The Entrepreneurship Minor
The Entrepreneurship Minor is the most popular minor on campus, drawing students from both the School of Arts and Science and the School of Engineering. Students learn to work and think like entrepreneurs and speak the language of business by taking the equivalent of 5 dynamic courses taught by award-winning entrepreneurs and investors.
The Entrepreneurship Minor is anchored by our foundational course, ENT101 “Entrepreneurship and Business Planning,” where you will learn the skills needed to start a new venture over the course of a semester. You will then have the opportunity to choose from over 16 additional courses to round out your skillset, covering topics such as finance, marketing, leadership, law, team management, and sector-specific topics.
The ENT minor will help you develop the mindset and skillset you can apply to your life after graduation – whether it is graduate school, starting or working for a startup or small business, joining a larger organization (for-profit or non-profit), or even joining a government agency.
Exciting upgrade to the minor in Fall 2022
Starting in Fall 2022, students will have increased flexibility in how they earn the minor. The requirements to complete the Entrepreneurship Minor (ENT Minor), effective from September 2022 onward, are listed below. These changes are 100% backwards compatible with the legacy requirements. If you have already planned your courses with the legacy requirements, you will automatically qualify for the minor under these new requirements.
Unless marked “Fall only” or “Spring only”, ENT courses are offered year round. For details on AY2022-2023, view the Fall 2022 or Spring 2023 ENT course pages.
Please note that no more than 2 courses used towards the minor may be used towards any other degree requirement.
Required Foundational Course:
- ENT101 Entrepreneurship and Business Planning (3 credits). Acceptable substitutions include:
- ENT151 Entrepreneurship for Computer Science (3 credits) – Spring only
- ENT161 Consumer Product Ventures (3 credits) – Fall only
- BME 194.01 Biomedical Entrepreneurship & Strategy (3 credits) – Spring only
A total of 12 additional credits consisting of:
(A) At least 6 credits in Core courses
- ENT103 Entrepreneurial Finance (NEW as of Sept 2022: 4 credits)
- ENT105 Entrepreneurial Marketing (3 credits)
- ENT106 The Science of Sales (Added to core list as of Sept 2022: 3 credits) – Spring only
- ENT107 Entrepreneurial Leadership (3 credits). Acceptable substitutions include:
- CVS170 Developing Leaders In A Civic Context (3 credits)
- EM54 Engineering Leadership (3 credits)
(B) Additional electives
New for Fall 2022: 2-credit electives
- ENT193.01 Introduction to Making – Fall only
- ENT193.02 Paths to Entrepreneurship – Fall only, second half (Oct 31-Dec 12, 2022)
- ENT193.20 | TGI0110 Preparing New and Aspiring Leaders
- ENT193.21 | TGI0111 Developing Financial Literacy
- ENT193.24 | TGI0114 Planning your career pathway
3-credit electives
- ENT 100 Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurial Thinking
- ENT 109 Societal Aspects of Design – Fall only
- ENT 141/AMER 141 Innovative Social Enterprises – Spring only
- ENT 162 Bringing Products to Market – Spring only
- ENT 163 Entrepreneurial Business Law – Fall only
- ENT193.04 Non-Profits, Philanthropy and Impact – Fall only
- ENT193.05 Team and Talent Management – Spring only
- ENT194.01 Entrepreneurial Internships
- ENT194.02 Inside the Classroom
- ENT199 Entrepreneurial Field Studies
- TPS 58 – Public Speaking
- EC 03 – Financial Accounting
- EC 50 – Introduction to Finance
- EM 51 – Engineering Management
- EM 52 – Technical and Managerial Communications
- EM 54 – Engineering Leadership
- EM 153 Management of Innovation
- UEP 130 Negotiation, Mediation, & Conflict Resolution
- NUTR 280 | ENT193.03 Nutrition and Entrepreneurship
View legacy requirements for students graduating in Spring 2022 or earlier
How to declare the minor
Follow these instructions to declare the Entrepreneurship Minor.
Declaring the minor
Students must declare the minor with the Registrar’s office. Please visit the Major and Minor Declaration page to learn more about this process. You can complete this process at any point during your experience with the Entrepreneurship Minor.
Completing the minor certification form
After declaring the minor with Student Services, students must complete the Minor Certification Form. This can be completed before you have finished all required courses and before you have received final grades. Once the form is approved, we will return a signed copy to the student’s email address. Students will then bring the signed form to Student Services before their graduation period’s deadline.
Entrepreneurship Courses (ENT Prefix)
Students interested in studying innovation and entrepreneurship are welcome to take ENT courses whether or not they are planning to declare the ENT minor. We have a portfolio of courses, each of which offers an enriching experience for students curious about the entrepreneurial method.
