Babson's Results on the 2007 BusinessWeek Survey

by Crapmaster on 5/17/2007

Did everyone see how Babson dropped in the business school rankings this year? It was depressing, but I couldn't help but laugh. Babson does business and that's it - and couldn't even get it right!

So let's go through the results of our 2007 BusinessWeek survey and see what we can find out about Babson...

Starting with Getting In, the first thing I noticed was the student profile for the latest entering class. A whopping 77% are from the Northeast US. That leads to 84% of the student body being US citizens. So much for diversity, huh?

Scrolling down to Admissions stuff, it lists the importance of what you did in high school. Your class rank, GPA, etc are all ranked as "Very Important." Things such as Work Experience only get a "Considered." That's funny, because from what I've seen, I think they just base it on how likely you are to get rich and donate lots of money back to Babson.

On to Academics and Lifestyle! This should be good... But actually, it's pretty lame. No exciting news here.

This was funny though: "87% of business students graduate from the program within six years of admission to the university." Damn, six years? That would really suck to be here that long.

Now for Careers & Alumni Affairs. This must be the worst thing I've heard: only 7.15% of 2006 grads were planning to start their own business! I had to do my own math for that (65% of 11%,) as Babson probably doesn't want you to know how few entrepreneurs they send off into the world. Only about 25 people are doing their own thing. After all, Babson is merely the #1 school in the country for entrepreneurship...

Looks like most jobs are with financial services or accounting companies and land you about $46k per year. Most students did finance concentrations, which is no surprise. The surprise is that Entrepreneurship wasn't even mentioned.

Possibly the best (and by best, I mean worst) part: 88% of the jobs are in the Northeast US. Like I've said before, Babson is only good if you want to work in Boston or maybe New York. Planning on moving to Cali? Babson won't help you too much.

Here we go, time for Student Comments! Some of these are true, while some are obviously from students who want to make Babson look good to selfishly enhance their own reputation. The best excerpts are printed below:

I feel that a majority of my connections to the outside business world came through friends and family.

Supposedly Babson's MBA program is really good but their undergraduate program has a long way to go. They keep on changing everything each year (the required courses and the business program). Plus, they have raised the tuition each year for no real reason. My friends and I believe it is to keep up Babson's reputation with Harvard and other expensive Ivy League schools.

Recruiters are rarely from outside Northeast.

They've done nothing for me, and I've asked for help. Don't be skewed by Babson's business slant. There are plenty of students — interestingly, who don't fit the cookie-cutter approach to careers — that the school ignores.

Babson's deflationary grading policy, including a bell curve for grading students against other students, is hurting both student moral and our ability to compete in applying for top-tier jobs.

I go to the No. 1 entrepreneurship school, but the college tries to take credit for student businesses and discourages businesses that are not associated with the school.

The campus life and academic service offices tend to view the students as an annoyance and not the customer.

Students feel that the Office of Campus Life has ruined their experience. Overall, Babson College has been described by a sticker widely distributed among the student body: "Great Product, Terrible Service!"

Those student opinions sure do say a lot. That's just a few selected statements, but they're the ones we think you should hear.

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