<p>Olin is a new engineering college in Needham, MA. We have a total population of about 300 students and our first class graduates this May. </p>
<p>And it's awesome :-)</p>
<p>what is the appeal to go to this school if its track record is so short compared to others who have like at least 100 years under their belt.</p>
<p>Why do we have such a preference for old colleges in this country. I mean seriously, why does a colleges age make it better? If we only bought from businesses that were 100 years old, we wouldn't have any computers now would we? I know that's a stupid and not very apt analogy, but whatever.</p>
<p>Is Olin college free? Or is that Deep Springs? I get so mixed up.</p>
<p>Cre8;
To leave MIT, Stanford, etc off the list of rigorous is ridiculous.
The reason the prestigious colleges got that way is due to their rigourous academics.
Olin is a new college that I'm sure is rigorous to those who are currently attending, but they have no other college experience to compare it to.
Blatant judgements should be based on facts.</p>
<p>i was just curious, i have no info on Olin, are they offering scholarships out or something. Like, why doesn't someone just attend Fullbright University, a new school in NJ. I am just curious how Olin got on the map.</p>
<p>They mailed out to students based on PSAT scores and offered scholarships</p>
<p>I know a few people who were accepted but attended normal "rigorous schools" like Columbia and Duke instead.</p>
<p>Rskibum, Stanford is a superb education, my favorite school in the country, and is by no means easy. But when speaking of rigorous, those schools are the ones listed repeatedly by many media sources as the most rigorous schools in the country.</p>
<p>Stanford's environment is considerably layed back compared to the up-tight, in the book, heavy load of Olin students. That I can stay after living at Stanford for 8 years and now living only a leap away from Olin.</p>
<p>Ivies and elites are by no means easy schools, but when people bring up Reed, St. Johns, and Olin, they are obviously speaking of a different level of rigor. If you are familar with any of those schools then you would definitely understand that statement.</p>
<p>Andthat is no blatant judgement, on top of prior knowledge, those are schools recognized for being most rigorous by Newsweek, Fiske, Princeton Review, Barrons, and special edition pieces from U.S. News and New York Times on Reed as being the most rigorous undergraduate program in the country.</p>
<p>I means, that's how Olin got on the map, when you read the Times, Globe, U.S. News, scholar publications and journals, or even turn on CNN, you'll come across features on the hottest new engineering program in the country. The praise of it's programs and all the surrounding coverage is what is slow creating Olin's name. But rigor and debatably being the most focus, indepth engineering program next to CalTech are it's selling points. </p>
<p>Also, not to satart a debate, but I and the averge person give no universal prestige to CalTech, would say it is definitely carries a larger reputation for the rigor, strength, depth, and focus of their academic program than it does carry old name prestige.</p>
<p>I agree with Cre8tive.</p>
<p>Imagine that, here an article the Wall Street Journal did on Olin last week:
"Olin: Building a Better Engineer"
<a href="http://webreprints.djreprints.com/1373220600138.html%5B/url%5D">http://webreprints.djreprints.com/1373220600138.html</a></p>
<p>It describes the school better than I can:
"[Olin] students are unique. They aren't representative of the population of engineering students, and the resources of the school also are unique." </p>
<p>Most of the students are those who opted out of acceptances to MIT, Stanford, Michigan, & Harvard to join Olin's innovative curriculum. What analysts are trying to figure out is why this program has been such a success, being able to develop into a rapidly recognized name with both students, professors, and businesses alike? And what is it's growing attraction that has led students accepted to the country's finest engineering schools to instead choose to go here? That is what either amazes, stuns, or befuddles people.</p>
<p>Oh, somebody asked for stats:
Class of 2009 at a Glance: </p>
<p>Total Enrollment for Class of 2009: 77<br>
48 men/29 women </p>
<p>Acceptance Rate: 24%</p>
<p>65% recognized by AP Scholars Program | 40% National Merit Scholarship Program Finalists</p>
<p>Average GPA: 4.2/4.0 Scale </p>
<p>Middle 50 percent of SAT scores: 14501550 </p>
<p>Ethnicity: 21 percent identify themselves as students of color </p>
<p>40% Academic Team Captains | 22 Student Government Officers<br>
60% Community Service Participants | 9 FIRST Participants<br>
40% Involved in Theater | 10 high school publication editors
51% Musicians | 1 Junior Olympic Medalist (swimming)</p>
<p>Representing 27 states, the class of 2009 will mark the first time in Olin history that four complete classes reside on the Olin campus freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors. The class of 2009 is academically gifted with several AP Scholars, National Merit Scholarship finalists and academic team captains. The class is passionate about activities outside the classroom, including community service (60%), athletics (45%), music (51%) and student government (35%). The class includes several students with unique accomplishments state bowling champion, world Lego building champion and an ultralight flight instructor.</p>
