Learning Goals

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The F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business has established learning goals for each program. 

MBA Learning Goals

Babson College prepares graduate students to be entrepreneurial leaders. Our curriculum builds functional depth with integrative ability through classroom, experiential and project-based learning. In the classroom, across campus, and in the wider world, our students experience this within our framework of entrepreneurial thought and action. Through increased self-awareness, expanded mindsets, and refined skillsets, graduates will apply what they have learned and developed to address the greatest challenges of business and society today including innovation, growth, integrated sustainability, and globalization. They achieve this by starting new ventures or contributing to established organizations. The Babson student experience is guided by learning goals. 

Graduates will be able to do the following: 

  • Collaboration: Collaborate with and learn from others to accomplish a common goal or create an original work. 
  • Communication: Develop and express ideas strategically, through written, oral, and visual formats, to a specific audience for a desired purpose. 
  • Leadership: Lead people to work towards shared goals with consideration of the ethical implications of their actions. 
  • Problem-Solving: Analyze and assess ideas and data to make decisions and recommendations appropriate to situations and stakeholders. 

MSEL (MSM in Entrepreneurial Leadership) Learning Goals 

  • Entrepreneurial Thinking and Acting: Babson MSEL graduates create, identify, assess, shape, and act on opportunities in a variety of contexts and organizations. 
  • Social, Environmental, and Economic Responsibility: Babson MSEL graduates make decisions based on an awareness of relevant stakeholders, ethical considerations, and an attempt to create and sustain social, environmental, and economic value. 
  • Self and Contextual Awareness: Babson MSEL graduates understand their sense of purpose, identity, and context, and use this understanding to inform their decisions. 
  • Managing in a Global Environment: Babson MSEL graduates incorporate social, political and economic context and complexities when managing in a global environment. 
  • Leadership and Teamwork: Babson MSEL graduates exercise appropriate leadership, value diverse perspectives and skills, and work collaboratively to accomplish organizational goals in a changing environment. 
  • Innovative Problem Solving: Babson MSEL graduates develop creative solutions to challenging problems, and generate economic and socially valuable outcomes. 

MSAEL (MS in Advanced Entrepreneurial Leadership) Learning Goals 

  • Creative Design Thinking: Challenge assumptions and solve problems through an iterative, human-focused process. 
  • Enhanced Emotional Intelligence: Strengthen your ability to mobilize and enlist others to lead effectively. 
  • Managing Disruption: Navigate uncertainty by mastering an agile mindset and learning how and when to pivot. 
  • Performance Measurement to Articulate Impact: Illustrate ideas and tell stories using data to ensure sustainable, quantifiable financial performance. 
  • Strategic Problem Formulation: Pinpoint the problem and structure your analysis to lay the groundwork for entrepreneurial action. 

MSF (MS in Finance) Learning Goals 

  • Technical Skills in Finance: Babson MSF graduates are proficient in applying quantitative methods and financial analysis techniques in a variety of contexts. These include statistical analysis of financial and economic data; valuing corporate investment decisions; valuing firms; and valuing a variety of financial instruments including equities, fixed income, and derivative securities. 
  • Complex Financial Problem Solving: Babson MSF graduates appreciate the ambiguity that surrounds the most interesting business and financial problems. They are adept at extracting salient issues from a complex problem, identifying appropriate analytical techniques, applying judgment, and proposing well-reasoned recommendations. 
  • Ethical and Professional Standards: Babson MSF graduates are prepared to recognize and respond to ethical issues that arise in the financial profession and financial practice. They also understand professional standards in financial fields, and how these may vary. 

MSBA (MS in Business Analytics) Learning Goals 

  • Enterprise Strategy: Babson MS in Business Analytics graduates understand the role that advanced analytical techniques can play in the successful achievement of the goals and strategies of an organization. They understand the strengths and limitations of various analytical approaches as well as the social, ethical, environmental, and sustainability consequences of strategic decisions. 
  • Tools and Methods: Babson MS in Business Analytics graduates integrate tools and analytic methods to maximize the value of data in the organizational context. They can select appropriate tools and interpretive methods to ensure that each organizational challenge is addressed using the right approach at the right time. 
  • Entrepreneurial Thinking and Acting: Babson MS in Business Analytics graduates understand and appreciate the complexities of business and social problems. With solid training in technical and communication skills, they are prepared to design and execute innovative and creative solutions based on data analytics in a variety of contexts and organizations. 
  • Communication Skills: Babson MS in Business Analytics graduates are proficient communicators of insights derived from data. They can understand the results from advanced analytical techniques and summarize them appropriately for a variety of different audiences. They can make a logical, clear, and persuasive case for or against the value of using analytics in a particular business situation. 
  • Teamwork and Collaboration: Babson MS in Business Analytics graduates value diverse perspectives and skills within a team and work collaboratively in analytics projects. 

Babson assesses these desired student learning goals as part of its commitment to continual program improvement. The assessment of these learning goals will take place periodically within identified courses in each program. The data collected will be completely anonymous and will have no impact on student grades. Aggregated results will be used for program planning and accreditation purposes within the F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business and Babson College, and may be included in institutional research analyses and reports. Further information about the learning goals and assessments may be obtained from the Assistant Dean of the graduate school or the director of Institutional Assessment. 

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