<p>It was a while ago but I do remember trying desperately to find more information about Babson and talk with a current student when I was looking into accepting my offer to Babson, and so hopefully with this post I can help some other prospective students out. Also feel free to private message me if you don’t want to post. </p>
<p>I am a current Junior with a focus in Finance. </p>
<p>MODERATOR’S NOTE: Anyone is free to ask or answer questions in this thread.</p>
<p>I’m seriously considering Babson, especially because of everything I’ve heard about the liberal arts/business mic, FME, and the flexibility with concentrations. One of the few things that worries me, though, is social life. I’m not an extremely social person, but I definitely want to be able to get out when I want. In your experience, are there generally things to do either on campus or reasonably close by in Boston?</p>
<p>Also, I’ve read that the curriculum is pretty challenging, and there is a grade deflationary policy. Anything you could say about that?</p>
<p>Thank you so much for helping with this process- this thread came at the perfect time!</p>
<p>Here’s what I would say about your two main concerns.
<p>2) I’m not sure how objective I can be on the grading, since I have always done well in school and that hasn’t changed here. I haven’t ever found the curriculum challenging, it can only get a little difficult when you get a professor that just doesn’t teach your way and you have to try and learn more on your own (only had that happen once). The professors here are something I think I really have to point out. First if they are bad at teaching or very difficult to understand they are gone the next semester (seriously). Every professor I have had has been extremely open with meeting us outside of the classroom and they genuinely want to get to know you. I have heard that our average GPA is lower than other schools, but it’s not like this is something that consumes us or forces us to sabotage one another. Almost everything is group based here and that doesn’t really change for any situation. </p>
<p>Please post any other questions you may have or things you want me to clarify/expand on. </p>
<p>I love Babson so far and just had a few concerns. I’ve taken Chinese for the past four years and Babson’s lack of foreign language worries me a little. I understand that you can cross register at Wellesley but how would that fit into your schedule. And do kids at Babson actually do this? The same goes for Olin is it difficult to cross register if I wanted to take like a computer science class for example? Thanks!</p>
<p>They are really trying to expand the foreign language program here, however, it’s not really work for one big reason. Babson students don’t want to learn a language in a classroom. Most students had to take a foreign language in high school and know that most of the time it is a completely impractical way of learning a language. </p>
<p>Those that really want to learn a foreign language go and study abroad and learn the language while living in that country. Tons of kids go and study abroad or at least visit their friend’s homes abroad. Also if you are good enough to be conversational then there is no reason you couldn’t join some of the Chinese clubs/groups on campus and frequently hang out with native speakers. </p>
<p>Cross registration is very easy to do. For Olin it’s practically like having an engineering school attached to the college, you just have to put a little effort into going to Olin and talking to them about what is available and what you want to do. Wellesley is a little harder since it isn’t literally connected to the campus like Olin is, so you just have to take a bus or drive your own car, but still is something that some kids chose to do. </p>
<p>Could you talk a little about:</p>
<p>Frats / Clubs</p>
<p>Job Opportunities after Graduation</p>
<p>FME</p>
<p>Are they generous with financial aid</p>
<p>Recognition in the business world</p>
<p>Entrepreneurship program</p>
<p>Does Babson require a certain number of HS Foreign Language years? I only plan on taking 2 years of Spanish but I could change my mind depending on what Babson thinks of that.</p>
<p>I have a 3.8 weighted GPA, Plan to have taken approx. 5 AP classes by the end of HS, am on the JV tennis team, and Varsity wrestling team. I go to one of the top private schools in my area and all my classes will be honors or AP. Do I have a good shot of getting in, especially if I apply EA or ED?</p>
<p>Thank you so much. I am currently a sophomore and Babson, Bentley, and Notre Dame are my top three schools.</p>
<p>what does it take to get a good merit scholarship?</p>
<p>Hi, I am rising senior, I was wondering if you could make a breakdown of importance to Babson’s Admissions. if you could possibly estimate things like GPA,Aps, outside honors, and college essays.
