I have not posted for a good long while, why do you ask? I guess I have not had enough contempt for Babson built up in order to drive me to express my disdain via blog post.

So, since I graduated this last September (which in itself was a bit of a rough landing; we had to start tossing passengers to slow the descent…it wasn’t pretty), I decided I would pursue my dream of purchasing a motorcycle, then driving across this huge-ass county to none other than sunny California. The trip was great…blah blah blah…I arrived in San Diego.

For three months, I tried to get a job. At first I was picky. Then I lowered the bar, and I then I almost broke the damn thing because I slammed it so hard into the ground. The fucking bar couldn’t get any lower. I figured, maybe I just didn’t have enough experience? But I’ve had 2 internships, AND I’ve ran my own apparel company for the last 2 years! What on Barefoot’s Green Earth could be preventing these people from not calling me back? Not one e-mail, not one phone call in 3 months and over 100 applications, with varying follow up tactics, and cover letters. Every position was entry-level (some internships), I certainly wasn’t shooting for the stars, and if I was, I hit my fucking foot. I was working a retail job, and hated every minute of it, so I quit, and refused to get another crap job and go for the career winner. Nothing. But then I got an interview in San Francisco! Alas, a break! I flew up there on my own coin, and absolutely killed the interview. Even better, I had a personal recommendation from the head national recruiting whom my father happened to be friends with! This was third rounds too, as I had already had two phone interviews. I would’ve bet my life on me getting that job. But, to my absolute dismay, I did not receive the position. I was crushed, and out of money, so I had to circle the wagons, and head home with my tail between my legs. More importantly, I was baffled…they hadn’t asked for my GPA (which isn’t too stellar), and I had inside people sending notes to the small branch telling them to hire me…so what went wrong? I received a note from my fathers friend, the Head Recruiter telling me the name of the other candidate (there were only two, me and her). I facebooked her, my jaw dropped: she was a recent grad from a local California Technical College, about one step up from a Community College.

But then it dawned on me: why would they choose her over me? Because not even the goddamn internet has heard of Babson College once you get out of the North East. I asked around. No one had heard of it. Especially not employers. I was a man who was holding the worlds largest ball of shit, and hidden deep inside was a tiny gold nugget known as “Babson”. Babson’s marketing is a fraud, a scam. Students are being bamboozled into thinking that the college has national pull, when it couldn’t be more localized.

Now for the skeptics in the audience, let me add a constant. I returned to my home in Connecticut (reluctantly, and broke) and using the same Craigslist, Monster, CareerBuilder resume-carpet bombing technique I used in San Diego, I was astonished. Within three weeks, I had 3 interviews. Within six weeks, I had an offer, with four other interviews lined up. I had a choice of where I got to work. My job I have now is great, I couldn’t be happier, nor could I be in a better position for long term growth. The only difference being: every single interview I had in the North East started with “Oh I know Babson, it’s a great school!”. I bit my lip, smiled and said “Absolutely it is!” every gut wrenching time I heard that sentence.

Yes, the Babson name is worth something. It’s worth a job. But that name, “Babson”, west of Pennsylvania, means about as much as the fake diploma I received on the day I was supposed to graduate with my class in May, when only weeks before I had been informed I was a few credits shy of officially graduating. Thanks again Babson, you got me, you little scamp, you.

Transitioning into a different subject, a more broad one, but still pertinent to Babson, I’d like to discuss Student Loans. Babson’s tuition went up again this year, poor students… So here’s the facts, source: Princeton Review.

All right, hey! 24% of students get financial aid! And total average aid is almost $22k! But…lets run some numbers here… tuition, room and board and meal plan easily total almost $48k a year, that leaves Mr. Average Aid Package only cutting less than half of that per year. So, that being the case, the total for four years cost (after aid) is $104k. Now, let’s assume most of the student who need aid do not have the financial propensity pay in cash, so they take some loans out for…oh, let’s say $100k.

By the way, Babson doesn’t even report it’s tuition now, check this out, right from Princeton Review.

Think the conversation went like this? “Um…tuition is rising every year because we don’t have large enough endowment and no one’s donating and our costs (of flagpole fountains) and faculty greatly outweigh our income…what do we tell the prospective students who want to try and budget out the next 10 years of their life based on our tuition?” [Barefoot Pauses, steepling his fingers] “Tell them, NOTHING!” as he says with a death metal yell.

