For the second year in a row, The Wall Street Journal ranked Babson as the No. 2 Best College in the U.S., lauding the College for its impact on students’ success.
“This ranking continues to demonstrate the tremendous success of our students and alumni and their impact on the world,” said Babson President Stephen Spinelli Jr. MBA’92, PhD. “The Wall Street Journal’s rankings have garnered increased attention since their methodology changed two years ago to place a greater focus on student outcomes and success. To retain our spot at number two for a second consecutive year, and third straight year in the top 10, amid this heightened focus, is a testament to the consistent impact our students and alumni make across industries around the world.”
Babson has excelled in The Wall Street Journal rankings since it revamped its methodology to emphasize the impact of colleges on their students’ success. Two years ago, Babson vaulted to No. 10, and last year, Babson leaped again to No. 2. This year, Babson cemented its position at No. 2, just behind Stanford and ahead of Yale, Princeton, and Harvard, which round out the top five.
“Unlike other school rankings, this list emphasizes one point: How well did the college prepare students for financial success?” the Wall Street Journal story said. “More than any other factor, it rewards the boost an institution provides to its graduates’ salaries, beyond an estimate of what they could have expected from attending any college.”
A very narrow way to rank. Which is fine. ROI is important to most people. However, Babson has only 26 majors and most of them are for higher paying fields. If a Babson student came up to me and told me that went to the #2 school in the country, as if it was somehow a better school than all of the other schools with more to offer, I’d probably get a giggle out of it.
Would you also giggle if they told you that USN ranked them #1 in entrepreneurship for 29 consecutive years, ahead of MIT and all other schools?
Not if they were planning to be an entrepreneur. Because that would match the narrow focus of the award. But I would if they were there to study Historical and Political Studies or Social and Cultural Studies.
that would be user error
It is 2nd best at a specific thing being ranked, sure.
Defining “college” as something whose goal is first and foremost ROI is very problematic to me.
ROI is actually fairly middle on my list of things that make a university a great university.
That said, if I had a kid with a passion for business, I would certainly consider having them apply!
What is your criteria and which list do you most relate to?
Looking just at the educational experience offered at Babson, it strikes me as exceptional for several reasons:
- It is not just a straight business school education; they integrate a lot of liberal arts into their program;
- They emphasize experiential, hands on learning and having students work in teams;
- They strongly encourage their students to study abroad;
- They have cross registration with both Wellesley, one of the very best LACs in the country, and Brandeis, one of the rare research universities with a low student:faculty ratio of 9:1.
I’d love to see the numbers on how many Babson students actually take advantage of the cross registration at Brandeis and Wellesley. I haven’t looked recently- but as of about a decade ago, the numbers were tiny. And occasional, i.e. a few students registering for a Music Theory class on one of the other campuses. Nothing that would reflect a Babson student actually getting a multi-disciplinary education from two other institutions.
This is not a knock particular to Babson- many of these programs are more hype than reality just because scheduling, transportation, wait times, etc. make these other classes not very convenient. But I wouldn’t claim it as a reason why Babson deserves #2 status in the nation.
There’s also a reason why very few entrepreneurs actually major in “entrepreneurship”. And that’s because successful entrepreneurs have an actual “invention”- a thing. Whether they are engineers or molecular biologists or oncologists or linguists or political scientists or whatever…. they observe a problem in their domain, they figure out a solution. The actual “academic underpinnings” of entrepreneurship- how to write a business plan, what is a balance sheet- these aren’t specific to an entrepreneur.
I feel sorry for the kids who are aching to launch a startup– but don’t realize until late in the game that they don’t actually have a solution to a problem which people will pay for. The young teen who just created a dialysis machine out of $500 worth of spare parts from Home Depot? I bet she doesn’t know she needs a course in entrepreneurship!
Did I claim cross registration as a reason “why Babson deserves #2 status in the country”?
Frankly, I don’t care about where any college ranks. My comments were directed at the opportunities for a rich educational experience which are offered at Babson, one of which is cross registration. As with any opportunity, it’s up to students to take advantage of those opportunities.
Gotcha, I misunderstood your list. Agree with your pov…
Babson does tend to attract either kids that already have some type of business and grad students from a wide variety of disciplines that have already done well in their fields. I think this is part of why Babson grads are high earners right out of school.
And while I don’t know if a Babson student cross registering at Olin will give them the skills needed to engineer a product, I think it could be very wise for an Olin student to cross register at Babson.
Or for a Babson student to partner with an Olin student who has big ideas.
I like that thinking.
I have some Babson experience. The secret to their success in entrepreneurship is multi-fold, but I believe making entrepreneurship incredibly normal (whether starting a business or just being an innovative employee) and coupling that with a curriculum that all entrepreneurs need, whether they know it or not, makes for a powerful combination.
Point well made.
I’ve heard it said that all of business is entrepreneurship. Regardless, it is important to be able to constantly reinvent yourself is important.
And it’s not like entrepreneurship is this narrow, niche thing.
Not narrow, not niche, but a heck of a marketing tool.
What kid wants to slog through the core components of operations research, finance, accounting, marketing, production, organizational design when they have bragging rights on “Entrepreneurship”? Even though a successful entrepreneur is going to need all of those core components?
I agree, now!
Nobody felt that Babson was much of a marketing machine in the 80’s when they put entrepreneurial studies on the map.
I absolutely agree that entrepreneurship is a heck of a marketing tool.
Let me take this opportunity to say that Babson is a special place going back to its founding more than a hundred years ago. Its founding mission was to provide a practical education for future managers and leaders in business. Roger Babson believed that experience was the best teacher, so right from the beginning in 1919, they combined class work with actual business training under the guidance of actual businessmen. Before experiential learning was a buzz word in collegiate circles, it was a reality at Babson. And even back then, students worked in teams. Group work was built into their training from the very beginnings of the institution.
Read about the Babson story here:
When Babson turned to entrepreneurship as a theme some 40 years ago, it wasn’t as a gimmick. It was in furtherance of that founding mission. It seemed to them to be a good way for students to gain that practical education that Roger Babson had envisioned, a way to engage students in experiential learning as had been envisioned from the very beginning, and as a way for students to work in teams. All students take a year long course in freshman year, called Foundations in Management and Entrepreneurship. Working under faculty mentorship, each team of students starts their own business and works on all of the problems and challenges which start ups encounter. Rather than me describe it, here’s Babson in their own words:
Finally, this Foundations course is not a gimmicky, one-off experience for freshmen before they move on to serious academic study. It is part of a tapestry of experience which has evolved to achieve Roger Babson’s founding mission of training future business leaders. Again, in Babson’s own words, here is the larger context of which the Foundations course is a part:
I have zero problem believing Babson does an excellent job for the kids who want that sort of college experience.
Of course the very idea of ranking specialty colleges against general interest colleges makes no sense, but it is not like the WSJ is the only one doing it.