Everything about Babson from a current student

<p>This will cover everything you will need to know about Babson, pretty much.
Here’s how I rate the school.</p>

<p>Should I go to Boston?
Ok, here’s the lowdown.
If you go into an Ivy league school, no. Your going to get more recruiters at places that pay a lot, and have more prestige, and get laid more. Actually if you got into Brown, then no. Cornell, ehhh… probably, just for the name at the worst I don’t know. But HYP, Dartmouth, UPenn, go there!
If you got into good schools but not the top 10, then things get more interesting. State schools or Private schools I would say consider coming to Babson if you want to go into finance, because we have more opportunities. If you want to go into consulting, Babson isn’t going to help you, but it won’t hurt you. If anything else, it’ll probably help a little. It’s all about sacrificies, what do you want, what are you willing to give up. Read below for more info to see if its for you.
Also, top 3 liberal art schools like Williams, Wellesley will get slightly more job opportunities. Places like Claremont MeKenna and Pomona are about even. LA schools outside top 8 will be downgrades in terms of job placement but will have substantially better hook-up lives and better parties.</p>

<p>Work Life Balance: Freshman Year- F Sophmore Year - C Junior & Senior C+/B-
Obviously the worst year is freshman year and it gets better after that, the school gives you a little less work but you can deal with it better and do things in half the time you did as a stupid freshman.</p>

<p>The Kids
Typical babson kids
Kid A-New England person that is upper middle class to upper class. Wears lots of polo and lacoste, conservative, doesn’t like the liberal kids he/she was with in prep school, ambitious, type A personalitity. (60% of population)
Kid B-International Kid. Parents are rich and might be major head of industry in home country in europe, south america, asia, or middle east. More money then Kid A. networth of parents somehwere from a few mill to a few hundred mill, a few billionaires. (20%)
Kid C-Middle class kid from anywhere US. Parents working class but highly ambiitious. Didn’t get into top 10 school. Relates money to happiness, willing to work very hard. Will probably be in top 25% of Babson in terms of grades (15%)
Kid D-Someone from Oregon or California, possibly liberal. Has funky parents that are vegans, well off. Lots of buddies going into sciences or engineering, arts, fashion design. Wants to start own business, has some crazy ideas. Sees #1 in entrepeurship. Tells herself/himself why not? I got big dreams, lets go for it (5%)</p>

<p>Education
I’ve read some things about Babson so I’ll dispell the truth from myth.
FME- Interesting Experience, you learn a lot about working with people. It’ll involve a lot of conflict. The businesses aren’t great but it’s the working in a group of 30 type A people that will be biggest learning experience.
IME/ in sophmore and 1st semester jr yr- Covers accounting, finance, marketing, strategy, organizational behavior, operations. The object of IME is to giv eyou an introduction to all aspects of business so you know what you like and don’t like.</p>

<p>Professors
They all know your names, you have to go to class. This can be good or bad thing depending your prospective. You can’t just decide not to go to class for a week because your alarm didn’t work. It’ll hurt your grade. On the other hand, you get to know them all, which again can be good or bad. If you ditch class, there is a good likelyhood you might run into them while getting lunch. The business professors all have business experience, and most run small-mid size companies outside of teaching or do consulting work. The liberal art professors are very liberal. They make you read stuff about poor people, gays, the disadvantages, animal cruelty and all tha jazz. The two sets of professors are very different personalities. The economics and math professors belong to liberal art department and are different from their english, gender study, history partners. They are more moderate, between the two extremes.</p>

<p>Entrepreneurship
People who haven’t gone here seem to think the major part of entrepreneurship education is FME. That is FALSE. FME is a great marketing tool but the reason Babson is #1 in entrepreneurship is the Entrepreneurship Professors. You can only take classes with profs in your junior and senior year. The school puts a lot of money into the division, probably too much. The professors are the best at the school. The Entrepreneruship classes or EPS classes cover viability of ideas, how to finance an idea, and getting started on running an idea from ground up. You do business plans and they get critiqued. The EPS classes actually cover a lot of finance and marketing. Most of the EPS professors are doing it for fun because most are amazing wealthy already. Also since all the EPS professors have started businesses, sometimes multiple ones, it is realistic. Most will tell you straight up you probably won’t start a business until a few years out, or if your idea is stupid. The EPS classes are important because they get you in the right frame of mind of what to do, getting financing, hiring people, etc.</p>

