Details

• United States of America
• BaWiSo-23
• Undergraduate
• WS 2025
• Time spent at the partner university: 4 months

1. Preparation

The application process was the first where the combined GPA and Interview ranking was applied. My interview was online with Prof. Zoltán Novotny-Farkas. It was basically about the questions on the application form, but he asked about them in more detail. My tip here is to really bring out why you want to go to the universities or countries you applied to and a bonus is definitely to have a few extracurriculars on your CV. I felt like he really valued motivation and engagement. I also researched him a little bit in advance to be able to ask him a few questions too. As for the preparation for the semester abroad itself I read through all of the more recent exchange reports and contacted some of the previous exchange students. They were a great help in answering any questions I didn't find answers to in the exchange reports or online. Otherwise, the Babson staff was super helpful as well and always replied to emails within a day or two. Don't be shy to shoot them a few emails if you need help with anything.

2. Accommodation

All of the exchange students were guaranteed on-campus housing, though it was not mandatory. I would definitely advise you to stay on campus though, as most students besides some of the seniors stay on campus and without a car, commuting is quite time consuming. Only one of the whole exchange cohort stayed off campus and most people didn't even know he existed... You cannot choose your dorm, only if you want to stay on the upper, lower or middle campus. However, we all think they just randomly distributed the exchange students to rooms with left-over beds. The campus is not too big though, even from Woodland, which is the most distant dorm, you only need about 10-15 minutes to Trim (the dining hall) on the other side of the campus. Babson itself is located in Wellesley, a picture-perfect Boston suburb and one of the wealthiest towns in all of the U.S.. We always felt really safe there and even walked to the train station in Wellesley during the night by ourselves and never felt unsafe. Tip: I would definitely recommend strolling through Wellesley and look at all the impressive, very American houses. Even though some of the other reports suggest Wellesley is quite far from Boston, I think it's quite reasonable and comparable to commuting times in Vienna. Sharing an Uber or even taking the commuter rail from Wellesley, only takes about half an hour, sometimes even under. As for the dorms, every student is provided a Twin XL bed, wardrobe, drawers, a desk and a desk chair. YOU WILL HAVE TO BRING YOUR OWN TOWELS, SHEETS, BLANKET AND PILLOW! There are laundry rooms on each floor with washers and dryers. You don't have to pay for them. TIP: you can put in a work order to lower your bed or make it a lofted bed you can even fit your desk underneath. Most exchange students, myself included, stayed in Woodside. Apparently most rooms there were just converted from double to triple rooms, but all rooms have their own bathrooms, which is quite nice to have. Another benefit is that it is right next to HELV, where we often met to study, grab some coffee in the café, or watch a movie. Woodside was just recently renovated and is one of the more modern dorms with a nice kitchen on each floor. Some of the others stayed in Woodland which is quite far from everything in the woods and especially during the colder months quite unpleasant to walk there. However, all rooms are doubles with private bathrooms and some even have private kitchens which allows you to opt out of the meal plan. The buildings there are all a little more dated. One of the exchange students even lived in a frat house in Woodland and was named an honorary member of the frat and always invited to their mixers and parties. A few of the girls stayed in Putney which had single rooms, but shared bathrooms and was a little dated too. However, it is quite central. The younger exchange students stayed in Park Manor, which is one of the Freshmen dorms (Freshman all have to stay on campus) and was recently renovated. Park Manor mostly has doubles and shared bathrooms. I think one guy was in Coleman, which also has doubles and was renovated. TIP: if you are not getting along with your roommates you can request a room change. I would recommend looking at your room first before making any changes though.

