Babson College is a private business school in Wellesley, Massachusetts — just outside of Boston — that offers a four-year undergraduate business degree program. In Fall 2018 the school received 6,383 applications from students who were interested in joining, and 1,558 were admitted. A total of 539 undergraduate business majors entered, and the total full-time enrollment for all business majors in Fall 2018 was 2,361.
Babson College offers a Bachelor of Science degree that integrates a business and liberal arts curriculum. Students can choose to concentrate in almost 30 wide-ranging domains of business, entrepreneurship, and liberal arts.
“Babson shapes the leaders our world needs most through Entrepreneurial Thought and Action, a methodology that’s woven into our educational experience to emphasize the importance of action, experimentation, and creativity in business and beyond. Our graduates have strong functional knowledge and the strategic thinking and vision to navigate change, accommodate ambiguity, surmount complexity, and motivate teams,” Ian Lapp, dean of the Undergraduate School, shared with P&Q. “Every day, Babson students are learning to address real-world business and societal problems to create sustainable economic and social value in today’s fast-paced global economy.”
In a survey conducted by Poets&Quants, about 85% of alums said they felt the program prepared them well for the world of work, and 60% said that it provided them with exceptional opportunities to nurture and improve their business skills.
SCHOOL FEATURES FIRST-YEAR FOUNDATIONS OF MANAGEMENT AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP COURSE
Every student at Babson is engaged through four core experiences: Foundations of Management and Entrepreneurship, Coaching for Leadership and Teamwork Program, First-Year Seminar, and Arts and Humanities/ History and Society Foundation.
A business education at Babson begins with the first-year seminar for all students, where they are guided to think about the value of a diverse and inclusive environment, what proactive learning means, their personal beliefs, and what they want their impact in society to look like and how to get there. Using the “Discover, explore, and engage” process, the weekly seminar is aimed at helping students transition into college, which is an especially crucial piece of support for first-generation college students.
The Foundations of Management and Entrepreneurship course is a yearlong program where students create, research, plan, launch, and manage a business to get hands-on learning on what it means to have a startup on their hands. Students form teams and start businesses with loans from the college of up to $3,000. Each team is also expected to donate 80 hours of community services and profits from their business to a social services agency of their choice. Since 1999, FME businesses have donated over $470,000 to local charities.
GLOBAL STUDY OPTIONS
About 60% of alumni from the Class of 2016 said that they travel abroad while at Babson. While the school offers 79 semester abroad opportunities to students, 48 are business-specific and give students the option to study in institutes worldwide.
Lena Wu, Class of 2016, said that she would recommend the Babson undergraduate degree program without hesitation to close friends and colleagues, and that she had multiple opportunities to engage in immersive experiences.
Wu participated in two study abroad electives in Spain and Chile that involved pre-trip and post-trip coursework, worked on a social business for 4 months before visiting Kumasi, Ghana to speak with stakeholders and train a group of manufacturers with corporate and NGO sponsorship, presented as a team of regional finalists in London for the Hult Prize competition, and consulted for the sports brand, Reebok, as part of an experimental education course. She also shared that she took on five business-related internships while at Babson, and is working as an Advisory Associate at PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Wu was not alone. Almost 70% of the Class of 2016 shared with P&Q that they were engaged in a signature experience.
The school reports that 90% of students in both the classes of 2017 and 2018 completed at least one business-specific internship before graduation, and about 92% of graduates from both classes secured full-time employment within a couple months of graduating. The average overall salary for business majors with full-time employment from the Class of 2017 was $56,519, while with the Class of 2018, this increased marginally to $57,665. About 20% of those from the Class of 2017 received signing bonuses in the average amount of $6,921, and 30% of graduates from the Class of 2018 received signing bonuses, the average amount being $6,718.
But life at Babson isn’t all work and no fun. Aside from all the programs that have been put in place to make sure students know they’re there to be led to success, there are also programs in place to remind them that success requires rest as well. At the end of every fall semester, just before the start of finals, the Babson family comes together for a meal. This time, they’re not there for an etiquette dinner, or even for dinner. Instead, everyone feasts on breakfast in the evening, served by faculty and staff, at a tradition fondly called the Late Night Breakfast.
For a detailed interview with Babson Assistant Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Courtney Minden, click here.
What Alumni Say:
“Babson starts you off freshman year with Foundations of Management and Entrepreneurship (FME). FME takes students through the life cycle of running a business – we break into groups and come up with “rocket pitches,” and vote as a class on the best ideas. We then go through more filtering down of business ideas with feasibility presentations, until we have two businesses per class. In the second semester, funded by Babson (up to $3k), we ran the businesses and attempted to make a profit, with any profits being donated to charity.” – Recent Alum
“I participated in the Foundations of Management and Entrepreneurship course, the San Francisco Semester Away program (which included the Consulting in Tech Entrepreneurship (CiTE) course and the Silicon Technology Ventures course), the Made in Japan: Institutional Environment & Entrepreneurial Opportunities course (Japan Elective Abroad), the Living the Social Entrepreneurial Experience course, and the Affordable Design and Entrepreneurship course. Each signature experience included a team-based project that was real-world and action-oriented. The venture my team founded in my Silicon Technology Ventures course is currently active and successful. One of the original team members runs and owns this company.” – Recent Alum
“I was engaged in numerous immersive experiences, including 1) participated in two study abroad electives in Spain and Chile (with pre-trip and post-trip coursework) 2) worked on a social business for four months before visiting Kumasi, Ghana to speak to stakeholders and train the manufacturers with corporate and NGO sponsorship 3) presented as regional finalists at one of 5 locations (London) for the Hult Prize competition 4) consulted for Reebok as part of an experimental education course.” – Recent Alum
Where The Class of 2018 Went To Work:
Wayfair – 23
PwC – 16
EY – 10
Dell EMC – 7
Restaurant Brands International – 7
Fidelity Investments – 6
TJX Companies – 5
J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. – 5
Deloitte – 4
UBS – 3
Bank of America Merrill Lynch – 3
Vayner Media – 3
Peloton Group – 3
Accenture – 3
Applause – 3
Wellington Management – 3
Morgan Stanley – 3
KPMG – 3
Wafra Investment Advisory Group – 3