7 Reasons to Choose Babson
- Location
Babson’s gives students the best of both worlds. It’s located within a suburban neighborhood but only about 20 minutes outside of Boston (less than 10 miles!) There’s the benefit of the small town community feel on a day to day basis, but the benefits and resources of Boston are so accessible. I love to go into the city to use my student discount at the Museum of Fine Arts, and I have lots of friends doing internships there as well. Babson offers shuttles to Boston and surrounding towns and there is also easily accessible public transportation. Students can also have cars on campus all four years which makes the trip so convenient.
- Beautiful Campus
Now I’m a little jealous of potential students that might be reading on this particular topic, but Babson college provides a beautiful campus. Why I’m so jealous is because there are a lot of improvements underway for the coming years. Not only will there be an indoor garden in the library, there is going to be a newly renovated gym, and some dorms are even being renovated. Although it is a smaller institution, the campus is beautiful and very well laid out. I’ll definitely have to pay a visit once I graduate to check out what you’ll get to enjoy.
- Housing
Campus housing is beautiful and comfortable. In fact, about 85% of students live on campus all four years. All students are required to live on campus during their first year. You might be wondering, why did he decide to include this piece of information? Well, the fact that all your peers are right there with you during your freshman year give you a chance to really get to know who is in your class. Then, as most people continue to live on campus you get a chance to continue to get to know them while here at Babson.
- Foundations of Management and Entrepreneurship
How could I list the reasons to come to Babson without mentioning Babson’s most well-known, unique, and largest course? That course is titled Foundations of Management and Entrepreneurship or FME for short. FME is truly special in that every student enrolls in it during his/ her first year here and, through it, is running a functioning business with actual functional roles. Take me for instance. I was the VP of HR in our team’s clothing company in a business with 15 members. We sold quarter zip sweaters in various styles and colors with the Babson logo and a customizable embroidery option, and by the end, we were able to donate about $1,000 in profits to a charity of our choosing. I think that’s enough to get you excited. I’ll leave some of the rest up to your imagination.
- Resources
What entrepreneur would be successful without being a little scrappy and having a lot of resources? Although Babson teaches students how to be resourceful, this school does an amazing job at providing actual resources for students to take advantage of. If you are looking for seed money to start your entrepreneurial endeavor, Babson has an option, if not options, for you to do so. There is even funding available for students to attend different conferences around the world throughout all four years of being here. The Center for Career Development (CCD) is extraordinarily helpful in coordinating job fairs and helping each of us find the right fit for our future careers.
- Study Abroad
Babson is also really good about pushing students to take advantage of study abroad experiences. One way that the school does that is by being very helpful in assisting students with applying for scholarships to go abroad as well as even giving some institutional grants to do so. Outside of the normal study abroad experiences, one of my favorite experiences to talk about (actually one that I did) was BRIC. BRIC stands for Babson in Russia, India, and China where a cohort of 24 students travelled and spent a month in each of these locations. We travelled with Babson professors and lived in hotels in each location as we studied how those different cultures affect how business is done in those different locations. I like to call it my very own ‘Suite Life of Zack and Cody’ experience.
- The People
Regardless of what you’re doing in life, there is always something special about being in an environment where people are passionate about a particular thing. At Babson, that thing happens to be business, even though the people here are interested in so many different areas of business. This creates a place where students are able to feed off of the energy of their peers in being amazing both in and outside the classroom. Students here are focused and passionate but also know how to have a good time. Although everyone is looking to better themselves, people at Babson are still warm and are in no way overly competitive or even robots. For instance… just take into consideration that the largest organization on campus is the Babson Dance Ensemble. Babson students know how to have fun.