All ENT courses include the following class attributes:
BFA-Social Science, LA-Distribution-Social Sciences, SoE-HASS-Social Sciences.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between “Entrepreneurial Leadership Studies” (ELS) and “Entrepreneurship” (ENT)?
ELS (Entrepreneurial Leadership Studies) was the original name for our minor. In 2020 we changed the name of the minor to ENT (Entrepreneurship) to better reflect the focus of our courses and minor.
As a title, “Entrepreneurship” more clearly encompasses all of the courses offered within the minor. Any ELS courses that have been successfully completed will count towards the ENT minor. Students completing the minor’s graduation requirements on or after June 2020 can receive the ENT minor. Students who matriculated in 2019 or earlier have the option to receive the ELS minor if that is preferred. Registration for Fall 2020 forward will use the ENT course coding, however, the numerical course identifiers will not change.
I heard that there is an exciting expansion coming to the ENT Minor. What is that about?
Exciting changes are coming for the ENT Minor effective from September 2022 onward! We are moving to more flexible requirements to allow students the opportunity to obtain a solid foundation in entrepreneurship along with the flexibility to pursue courses that align with students’ interests. These requirements are 100% backwards compatible with existing requirements, so students who are on track to earn the minor will not need to change their plans. Students who have not yet completed their minor requirements will have more flexibility to choose courses in their area of interest while receiving a solid foundation for the entrepreneurial method.
Are the changes only relevant for incoming freshmen?
No, the changes are relevant for anyone graduating in Fall 2022 and beyond. We understand that if you are graduating in 2022, you may have already planned to take courses according to the old requirements. Don’t worry – you can earn the minor on time because the changes to the minor are 100% backwards compatible.
Do the new requirements mean I don’t have to take all core courses, for example, Entrepreneurial Finance?
Yes, you can earn the minor without taking all the core courses, you only need to earn 12 credits, 6 of which need to be chosen from the core courses. That said, we strongly recommend all ENT minor students to take at least one course in accounting or finance. For AY2022-2023, if you elect not to take Entrepreneurial Finance (4 credits, a must-have for students contemplating a career in investment banking or financial services in any capacity), you can choose to take EC3 Financial Accounting or EC 50 Introduction to Finance. For AY2023-2024 and beyond, we anticipate introducing additional finance courses at an introductory level (2-3 credits)for entrepreneurial students.
What new courses are you planning to add in 2022-2023?
We will be adding a number of electives in 2022-2023, including:
- ENT193.01 Introduction to Making (2-credits) – open to all students, including freshmen. Taught by Mac Cameron and Elaine Chen – both entrepreneurs and master makers with lots of experience building interactive/connected things. You will learn to create things, design circuits, and write code with zero previous experience necessary. You will learn how to fail fast and how to make rapid prototypes and iterate – all of which are fundamental tenets of the entrepreneurial mindset. By the end of the semester you will be building interactive prototypes with lights and moving parts. Labs will be held in the NOLOP Fast facility.
- ENT193.02 Paths to Entrepreneurship (2-credits) – open to all students, including freshmen. Taught by Phillip Ellison and Alex Ocampo – both Tufts alumni who have forged their own paths towards entrepreneurship. You will learn how entrepreneurs have impact through the prototypical startup path as well as non-traditional paths, including but not limited to building side hustles, consulting, and building new ventures within a larger company.
- We also anticipate adding exciting new cross-listed 2-credit courses with our parent organization, Tufts Gordon Institute (TGI) covering topics such as Financial Literacy, Communications Skills, and more.
I will be spending my semester abroad. How do I get transfer credits for ENT courses?
You can get transfer credits for entrepreneurship courses taken abroad if our faculty reviewer approves your course as either a direct substitute of an existing course, or as a course with relevant subject matter that is acceptable as an elective. We do not issue transfer credits for core courses – typically transfer credits are only issued for elective courses.
To get transfer credits, please follow these instructions:
- Read the registrar’s article on transfer credits carefully and verify your institution and course meet criteria for transfer credits
- Get the course syllabus from the school you will be taking the course from
- Map the number of credits that the other university issues to equivalent SHUs based on the number of hours of work expected (a 3 SHU course in the ENT department involves 3 hours in class and 6-9 hours outside the classroom per week for 14 weeks.)
- Email the credit mapping, course syllabus, and a summary of what ENT courses you have already taken and what career path you are interested in pursuing to carol.denning@tufts.edu and jill.parlee@tufts.edu
- We will forward your request to the most relevant faculty member who teaches a related course for review
- If the faculty member recommends that we accept your course as a transfer credit, you can then make the request through SIS.
I have questions about the new requirements. Who can I talk to?
Please email Carol Denning at carol.denning@tufts.edu. Thanks!