Babson College Visit

Babson College is one town over from where we live. I have pleasant memories of Babson, visiting a friend from my Japan fellowship days who taught a class at the Graduate School there.

PickyKidPix’s friend’s mother works there as a nurse, so she had access to their ice skating rink as a guest. Her brother had a town soccer game at Olin College next door on their fields.

Despite this proximity and knowledge of Babson, we managed to be late for our information session and we were there a half hour early as usual! Chalk it up to outdated signage and an Admission office that is not in clear view from the street.

And to top it off, the information session took place a few buildings over, making us even later. Once we got there though, all sweaty and out of breath, we found that we didn’t miss that much and were able to get a feel for the personality of the school.

In a single word: entrepreneur. It’s in the signage as well. It’s everywhere, starting the first day of class when kids form groups and create a business where products or services need to be sold by Christmas using $17,000 from the school. The business runs until the end of the school year when it gets officially shut down. Any profits generated are donated to charity. Losses are assumed by the college.

If this is your jam, Babson College is the school for you. This means that you will be working with relative strangers, untested and unscreened. You might quickly get to understand why it’s so important to screen out the freeloaders though.

Three months is also a short window to start a company centered around new technology or innovation that takes a few “at bats” to fine tune. The businesses that were described seemed more like screen printed apparel or products that could be sourced from China and resold with a logo.

There seems to be considerable interest from overseas students in Babson, giving this school an international flair. Babson also has programs with other colleges including Wellesley for humanities and Olin College for engineering to round out the curriculum.

Babson College has a central focus on entrepreneurship education, though graduates go on to the corporate world as well. One of the boxers from my gym graduated from Babson and now works for IBM in sales. With a hands-on focus on entrepreneurship, it’s a good place for students who want a formal education in entrepreneurship versus self-taught and self-made entrepreneurs who think a college entrepreneurship program is an oxymoron.

Here’s 10 Reasons Why Entrepreneurs Should Not Enroll in College from Addicted to Success:

You will be more in debt
Social value
Restrictions on being more innovative
Still unemployed after college
The use of backwards and traditional methods
Less hands on experience
Rigid learning
Less individualism
Smaller accomplishments towards your future
Less risk-taking

I personally don’t think this Top 10 list applies to Babson except for #1 and #10. Yes, you will be more in debt assuming you don’t get a full ride or your parents can pay for your education. I suppose risk takers would eschew college for a trial by fire, but I am in favor of higher education to widen horizons and learn to think critically.

What do you think? I’d love your take!