Seriously, thats brutal, in every since of the word. Anyways, $100k in debt, students are kicked into the (hopefully east coast) workforce to try and find a job, where they will then face…drum roll please… up to an $1,800 payment per month for 15 fucking years. If they’re lucky, post-consolidation, they are looking at $600-$800 for 30 fucking years. Thats a final cost of $250,000-$300,000 after all payments are made on time. The banks’ investment in you being an idiot and the school being a marketing ploy has paid off, and paid off well might I add. They’ve tripled their investment.

Now you might say: “pay it off early!” Ya, let me get right on that with my $35k a year salary, my shit ass apartment, and my used car I just financed. How the fuck do you expect me to make $1800 monthly payments one year out of college? Moreover, how does Babson get away with not disclosing critical information about it’s tuition and expenses to its perspective students?

And on a final note: I have been called by Babson four times since I walked in May and been asked for Alumni donations. You’ve got to be fucking kidding.

Farewell and good night Babsonians, lock your doors, because odds are, you’re being felt-up financially while you sleep as well.

Today I am proud to announce that the CrapCampus Gazette, our newspaper, will debut on newsstands in Boston, Cambridge, Natick, and Brookline! Yes, actual paper, ink, and printing presses!

November 17, 2007 is our inaugural issue and features stories about Babson, Boston life, the Red Sox, Business School Rankings, and more. (Note that a new issue will be published every Saturday, because that’s the only day of the week a Babson student might have 15 spare minutes to read the paper.)

If you glance at a shot of our cover, you’ll see the first cover story is about Babson getting a #1 rank in the first ever “Most Aggravating School” ranking. You’ll have to get yourself a copy of the paper to read the whole story.

If you don’t live near one of the newsstands, try shopping online at OCLRuinedMyCampusLife.com.

Did I mention it’s better than The Babson Free Press?

1. September 17, 2007

Dear Coleman Residents, 

Over the past few weekends, Coleman Hall has had a significant amount of damage to the building.  Facilities are diligently working to keep the building clean, but due to chronic vandalism we are forced to take further action.  Over the past few weeks there has been broken doors, broken cabinets, vomit on the floor, numerous purposely clogged toilets, and many other incidents of vandalism.  This behavior is not acceptable and needs to stop immediately.  In order to prevent any more damage to the building we will be authorizing Public Safety to do random walkthroughs of the building during peek times on nights and weekends.  This is not our usual approach to patrolling the building, but due to a general lack of respect for the space that you live, we felt it necessary to add supplemental support.  If the vandalism stops and improvements are made, we will reconsider the decision.  We also want to note that the floors responsible for this vandalism will be charged for the broken items and cleaning unless someone is found responsible.  We encourage all of you to take an active role in making Coleman Hall a great place to live.  Take pride in your building and keep it in good order not only for yourselves but future classes as well.  We work very hard to make Babson a great place to live and ask that you respect that by not vandalizing the residence halls.  If you have any further information on these incidents feel free to see your RA or email us with any concerns, questions, or information.  Thank you very much

2. Monday, September 24th

Hey guys,

As most of you are probably aware, we’ve been having some serious issues in Coleman regarding vandalism and just flat out disrespect for the building.

There is trash in the hallways on the weekends and it doesn’t seem to be because of lack of trash cans.

The bathrooms are continually being vandalized. Toilets are being clogged purposefully with beer cans and the showers are being broken.

You are being charged for these damages and will receive a bill at the end of the year. If you’re causing the damages, stop. It’s not fair to those that have to live here. If you see someone doing something that you’ll probably get charged for, stop them. If you are uncomfortable confronting them, let me know and I’ll figure it out.

In regards to food, we have a common kitchen that you are free to use. If you choose to use it, clean up after yourself.

Don’t throw away food in the sink and leave it there, it’s pretty gross and clogs the sinks.

There have been incidents where food and trash have been disposed of in the hallway. That’s disgusting. Walk 3 feet to the nearest trash can. We’re starting to get roaches because of this problem.

The Facilities workers will not pick up your trash barrels in the hallway. If you leave them in the hallway, they will take them and you will get charged for losing your trash barrel.

Check out the pictures I’ve attached and please just treat the building with respect, it’s your home this year. Don’t do anything here that you wouldn’t do in your own house.

