Babson College

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.

Mr. 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 (8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, and 8:30 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.

Three College Collaboration

Babson is involved in a Three College Collaboration with Olin College and Wellesley College. The goals of the collaboration are to:

"Expand educational opportunities for students Develop interdisciplinary approaches to teaching and problem solving Facilitate faculty research and teaching projects across campuses Share best practices and collaborating in administrative functions The vision behind the Three College Collaboration is to provide our students with the creative and collaborative skills, knowledge, and ways of thinking needed to function successfully today and into the future. The global challenges of our time, which will define the world our graduates enter, are complex and inherently interdisciplinary, and require teamwork. Because of the distinctive strengths of each of the institutions involved and the leadership commitment from the three presidents, we are well poised to address these issues from varying perspectives and to engage students in cross-disciplinary and collaborative ways. The new collaboration moves beyond the activities of most consortia by taking advantage of the schools’ complementary curricula to create innovative approaches to student learning and problem solving and to provide all students with the tools to work across disciplines".

Wellesley Main Campus

The main residential campus of Babson College is 350 acres (1.4 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 (8.5 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; 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.

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. Within 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 2013–2014 salary report, Payscale.com ranked Babson College at number five of all US 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 US 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 and 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 mascot is the "Beavers" and its colors are green and white. Babson 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. 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.

Business and athletics

Food and entertainment

Government, education, and other

Fashion and fitness