Babson College

Babson College:

Name: Vishal Reddy
Year: 2023
Major: Technology Entrepreneurship
Contact: vnarapareddy1@babson.edu

Hi, I am Vishal. I am currently a freshman at Babson College. I plan on majoring in Technology Entrepreneurship and I am part of the Family Entrepreneurship Club at Babson. Here are some things about Babson:

1. As many of you must have heard already, Babson is a small business school that specializes in Entrepreneurship. In terms of ranking, Babson has been rated as the number one college, even higher than MIT, for its Entrepreneurship program for the past 20 years. So if you really want to do Entrepreneurship, Babson is the place to be.
2. The best part about the academics at Babson is that it is a small school. The average classroom size is only about 20-30 students. This is very similar to the classroom environment at TISB as students can approach professors at any point of time. While most colleges have classes with hundreds of students, Babson has small classrooms with interactive sessions which allows for all students to participate. Students receive much closer attention when compared to larger schools in the US.
3. The faculty is very passionate about teaching and sharing their knowledge. A lot of the professors started their own businesses at some point and have had the experience of being entrepreneurs. Every professor also has office hours where you can go speak with them regarding any queries and doubts. This is all done one on one and helps maintain a good relationship with professors. They’re usually flexible and willing to help at all times.

• At Babson, there are tons of business and other clubs for one to participate in. Since Babson is so focused on networking, there are multiple events, organizations that give you the opportunity to start networking right from day 1. There are days where top firms come in to recruit Babson students and this provides an opportunity for even first years to just interact with firms and find potential internship opportunities.

• Babson is located about 30 minutes from Boston in a town called Wellesley. The campus is peaceful, calm, and filled with greenery. However, there isn’t much to in Wellesley or the campus so students usually go to Boston every weekend. Boston is a very lively city with clubs, bars, restaurants, and a lot more. The party nights for Babson students are Thursdays and Saturdays and students usually go to the city on these days.

• Babson allows its students to cross register and take classes at Olin School. Olin is an extremely small and extremely competitive engineering school. So if you’re interested in computer science and in the field of technology, you can always explore more by taking classes at Olin. Apart from Babson, Boston has the cream of educational institutions such as Harvard, MIT, and Wellesley College. Babson being in close proximity allows students to attend events and parties at those schools. This is a great way for students to network and party with students who attend the best schools. You could even take some courses during the weekend at MIT and Harvard. This gives you the opportunity to learn from the best and build contacts which can be very useful in the future.
• Programs and courses such as FME and CLTP are very unique to Babson. They provide a lot of knowledge and experience. I suggest you guys to search them up in order to understand more about them.
• Finally I want to highlight the diversity that is unique to Babson. With nearly 30% international students who come from all over the world, attending Babson provides you the opportunity to learn about people who come from diverse backgrounds. With such diversity, you will never feel like an international student and this makes transition into college much easier and faster. You will never have a problem making friends and building a group.
• Lastly, I want to talk about the drawback of Babson being an expensive school. Although it is a private school that offers top class education, it is away from the city and still happens to be about $70,000 for tuition, housing, and meals. While I never applied for aid, Babson claims that it offers some sort of financial aid to nearly 50% of its students. So tuition shouldn’t be a barrier for you as I know a lot of people who received financial aid.

That’s it from me and I hope you consider Babson when making your decision. I want to appreciate Shaila for doing this as none of us had such a helpful program when making our decision. Feel free to reach out as I will be happy to answer any questions related to Babson.