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Hardly carrying the same name recognition of an MIT or Harvard University, Babson College’s entrepreneurship programs have placed first in three of the most prestigious national rankings.
Over the past year, the Financial Times, the Princeton Review and U.S. News & World Report all have ranked Babson’s entrepreneurship program — either through its F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business or its undergraduate track, or both — higher than similar programs offered by better-known schools. Indeed, U.S. News & World Report has ranked Babson’s graduate entrepreneurship program first for 16 years in a row. In comparison, Harvard’s graduate program in entrepreneurship ranked third, and MIT’s graduate program in entrepreneurship ranked fifth.
At a time when the Obama administration seeks to bolster entrepreneurs as a way to stimulate the floundering economy, Babson’s gold-star rankings could not be timelier. And of course, whenever the small fish out-swims its much bigger competitors — well, placing first in the so-called triple crown of graduate school rankings — it feels like an even bigger triumph.
“This is our time,” said Leonard Schlesinger, president of Babson, which has 1,857 undergraduate students and 1,494 graduate students. “And it’s not just an oddity. There’s something going on here.”
At MIT, entrepreneurship program leaders are trying to figure out what that “something” might be.
“If you took the companies that are started by MIT alum every year, there would be 25,800 companies, and they produce just under $2 trillion per year,” said Bill Aulet, managing director of the MIT Entrepreneurship Center. That’s not to take anything away from Babson’s first-place rankings, said Aulet, adding, “I applaud them. But it’s befuddling to me.”
The answer, at least according to Schlesinger, is that entrepreneurship is woven into the fabric of every course Babson teaches on the undergraduate and graduate levels. Statistics, calculus — whatever the class, the case studies relate to an entrepreneurial venture. Other schools, including MIT, do not have the same level of focus on entrepreneurship, he said.
In addition, the foundations of management and entrepreneurship is a required course for every first-year undergraduate student at Babson, with teams of students launching and running businesses with $3,000 in startup money from the college. Along the way, students learn marketing, accounting and other disciplines related to running a business.
Similarly, entrepreneurship “forms the basis on which our entire curriculum is based” in Babson’s graduate program, said Raghu Tadepalli, dean of the F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business.
“In most MBA programs, entrepreneurship is rarely part of the core and is usually an elective,” he said. “One hundred percent of our students have to study entrepreneurship.”
And while Babson may not be able to lay claim to as many high-profile startups among its alum as MIT or Stanford University, also considered a leader in entrepreneurship, that’s not necessarily where Babson is trying to make its name, said recent grads.
“What about the girl who was a year ahead of me and who runs an extremely successful jeans store in the North End? Or the two people in my class who own a children’s toy company?” asked Jason Jacobs, a 2005 graduate of Babson’s graduate school and founder of FitnessKeeper Inc. Jacobs’ company has designed a fitness application for iPhones.
“They won’t be in Wired magazine, but these are nuts-and-bolts and growing, sustainable businesses. And that’s where Babson shines — back to basics.”
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