<p>Now that I’ve covered Entrepreneurship, I"ll tell you most students don’t major in this, they take one or two classes to gain perspective. If I had to estimate I’d say 35% go into finance, 20% accounting, 20% marketing, 10% sales, 5% consulting, 5% family business, 3% entrepeneurs out of school. 2% grad school immediately.</p>

<p>That’s right, most kids actually don’t try to start own businesses. If you want to know who recruits at babson I will give you a sample. From finance: Citigroup, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Rothschild, BoA Securities, Putnam, Fidelity, and some PE shops and Hedge funds. From marketing you’ll find few ad agencies, but mostly marketing departments of established companies: DKNY, Reebok, boston celtics, boston wnba team, comsumer products, Museum of Fine Arts, L’Oreal and other make up companies. There are few people who into consulting at Babson. I only know 2 companies that posted jobs, McKinsey and Accenture, there were a few other small ones. Most of the smart kids go into Finance, or if they are creative then Marketing. The college recruiting is getting better, although not as good as an ivy league or anything, most kids get jobs through personal contacts still.</p>

<p>Social Life D-/C+
Look at my nick. I hate Massachusetts. The state is horrible. The town, Wellesley is dull. It’s a dry town, but that doesn’t stop people from drinking(i’ll get to that in a minute). The girls are ugly or not available, there are also few of them, so you get babson googles after awhile. when you go home, all the girls seem hot.</p>

<p>Alcoholism is rampent across campus, so is smoking. Half the kids come here drinking a little before in highschool, about 98% do after coming through. 15% probably smoke before, probably 35% afterwards. Heavy drug is near non existent. Some people smoke pot, probably 5% of school.</p>

<p>An average week at Babson starts with cramming until 2 AM in the library on sunday. Waking up, classes, a lot of meetings, cramming again until 1 AM or 2 AM, repeat till thursday. Everyone drinks on Thursday. International kids typically go clubbing in Boston, while kids from US stay on campus roam around lots of little parties on campus or have little 5 people parties. Usually the parties are mostly guys or as call them, sausage fests. Chances of getting laid, are low, and the available girls are ugly. There are hot girls, its just most are taken. Some might hook up anyways if they are drunk enough, which they probably will be.</p>

<p>Life isn’t horrible but it does suck compared to other schools. Your not going to get laid as much here. You’ll probably make more money then other kids two to five years out especially. If you don’t drink, you will become an alcoholic due to all the work you had to do. The kids are materialistic. Everyone is here. If you don’t like it, don’t come. Beemers are standards, what is impressive is that two years ago we had two kids on campus with Ferraris. That was really cool.</p>

<p>I would not reccomend this school to 95% of the high school students applying to college. The 5% I reccomend this to are kids who didn’t get into the Ivies and highly ambitious deisirng lots of money and seeking to make sick connections, willing to make sacrifices in the process, that being: becoming an alcoholic, not hooking up as much as normal college kids, doing lots of work.</p>

<p>That’s it, it is my first and probably last post on this board. Everything I wish I knew before I came to this godforsaken school.</p>

<p>Before I leave, a final post on grades for you high school kids considering babson-
Avg gpa is 2.7 or so. 3.3 Gets you in top 25% of class, 3.5 top 10% 3.7 is top 1%.
For jobs, this mean if the company hasn't recruited at Babson in past, you are screwed. If they have recruited at Babson, then typical cutoff is 3.0 or 3.5 depending on the firm, some don't post cutoffs period because they know it is a waste of time. If you want to land investment banking job, you need at least 3.35 to get offer from Babson. If want an asset management job, then probably 3.0 unless you have good hook-up at a company. If you are looking at marketing, your gpa won't matter as much, and you might be able to get away with not even posting gpa, although it is neccessary for the jobs involving numbers.</p>

<p>Well the guy who hates the school 6 kids is not very much at all out of a total of 100 or 125. NYU Stern and the other top business schools put a lot more in with full-time offers. You said you are screwed for research or trading and only 1 to 3 offers for fulltime for IBanking. Screwed for consulting. Sure you can get hired by these investment banks, but as you said only 1 to 3 kids get full time offers.</p>

