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Isabella Bank Institute for Entrepreneurship

We are a dedicated institute for student entrepreneurs across campus and beyond. We aim to maximize your success by fostering your entrepreneurial mindset, promote inter-disciplinary collaboration and provide support for the creation and development of your new ventures. Jumpstart your ideas and get involved today!

Tune in for excitement!

Passion. Potential. Pitches. Don't miss any of the 2025 New Venture Challenge excitement.

Tune in Friday, April 11 at 1 p.m. for great ideas and fierce competition. Then, join the judges, mentors, spectators and teams as they see who is going home with thousands of dollars in venture financing. The awards broadcast begins at 6:30 p.m. and one team will walk away as the overall best venture. 

Start your entrepreneurial journey

Central Michigan University’s College of Business Administration is the home of the Isabella Bank Institute for Entrepreneurship and the first Department of Entrepreneurship in the state of Michigan. We are a student-centric hub where experiential, curricular, and external entrepreneurial opportunities intersect.

Our mission is to maximize student success by fostering a campus-wide entrepreneurial mindset that promotes inter-disciplinary collaboration and the creation of new ventures.

We aim to create innovative programming, boost cross-campus and ecosystem collaboration and provide a comprehensive mentoring program.

Our institute provides extracurricular opportunities and is open to all undergraduate and graduate CMU students.

Student opportunities

  • Meet experienced alumni, faculty, entrepreneurs, investors, and other business and political leaders.
  • Learn practical skills, innovative thinking, and connect with mentors and entrepreneurial resources.
  • Attend skill-building workshops and compete in pitch competitions and Hackathons.
  • Take part in special scholarship programs and travel experiences.
  • Pitch your venture at our signature New Venture Challenge event and compete for up to $20,000 in cash awards.

      Find your path

      Are you interested in becoming an entrepreneur?

      Every journey is unique. Explore the opportunities that interest you.

      CMU amps up Merit Scholarship

      by Sanjna Jassi
      A new CMU scholarship starting in fall 2020 offers up to a 75% savings on tuition based on an incoming student’s SAT score and high school GPA.

      A new Central Michigan University scholarship program offers awards up to 75% of tuition.

      The Maroon and Gold Merit Recognition Scholarship replaces the Merit Scholarship starting in fall 2020. Designed with student success top of mind, it exceeds the current program's top award by more than 44%.

      "Providing students a financial path to achieve their CMU degree is a fundamental part of living up to our strategic plan to nurture student success," said Lee Furbeck, CMU's executive director for admissions.

      Since 2010, CMU has increased scholarships and financial aid opportunities from $40.4 million to $71.9 million.

       

      How it works

      The new scholarship's six award levels — ranging from 20%-75% of tuition — are based on a combination of an incoming student's SAT score and high school GPA.

      And because the award is a percentage of tuition cost — a feature unique to CMU's program among Michigan public universities — its value rises as recipients progress through CMU's new upper/lower tuition structure or if tuition rates change.

      Students with at least a 3.0 GPA and an SAT score of 970 or higher qualify. Students with a 2.9 GPA are eligible with an SAT score of at least 1060.

      The combination of GPA and SAT score determines a student's award eligibility. Students' ACT scores are converted to SAT equivalents.

      The sliding scale is based on an Academic Preparedness Index that balances lower performance on one criterion with higher performance on the other — and gives greater weight to GPA overall.

      "The previous merit award placed more weight on the standardized test score, but new analyses conducted for CMU shows high school GPA is a better predictor of student success," Furbeck said.

      To qualify for the top award, for example, a student can have a 1,540 SAT score with a 3.8 GPA or a 1,360 SAT score with a 4.0 GPA.

      To keep their scholarship, recipients must successfully complete 30 new CMU credit hours per academic year and maintain a 3.0 cumulative CMU GPA. Students who lose their scholarship due to academic performance may regain it by raising their cumulative CMU GPA to the required level.

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