John

Babson is definitely a business school where topics such as the rise in the price of oil or the merger of companies trickle into everyday conversation. I've even heard about a fight almost breaking out between two people when one of them was questioning the other's knowledge of the stock market, only at Babson. If you're interested in going somewhere in the business world than Babson is definitely right for you. Babson might be a very small school (about the same size as Bowdoin) but because Harvard, BC, MIT, BU and especially Wellesley College (all girls!) are so close there's always something going on if you're in need of a change of scenery.

The academics are definitely geared towards preparing you for the business world. At first you have to take a number of Liberal Arts and Humanities courses but after you get those out of the way it's all business. I honestly knew almost nothing about the business world before coming to Babson but after just one year it's amazing how much more I know. The big class at Babson is Foundations of Management and Entrepreneurship (F.M.E.) which each freshman must take. In this class students are split up into small groups and must pitch business ideas to the whole class of about 60 students (probably the largest class at Babson), after voting several times over a few weeks the class is finally split into the two winning company ideas. Those companies are each given 3000 dollars and begin working right away. This is an incredible hands on working experience that many students complain about because it is such hard work but that's just because it is so much like the real world. When the year is over the company is liquidated and all of the profits are given to charity.

Babson is generally split into three different cliques: the athletes, the B.I.S.O.'s (Babson International Student Organization) and people in Greek life. This is mainly because the best places to party are in the athletic suites (where most athletes go), the clubs in Boston (where most international students go), and in the fraternities (where most people with drinking problems go). Recently there has been much more of an overlap between fraternities and athletic teams than there has in the past but the International students don't mingle much with the other groups as they tend to move off campus after their first year. The student body seems very diverse because of all the international students but is really mostly made up of suburban students from the New England area. Despite the many different backgrounds at Babson though, eveyone seems to get along very well with each other.

Greek Life isn't an essential part of Babson's social life but it is a big part. Sororities have very good numbers but would rather the fraternities throw parties for them than mess up their own buildings. The two most popular fraternities are definitely TKE and SigEp. TKE is more of an "animal house" fraternity which is always a great time and ends up with the biggest damage charge's at the end of the year. SigEp considers themselves a more exclusive fraternity and aren't really as good at opening their doors to other's. If TKE's the rowdy fraternity from "Animal House" than SigEp is the preppy, and more entitled rival fraternity from the film.

Knight Parties take place in Knight auditorium and are always a crazy time that few people actually remember. Drinking is definitely the big thing at Babson and Thursday and Saturday nights something always is going on. Smoking pot is not uncommon at all but given Babson's competitive nature you won't find many deadbeat stoners on campus.

Stereotypes about Babson is that it is a preppy school where no one cares about the actual college but just about preparing themselves for life in the business world.

After attending prep-school for my four years of high school I might be slightly biased but I was shocked when people were claiming that Babson is preppy. Babson has a very diverse student body and maybe a few kids will occasionally "pop their collar" but it looks more like a Massachusetts suburb than Greenwich or Darien.

Babson students have a lot more pride in their school than they tend to let on. The recent formation of "Beaver Nation" has helped to raise school spirit a lot, and the turnouts at some of the basketball, hockey, soccer and lacrosse games has been pretty impressive.