<p>That is more then some schools but I wouldn't call that exactly stellar. </p>

<p>I see you didn't know that the school was so materialistic. Have you thought about transferring elsewhere?</p>

<p>Oh yeah here is a link I found that outlines what arrogance is at the school and a response.</p>

<p>The original article: <a href="http://www.babsonfreepress.com/medi...ad-180111.shtml%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.babsonfreepress.com/medi...ad-180111.shtml&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>The response: <a href="http://www.babsonfreepress.com/medi...onfreepress.com%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.babsonfreepress.com/medi...onfreepress.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>I see these international students probably have $$$ but it is not their money it is their parents money. They also aren't contributing much to the U.S. popularity because they go back and just take what is handed down to them. I think that is a major fault for Babson because instead of increasing its name in the U.S. which will be necessary if it is to ever rise to elite status many students just go back overseas to take over what was already created.</p>

<p>I was originally committed to Bentley College (Babson's rival) until I changed my mind to Penn State. Bentley also has a lot of rich kids but the money is sort of hidden in that people have a lot of it but don't flaunt it. Sure you have the Bimmers, rich international kids and clubbing but it is kind of taken for granted that many kids are rich so everyone just goes about their business. Even at Bentley with the kids whose parents are worth hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars and with a number of exotic cars such as Ferraris all around campus there never seems to be an overwhelming materialistic nature. Sure people recognize it but they don't feel like they need a more expensive car, higher gpa or more exclusive designer then the person who has it all (the person next to them). Perhaps take a look there. I regret not accepting their offer. The connections and job placement are also supposed to be terrific.</p>

<p>How hard is it to get into Babson (ED)???</p>

<p>the SAT range goes from 1160-1330 so something in the mid 1200's should put you in good shape and acceptance % is around 36 or 37%</p>

<p>2.66 GPA and 1460 SAT (770m 690v). Will my SAT make up for the GPA and give me a fair shot?</p>

<p>hmmm.. it might hurt you because you obviously are capable with a 1460 SAT. I'm sure you've heard a low gpa and high sat means you are a slacker but with a high gpa and low sat means youa re a hard worker. I think you could get in if you've shown some improvement in gpa over the years because Babson's 75% for SAT is only a 1330-1350 and you are 100 points plus over that.</p>

<p>Sympathy I'd make sure you understand what MassSucks wrote. It is very true that Babson students are materialistic and want the whole world to know it. I suggest that you thoroughly read his post along with my post with the two links before you apply. Unless you wear gucci or prada to class, drive a BMW, Audi, Mercedes etc... and love to go clubbing you will feel left out in the world where kids rely on their successful parents for survival.</p>

<p>Argh I am applying this year. The 2.66 is my final GPA ;/. I am looking for a school that will assign loads of homework because I tend to slack off otherwise. I have heard that the dorm is really crappy but I have also heard it snows there...and I must say I LOVE SNOW. I will be majoring in marketing and babson seems to be one of the only top ranked school in that area that I have a slim chance at. I really want to go herebt I am afraid I will be rejected just like how I will be rejected from the rest of my choices.</p>

<p>my parents are doing pretty well but I don't think they will ever allow me to buy a 200 dollar shirt. Will they look down on you if you have a decent car (lets say bmw 325) but wears casual/'cheap' stuff like Levis, Ecko, etc? I mean, I certainly don't want to be an outcast there. I know most people are very wealthy but I still don't have a grasp of just how rich they really are?
Hmm, does the median population there have parents with 2m+?</p>

<p>I can put it in better perspective for you. It is not unusual for kids to wear gucci and prada from head to toe. A 325 is probably an average car and if you do wear Levis, Ecko etc... you will be looked upon as being different at a school where the norm is polo, nautica, lacoste and the higher end designer like prada, gucci etc... </p>

<p>Some of the international students have parents who are heads of major companies abroad. That would be comparable to a Fortune 500 CEO here. 2 million we think is a lot but in reality its not much in the whole pectrum of things at Babson.</p>

<p>People constantly worry about wearing gucci or prada and getting a better BMW then the person next to them or spending more at the clubs. </p>

