Babson College vs Middlebury College
Prospective undergrad here. I'm planning to major in Econ/Business. Which one of these schools would be a better choice for consulting and investment banking?
Middlebury is a great school, but I would say Babson is marginally better. they place a ton of kids in MM IB (Piper Sandler and Harris Williams come to campus to recruit, and also heard of alums at Stifel, HL, among others), and a few of the top performers have gotten Bulge Bracket and Elite Boutique offers in recent years. There's definitely a smaller group of people at the school that go for consulting compared to IB, and the only top place I know of that Babson kids have gone to is Mckinsey Boston, but for a small nontarget school that's always great to see. Beyond professional opportunities, I think it's much more important for you to decide what you want out of your college experience, as I'm sure Middlebury has comparable placement. Babson is hyper-focused on a business education, while Middlebury definitely emphasizes the liberal arts. Middlebury is also in a more rural area, while Babson is only 25 minutes away from downtown Boston. Answering which experience resonates better with you is what should drive your decision, as the opportunities within Consulting and Investment Banking will be great at both schools
Middlebury 100%, this really isn't even a question, especially given that you're getting a full-ride. Anyone that advocates for Babson over Middlebury should immediately be discredited. That's not to say Babson is a bad school, but Middlebury is up there with the little Ivies and is very much a target name amongst all the big banks and consulting firms. Middlebury, similar to other NESCAC schools get's somewhat overlooked in the sense that it's a liberal arts school, so you can't major in Finance or Business, and given the size, on campus recruiting tends to be lighter than at bigger schools. With that being said, the academic experience at Middlebury will be far better than Babson and the strength of the alumni base will be stronger as well.
The only reason people gravitate towards Babson is because it's business and entrepreneurship focused but although more people go into finance, the placements will tend to be weaker (financial analyst, middle office/back office, etc). None of the Harvard/Yale/Princeton kids have ever been at a disadvantage because they didn't major in Finance and Middlebury is a strong enough name that it falls into the same category.
The only knock I've have against Middlebury is that LACs have a somewhat specific type of culture. It's a small school, somewhat preppy, very much JCrew catalog type of look and feel. For some, this is a real culture shock and if you hate the feel of the school, it's probably worth rethinking. With that being said, Middlebury all the way, take it and don't overthink it.