Farewell to Babson High
Comments(10)
Well, it’s May, which can only mean one thing: graduation. Some of us are lucky enough to get out of Babson Park, and yet it’s strangely sentimental. In effect, due to graduation, I guess this is really my last post on the blog, which adds to that sentiment. But I’d like to go out addressing both sides of this bipolar nature of graduation.
Yes, it’s that time of year when some people get all teary-eyed and look back on the fond memories they had of their wonderful college experience. Unfortunately, those people don’t go to Babson, they go to real colleges. So really it’s that time of year when people have to say goodbye to the close friends they’ve made, bring back all of those “remember when…” moments, and at the same time lift a huge weight off their shoulders. That weightless feeling is not a hallucination. It is Babson removing its hands from your shoulders and pulling out of your anus because they have finally finished banging you.
Well, of course they will constantly ask you to pay them donations for the amazing butt sex they just gave you. But you can read more about that in my previous post (“Why You Should Never Donate to Babson”). More importantly, it is that time when you finally get to leave campus and start searching for a really good psychiatrist. After all, you need someone to help you get through the last four years you managed to survive. Some of you may have found a happy place while being raped, but suppressed memories are not healthy. Others may emerge from Babson and not be able to visit other campuses for a while because of the emotional damage done here. Whatever the situation, hopefully your job’s medical insurance covers most of the cost because you’ve spent enough during your time here.
Anyway, for those of you who are still completing the “Babson Experience” or are deciding whether they want such an experience, I thought I would make some final, summarizing thoughts from the other side of the fence.
In my experience, Babson wasn’t worth it, and if I had to do college over again, I would most definitely choose a different option. I came from a graduating class of 79 people in high school, where I was friends with pretty much everyone in my class and most of my school, as well as the faculty, staff, and admins. It was the epitome of what a small school should be like, and represented every reason why a person would prefer a small school to a large one: small class sizes, students aren’t just another number, no bureaucracy, close-knit community, etc. Then I come to Babson, which prides itself on being a small school, and I immediately associated it with the amazing experiences I had in high school. Well, unfortunately, that wasn’t Babson at all. Babson, in a nutshell, is a large school in small school’s clothing.
What do I mean by that? I mean when’s the last time the administration made you feel like you were a living, breathing human being? It rarely happens, if ever. But isn’t that sort of the essence of a community? We’re pretend like we have all these good qualities in our school, and aside from teaching quality we really don’t have any. We’re like that kid you all knew in high school that tried so hard to fit in with all the cool kids that he/she ended up being a total loser. It’s sad. We get so caught up in policies and people that we end up losing sight of the big picture.
I think it may have a lot to do with the administration’s attitude. They take no investment in the students whatsoever. Take, for instance, Dean Reza. The guy is useless. I’ve had to spend an hour in the guy’s office going over my credits and class planning, when it should’ve taken 10 minutes. I wouldn’t have gone except for it was mandatory, and it was irritating to see him fumbling around with such an easy task for so long. But aside from being useless, the guy doesn’t even know people’s names. While listing off people during graduation, he was messing up some of the easiest names and mispronouncing people that most everyone in our class knew. It’s like we just hired him to come in and say names and he had never met any of us or worked with our class for 4 years. It’s embarrassing, and it’s a good example of how our class dean might as well have been with a class of 10,000 instead of 300+.
