.  Of the current 165 ENT majors, 43% come from family businesses.

Curriculum – Graduate Programs

The University of Dayton has a 40-year-old MBA program with approximately 600 part time students.  In the summer of 2005, our MBA program approved and started a concentration in entrepreneurship requiring 4 out of 12 courses taken be graduate level ‘entrepreneurship’ courses.

For More Information

University of Dayton, School of Business Administration, Dayton, Ohio, 45469-2231.  Contact Robert Chelle, Director.  Crotty Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership, at 937-229-2022, fax 937-229-3216, or chelle@udayton.edu.  Our website is www.crottycenter.com.