<p>Its sad because most of the kids think they have it made. Which they do but THE KIDS THEMSELVES didn't make a single penny of the money they have. It was all their parents and previous generations that are allowing these kids to live the way they do. </p>

<p>99% of the kids are always in the rat race mindset for cars, clothes, clubs and grades. </p>

<p>I understand you want homework and a lot of it but turning into an alcoholic and having a low gpa is not something you will want to suffer through because of the workload. </p>

<p>I strongly suggest you look elsewhere. As Masssucks said Babson is for a very few number of people who want to rely on their parents to live the good life through college and show off how much money their parents have of which they have contributed nothing to. </p>

<p>I would look to attend schools where the parents of these Babson kids went or other larger schools where monetary items are not the sole concern.</p>

<p>It gives you a warped perception of the world. Expensive german cars and name brand designers are not the norm in the real world but at Babson they are. </p>

<p>You should remember these Babson kids for the most part aren't becoming tomorrow CEO's and if they are it is because their parents have left them their businesses.</p>

<p>I'd say look at Bentley for the toned down materialistic nature and other better known business schools.</p>

<p>Take a look at this link from Princetonreview that really shows what I'm talking about:</p>

<p>student body</p>

<p><a href="http://www.princetonreview.com/college/research/profiles/studentsSay.asp?listing=1024153&ltid=1&intbucketid=&category=2%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.princetonreview.com/college/research/profiles/studentsSay.asp?listing=1024153&ltid=1&intbucketid=&category=2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>academics</p>

<p><a href="http://www.princetonreview.com/college/research/profiles/studentsSay.asp?listing=1024153&category=5&LTID=1%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.princetonreview.com/college/research/profiles/studentsSay.asp?listing=1024153&category=5&LTID=1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>campus life</p>

<p><a href="http://www.princetonreview.com/college/research/profiles/studentsSay.asp?listing=1024153&category=6&LTID=1%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.princetonreview.com/college/research/profiles/studentsSay.asp?listing=1024153&category=6&LTID=1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Thank you. I have a more lucid picture now. I guess I should rather stay in Cali and work my butt off for 2 years. Who knows, I may transfer to Wharton someday....argh beautiful dreams....</p>

<p>With all of the talk about how wealthy every student's family is, I really wonder. On one of the other websites that takes student surveys and tabulates stats it lists 12% of student families make under 25,000/year and 21% of families make over 200,000 (sorry the billionaires I guess also fall into this group too). Everyone else's family apparently makes between 25,000-200,000/year. If this is even remotely accurate, then less than one fourth of the students at this school is actually wealthy. I do not know how accurate the survey is, but something to think about.</p>

<p>I think that survey is accurate. Don't get me wrong in no way is everyone there sitting with money, people just get that assumption due to the constant competition between students and the need to show money off.</p>

<p>1-3 at half the banks isn't high, but it's not bad. 1-3 at 10-15 banks ends up being 25-45 people w/ ib jos, that's 7 to 10% of each graduating class. Also note less people want to go into IB compared to schools like georgetown, nyu. Here, if that's your thing, you have a 50% shot at getting a job. At a place like nyu georgetown, like 90% is aiming for IB. It's not for me, or most babson kids. I don't even want to go into IB though, I'm going into money management, better hours, and pay isn't bad. But that's getting off topic.</p>

<p>As for Cali, there are about 30 kids from cali here. They are pretty laid back, most from Los Angeles, a few from bay area. I reccomend a visit or overnight for anyone who wants to come here. The scene is not for everyone like I said.</p>

<p>As for transferring to Bentley, it's a solid school but no way. I know some transfers from there that had 3.9's and come to Babson and barely have a 3.0 gpa. In terms of academics, it is a joke. I actually want to learn.</p>

<p>Not everyone is into clubbing. Like only 20 to 30% of the school, the rest of the school hangs out on campus, drinking, playing beirut (beer pong), playing poker, going to the gym, etc. If you on a sports team, it really helps with social life because they always have small little parties.</p>

