Babson College is a private business school in Wellesley, Massachusetts, established in 1919. Its central focus is on entrepreneurship education, and it is often ranked the most prestigious entrepreneurship college in the United States.
It was founded by Roger W. Babson as an all-male business institute. Now co-ed, Babson College offers bachelor's degrees in business administration and undergraduate students have the opportunity to declare concentrations in more than twenty-five areas of study. Through Babson's F. W. Olin Graduate School of Business, the college also offers master's degrees in business administration, finance, accounting, entrepreneurial leadership and management. Often referred to as the "Entrepreneur's College", Babson is renowned for immersing its students in the entrepreneurial lifestyle and culture. Babson is also notable for its Foundations of Management and Entrepreneurship course, in which every enrolled first-year student starts, runs and dissolves a company. Babson currently offers undergraduates nearly sixty entrepreneurship-related courses. These courses are taught in tandem with various traditional liberal arts courses, which represent over 60% of the typical student's schedule. Every entrepreneurship course at Babson is taught by professors who have either started, sold, bought, or run successful businesses. Babson is considered very selective and currently has an undergraduate acceptance rate of 24%.
Babson College has consistently appeared on the U.S. News & World Report rankings as the number one college in entrepreneurship education for nearly three decades. In 2014, CNN's Money Magazine named Babson the number one college in the country for value and in 2015 the magazine ranked it second. The Economist ranked Babson second on its 2015 list of best colleges and universities in outperforming earnings expectations. Babson's MBA program has also been ranked number one in entrepreneurship for over twenty years by U.S. News & World Report.
History
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20th century
The Babson Institute
On September 3, 1919, with an enrollment of twenty-seven students, the Babson Institute held its first classes in the former home of Roger and Grace Babson on Abbott Road in Wellesley Hills. Roger Babson, the founder of the school, set out to distinguish the Babson Institute from colleges offering mainly instruction in business. The Institute provided intensive training in the fundamentals of production, finance and distribution in just one academic year, rather than four. The curriculum was divided into four subject areas: practical economics, financial management, business psychology and personal efficiency (which covered topics such as ethics, personal hygiene and interpersonal relationships). The program's pace assumed that students would learn arts and sciences content elsewhere.
Babson favored a combination of class work and actual business training. Seasoned businessmen made up the majority of the faculty. To better prepare students for the realities of the business world, the Institute's curriculum focused more on practical experience and less on lectures. Students worked on group projects and class presentations, observed manufacturing processes during field trips to area factories and businesses, met with managers and executives, and viewed industrial films on Saturday mornings.
The institute also maintained a business environment as part of the students' everyday life. The students, required to wear professional attire, kept regular business hours (8:30Â a.m. to 5:00Â p.m., Monday through Friday and 8:30Â a.m. to noon on Saturday) and were monitored by punching in and out on a time clock. They were also assigned an office desk equipped with a telephone, typewriter, adding machine, and Dictaphone. Personal secretaries typed the students' assignments and correspondence in an effort to accurately reflect the business world. Roger Babson aimed to "prepare his students to enter their chosen careers as executives, not anonymous members of the work force."
In 1969, the Babson Institute’s three-year bachelor of science in business administration, still for young men only, became a four-year bachelor of science degree, the Institute became a College and women were admitted for the first time.
21st century
Three College Collaboration
Babson is involved in a three college collaboration with Olin College and Wellesley College.
Campus
Wellesley Main Campus
The main residential campus of Babson College is 350 acres (1.4Â km2) and located in the "Babson Park" section of Wellesley, Massachusetts, just fourteen miles west of Boston. It is adjacent to the Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering. Undergraduate and graduate students have the opportunity to take advantage of campus amenities including the student center, the cafeteria, Horn Library, multiple centers and institutes, the fitness center, the arts center and more. Executive and Enterprise Education visitors have the opportunity to stay in guest rooms adjacent to the meeting center.
The Babson Globe
The 25-ton, 28-foot-diameter (8.5Â m) Babson Globe is a notable campus landmark. Built in 1955 by Roger Babson at a cost of $200,000, it originally rotated both on its axis and its base, demonstrating day and night and the progression of the seasons. It was allowed to deteriorate, thus the facing tiles fell off in 1984 and by 1988 it had the appearance of a rusty sphere. The Babson administration announced that it would be destroyed, but outraged students, faculty and alumni began a drive to raise money for its restoration. In 1994 the globe was refurbished, though it no longer rotates. It was for many years the largest rotating globe in the world and remains one of the largest ever built. (For the largest, see Eartha.)
Babson Boston
The Babson Boston classroom and event space, located at 100 High Street, gives Babson a presence in downtown Boston and connects the resources of the College with the innovative companies, organizations and leaders in Boston's Financial District. Opened in 2016, this facility provides the opportunity to offer MBA courses in a location convenient to where entrepreneurial students live and work. Over the course of the academic year, there are opportunities at the Boston location for students to engage with Babson offices and resources, including graduate programs, the Graduate Center for Career Development, Graduate Admissions and the College's alumni network. From 2011 to 2016, Babson Boston campus was at 253 Summer Street in Boston's Innovation District.
