This Week’s College: Babson College Babson Park, Massachusetts
Babson is not your normal liberal arts school. It has a liberal arts program but unlike most small colleges Babson is a specialty school. All of their 2,107 students major in Business or Marketing. In fact, Money Magazine has ranked them number 2 in the nation for their curriculum in Entrepreneurship, Business, and Finance. This puts them just behind Stanford, but ahead of MIT, Harvard, and Princeton, oh and they are the only one on the list to get an A rating from Money while we’re talking stats here
Students can have a liberal arts concentration (Environmental Sustainability, Identity and Cultural Relations) but these are meant to be hand in hand with the business models so that students can pursue futures in the real world of business. Going to Babson is like going for your MBA but starting out in your freshman year. The upside to this is that they place 99% of their graduates in places like Bear Stearns, Citigroup, Ernst & Young, Price Waterhouse, JP Morgan Chase, Estee Lauder and more who begin their own business (possibly with the cash prize awarded by Babson for their business plan competition!).
Babson is committed to two very unique methodologies: Entrepreneurial Thought and Action and Entrepreneurship of All Kinds. ET&A is meant to help solve any problem whether it be in your business, or your home. The steps are to start with the means at hand, take the first step, make a difference, and then get started. Babson believes that ultimately entrepreneurs are problem solvers. This can also be seen in their belief in Entrepreneurship of All Kinds. EAK is the conviction that entrepreneurship encompasses anyone who continually assesses how to use their strengths and resources to reach their goals. This means that everyone from a jazz musician to a tech startup, from a writer to a community activist is ultimately an entrepreneur.
In keeping with this rather expansive view of what business is, Babson is also very eager to create a diverse student body. To this end they draw students from all over the country but also the world. They actively recruit underserved students and support varied learning styles by offering a wide variety of class times during day and evening (they have a huge program for people who work full time and are working on their MBA at the same time). They also have a yearly program dedicated to remembering Martin Luther King, Jr. during which his legacy is examined by keynote speakers, contests and more. This is heady stuff given that social problems are usually not taken on by the likes of high finance.
Babson also offers multiple study abroad opportunities by partnering with many different businesses, NGOs, and universities. Go to Wellington, New Zeeland and study International Relations, or maybe Shanghai, China to see how it works at the Shanghai Urban Planning Center. Maybe you want to use your Spanish in Chile doing consulting work, or take business management classes in Singapore. Whatever you’re into, there’s probably a program you’d like.
As a DIII school, Babson still manages to field 22 varsity teams including ice hockey, golf, volleyball, soccer and alpine skiing. If sports aren’t your thing, it’s ok because there are over 100 other clubs and activities available to you and the city of Boston is only about 20 minutes away by T (the commuter metro). Join the Dance Ensemble, the African American Student Union, the Nerf Club, a theater group, or get involved in a poetry slam or Greek Life. Attend a fashion show, Founders Day, or Midnight Breakfast. Or take the T into the city for a show to Kenmore Square to catch the Sox play at Fenway. Or maybe your friends will meet you there after you finish up at work at Prudential. It’s only a stop or two.
Pros:
Babson is not your normal liberal arts school. It has a liberal arts program but unlike most small colleges Babson is a specialty school. All of their 2,107 students major in Business or Marketing. In fact, Money Magazine has ranked them number 2 in the nation for their curriculum in Entrepreneurship, Business, and Finance. This puts them just behind Stanford, but ahead of MIT, Harvard, and Princeton, oh and they are the only one on the list to get an A rating from Money while we’re talking stats here
Students can have a liberal arts concentration (Environmental Sustainability, Identity and Cultural Relations) but these are meant to be hand in hand with the business models so that students can pursue futures in the real world of business. Going to Babson is like going for your MBA but starting out in your freshman year. The upside to this is that they place 99% of their graduates in places like Bear Stearns, Citigroup, Ernst & Young, Price Waterhouse, JP Morgan Chase, Estee Lauder and more who begin their own business (possibly with the cash prize awarded by Babson for their business plan competition!).
Babson is committed to two very unique methodologies: Entrepreneurial Thought and Action and Entrepreneurship of All Kinds. ET&A is meant to help solve any problem whether it be in your business, or your home. The steps are to start with the means at hand, take the first step, make a difference, and then get started. Babson believes that ultimately entrepreneurs are problem solvers. This can also be seen in their belief in Entrepreneurship of All Kinds. EAK is the conviction that entrepreneurship encompasses anyone who continually assesses how to use their strengths and resources to reach their goals. This means that everyone from a jazz musician to a tech startup, from a writer to a community activist is ultimately an entrepreneur.
In keeping with this rather expansive view of what business is, Babson is also very eager to create a diverse student body. To this end they draw students from all over the country but also the world. They actively recruit underserved students and support varied learning styles by offering a wide variety of class times during day and evening (they have a huge program for people who work full time and are working on their MBA at the same time). They also have a yearly program dedicated to remembering Martin Luther King, Jr. during which his legacy is examined by keynote speakers, contests and more. This is heady stuff given that social problems are usually not taken on by the likes of high finance.
Babson also offers multiple study abroad opportunities by partnering with many different businesses, NGOs, and universities. Go to Wellington, New Zeeland and study International Relations, or maybe Shanghai, China to see how it works at the Shanghai Urban Planning Center. Maybe you want to use your Spanish in Chile doing consulting work, or take business management classes in Singapore. Whatever you’re into, there’s probably a program you’d like.
As a DIII school, Babson still manages to field 22 varsity teams including ice hockey, golf, volleyball, soccer and alpine skiing. If sports aren’t your thing, it’s ok because there are over 100 other clubs and activities available to you and the city of Boston is only about 20 minutes away by T (the commuter metro). Join the Dance Ensemble, the African American Student Union, the Nerf Club, a theater group, or get involved in a poetry slam or Greek Life. Attend a fashion show, Founders Day, or Midnight Breakfast. Or take the T into the city for a show to Kenmore Square to catch the Sox play at Fenway. Or maybe your friends will meet you there after you finish up at work at Prudential. It’s only a stop or two.
Pros:
- It’s very, very specialized
- It prepares you to think in very flexible and adaptable ways about entrepreneurship
- It’s preparing you for today’s world
- You will be competitive with anyone who has an MBA: People in the business world know Babson
- It’s not a well rounded education
- If you do end up going back for an MBA, you will be really bored
- It’s definitely attractive to really only one type of person
- It’s very, very specialized