Let me know if you have questions or suggestions,
[RA's Name Removed]

 (These 3 are dated 9/10/07)

(The first from the 23rd and the second from the 24th)

My Response

excuse me, but this is a little ridiculous. I personally feel its outrageous that a different hall in coleman gets trashed almost every weeked, and now every resident is paying for it? I sincerely discourage the use of threats of damage fines and would much rather see the RA go around and write up people for things outside their door or infractions during party hours.

The bathrooms though? Why would residents trash the place they need to go to be clean? It really sucks to walk in to a messy problem where it looks like a lot of people thrashed some place, but doesn’t it seem that one coleman resident throwing a party would be a much more logical assumption when trying to accuse someone? I mean, why would we residents want to destroy our own bathing facilities? Honestly, Kevin and Jess, and all the other RA’s, I feel like in times like this you are now warranted to do the check ups on hallways that you are already responsible for. Why? Not to bust the parties up, not to be a babo informant, but to be simply the one who holds residents accountable for their lifestyles here.

If this were a community living dorm, like O-tower last year (which was basically a war zone every weekend), I’d be ok with splitting the damages with my fellow tower-mates. But this is not a tower. I moved out of the that tower so I wouldn’t have to deal with this again. And now, even with Babo and RA’s supposedly making rounds, they haven’t caught anyone responsible for this? I find that very very very hard to believe. And finally, looking at the list of people that received this email, I wonder why the hell are we getting it. Our wing hasn’t even been that bad except for weekends when they forget to grab the extra 30 gal barrels they leave us. I mean, for christs sake, our hall has even been recycling!

In the end, get off our asses and get off of yours and do a better job policing the dirty areas like you said you would. Please, and thank you.

Bryan “Reverend Esby” Steward

PS:  That ain’t no cockroach.  I don’t know about you readers out there, but I personally don’t know many cockroaches that scurry about in broad daylight, let alone pose for flash photography…

Rumor has it that the burden on facilities has gone too far and they will be going on strike come July 1. After constructing a dorm yet decreasing facilities staff (leaving students to clean their own dorms,) Babson has gone as far as leaving them without a contract for next year.

Surprise? Not really.

Let’s hear your opinions in the comments. How do you feel Babson treats the facilities staff?

If not, you may have missed these gems:

April 2007 Reader Emails

Babson In One Day

Map Hill Elevator Saga

One thing I’ve been noticing is how many e-mails and/or comments we get that tell us we need to get lives and stop whining. Well, last time I was at the doctor’s office, they took my blood pressure. I saw that it was above zero, which indicated to me that I do, in fact, have a life. So let’s put that baby to bed because after a couple e-mails you start to wonder if you really did wake up from that binger last night.

Now, what the writer(s) probably meant to say was, “get a life that more closely resembles mine.” I figured why not look into it? So I decided to follow a couple of these people around campus all day. Needless to say, it was pretty sad.

I caught up with one girl around lunch time, so I followed her to Trim. While she went inside, I noticed one of the staff members outside scooping up a monster pile of old dog shit behind the dumpster. The staff member proceeded to carry it inside with a big metal spoon. When I got into Trim and saw the girl downstairs, she was waiting in the hot food line. Just as I was approaching the line, none other than the staff member with the spoonful of shit walks in from stage left. Sure enough, the poor girl approached the buffet, and she was rewarded with a top-quality steamer from the staff. Despite gagging on the fumes, she saw the little sign that read “mexican rice,” but dismissed it. After all, if Babson tells you something then why on earth would you ever question it?

With my appetite ruined, I thought I would head over to Map Hill to catch up with our second buddy. I don’t really know who he is, but he lives on the first floor near the entrance. I noticed this guy had some real issues. He was inside sitting down to a nicely-prepared dinner with his girlfriend. The abnormal part came when I noticed his girlfriend apparently never said anything other than the letter “O” and realized she was made of plastic. Meanwhile, two huge guys in orange jumpsuits walked by with big-gulp-sized cups of beer and jailhouse tattoos that said “The elevator must die!” Our friend remained inside enjoying his date. Five minutes later, Map Hill had a freshly broken elevator. Apparently some idiot on the fifth floor though he could be a tough guy and beat up anyone breaking the rules in his hallway, since his throat became the lucky new owner of a whittled-down, sharpened prison toothbrush.

