Any experience with Babson?

[Anonymous]

My daughter is seriously considering it. We haven’t visited, so trying to get a sense of the place and the type of student that goes there.

[Anonymous]

Pre-business but not smart enough to get into Wharton, Stern, etc. Because everyone is pre-business it is a very homogeneous culture. Some might view that as a positive, others may not.

I personally prefer more well-rounded people who have been taught to think and I will mold them, but many businesses feel otherwise.

[Anonymous]

It is a business school though it does incorporate the liberal arts and sciences. It is not a pre-business school and unless one believes undergraduate business schools are deemed "pre business" It is not a university but there are opportunities to take classes at Olin (engineering) and at Wellesley. Babson has a first year class Foundations of Management and Entrepreneurship, which is unique. It is a year long class where students start, manage and then wind down a business. "Students work in teams to launch, manage, and liquidate a business venture. While participating, topics like marketing, accounting, information systems, and organizational behavior while experiencing the challenges of teamwork, uncertainty, and decision-making." There is a lot of hands on learning and a focus on entrepreneurial leadership.

A homogeneous culture, to some extent I would agree, all interested in some sort of business path, But there is also diversity there is quite a large international population, for its size there are many clubs as well as its proximity to Boston and over 250K undergraduate students in the Boston vicinity.

There is a small Greek life presence, for sports it is D3 and no football team so if looking for that type of school spirit, Babson may not be the place. Wellesley is a cute town, Babson's campus is an idyllic New England campus

The President of the school is doing a fabulous job, Babson is finding its niche and is no longer a pre business school for kids not smart enough for Wharton, Stern etc.

Good luck and if your daughter is seriously considering I suggest heading up to Wellesley and checking it out.

[Anonymous]

I think someone asked about Babson last year so check the archives, but I grew up near there. Wellesley is very suburban, last stop on the green line trains (& the college is not close to the T stop). Pretty campus, not really walkable to downtown (which is sleepy). Lots of green. I cannot speak to current academics but my DS who just graduated from HS briefly considered it even though he didn't want cold weather. I think it may have a good entrepreneurship program. I also think you should check the gender balance - I think it skews male.

[Anonymous]

We toured Babson. Very entrepreneurship focused. The guide said even the non-business courses were taught through a business lens, like what kind of business would you create to meet an environmental science need.

The campus is nice and it is very green and wooded, not a lot of open grass space compared to trees. They have a very cool innovation lab where you can make prototypes of almost anything.

I liked lots of things about it as far as curriculum and focus. But at the end of the day I agreed with my son’s assessment: it felt like, “Hi! I’m Babson. Money.” It felt a little devoid of values beyond making money and like it could be very lacrosse bro-ish.

We didn’t feel the same way about Bentley or even Bryant. I work in business and I would rank how much I liked them as Bentley, Babson, then Bryant. My son would rank them Bentley, Bryant, then Babson.

My other concern was it really didn’t offer any majors outside Business so you’d need to be very certain you only wanted to study business. At least at Bentley and Bryant it is clearly a business school at heart but also offered other humanities majors to partner with that.

[Anonymous]

DH went there 15 years ago and formed meaningful connections there. But it is niche: Excellent school for entrepreneurship.

A very nice, woodsy location (Wellesley -- think sort of like Greenwich CT, but in MA). Innovative curriculum. However, NOT finance-focused like Wharton, HBS, etc.

It is really a wonderful school, but with a very specific curriculum.

(DH has done well working at a series of solar-oriented start-ups.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pre-business but not smart enough to get into Wharton, Stern, etc. Because everyone is pre-business it is a very homogeneous culture. Some might view that as a positive, others may not.

I personally prefer more well-rounded people who have been taught to think and I will mold them, but many businesses feel otherwise.

Babson doesn't have a pre-business curriculum per se. It's very different from Wharton. I'd liken it more to Ross or UC Berkeley.

[Anonymous]

Nice location.

[Anonymous]

Seems like a school on the rise. Obviously not suited to a kid who is undecided/wants an intellectual experience. But that isn't everyone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is a business school though it does incorporate the liberal arts and sciences. It is not a pre-business school and unless one believes undergraduate business schools are deemed "pre business" It is not a university but there are opportunities to take classes at Olin (engineering) and at Wellesley. Babson has a first year class Foundations of Management and Entrepreneurship, which is unique. It is a year long class where students start, manage and then wind down a business. "Students work in teams to launch, manage, and liquidate a business venture. While participating, topics like marketing, accounting, information systems, and organizational behavior while experiencing the challenges of teamwork, uncertainty, and decision-making." There is a lot of hands on learning and a focus on entrepreneurial leadership.

A homogeneous culture, to some extent I would agree, all interested in some sort of business path, But there is also diversity there is quite a large international population, for its size there are many clubs as well as its proximity to Boston and over 250K undergraduate students in the Boston vicinity.

There is a small Greek life presence, for sports it is D3 and no football team so if looking for that type of school spirit, Babson may not be the place. Wellesley is a cute town, Babson's campus is an idyllic New England campus

The President of the school is doing a fabulous job, Babson is finding its niche and is no longer a pre business school for kids not smart enough for Wharton, Stern etc.

Good luck and if your daughter is seriously considering I suggest heading up to Wellesley and checking it out.

Excellent summary.

[Anonymous]

Probably better outcomes than BC and BU.

[Anonymous]

Is there really grade deflation at Babson?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Seems like a school on the rise. Obviously not suited to a kid who is undecided/wants an intellectual experience. But that isn't everyone.

+1

[Anonymous]

We went on a tour. My son summed up the school as “bros and orange girls.” Also the tour guide touted the fact that that students are allowed to have 2 cars each on campus as a big plus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We went on a tour. My son summed up the school as “bros and orange girls.” Also the tour guide touted the fact that that students are allowed to have 2 cars each on campus as a big plus.

What are orange girls?