<p>mbhamm4
If you have 1250 to 1350 you have a solid shot, but its starting to get more competitive. Five years ago it would have been a lot easier then it is now. The school looks for extra cirricular stuff. So if you play sports, on debate teams, it helps a lot if you are lower then that SAT range.
Also you don't have to be perfect. If you have 1500 and 2.9 gpa, you can get in, if you have 1200 SAT and 4.0 you can too.</p>

<p>Mass, do the employers know how tough Babson really is? Because i don't want to struggle to get a decent grade only to find out that others don't even give it much credit.</p>

<p>I live way too far to travel there and take a look myself. Are there single rooms on the campus? I don't really want to live with a room mate because I am really kind of into privacy....</p>

<p>oh mass how does a 2.66 and 1460 stand? </p>

<p>Thanks and can you give me some more insight on the social life there and the environment?</p>

<p>Sympathy
You will definately get in as long as you show the school you are interested and have decent extracirriculars, I'd say 85%. That means attending the stupid events they have and responding to the postcards they give you. Since you can't visit, I'd call admissions or do something to show interest or sign up to the website. If you don't show interest, the school is less likely to admit you.</p>

<p>Singles- If you are a junior there is a 75% chance you'll have single, if senior 100%. If you are a freshman, like 5% chance, sophmore, like 10%. They are building a new residence hall so maybe the numbers will grow? I am not sure.</p>

<p>Social Life- If you are on a sports team, it is better, or a frat/sorority or some type of club. The more involved you are, more likely you'll know about parties.
The center of social life on campus is the team suites and senior suites, especially senior suites. These are the things with like 50+ people. There are also lots of little 3 to 6 parties acorss campus.
A lot of people chill in the library and 2 coffee shops on campus.
The international kids usually talk in their home language. The have their own little thing going but are friendly. You can walk up and sit next to anyone you see in your class because everyone knows each other. However, they might keep speaking Indian or Spanish, even if you don't understand it, that is annoying.
The rule with meeting people is that you can hang out with others as long as you don't dominate class discussions. If you are huge suck up, you will make enemies, since class participation is 10% to 20% of grades. Despite the wealth of students, different economic groups mix socially a lot. The seperation is more of, kids who like to stay on campus, and those who go clubbing.
Parties never get massive because of campus police, but they do exist, they are just small get togethers. No one attends sporting events but a lot of people play sports.</p>

<p>Thanks alot for the info. Now I need to ask the 2 most deciding factors and hope someone can help me out.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Do the employers know how tough Babson really is? Because i don't want to struggle to get a decent grade only to find out that others don't even give it much credit.</p></li>
<li><p>Is it worth the $160,000? My parents said they will give me 200k and I can spend use it on my tuition or go to a public school and save the money for later use such as opening my own company. I mean 160k after tax is quite a bit of money and I prob can't earn it back in quite alot of years so I am wondering if its a good investment assuming I obtain a great GPA in babson</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Sympathy
As far as employers, if they have a current Babson grad, they will think highly of it. If they don't, they will have no opinion.
The biggest part of getting jobs at Babson is alumni support. You have to actively network with alumni and other students/faculty member. If you send in a random application, it will be ok. But the contacts you get will literally get you jobs on the spot if the people like you. Your grades should be over 3.0 when you get here and you have solid shot at everything as long as take advantage of internships.</p>

<p>Sympathy
What public schools are you considering? If it is UVa, UBerk, UMich then those are better options if you are instate. If it is like North Carolina, it is a push. Washington or Oregon or something like that, and Babson is much better.</p>

<p>If if it is some other school, Babson will give much better opportunities if you take advantage of them, again proactive.</p>

<p>Also depends on what you want to do. If you want to go into marketing or something, a state school would be better and save the cash. Babson is only really good option cash wise, if you land a high profile finance job and can't get into the top 10 schools or if you want to take a couple entrepreneurship classes.</p>

<p>Location helps Babson, becaue you are half hour from Boston for internships. Also for interviewing, you can go to NYC in like 3 hours car ride.</p>

<p>Haha I would certainly love to get into cal, ann arbor etc but I am afraid those are beyond my dreams. I am talking more like cal poly SLO, penn state, etc....</p>

<p>I am looking into marketing and management. maybe entrepreneurship. but i am afraid if i major in entrepreneurship, can i still find a job if i chose/can't open my own business?</p>

<p>thanks once again</p>