Yet, it’s also the people we let into the school. For instance, our SAT score is somewhere in the 1200′s usually. Compare that to our other competitors on the business week list. Most have higher than us. Let’s speculate for a minute. We admit about 37% of all applicants each year. That’s pretty selective. Why do we have a low SAT score then? Why don’t we select more smart kids? Well, one answer is maybe they’re just not applying. I find that hard to believe, although it is a possibility. A more likely scenario: rich mommies and daddies. This is much more believable. Follow with me for a second: Mortimer A. Smith, Sr. doesn’t want his mongoloid son Mortimer A. Smith, Jr. going to a lowly state school because it makes Sr. look bad and makes it harder for him to get Jr. a job after he graduates. Far off? Doubtful. It may unearth a correlation between the number of $30,000 cars on campus and the low SAT average. Why does the SAT matter? Well, on the surface it doesn’t. I mean, SAT score doesn’t really make you a better person or not. I merely used it to illustrate that we let in people based on how much money we’re going to get out of it instead of whether they’re actually a good person to admit. It seems like for as much as we promote entrepreneurship, we produce a bunch of robots. I’ll be the first to admit I’m no genius, but it was sickening to see so many people kiss professors’ asses with worthless participation, regurgitate things the professor or other students said, or ask professors what exactly they wanted to see on a paper or in an exam. I think some things you can figure out on your own, but most of the people here need to be programmed. Yeah, we probably produce great workers, but do we produce great leaders? Doubtful. I’d be willing to be 30 or 40 years from now people will look back and find we were more successful producing leaders when we were a party school than when we were an uptight rectum posing as a school.
The same can be said about our diverse-centered mindset? I’m all for diversity, but we do it the wrong way. What I mean is that any student from any race or country or other demographic should still be just another student. It’s great to have a diverse mix of people, but what Babson does is constantly point out the diversity and create an atmosphere that reeks of the fact that they’re only supporting diversity in order to showcase it. Why? Because it makes the school look better to the world. We’re really trying to polish up our global image even though we don’t have a domestic one west of the Hudson. Makes sense. Or maybe it could be the fact that international students get charged more and are not eligible for financial aid (translation: more cash in Babson’s pocket). It’s a slap in the face to people from diverse cultures to feel they were brought here for Babson’s benefit and not their own. In fact, it’s a slap in the face to anyone anywhere for that matter.
Most of the time when I think about these things, I just end up pissed. I was talking about it with someone at a big university the other day, and a point was brought up that similar crap is served at universities all the time. And I thought, that’s right, this stuff probably happens at a lot of places. But those schools have 20,000+ students. They have pubs and real parties and late-night food, and a million other things that we don’t have, which is partly why its students chose a big university in the first place. We come to Babson expecting the benefits of a small-school atmosphere, and instead we get the worst of both the small-school and big-school worlds. So really what it amounts to is disappointment. It’s like when you see an awesome trailer for a movie, and then when you go see the real thing it’s awful and the only good parts were from the trailer. That’s really the bottom line–disappointment. It’s not that we have no hope of making this place better, or that we had zero fun while we were here. It’s that we came in expecting to get prime rib and ended up getting prime rib cut off our own asses. And really, who wants to go to a school that’s a work in progress? Most people get an awesome four years of their lives, often the best four, and love their schools. We have to turn Babson over and shake the crap out of it just to get anywhere, and yet they wonder why we leave here pissed off. At least if they don’t want to change their ways, they could market the school the way it really is so people that come here know what they’re getting. Or else they could just let in kids that study Sunday thru Saturday, don’t go out, don’t get laid, and are easily pleased. I guess then we’d be Olin. But maybe that’s not so bad, I mean I was jealous of their end of the year party with a huge jousting platform, rock climbing wall, and a ton of other cool stuff. But hey, at least we got a has-been band and a “beer garden” that includes a fold-out table, a keg, and some solo cups (which disgraces the term “beer garden” if you have ever been to a real one).
So I guess maybe if I came in with the bar set lower and knew more of what I was getting into, then maybe I would’ve liked it more. Maybe. But then I think, why should that be the case? Why should students have to be dumbed or lamed down in order to enjoy it here? Babson purposely sets the bar so high with its marketing campaign, so shouldn’t they be held to live up to it? I think so. If they’re going to market themselves as being small-school, then they should follow up on that and create an actual small-school atmosphere, should they not? I mean otherwise it’s just a total crap shoot whether you’re going to like it here or not. Maybe it’s easier said than done to fix that kind of thing, but why don’t we use some of that innovative, entrepreneurial spirit we hear so much about? Maybe that’s bullshit too, I don’t know.