After following these two, I figured I would try one last person. The only problem was that nobody on the entire campus knew who he was, except for one kid that smelled like tomato soup and was wearing a Star Trek outfit. He said he and the other kid were best friends, and that no one else at Babson really understood them except for OCL. He commented on how cool OCL’s events were, like make-your-own-abstinence-poster night.

So with that, I was forced to return home defeated. My sad life of having a job, house, and girlfriend waiting for me after graduation, partying, trying to improve the lives of students at Babson, and generally being a big deal was absolutely nothing in comparison. So I think I might have to scrap the non-life I have right now so I can upgrade to a REAL life.

In case you can’t pick up on sarcasm, this is a completely true story. The people discussed are actual people on campus. Every day, Babson administrators rape your pride. They readily give away their integrity over the dumbest, smallest things imaginable and completely miss the big picture. But as if this weren’t bad enough, they really do convince a large portion of the campus population that their brand of rape is good for them and that it’s their own fault they’re getting raped in the first place.

And what do the students say? “They’re just doing their job” is a popular one. “Stop whining.” “Get a life.” “Babson is what you make of it.” You know what I say? Change your name to Forest Gump because you are officially a mongoloid. Many of us at CrapCampus.com have met personally with many administrators in the past over various issues, and continue to do so. The purpose is to make changes at the school. So we’re trying to make the black hole of happiness called Babson a better place. This blog also helps that goal because MOST of the people on campus feel similarly to us, and yet they initially feel like their opinion is the minority. Erroneous. Make your voices heard. And if some prick tells you to get a life or stop whining, it’s because he’s pissed that his life is a piece of crap and he doesn’t have the balls to stand up for himself.

I say question everything. Give Babson an inch, and they’ll take a mile. If you don’t speak out against them, nothing will change. Already since I’ve joined, the number of writers here has more than doubled. Whether due directly, indirectly, or partly to this movement, this year we’ve got an extra pub day on Friday. We now have electronic and physical feedback forms to easily and anonymously voice your opinion to administrators who have to listen. OCL now reports to Dean Hanno, who is actually a great person to get ahold of if you’re having issues with various departments around campus because he will actually get things done that benefit the big picture. We have a person in SGA that we fully support and that will now have another great medium for getting positive changes made around campus.

So for all the people that want to criticize what we’re doing, eat shit. We’ve made more changes at Babson in a year than you will make in the entire world with your entire pathetic lives. So put that in a bowl with some milk and think twice next time you feel we need to “get a life” and “stop whining.”

That’s great that we learn so much about business plans, but it just hit me that I have been taught many things about writing a business plan or finding venture capital for a business, while learning very little about running a business. Yes, I had FME, and yes I’ve read a ton of HBS cases. But I’m still left feeling that there is a little more emphasis on the planning and not so much on the execution.

What makes the business plan focus even more ironic is a study, conducted by Babson, which found no difference between businesses started with a business plan and those without one. Guy Kawasaki wrote about the study on his blog – check it out to see more about the study and the findings.

To summarize, the study analyzed 116 businesses started by Babson alums and found no statistical difference in success between those businesses started with formal written plans and those without them.

So the next time your professor wants some detailed 50 page business plan, just show them a copy of this study

(The full study is available for download here.)

As proof, I bring you the senior class gift participation meter…

Yes, that is a mere 16%

*as of 4/15/07

If everyone pledged to donate $5 it would raise participation and look really good, but seniors just aren’t into it (and for good reason.) This isn’t a fault of the seniors, it’s a fault of the school.

In other words, it’s a pretty good indicator of how nice Babson has been to us…

But wait… what’s this?! A $200 senior fee but also a $205 charge to sign-up for senior week??

Yes, that’s right. We just had to pay $205 for senior week (if we wanted the reduced rate,) and anyone still planning to sign-up will be paying $265 or some other ridiculous amount.

What do we get for that $405 (or $465)? There is a trip to Mohegan Sun and a senior ball in Boston, but otherwise just some barbecues on campus and the “last pub night.” In other words, things that happen anyway during the school year and are usually free.

After shelling out $160k these past four years, why not just include the cost there? Babson has the audacity to charge us $205 for this after tacking on an extra $200 fee earlier this year? It’s minuscule compared to tuition, but the principle of the matter pisses us off.

I’m assuming that senior fee covers our cap and gown, which we get to keep after graduating! Woo hoo, something else to clutter my closet floor!

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This post was inspired by one of our readers and I was more than happy to bring this up. Please chime in with your thoughts by leaving a comment below!