Why Start a Site Like This?
That's easy to answer, albeit a long story.
It all started back in junior year of high school. Back when I was getting bombarded with college brochures every day. It didn't make much difference, since I was pretty much set on Penn State or another similar Pennsylvania school.
But then I got this one brochure with the words "#1 in Entrepreneurship." That did it for me. I didn't even know you could study entrepreneurship in school! Needless to say, I was excited!
However, Massachusetts was eight hours away and the school was not cheap. As a matter of fact, I didn't know there were any schools that charged that much!
The excitement started to wear off once reality hit. Babson was too far away and too expensive. I went back to looking at other schools. But as time passed, I realized that going to any other school would be pointless. They would simply prepare me for some boring old job. Definitely not what I wanted.
Babson, on the other hand, would mold me into a powerful business leader. It practically guaranteed I'd be a millionaire before graduation. And if that wasn't enough, they provided state-of-the-art facilities for whatever I wanted to do.
Anyway, I ended up going to Babson. I anxiously awaited FME where I could run my own business as a freshman (whereas other schools might get into business plans by senior year.) Everything else was just icing on the cake.
So did Babson live up to its reputation?
That's up for debate... (I'll write more on this later.)
For my four years, I just accepted the fact that my life would suck at Babson. So what brought me to the point of this project?
My bike was stolen. Simple as that. The line had been crossed. The reason it was stolen is not so simple, though. See, our group of students used to live in a private tower. We were the only ones that could open the door, so it was safe to store our equipment (like bikes) out in the open and even to leave our doors unlocked.
Well, we got moved to a new location. One that was totally open, except for a lockable storage room. The reason we were moved was so that we could use this secure storage area.
Babson's Office of Campus Life (OCL) promised that the room would be locked specifically for us, so that other people could not get to our stuff. And this was to be done before the school year started. But (guess what!) it wasn't.
So for the first week of school, we had seven or eight bikes and other equipment in an unlocked room. One night, two mountain bikes valued at $4000 were stolen.
OCL says it's our fault since we left them unlocked. And that's the end of it from their perspective.
But wait? Didn't they promise to have that room locked?
I figured, with people like this running campus life, it's no wonder no one has a social life here. That, and the enormous amount of homework (aka pointless busywork) we get.
Which brings up classes. I've been getting bored with them. Especially when you think about tuition. Over the course of four years, you'll only have a few worthwhile classes. (Even less if you're a transfer student.)
Fortunately, I've found lots of great business insights in magazines and blogs, including free ones. I've learned A LOT more from my own experience and entrepreneurial endeavors than from Babson's courses.
That's all for now, hopefully that gives you an idea why I had to start this website. Hopefully this site will save some other kids from the hell that is Babson.
Sincerely,
Concerned Babson Student / Website founder