Babson San Francisco
Babson San Francisco expands Entrepreneurial Thought and Action to the West Coast through Babson's Blended Learning MBA program, an undergraduate semester experience and custom executive education, while connecting Babson students, faculty and alumni to the broader entrepreneurial ecosystem of the Bay Area.
Babson Miami
In July 2017, President Kerry Healey announced Babson's plans to expand to Miami, Florida, where the Blended Learning MBA, Master of Science in Business Analytics (MSBA) and Certificate in Advanced Management (CAM), three graduate programs will be offered starting in the following fall. Babson’s new hub in Miami will be located at CIC Miami (Cambridge Innovation Center), a co-working space in the University of Miami Life Science and Technology Park.
Academics
Undergraduate
Babson College offers all undergraduates a bachelor of science degree. Students are also given the option to declare concentrations their junior and senior year from a broad range of subjects in various business and other fields. Programs are accredited by Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) and the College itself has been regionally accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) since 1950.
Babson College also offers a study abroad they have created. The program is called "BRIC: The Cornerstone of the New Global Economy" and is offered to Juniors as well as Seniors in the fall semester of the academic year. During the program a number of students, around 26, visit and study in Russia, China and India. In each country, students study a variety of classes covering different topics.
In rankings, Babson was rated first among all colleges and universities in the nation by Money Magazine in 2014. In 2015, the magazine ranked it second just behind Stanford University. Babson’s MBA program has been ranked number one in entrepreneurship for twenty-one consecutive years by U.S. News & World Report and is ranked 58th overall in the Bloomberg Businessweek 2014 rankings. Babson's undergraduate business program is ranked 26th overall in the Bloomberg Businessweek 2014 rankings. Babson's undergraduate Entrepreneurship program has been ranked number one for the past 17 years by U.S. News & World Report. In their 2013â€"2014 salary report, Payscale.com ranked Babson College at number five of all U.S. colleges and universities, ahead of schools such as Stanford, Harvard, Dartmouth, Columbia and Yale. This ranking represents an average mid-career salary of $123,000 and average starting salary of $59,700. In 2012, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked Babson eleventh among U.S. schools based on return on investment. Babson is the highest ranking private business college. The others are either major universities or engineering schools. CNN money ranked Babson fifth in their 2013 "Colleges with the highest-paid grads" rankings, higher than MIT, Stanford and any Ivy League school.
Graduate
Babson College offers master's degrees through its F. W. Olin Graduate School of Business, including a One-Year MBA Program, a Two-Year MBA Program, a 42-month Evening MBA Program and a Blended Learning MBA Program with campuses located in Boston and San Francisco. It also offers a Master's of Science in Entrepreneurial Leadership (MSEL), Accounting (MSA), Finance (MSF) and a Certificate of Advanced Management (CAM) and Advanced Accounting (CAA) programs.
Student life
In 2013, 2,844 students attended Babson, 2,015 of whom were undergraduates.
Student publications include a literary magazine.
There are several fraternities and sororities on campus: Alpha Epsilon Pi, Chi Omega, Delta Tau Delta, Kappa Kappa Gamma, Sigma Kappa and Sigma Phi Epsilon. There are also two professional business fraternities on campus: Delta Sigma Pi and Alpha Kappa Psi. Babson College Radio was started in 1998.
Babson offers a variety of special interest housing, such as the E-Tower, ONE Tower: Origins of Necessary Equality, GIVE Tower, Healthy Living Tower and Women Giving Back Tower.
Athletics
Babson's teams are known as the "Beavers" and its colors are green and white. The college's team mascot is the dashing "Biz E. Beaver", who many believe was named after Men's soccer player and '98 grad, Bizz Reuther aka Palmer Reuther. The school has 22 varsity sports teams, the majority of which compete in the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) of the NCAA Division III. One of Babson's flagship sports is soccer with both the men's and women's teams regularly sitting atop their divisions and often in the hunt for conference and national championships. The men's soccer team has established a legacy of success with 3 NCAA National Championships, 27 NCAA tournaments wins and 12 conference championships. The team also turns out an exceptionally high number of all stars when compared to schools of similar size. One of the top soccer players in Babson's history is Hall of Fame midfielder Dan Pucci. The 2-Time All-American was one of only six D3 US players to earn Umbro Senior All-Star status. Today, he remains the program's single-season (15 in 1997) and career assist leader, he is third on the all-time points list. In addition, the men's and women's alpine ski teams compete in the United States Collegiate Ski and Snowboard Association (USCSA) and the men's lacrosse team competes in the Pilgrim League. Babson College's men's hockey team competes in the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) and has won six ECAC East Championships, appearing in the championship game in 9 of the last 12 seasons as of 2015. Babson College's golf team competes in the New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) and won the title in 2011 giving them an automatic bid to the NCAAs. They were led by senior captain Joe Young who won NECC golfer of the year in 2011. Babson United Rugby Club won Northeast region of NSCRO 7's in 2016. In 2017, the school will begin construction of the Babson Recreation and Athletics Center, a major new facility that will support varsity, intramural and recreational sports and many other activities by the fall of 2019.