In all honesty, though, I realize I am probably way too tough on Babson (and maybe most of the site is, as well, but deservedly so). I mean, they do provide a high teaching quality, and I don’t think any of us have ever really complained about that. And there is a lot I’m going to miss, as well. Ok, maybe not “a lot,” but some things. Mostly, my friends. I walked into Map Hill the other day and went into my suite. It was completely empty. All the stuff we left in the fridge when we moved out, the kitchen stuff, all gone. The detergent we spilled on the floor, MIA. The paint on the walls we messed up from many nights of inviting our friends Jack and Jose over, all re-painted. There was natural light coming through the windows, which I don’t think ever happened while I lived there. Rooms that used to be filled with life, now desolate. Everything was gone, like we never even existed there. Needless to say, it was depressing. In one day, they came in and undid everything we did. And those are the things I’ll miss. The little things. The memories. The things that made that poorly-constructed room into a home. The things that made that piece of crap elevator into a basis for dorm-wide war.
I know I said I would never choose Babson again if I had the choice, and I wouldn’t. But I would definitely have to bring my friends with me. They’re what made tolerable everything at Babson that had no right to be so. For that, I’m forever grateful. So while we continue to crap on Babson, let’s not forget that are many more important things to escape Babson with aside from your money and dignity. When you leave Babson, all the things you hate about it get to stay behind. But all the little things I mentioned, you get to keep those with you forever.
Anyway, like I said, I know I’m normally way too hard on Babson. I can concede that. Nevertheless, most people are way too easy and/or forgiving. So the extreme weight against the school is to help students come out somewhere in the middle I think. Which is fine. You should be making the decisions for yourself. Babson has their extremely good marketing campaign that has brought you to the school in the first place, and we have our site to offset it in the efforts that hopefully you can see both sides and come up with your own opinion, whatever that may be.
I’ve had a great time writing for this site. I think it’s an awesome initiative and will help turn Babson into the place it could potentially be. I appreciate all the feedback and discussions, and even if they haven’t all directly made the school a better place I know they’ve helped get a ton of stress off all of our chests just by venting our frustration with the school. In a way, it’s united us at a place where there aren’t too many reasons to unite. And as those of us that have graduated pass the torch on, I hope that you might also pick it up and make forward progress, in the hopes that this small group of Babson-haters might one day end up as architects.
Craptain Hook out. Yarrr.
This entry was posted on Sunday, May 27th, 2007 at 8:50 pm and is filed under Babson, Craptain Hook. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
AIM to a friend or Set as Away 
Post to Del.icio.us
Loading ...
While Babson had both its ups and downs, I thought it was a terrific experience. I think if you were so unhappy throughout your time there you should have transferred..you could have still kept the same great friends and had an amazing college experience.
Babson isnt for everyone either, its an intense environment in all respects: scholastic, social, etc…
Lets hope they prepared you for the next big step in your life. Congrats on graduating!
Also, as a proponent of new media, I definitely think you should give this blog to someone else to continue. If there is anything good or bad about Babson that know one hears about through normal channels, let it be heard.
There is no reason to drop a good idea due to graduation, just let it grow.
Thanks for the comments Francesco. Just so you know, there are multiple writers here and not everyone has graduated. We’ll be back, bigger than ever, in the fall!
Yes, as Crapmaster was alluding to, I am only a contributor for the site, and it certainly will not die because of my graduation. And as much as I would like to continue posting, it makes it kind of tough to provide a first-person perspective when I will no longer be there in the first person with an up-to-date perspective.
Also…as to your transfer comment…it’s not like that thought never crossed my mind. But if I transferred, my FME and all my weird-ass classes would be lost in translation. That would mean I would have to tack on an extra year (or at least a semester) of school wherever I decided to go (I actually did look into it, and this was the case). Not to mention, I did stress that our quality of teaching was high. If there had been only one of those two things, I probably would have transferred. But the two combined was just enough to make me bite down and finish up what I started.
Once again, I would like to make it clear that maybe we do end up being too hard on Babson now and again. I mean we focus a lot on the negatives and less on the positives. But I think that’s the nature of disappointment and frustration. Besides, you get enough positives from the marketing campaign that I don’t think it’s necessary to reiterate those as much as it is to call bullshit on the stuff that’s misleading. In a way, we’re auditing Babson’s marketing efforts. We do our best to expose the stuff that most people coming in would want to know in order to make an informed decision. That’s the way I look at it, and I think it does a good job of helping people make better decisions about their college choice, as well as it influences people in charge to make appropriate changes in order to make the school a better place.
