Babson College

F1GMAT: Tell us a little bit about yourself? Was Babson College always your first choice?

Naveen: I completed my Bachelors in Engineering (IT) from Mumbai University and started working in the software industry. My career experience before school has been working in software operations and sales for banks and startups in India, Japan and the Middle East. My last position was working as a project manager with a New Delhi based startup where I was the owner of the mobile and consulting businesses and also worked in pre-sales.

Babson was always one of my top choices for business school. I wanted to get an education that would be helpful towards my long term ambition of starting, managing and scaling my own businesses. I was very impressed by the diverse business interests and achievements of Babson students who have gone on to start businesses in a wide variety of fields (healthcare, web technology, operations, education, real estate etc.) I also received positive feedback from my former clients (one of them is a professor at Stanford University) about the program and quality of alumni, which gave me a lot of confidence in my choice.

F1GMAT: Babson MBA is known for its entrepreneurship. Do you really think you need an MBA to be an entrepreneur? Can an entrepreneur learn entrepreneurship on the job rather than spending 2 years in a program like Babson MBA?

Naveen: My short answer to the question is: No, you don't need an MBA to become an entrepreneur. And if you have a burning desire to start something along with the money to do it, do it now. The money you save by not attending Babson can be immediately invested into your business.

My longer answer would be to consider the Babson MBA and compare it with going to engineering school to become an engineer or to film school to learn filmmaking. Can you learn the without attending these courses? Of course, you can. A great engineer will be a great engineer no matter what his education; so with a filmmaker. But engineering school or film school definitely hone your talent and help you grasp a variety of technical skills in a short course. These skills that you learn will help you a lot in later life and career.

Similar to this model, consider the Babson MBA and its teachings

F1GMAT: Although the entry criteria for Babson MBA are not as stringent as other top schools, what kind of candidates are Babson MBA looking for?

Naveen: The Babson MBA is a one of the smallest programs in the US with an annual graduation number of roughly around 150 - 165 candidates (including One Year MBA). It is also not selective to the extent of top 10 schools and average GMAT scores are almost 80-100 points below top schools. Key reasons (from my personal experience at Babson) are that students are more street-smart as compared to book-smart and largely come from business family or self-owned business backgrounds where business skills are emphasized more than academic skills.

Learn More about Babson MBA Admission Strategies