Alumni
Business and athletics
- José León Asensio: President of Grupo León Jimenes with one of the largest fortunes in the Dominican Republic
- Ernesto Bertarelli: CEO of Serono and former Board Director of UBS who won the 2003 America's Cup as well as the 2007 America's Cup Yacht Races
- Arthur M. Blank: co-founder of The Home Depot and owner of the Atlanta Falcons
- Peter Boss: Former race car driver in the American Le Mans Series and Rolex Sports Car Series
- Edward Bronfman: Canadian businessman and philanthropist
- William R. Chapin: President of the Automotive Hall of Fame
- Matt Chatham: Former NFL football linebacker who played six seasons for the New England Patriots
- Anthony Chiasson: Hedge fund manager who co-founded Level Global Investors LP growing it to $4.2 billion in assets
- Matt Coffin: founder and former President of LowerMyBills.com, sold for $380 million to Experian in 2005
- Robert Davis: founder of Lycos, CEO/Managing General Partner at Highland Capital Partners
- Edsel Ford II: Board Director of Ford Motor Company and owner of Pentastar Aviation
- William D. Green: Former Chairman and CEO of Accenture, Board Director of Dell Technologies and S&P Global, former Independent Lead Director of EMC Corporation
- Frederic C. Hamilton: Chairman/CEO of Hamilton Brothers Petroleum Corporation
- Peter Kellogg: Leader of Spear, Leeds & Kellogg in the 1980s through to its sale in 2000 to Goldman Sachs for a reported $6.5 billion
- Will Langhorne: Former race car driver sponsored by Porsche
- Andronico Luksic: Chairman of Quiñenco, a holding of the Luksic Group
- Peter E. Madden: Former President of the State Street Corporation
- Dean Metropoulos: Owner of Hostess Brands and former owner of Pabst Brewing Company
- Geoff Molson: Co-owner, President and CEO of the Montreal Canadiens, a member of Canada's notable Molson Family and Vice-Chairman of the Board of Molson Coors Brewing Company
- Michael I. Monus: Co-founder of Phar-Mor, former co-owner of the Colorado Rockies and co-founder of the World Basketball League
- David G. Mugar: CEO of Mugar Enterprises; Boston philanthropist
- Gunnar S. Overstrom Jr.: Former Vice Chairman of FleetBoston Financial
- Alberto Perlman: co-founder of Zumba Fitness
- Scott Sharp: race car driver, Indy Racing League champion
- Jacob Sprague: member of United States national rugby union team
- Akio Toyoda: President and CEO of Toyota Motor Corporation
Food and entertainment
- Marc Bell: former CEO of Penthouse
- Terrell Braly: former CEO and co-founder of Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas Franchise Systems Inc.; founder of Quiznos
- Gustavo Cisneros: President/CEO of Organizacion Diego Cisneros
- Roger Enrico: former Chairman/CEO of PepsiCo; former Chairman of DreamWorks Animation SKG
- Mark Frissora: President and CEO of Caesars Entertainment Corporation
- Stephen Gaghan: Won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for his work on the Traffic (2000 film)
- Daniel Frank Gerber: founder of Gerber Products Company
- Bernard Lee: professional poker player
- John LeFevre: creator of the Twitter account @GSElevator; former Citibank banker
- Debbie Millman: writer and designer
- Mir Ibrahim Rahman: CEO of GEO TV
- Grace Wong (王å›é¦¨) : Hong Kong television actress, first runner up at the Miss Hong Kong 2007
Government, education, and other
- Craig Benson: Chairman and CEO of Cabletron; former Governor of New Hampshire
- Vincent E. Boles: Major General US Army
- W. Haydon Burns: Governor of Florida, 1965â€"67 and the Mayor of Jacksonville, Florida, 1949-1965
- Marie Cavallier: Princess Marie of Denmark
- Rudy Crew: President of Medgar Evers College
- Kathleen M. Gainey: Lieutenant General US Army
- James A. Lewis: American politician who was the United States Libertarian Party's nominee at the 1983 Libertarian National Convention for Vice President of the United States in the 1984 presidential election
- Patricia E. McQuistion: Lieutenant General US Army
- Lafayette Morgan: Former Economic Advisor of the Republic of Liberia
- Ernest Dichmann Peek: U.S. Army Major General
- Gustavo Adolfo Carvajal Sinisterra: The 24th Ambassador of Colombia to France
- Don Strauch: Former Mayor of Mesa, Arizona
- Nora Sun: granddaughter of Sun Yat-sen; former American diplomat
- Jack Tilton (1951-2017): art dealer
Fashion and fitness
- Michael Bastian: fashion designer
- Enrico Marone Cinzano: Italian furniture designer
- Ruthie Davis: founder and designer of Ruthie Davis
- Natasha Esch: Former President of Wilhelmina Models
- Mohan Murjani: As Chairman of the Murjani Group developed, launched and built the Tommy Hilfiger (company) as well as Gloria Vanderbilt fashion empires
Notes and references
External links
- Official website
- Official athletics website
- Babson College in Money Magazine
