Babson College

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The Reynolds Campus Center at Babson College

Babson College, located in Wellesley, Massachusetts, is a private business school which grants undergraduate BS degree. The F. W. Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College offers MBA degrees. Babson is associated with nearby Olin College of Engineering, located in Needham, Massachusetts. Programs are accredited by AACSB and the New England Association of Schools and Colleges.

In the 2003–04 academic year, there were 1,717 undergraduate students and 1,625 graduate students at Babson. Approximately 40 percent of the student body is female and 60 percent male; about 19 percent of the undergraduates and 16 percent of the graduate students are from outside the United States. Over 30 languages are spoken on campus

Undergraduate program

The undergraduate curriculum integrates business disciplines and liberal arts into foundation, intermediate, and advanced-level courses. All first-year students participate in the Foundation Management Experience (FME), a yearlong immersion into the world of business where student teams create their own for-profit ventures. At the completion of FME, the businesses are liquidated and any profits are donated to a charity of choice. Babson teaches accounting, marketing, finance, management operations, organizational behavior, and economics in one integrated three-semester course, the "Intermediate Management Experience". As part of the Advanced Program, students design their own learning plans, which can consist of upper-level elective courses in liberal arts and management, field-based experiences, and cocurricular activities.

Graduate program

Babson features four degree programs, all using Babson's modular approach and emphasizing the practical application of business ideas.

• Two-Year MBA program: it includes field-based experience working on business problems for client companies.
• One-Year MBA Program: an accelerated full-time MBA program is for students with an undergraduate business degree and at least two years of post-graduate work.
• Evening MBA program: its eight-course core includes four cross-disciplinary classes that teach holistic thinking about complex management situations.
• Fast Track MBA Program: In January 2003, Babson introduced a part-time program combining traditional classroom instruction with Web-based, distance learning. The program can be completed in 24 months. Students attend classes on-campus during intensive, two-and-a-half day sessions once each month.
• Executive education: Babson Executive Education offerings include custom programs, open enrollment programs, consortium programs, applied research centers.

History

Babson College was founded by Roger Babson on September 3, 1919, as the "Babson Institute." It was renamed "Babson College" in 1969.

In 1992, a radical curriculum change Babson's Graduate School of Business's radical new curriculum made headlines in the Boston Globe, which wrote that in fall of 1993 the school

will scrap its first-year curriculum, throwing out traditional courses such as marketing, organizational behavior and finance. In their place will be five sequential "modules" that track the life of a typical business; students will be taught functional skills only when they need them to solve a particular problem—a "just in time" approach to learning.

Notable alumni

• William J. Allard (Chairman of Marquis Jet)
• Craig Benson (Chairman & CEO of Cabletron, former Governor of New Hampshire)
• Ernesto Bertarelli (CEO of Serono, 'America's Cup' Yacht Race Winner)[1]
• Arthur M. Blank (Co-Founder of Home Depot)
• Gustavo A. Cisneros (President/CEO of Organizacion Diego Cisneros)
• Robert Davis (Founder of Lycos, CEO/Venture Partner of Highland Capital)
• Roger Enrico (CEO of PepsiCo)
• Frederic C. Hamilton (Chairman/CEO of Hamilton Brothers Petroleum Corporation)
• John C. Merritt (Chairman/CEO of Van Kampen Merritt Holdings Corp)
• David G. Mugar (CEO of Mugar Enterprises, Boston Philanthropist)
• Stephen Spinelli, Jr. (Founder of Jiffy Lube)

Organizations

Campus publications

• Babson Alumni Magazine
• Babson Free Press
• Babson Business Journal

Fraternities and sororities

• Chi Omega
• Sigma Kappa Sorority
• Sigma Phi Epsilon
• Theta Chi
• [Tau Kappa Epsilon][2]
• Kappa Kappa Gamma
• Alpha Epsilon Pi

Other Organizations

Babson's "E-Tower" is an alternative housing option for entrepreneur students. Started in 2001, the building is a meeting place for brainstorming sessions, dinners with entrepreneurs, and other activities designed to foster an entrepreneurial community.

Babson Athletics

Babson College has eleven Varsity Men's and eleven Varsity Women's intercollegiate athetic teams. All teams compete within the The New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference [3]which is an association of ten selective academic institutions that are committed to providing high quality competitive athletic opportunities for student-athletes within an educational and respectful environment that embodies the NCAA Division III philosophy.

The school's mascot is the Beaver.

Babson Globe

The 25-ton, 28-foot diameter Babson Globe is a notable campus landmark. Built in 1955 by Roger Babson at a cost of $200,000, it originally rotated both on its axis and its base, demonstrating both day and night and the progression of the seasons.

It was allowed to deteriorate; the facing tiles fell off in 1984, and by 1988 it had the appearance of a rusty sphere. The Babson administration announced that it would be destroyed, but outraged students, faculty and alumni began a drive to raise money for its restoration. In 1994 the globe itself was refurbished, though it no longer rotates. It was for many years the largest rotating globe in the world and, as of 2005, the second-largest one ever built. (For the largest, see Eartha).

The former Coleman Map Building, now Coleman Hall, once housed a very large relief map of the United States, but according to the college it was destroyed circa 1997 when the building was remodelled into student housing.

References

• "Remaking the MBA: Babson College Curriculum may become Business School Prototype." Paul Hemp, Boston Globe, August 23, 1992 p. 33
• "Students Try to Save Babson's Rusty Globe," Associated Press, Boston Globe, August 6, 1989 p. 30
• The Babson World Globe Description from Babson's website. Calls it "capable" of rotating but this refers to the globe as built, not to its current state.
• World's Largest World is a World again Roadside America. Has image. Article appears to contain inaccuracies; globe does not rotate, and "odd monuments in the vicinity" are not at Babson; see Gravity Research Foundation.

External links

• Official Babson Home Page
• Babson Newsroom
• Babson Special Interest Housing