Babson College

Babson College (Babson) is a private business school in Wellesley, Massachusetts. Established in 1919, Babson's undergraduate and graduate programs in entrepreneurship education has ranked #1 for several decades. The college was established by entrepreneur Roger W. Babson as an all-male institute focused on educating aspiring chief executives and business people seeking to maintain family businesses. It became coeducational in 1970.

Babson College has one undergraduate school through which all students earn a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration that can be concentrated in up to two of 24 different academic areas, business or otherwise. Its graduate school offers master's degrees.

The college has additional campus locations both in the financial district in Boston and downtown Miami. These campus spaces house various graduate programs. All undergraduate students study on the main, residential campus in Wellesley, Massachusetts.

History

20th century

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 (8:30 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, Babson converted its three-year Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (BSBA) degree into a four-year Bachelor of Science (BS) degree. That same year, the institute became a college, and women were admitted for the first time.

21st century

Babson is involved in a three college collaboration with Olin College and Wellesley College (a collaboration often referred to as BOW).

Campuses

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 fifteen 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 Webster fitness center, the Weissman Foundry the arts center, and a new centennial park known as the Kerry Murphy Healey Park, home of the second-largest rotating globe in the world at 28 feet in diameter.

Academics

Undergraduate program

Babson College offers all undergraduates a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration degree. Students are 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 the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) and the college itself has been institutionally accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education or its predecessor since 1950.

Graduate program

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, San Francisco and Miami. It also offers a Master's of Science in Entrepreneurial Leadership (MSEL), Business Analytics (MSBA), Finance (MSF) and a Certificate of Advanced Management (CAM).

Rankings

Babson's undergraduate school and MBA program have ranked #1 by the U.S. News & World Report for entrepreneurship, for 31 and 27 consecutive years respectively. Over the 21st-century, it has also ranked first in entrepreneurship by CNN, CNBC, Fortune, Forbes, and Money, among others.

In 2024, Babson ranked tenth on The Wall Street Journal's best colleges, ranking first for career preparedness. Because Babson solely offers programs in business administration, many publications do not include the college in their overall rankings.

Its alumni have a median salary of $171,000 USD, more than any other business program in the world.

Student life

Student publications include a literary magazine and the Babson Built Podcast.

There are several fraternities and sororities on campus: Chi Omega, Delta Tau Delta, Kappa Kappa Gamma, Phi Delta Theta, Sigma Kappa and Sigma Phi Epsilon. There are also three professional business fraternities on campus: Delta Sigma Pi, Alpha Kappa Psi, and Phi Gamma Nu. Babson College Radio was started in 1998.

Athletics

Babson's teams are known as the "Beavers" and its colors are green and white. The school has 23 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 baseball which has won 7 Conference Championships and been to 5 NCAA Tournaments, including the 2019 College World Series. Additionally, the men's soccer team has established a history of success with 3 NCAA National Championships, 27 NCAA tournaments wins and 12 conference championships. 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 (1) NCAA D3 National title, (1) ECAC D2 title, six ECAC East Championships, appearing in the championship game in 9 of the last 12 seasons as of 2015. Babson College's men'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 2019, the school completed construction of a new recreation and athletics center, a major facility supporting varsity, intramural and recreational sports and many other activities. In March 2017, Babson's basketball team won the Division III National Championship.