Thank you </p>
<p>I know I am very late in replying to some of these postings and it is probably too late, however, I wanted to still respond to some of the questions for future visitors. </p>
<p>To quickly respond to the admissions questions, I don’t know what they are specifically looking for or how important individual aspects are to the application (I don’t think any college is ever clear about that regardless). I applied to Babson and was in the top 2% or so of applications so I received a half tuition scholarship to attend. For the merit scholarships, when I applied it was either the full tuition Wessiman Scholarship or the half tuition Presidential Scholar Award. Again when I applied, there were many more Presidential Awards given and it was based entirely on how you ranked in the overall admissions process. For the Wessiman Program, it was a separate application and I got the sense that they were looking more for a great story than necessarily the smartest kids they could find. </p>
<p>Frats/Clubs:
What can I say, some clubs are up and running well and others aren’t. For a lot of the clubs it just depends on what kind of upperclassman leadership is in position for the year and how committed they are to helping out. I’ll be a little bias here and mention that one of the largest clubs on campus is the Babson Investment Banking Association. I’m on the leadership board for the club and just in the past two-three years we went from having almost no one attend an event to having a conference just yesterday that had the CEO of Goldman Sachs speak and sell out 450 tickets for the conference. We developed a mentorship/training program to help best prepare freshmen and sophomores for internship recruiting and have a few other well attended (60+ people) events throughout the semester. It was not easy at all, but the school was extremely supportive and we had an amazing leadership team to make it happen. </p>
<p>FME:
While some might say that it isn’t the most amazing thing it is hyped up to be, I would argue that you get some amazing benefits out of it that you don’t initially anticipate. It is true that some teams just go through the motions, don’t create that great a product, and walk away without much gained. But I think it is a significant cornerstone to the first year experience at Babson. You get to bond close with your team, struggle through the difficult parts, and most importantly understand the difficulty of launching an idea. Anyone can sit around and think up opportunities in the market, it is an entirely different experience to think them up and then launch a business on it. </p>
<p>Financial Aid:
I would say this changes every year, but for the most part I believe they would fall into the average range for financial need based aid. However, what really appealed to me was that there were significant merit scholarship opportunities. </p>
<p>Entrepreneurship Program:
While many students come into the school for this aspect of the school (myself included) it is more about how the topic is mixed into the curriculum. Being here for several years now, you don’t really recognize it right away, but it is a different mindset that will find it’s way into your career track regardless. That said, most students don’t graduate heading off to start their own businesses, while I do know a few guys who have taken time off to launch their start up in Silicon Valley, for the most part the school actually has an amazing Finance Program. I’ve covered one area of that with the Babson Investment Banking Association, and there are a significant number of students (almost one-third of the class) that end up launching their careers in Financial Services. </p>
<p>Job Opportunities:
As mentioned above, 99% of students get jobs very soon after graduation (yes they do take out “under employment” numbers),so it isn’t a matter of if you have a job but how close is it to what you were really shooting for. Obviously I can’t tell you exactly how well the school does there, but suffice to say that students from Babson in the past few years have gone on to start their careers at Goldman Sachs, McKinsey, Google, Amazon, Oracle, etc. So the opportunities are there, it just all depends on if you have to work ethic to seize them. </p>
<p>Recognition in the Business World:
I came from a state where every time I told a friend or relative where I was going for school I had to follow it up with a description of what Babson College was. It’s a small school and there is no hiding that the name recognition is not very high across the US. Surprisingly though, in my experience the name is actually much better know internationally. With almost of third of the students being international students, it really makes the name travel across the globe. In the end, I think the name has recognition and means something where it matters most; employers. The firms in the Boston/NYC area and the ones that come directly to the school know how strong the program is and how well it actually trains you for the world of business. </p>
<p>International element:
This was something that I didn’t really realize that much when I first applied to the school, but what I think was critical to me enjoying my time here. When I look at some of my closest friends here they come from all over the world: Africa, South America, South Korea, Japan, France, it goes on and on. My first summer break I was able to literally travel around the entire globe for over 3 months, all because of the friendships I had made at the school. Every school has a study abroad program, but here you get to make relationships that cover the entire globe. </p>
<p>I hope this helps those who are exploring Babson College a little more and please keep posting your questions here.</p>
<p>Hi, I intend to apply Babson EA and I would like to know what was it about Babson that excited/ motivated you to apply there ?</p>
<p>And yeah, since i’m an intl student and i studied under the British curriculum - CIE - i intend to sit for SAT subject test. Do you think these will increase my chances ?</p>
<p>Thanks :)</p>
<p>Hi, </p>
<p>So I was in the area doing college visits and my counselor suggested that I add Babson to my list of schools. I think for me it was a combination of the elements listed below.