There definitely are people like yourself that come through Babson and love it. Just in my personal experience through writing for this site for two years and working with different people outside the scope of this site, though, I’ve found that the people unhappy with Babson far outnumber the people who love it. We’re just trying to separate the two and focus on those people like ourselves that would have made different decisions (or at least prepared ourselves differently) had we been exposed to a site like this.
The end result is a two-fold benefit. One is that we are helping Babson end up with students who knew all the facts up front and are much more likely to enjoy their experience and decision to go there. The second is that we are helping the people who go here get more of the things they want around campus to make their experience more enjoyable. So everyone wins. And in the meantime, you get to vent your frustrations in a safe environment, and honestly who in the world doesn’t like to do that?
Anyway, thanks for your comments, they are much appreciated, and thanks for the congratulations, as well. Best of luck.
Well said all around Craptain Hook.
Very good point about offsetting the exaggerations of Babson’s marketing. We know we’re going out of our way to expose all the problems, but I don’t think we exaggerate any more than the marketing campaigns. I’ve tried to stress that before and I’ll make sure it’s more transparent as the site gets additions this summer.
Craptain Hook -
first, congratulations on graduating. you lucky bastard.
as far as carrying on the babson-hater torch, i will unfortunately be stepping up for that infamous babson tradition. i’ve been preparing a series of articles for the babson free press, posted under my real name, to help articulate the positions and observations that i have heard around on this site and experienced while i’ve been a babson undergrad. whether or not the ‘free press’ will print them is another story. but i’m sure they’ll appear on crapcampus and i’ll continue my steadfast support of this website and the readers and writers that contribute their efforts for it.
(btw, i saw a oclruinedmycampuslife t shirt the other day. where can i get one of those?)
and to Francesco DeParis, this site has really only begun. because, truth be told, babson is in a sad state right now. where is it heading? who will be the new president? what will happen to barefoot’s global strategy (which i’m preparing a post/article about)? now, probably more than ever, there is a need for a blog like this.
and i hate to be part of something that has been described as an “annoymous hatefest” (http://www.firehed.net/2007/02/07/what-is-it-with-shitty-teachers#comment-1722) – but i think what most people don’t realize is that we’re actually helping the school. it’s perplexing – i started writing here to help deter would-be business students like myself from making a bad choice. now, a year and a half later, i realized what i was doing was just articulating to babson (in a roundabout, somewhat malcious way) what kind of school i wanted.
babson can of course, choose to ignore me. but about the same time that i realized what i was really doing, babson started to change exactly like i wanted. first it was the suggestion boxes, then barefoot resigns, and then the map hill residents weren’t charged for the elevator. not to mention more people then ever are reading and participating in this blog: every post on the main page has 6+ comments (except mine, haha), polls are getting much, much bigger responses.
i know there are people that don’t like this site. and i want them to realize that babson is changing to accommodate my fellow writers/commenters and my views. i want to know how the crapcampus haters feel about that. maybe they should start writing more (aren’t they always the ones that say they are so involved?) they better get typing because it’s starting to look more and more like the bloggers that write here are having a growing impact on babson college.
and as far as how we are a bit hard on babson, i agree completely. posting at crapcampus is walking a fine line: it’s very easy to get malicious and go over board with your disappointment with babson. i’ve actually made some factually incorrect statements about babson (which i’ll be clarifying in the future), statements that i later regretted making. but the way i see it – the college needs to learn how to respond to bloggers. in the years ahead, there will be a crapcampus type site at every single college. students are always going to express their “feelings”, and it will most likely be done anonymously and harshly. it’s up to the college to learn how to respond to these attacks. we have an obligation to be honest in our observations, but we also shouldn’t feel bad about being negative. as long as we’re honest in our observations we shouldn’t feel shame for what we’ve done. (i.e. if you wouldn’t say something in public in a babson college classroom, you shouldn’t say it here.)
