If there’s one thing about Babson that stands out more than the lack of social life, it’s the emphasis on business plans. You’ve probably had to write one in an EPS class or at least toyed with one for your FME business. EPS 3501 was all about how to write a business plan. Aside from classwork, there are multiple business plan competitions each year (including some on the upcoming Founder’s Day.)

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.)

People can say all they want, but the real deciding factor is when they put time and/or money into a cause. And judging by the senior class gift pledges, people aren’t feeling the need to support Babson.

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…

This is it. The countdown to that thing that happens on May 19. Nightly SODA parties and awaiting the upcoming senior week. Finally putting that $200 “senior fee” to good use! (Ya know, the one that was charged to every senior’s bill at the beginning of the school year, which can be seen in the Babson portal.)

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!

We’ve decided to start posting reader emails on the site if they’re good enough.

See our first batch from February 2007 here.

So what was the deal with the “wine and cheese” reception?

Find out more by reading our Wine and Cheese Case Study and leave your comments here.

What the hell is up with the Babson Free Press? Issues come out once in a blue moon on a random schedule. I emailed them to see if I could write some stuff (as I rite good) and their mailbox was full. I don’t think anyone checks it. The web address on the front page is not run by someone using it for google ads. Let’s face it- the Babson paper is a major embarassment.

Now I know it is hard to put out a decent paper every week. More so as there are no liberal arts english/photography/journalism majors that can use the job on their resumes.

So seeing as how a decent student paper is not only a benefit to the student body, the school, alumnae, and potential students, I would think the college might want to do something to help people out who are running it.

Many other schools give class credit to the editor or senior staff of their papers. This is because it is a LOT of work. Editors have to write more, edit more, do more accounting, do more negotiations with vendors and advertisers, hirer (and fire) more staff, etc,. than in any other class on campus. Why not give the poor editor some credit for a doing their job. The grade can be based upon how many issues come out on time, and how good they are.

This would be such a far better learning experience than any stupid FME business.

But no, the editor will still have to put out a paper in their spare time, and spend hours doing useless work reading books about post feminist lesbian colonial pre modern literature instead.

Krap Kernal

Even though I’d prefer not to go to class at all, being in class on Wednesday is great. Why? Because I don’t have class on Friday!

There was talk about switching to a class schedule where classes were Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. That was one of the dumbest things I’ve heard here, and believe me, I hear plenty of stupid things. Why would anyone want to have Wednesday off and then have class on a Friday??!

From what I’ve heard, most students think it’s retarded. Professors probably do to. So why does Babson want to go through with it?

Supposedly a free day mid-week will enhance the community by providing a time when students can get together for fun activities. Please… don’t we already have “What’s Up Wednesdays?” And you know how popular those are…

No one will do anything special. They’ll probably just be in the library for the day or stay in bed due to more drinking than usual on a Tuesday night. Then the weekend, when students can actually do things, will be cut short. Overall, students will be even less happy than they are now!

How did Babson even come up with this idea? I don’t know of any other top schools that run on this schedule. I challenge them to provide benchmark data from even one peer institution that shows this is a good idea. If you have any proof of how this will increase productivity, happiness, satisfaction, or anything else, please post it here.

And last but certainly not least, there is no way the faculty are loving this. They need the long weekends too. See, the faculty have some things to do besides teach. Most importantly, they do scholarly research projects for the school. I’m sure the school values these projects more than they value our learning. But when do professors do their research? It would be idiotic to do bits and pieces here and there. They need 3-day weekends to sit down and spend some quality time on these things.

If you are really self-centered and don’t care about the faculty’s needs, think about this. Having quality faculty makes a big difference in the reputation of the school. Having nationally-recognized professors will greatly enhance the power of your degree. Judging by some of the new profs I’ve had these past two years, Babson really needs to do something to attract top talent. Cutting down the weekend is NOT the way to attract these people.

So Babson, please do us all a favor and forget about Friday classes (and overhaul OCL while you’re at it.)