Notable alumni

Business and athletics

• Ernesto Bertarelli '89: Swiss businessman
• Arthur M. Blank '63 H'98: co-founder, former CEO of The Home Depot
• Peter Boss MBA '10: race car driver
• Edward Maurice Bronfman '50 (1927–2005): businessman, founder of Edper Investments
• Matt Chatham MBA '11: former NFL linebacker with the New England Patriots
• Anthony Chiasson '95: hedge fund manager
• Matt Coffin '90: founder and former President of LowerMyBills.com
• Andrónico Luksic Craig '76: businessman
• Bob Davis MBA '85: founder and CEO of Lycos
• Edsel Bryant Ford II '73 H'00: Board Director of the Ford Motor Company
• Scott Fraser MBA '05, former NHL hockey player
• William D. Green '76 MBA '77 H'07: Former Chairman and CEO of Accenture
• Frederic C. Hamilton '48 H'98 MP'82 (1927–2016): oil pioneer
• Peter R. Kellogg '64: financial broker
• John Kluge Jr. MBA '17, venture capitalist, philanthropist, son of billionaire John Kluge
• Will Langhorne '95: former race car driver
• Peter E. Madden '64 P'04 Honorary Trustee: former President of the State Street Corporation
• Charles Dean Metropoulos '67 MBA '68: co-owner of Hostess Brands and former owner of Pabst Brewing Company
• Geoffrey Eric Molson MBA '96: co-owner, President and CEO of the Montreal Canadiens
• David G. Mugar '62: businessperson
• Gunnar S. Overstrom Jr. '65 (1942–2001): former Vice Chairman of FleetBoston Financial
• Aly Raisman Olympic gold medalist for United States women's national gymnastics team
• Scott Sharp '90: race car driver
• Jacob Sprague '07: rugby player
• Akio Toyoda MBA '82 MP' 14: President and CEO of Toyota Motor Corporation
• Tim Ryan, Senior Partner and Chairman of PwC US

Food and entertainment

• Marc Bell '89: entrepreneur, Three-Time Tony Award Winner (Jersey Boys, August: Osage County and Stereophonic)
• Terrell Braly '77: founder of Quiznos
• Gustavo Cisneros '68 H'19: President/CEO of Organizacion Diego Cisneros
• Roger Enrico '65 H'86 (1994–2016): former CEO of PepsiCo and DreamWorks Animation SKG
• Stephen Gaghan '88: screenwriter
• Daniel Frank Gerber '20 H'67 (1898–1974): founder of Gerber Products Company
• Bernard Lee MBA '99: professional poker player
• John LeFevre '01: former Citibank banker
• Mir Ibrahim Rahman '00: CEO of GEO TV
• Nelson Woss '91: Australian film producer of Ned Kelly & Red Dog

Government, education, and other

• Craig Robert Benson '77, businessperson, former Governor of New Hampshire
• Vincent E. Boles MBA '88: Major General US Army
• W. Haydon Burns '34 (1912–1987): 35th Governor of Florida, 1965–67 and 35th Mayor of Jacksonville, Florida, 1949–1965
• Nick Collins '08: Massachusetts State Senator
• Princess Marie of Denmark: attended 1995-97
• Rudy Crew '72 H'96: President of Medgar Evers College
• Kathleen M. Gainey MBA '89: lieutenant general US Army
• James A. Lewis '58 (1932–1997): American politician
• Patricia E. McQuistion MBA '88: lieutenant general US Army
• Lafayette Morgan '58 (1931–2005): former Economic Advisor of Liberia
• Ernest Dichmann Peek '29 (1878–1950): major general, U.S. Army
• Gustavo Adolfo Carvajal Sinisterra MBA '84: the 24th Ambassador of Colombia to France
• Don Strauch '49 (1926–2016): former Mayor of Mesa, Arizona
• Jack Tilton (1951–2017) '74 P'09: art dealer

Fashion and fitness

• Michael Bastian '87: business person
• Count Enrico Marone Cinzano '85: artist, furniture designer and member of Italy's prominent Cinzano liquor family
• Ruthie Davis MBA '93: founder, president and designer of the fashion and footwear firm RUTHIE DAVIS
• Natasha Esch '93: former president of Wilhelmina Models
• Mohan Murjani '67: as chairman of the Murjani Group Murjani developed, launched and built Tommy Hilfiger as well as Gloria Vanderbilt fashion empires
• Alberto Perlman '98: co-founder of Zumba Fitness

References

External links

• Official website
• Official athletics website