3. Academic life at host university

The infrastructure at Babson is really vast and I think I probably didn't even see 10% of all the facilities and infrastructure. At Reynolds, which is the campus center, you find study spots, a few food options, the post office, a gaming room, the campus store and probably even more. It is right next to the Arts center, which includes a whole Theater, where they sometimes even screen movies and rooms for the arts classes. There is also a visual arts center next to Trim. The Weissman Foundry is a whole building dedicated to crafting and DIY-ing. Students can go there whenever they like to build prototypes or just be creative. It includes circuits, sewing machines, embroidery machines, 3D printers, Woodworking stations, a kitchen you can rent for baking or cooking parties, and even more. I would definitely recommend paying it a visit. Horn library comes with the Babson Commons and is a favorite hangout spot, including a computer lab and a finance center with countless Bloomberg terminals and a ticker showing the developments of the stocks the Babson fund invested in (all managed by students). Some of the finance classes are even held in the finance center! There is also a podcast/film studio including green screens and professional equipment. Horn itself is definitely not comparable to the WU library, but it was always nice to hangout or study. However, it only has one floor that is a dedicated silence area, the rest is quite loud. But you always meet someone to chat with there. One thing you have to know about Babson is that it is quite hands-on and most students run their own businesses (all new students have to take FME, where you create your own startups in class) and are really interested in all sorts of areas around business and the economy, which makes classes really interesting. All students are really eager to contribute to classes and most already did an insane number of internships. Everybody there is super ambitious and puts a lot of work into studying, which was a little intimidating at first to be honest. But everybody is also super nice and wants to help you whenever you need it. I would say the teaching style is similar to the one at WU (PIs), with the professors being a lot more open and personal. Most of them remembered small details about every student and all of the names. All professors offer office hours to help you when needed and also to just talk about everything from their career to the industry, etc. One of my professors even helped one of my friends there find an internship. As for all Babson staff, everyone wants to help you get the most out of your Babson experience and is always there to help you. In my opinion, courses and especially exams were easier than the ones at WU. Most professors allow cheat sheets for the exams and if you make smart choices with your classes you might not even have exams but just projects, papers and presentations. However, I would definitely say that classes are more work intensive, as you have to do readings in preparation for each class (twice a week) and have a lot of smaller homework. But I would say it's all quite manageable, even with four different classes. I really enjoyed all classes I took at Babson, especially as the professors and other students were so engaging. You really felt how the professors cared about their classes and students. It is also notable that Babson professors all have a lot of experience in the industries they teach and can tell you a lot about it. Most have their own businesses besides teaching and can tell you a lot of interesting Stories. Even though there is a strong focus on entrepreneurship at Babson, from the finance classes I took and also from what I have heard from friends, it is also a great college for finance and if you are interested in this industry you should really think about taking some finance classes there. Some classes even include trading competitions and most include lectures from guest speakers from the industry.