<p>*Note: I think it’s important to see my international element comment above as well. </p>
<p>I’m not involved in the admissions process that much and since the school is constantly growing, their admissions process/expectations I am sure are changing with it. I am pretty sure taking those exams isn’t going to hurt you. </p>
<p>Hey Jacob. I was wondering what the overall education is like at Babson, since it focuses a lot more on business/practical applications rather than general education. Do you feel as if you’re missing out on the liberal arts element of education, or does Babson provide sufficiently in this area? Also, how competitive is the environment at the college, and what is the competition like to enter Babson’s soccer team? Thanks in advance 
</p>
<p>Hello, </p>
<p>Even though Babson is a business school, there is still a significant amount of liberal arts classes that everyone needs to take. While some may be able to pass out of a significant portion with their AP scores, there are still plenty of advanced courses that you need to take. Everyone here graduates with a Bachelor of Science in Business Management. If you are really interested in having the liberal arts compliment to your college life I would say that one of the benefits Babson can offer is that our liberal arts professors don’t really get a ton of students that are genuinely interested in their field. I am making some very broad generalizations here, but in my experience, most students aren’t that interested in the liberal arts courses (except for maybe economics) and so when a student goes above and beyond the professors really love it. </p>
<p>Professors in general are incredibly accessible. I haven’t really heard of any of them being difficult to set up appointments or office hours with, and TA’s are an extreme rarity. </p>
<p>I would say the environment isn’t as crazy competitive as you might hear at other business schools. A very large portion of the curriculum is based on group work, so it just becomes natural for everyone to expect to help everyone else out. While there is always going to be a sense of competition I would say it is all in good sport. </p>
<p>I’m not that involved in sports so I couldn’t give you an accurate estimation. However I will say, given the large international student population and the popularity of soccer abroad, there is plenty of accessibility to play at all skill levels especially for soccer. </p>
<p>Thank you a lot 
</p>
<p>How is the entrepreneurship major at babson? i heard that its ranked number 1 as a major. Is it hard to get in? and what type of job opportunity can you get after graduation? thx</p>
Puddingman,
Sorry for such a late reply and it may not be applicable to you still but I’ll reply anyways just for future visitors.
Technically Babson does not have Majors but Concentrations instead. This simply means that it takes fewer advanced classes to say that you concentrated in something. Generally you have to take four advanced classes in one subject area to get it. So with that said, there isn’t any competition that would exclude people from concentrating in Entrepreneurship or any other topic. The classes themselves I’ve heard are excellent, especially with the launch of the new San Francisco campus which I had a few friends go to and thought it was amazing.
Job Opportunities:
So I actually worked in Babson’s Career Services office as well as managed to get a job in investment banking after I graduate. I personally interviewed with around 12 companies that were a mix of investment banks, management consultants, and hedge funds; all done directly through the school’s job board. Overall the career placement at Babson is exceptionally strong. You can look up the stats yourself but it’s 99% employment 6 months after graduation and a starting salary around $54,000. There are several top companies that have direct recruitment channels with the campus and regularly interview and hire students from Babson. Everyone always wants to hear some names specifically so I’ll just throw a few out there: McKinsey, BofA, Rothschild, Boston Scientific, NBC Universal, PwC, EY, Goldman Sach, JPM, Citizens, Harris Williams, Google, etc. This is just a small sampling and hardly means your limited by those as well. I’ve got friends who just networked exceptionally hard and were able to get opportunities with Facebook, Amazon, Boston Consulting Group, etc. without them necessarily having an official recruitment program with the school yet.
Take Away: There is always going to be a good amount of work you will need to do to secure some of those most sought after internships or full-time positions, regardless of what school you go to, but Babson has several of those official recruiting channels already established for you. The career office and its advisers are exceptionally committed to helping students figure out what they want to do with their career and how they can make it happen. If you put in the effort and show some initiative, you’ll be more than happy with the result.
@Jacob109 - were you happy in Babson? Are you happy after Babson? Have you reached your goals? Sorry for so many questions.
2019Papa -
Yes I would say that I have had a great time at Babson and have made life long friends. I’m not sure what else there is to really say for your first question. Every school is going to have some that enjoyed it and others that didn’t, but I think most leave with a very positive experience.
I am very happy with the results Babson has given me so far. I came into Babson wanting to pursue investment banking and even though I chose to make it even more challenging and finish school in three years, I still got my job in banking. If there was any one goal in particular that I was hoping to immediately get out of the school, it would be strong placement for the start of my finance career and I definitely have that now. That opportunity was directly through the school’s career services department as well as almost all of the other top firms I got the chance to interview with.
Another separate personal goal was that I really wanted to have some form of international experience. As I’ve mentioned in the past posts, Babson has a very large group of international students at the school, many of whom I am now close friends with. Because of this uniquely open network I was able to travel to over 5 different countries almost immediately in my freshman summer, not through the school but just planned out on my own. Bouncing between different friends of mine, meeting their families and high school friends, see what it was like for them growing up, that all definitely achieved this extra personal goal I had for myself.
I hope this helps.
Nice going Jacob! Enjoy your last few weeks at Babson and have a great graduation ceremony!
Congrats, Jacob, and thank you for your help with great advices during Babson 168. We are about to sign for Babson tomorrow. Heck with Berkeley and UCLA!