that said though, i am a little disappointed that i’m probably going down in history as a ‘babson hater’ – i’d much rather be the ‘babson architect” that you mention. it’s dirty work writing for crapcampus, but somebody has to do it.
anyway, Craptain Hook – thanks for your work on this site. and even though you graduated, you are still involved in the babson community. your observations and thoughts on babson are just as informative, whether you are in babson park or not. i hope you continue writing.
also (still inspired, sorry haters),
to add to your discussion on babson as a big school in a small school’s closing, i wholeheartedly agree. i came from a larger private high school, about 1,000 students, 300 or so in the graduating class. i felt like an integral part of the community there. i’m by no means a very sociable person with a lot of friends but at least there the administration treated me with respect for what i could do and had done. my participation in the community (however unfortunately small it was) felt like it was valued highly. i knew a lot of the high level administrators personally (there was no “middle level administrators” there) and would talk with them on a weekly basis – not just business ish either, but small talk, good-to-know-you bs. i don’t need much, but that kept me involved, and that’s one of the reasons why i donate highly (to my high school – not babson.)
here at babson, you have to fight for your time with your class dean. after three years here, i’m starting to finally learn who are the important individuals in this organization. at my high school, on the first day the administration sought me out to tell me how it was organized.
i’ve met some great people at babson and maybe it’s my fault because of who i am, but i really haven’t met enough. i’ve met people that i want to keep in close contact for the rest of my life, but i still find myself wanting more. there’s still time, though.
but since day one at babson, i’ve felt like the administration has treated me just like another ‘customer’. P04-0435, here’s your ThinkPad, welcome to a college without a heart. that has been very disappointing. and yes, some people will probably point out that my disappointment is largely my own fault. and it is, i recognize that, i know that 95% of the problems that i face are my own fault – trust me, i understand this. i am no stranger to bad decisions. but that other 5% has inspired me to go on an outspoken campaign to describe my disappointment.
as for the rich mommies and daddies comment – i’m not even going to go there. i need way more time to organize my thoughts on this. needless to say, i agree with you.
and as far as what babson does give you, it’s friends and connections. i really have met some great people at babson, i’d name them here but i’d blow my cover. i’ve met people that are going to be critical in my career – both professors and students alike. hell, i’ve worked for babson alumni for the last two summers. it’s because of those people that i try to write with care and consideration – they are relying on the babson name just as i am.
but what babson didn’t give me was that small school atmosphere. which is crap. which is why ocl ruined my campus life and now i live off campus and waste my time writing bitter diatribes about babson. instead of a college, i got whats up wednesday and a pub that’s run by sodexho – that just fucking recently started to open on the weekends. christ.
Crapmaster and elliott, thanks for the congrats and the support. I feel bad you’re still stuck at Babson, elliott, but you’ll be out of there soon enough. I like the idea of articles in the Free Press, hopefully they let those through. Maybe we can get some of their writers/editors on board with this site, or else maybe we can get those involved with this site to join their ranks somehow. The more we can work the popular media outlets, the better we can get things accomplished. Anyway, best of luck to you guys, and I’ll continue to chip in when and where I can. Take care.
I like where you guys are going with the site…I am wondering if it would be better off going with a “Free-Press” idea and being a rival to the “Babson Free Press”. I am sure the Babson paper has alot of politics that a lot of students/writers don’t agree with on campus.
To make this a more inclusive community, I would suggest opening up contributor registration to anyone who wants to. They can keep it anonymous, but you will start to get original content that wont be read anywhere else. Empower your community to generate content.
Yes this might lead to mixed views, but it will be that more exciting. If you allow the Babson community to speak freely, you will be agreed with, challenged, and questioned. That is when a site like this could really take off. Until now, I dont think Babson has anything like that.
You are all right, Babson is facing a lot of change right now, and I guess it is different than 2 yrs ago when I graduated. Those changes should be articulated from the community, or else they are just 2 people’s opinions. Find out how to plugin real-time voting polls, post-votes, etc….
I would suggest going to WordPress for this, their software is truly amazing.
What do you think?
Cheers,
Francesco
Francesco, you read my mind. I think everything you suggested will be implemented this summer in one form or another!