The Program at a Glance One innovative way Babson develops well-rounded managers with practical business experience is through the Management Consulting Field Experience (MCFE) Program. The MCFE program and Babson College strengthen and develop relationships with Boston area organizations by offering undergraduate students the opportunity to work with local companies as consultants. 
Since 1976, students have worked with local organizations in providing solutions to business challenges. Recent MCFE sponsors include: AOL, BayState Games, Boston Proper, Boston Properties, Cradles to Crayons, Mass Office of International Trade & Investment, Middlesex Savings Bank, Polar Caves, United Planet, Veteran's Business Owners Initiative, and Young Entrepreneurs Alliance, among many others.
How the Program Works
Students gain practical experience by acting as consultants and solving actual business problems. Students also develop marketable skills by learning the consulting process and working in growing fields. These skills are applicable to any career choice.
The Center for Career Development recruits sponsor companies and offers projects to students prior to the start of the semester. Interested students select their top three project choices on the MCFE application. Students can apply for a project either as a team or individually. (If they apply as a team there is no guarantee that all will be accepted.) The students are then interviewed and their application with attached resume is reviewed. Students will be sent a letter if accepted.
Projects are conducted during the fall and spring semesters over a period of approximately two and a half months. Fall projects begin in September (the application process for fall begins in late March/early April of previous spring semester) with final presentations in December and the spring projects begin in January (the application process for spring begins in October of previous fall semester) with the final presentations in May.
Requirements
To participate in the MCFE program, students must have completed thier core program (IME I, II and III, or OEM and MCE), and be in good academic standing. A cumulative GPA of 2.7 or higher is highly recommended. Selection is based on faculty recommendations, willingness to work as a team member, and individual strengths relative to the project. Additional selection criteria include individual initiative, leadership, responsibility, and reliability. A MCFE project on a student's résumé gives her or him a distinct advantage in a competitive job market.
Babson's Innovative Curriculum
Business leaders understand that a strictly functional approach to management education is no longer useful in today's complex, global, business environment because real business problems do not come in discrete, functional blocks. MCFE is a team-based academic program which allows students to transform the analytical skills they learn in the classroom into valuable, practical work experience. As Freshmen and Sophomores, undergraduate coursework is structured to develop Babson's core competencies:
- Leadership and Teamwork
- Entrepreneurial and Creative Thinking
- Critical and Integrative Thinking
- Ethics and Social Responsibility
- Global and Multicultural Perspectives
- Rhetoric
- Quantitative Analysis
The MCFE Program gives students the opportunity to further develop these competencies by allowing students to see themselves in a "real-world" environment.
Ethics and Social Responsibility
The majority of MCFE projects take place at nonprofit organizations. By helping a nonprofit company reach its goals, the students also give back to the community and gain valuable insight on how nonprofit organizations take on social responsibility. MCFE projects are team-based, therefore students learn the necessity of working together to achieve the best results. Furthermore, the team setting gives students the chance to refine interpersonal and communication skills by learning how to give constructive feedback to group members and how to interact professionally with the client. MCFE provides students with first-hand experience which will put them steps ahead in the competitive business world.
Project Teams
The MCFE team consists of three to five students and a project manager. Students are selected for teams based on academic performance, willingness to work as a team member, and individual strengths relative to the project, as well as, initiative, leadership, responsibility, and reliability.
All students will meet with a speech consultant and will be trained in the fields of project management and report writing. At the conclusion of the project, the MCFE team's findings and recommendations are presented to the MCFE sponsor company in a detailed, written report and oral presentation.
Team Support
A Project Manager (a 2nd year MBA student) supports each MCFE team. Management selection takes into consideration the major project issues and the project manager's individual experience. During the course of the project, the manager provides technical support and guidance to the student team and determines the students' grades based on quality of meetings, feedback, deliverables, final report and presentation.
Sponsor Company Support
During the course of the project, the sponsor interacts with the team on an as-needed basis and provides all necessary information to team members on request. Furthermore, the sponsor supervises the project and facilitates inter-company communication.