5. Every day life in the host country

Public transport: Boston is definitely one of the better U.S. cities when it comes to public transport. From Babson to Boston you can either take the Greenline from Woodland station (you have to uber there, but Babson has an Uber Program which gets you four vouchers per month that get you to either Woodland station, Wellesley square or the Wellesley train station I think) or the commuter rail from Wellesley (you can Uber there or walk 25 minutes). All the ride share apps work really well in the Boston area but depending on the time they can be quite expensive. If you share the Uber it's mostly around $10 for everyone. Babson also provide a shuttle bus to Prudential and Boston Common on the weekends which was really useful! In Boston itself you get around really well using public transport, but Boston is a really walkable city in general. Safety situation: As I already mentioned, we felt really safe on campus (Babson also has their own Public Safety department with the four cute campus dogs) and also Boston felt really safe. As Massachusetts is a blue (democratic) state it felt safer than in some of the other states we visited. Social activities and events: There is always something to do on campus, I would definitely recommend following all of the different instagram accounts for updates! From Pitch competitions (price money of up to $15.000) to sports games, to pumpkin painting, gingerbread house decorating contests, bingo nights (you can even win MacBooks, AirPod Max, Dysons and other stuff there), community events with food and different cultural events, there is always something going on and you can be sure that everything is being celebrated at Babson! On Thursdays and Saturdays there are always frat parties which you can just go to if you're a girl. The boys always had to know someone to get them in though. We made a lot of friends at the frats and even were invited to their mixers (basically pregaming where a frat or sports team joins with another sorority or team) and other events they hosted. All of the parties usually have a theme you can find out from the flyers posted on Fizz (basically Twitter but just Babson students). One thing you have to know about the party life on campus though, is that everything starts super early and is over by 12. So make sure you're there early. The different teams also host all the time, but you have to be invited to get in there. But after you make the first friends at Babson that comes automatically. Even though I wouldn't say Babson is a great party college, we had some really fun nights there! It's really different and we learned really quickly that you should have zero expectations for all of the events, but once you adapt to it you can have the best time there and make the best friends (even with the Americans). After a while we got a little bored though and rather went to Boston on the weekends. Here you just have to know that Boston is really strict when it comes to the legal drinking age (21), so make sure to bring your passport (ID is not sufficient) or otherwise you will not be let in. All in all for the events I can only advise you to try everything and don't have high expectations. Sometimes you will be surprised and you end up having the best time! Also good to mention: Babson has a club for basically everything, so make sure to visit the club and organisations fair at the beginning of the semester and join as many clubs as you like! Sports options: As with all facilities, Babson also has a great variety of sports facilities. In the athletic center you can find everything from a super modern gym with new equipment, to squash, pickleball, dancing, pilates, basketball, an indoor running track, a pool, etc. Babson also has really nice tennis courts outside, soccer/hockey fields, a softball field, rugby fields, an ice arena (public skating is on Sundays from 7pm to 8 pm, you can rent skates there for free), there is a golf club where you can go to a golf range nearby for free and probably a lot more. You can rent all the equipment for free there and for most sports there is a club you can join. Some clubs also have teams that compete, for those you have to try out, even though they are not official college teams. If you are really good in one of the team sports you can try getting in contact with the coaches to join one of the teams. Some of the guys from my exchange cohort joined the rugby team and even won some championship with it. I would definitely recommend joining some kind of sports club as most students at Babson spend a lot of their free time doing sports and you meet a lot of people there. If you manage to join one of the teams it's a good starting point to get invited to a lot of the campus parties. My recommendations for the everyday life is to just try everything, as this way you meet a lot of people. Babson isn't too big, so after a few weeks you will recognize a lot of faces and the students usually take part at every event no matter what you think about it when you first hear about the event. Especially in the beginning we spent a lot of time at the dining hall having meals together, sometimes for hours and hours. So even if you could opt out of the meal plan, I would recommend to still get it and go to Trim. That really is where you meet everyone and get closer with everyone. They also have special nights on Wednesdays with different themes. But make sure to be there early to avoid the long lines on Wednesdays. Themes range from Lobster night (either a whole lobster or a steak for everyone!), Breakfast for dinner (really good!), Brazilian night, Asian night to Girl dinner and many more. I would say all in all the food was quite decent but after a while it gets a little repetitive, even though there are a lot of different options every day. There is always a cereal bar, a yoghurt bar and salad bar, you can order sandwiches, burgers and pasta the whole day and then there are also a lot of food options outside of Trim where you can spend your Boost dollars on (included in the meal plan). There are a few cafés like Dunkin's, Starbucks etc, a pizza place, a smoothie and bowls place, the pub which is open on Wednesdays (only 21+), an Indian place and more. You can also walk into Wellesley and try the restaurants there if you get sick of the food on campus. For the meal plan, there are a few different options, I would recommend taking one of the unlimited ones, the smaller one there was definitely enough for me.

6. Testimonial

My time at Babson was probably one of the best experiences in my life that I will always be grateful for! From traveling the east coast, NY, DC, Miami, Puerto Rico (100% recommended) to exploring Boston, the area itself was just amazing and we had so much fun exploring all the different places. I made the best friends from all around the world at Babson and met the most interesting people while I was there. A lot of the students come from really interesting backgrounds, so if you make the right connections there you will benefit immensely, especially as there are a lot of international students, so you will have a place to stay in many different countries by the end of your exchange. Babson also has a really interesting Alumni network and invites them regularly as speakers, for example the founder of Ring. Babson's #1 ranking for network does not come from nothing. I also learned a lot there, not only course-content wise, but also about myself and the world. Academically, I would say it was the perfect fit for me and I really enjoyed my courses there and couldn't have chosen better ones. Everybody I met at Babson was just super friendly and always wanted to help. If you are considering going to the Boston area/east coast definitely look into Babson! It was just recently ranked #2 college in the U.S. by WSJ and in my opinion it is a hidden champion you should really not overlook!