<hr>
<p>PRINCETON REVIEW RANKINGS:</p>
<h1>1 for Best Quality Of Life (#2 is Stanford)</h1>
<h1>1 for Lots of Race/Class Interaction (#2 is Rice)</h1>
<h1>2 for Dorms Like Palaces (Most technologically advanced dorms in the country)</h1>
<h1>2 for Professors Accessibilty</h1>
<h1>2 for Best Campus Food (Cornell was #4 ;) I concur on that one!!!)</h1>
<h1>3 Intercollegiate Sports Unpopular Or Nonexistent</h1>
<h1>4 Their Students Never Stop Studying (Behid #1 Reed, #2 Webb, and #3 CalTech)</h1>
<h1>4 Town-Gown Relations Are Great</h1>
<h1>5 The Toughest To Get Into (Behind HPY & MIT)</h1>
<h1>8 Best Overall Academic Experience For Undergraduates</h1>
<h1>8 Professors Get High Marks</h1>
<h1>12 Gay Community Accepted</h1>
<h1>14 Stone-Cold Sober Schools</h1>
<h1>16 Dodge Ball Targets</h1>
<h1>17 Best College Theatre</h1>
<h1>20 Got Milk? (Almost Beerless campus)</h1>
<p>
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<p>The presumption I think you are falsely making with this statement is that only education is looked upon by employers, and that having an advanced degree automatically places you above those who don't. As if the world is one great big grey step ladder where personality, appearance, connections, work ethic, etc. all take a back seat to educational background. Very few jobs require much more than a bachelor's degree (doctor, lawyer, CPA, and professor come to mind), and most high paying jobs that are advertised as requiring an advanced degree can be obtained by a candidate with a bachelor's degree and some experience within the said industry. Keep in mind, at all times, that in the real world, the statement, "it's not what you know, it's who you know" is king.</p>
<p>
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<p>Considering that they even want to go to school, or that they have a missing link in their persona that can only be filled by a certain college name. Have you ever seen Good Will Hunting? There are plenty of Will's type out there in the world, and I wouldn't say that all of them are interested in being a part of the facade.</p>
<p>My friend who owns a payroll software company never attended college, even though he's extremely academically brilliant (used to hack phone lines, and high security software programs while in high school). He just chose to make his six figure income on his own rather than chancing it with some so called "political prowess" from a name on his resume. Trust me, if he really wanted to, he would be a fine candidate for MIT et al.</p>
<p>Ok, correction : In general, academically talented students want to go to schools that also have other academically talented students.</p>
<p>Of course there are exceptions, like your friend.</p>
<p>That's hard to generalize...simply because not all students in the world have the same agenda, hope, desire as the rest. But I see your reasoning.</p>
<p>Actually, I think some of the most brilliant people are the ones who don't want to deal with all the hassle of "name-brand" schools - Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, etc.</p>
<p>But for the average kid who gets a 1500 something SAT (or 2300 nowadays), I think going to a top school is the main goal. But yeah, I remember reading the commencement speech by Steve Jobs and it echoes what you said. He dropped out of Reed because he was tired of wasting time on Gen. Ed requirements when he wasn't interested in all that.</p>
<p>Good Will Hunting, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates are all good examples of your point thethoughtprocess and 311griff, which is a good one. However, the examples you give are anecdotal. </p>
<p>In support of stewie, statistically speaking, more education equals more money. </p>
<p>Also 311griff, I have a minor quibble. CPA's are not required to have an advanced degree.</p>
<p>It certainly doesn't guarantee you a job, but going to a top college opens up more opportunities that may otherwise be excluded to you.</p>
<p>go5878, it depends on the state, but some states now require a Master's degree. </p>
<p>If you click on and look the state educational requirements (on the map), they are trying really hard to say go get a masters degree, dangit...however, they do leave some small loopholes for the minimalists who just want to get the bachelor's degree, then 30 extra hours and not actually get a Masters. In any case, the extra 30 hour requirement does include 8 hourse of Graduate level accounting. My theory is, CPA's are required to have an advanced degree in one way or another.</p>
<p>I'm a managing director of a multi-billion $ financial services firm. While I don't handle hiring per se, I'm familiar with how our firm does it. In order of importance, the bad news is that family or client connections trump school any day. The smart son of a senior exec gets the job over the brilliant Harvard grad any day.</p>
<p>And therein lies the problem I have with the stats regarding the success of Harvard, et.al., grads. Do they have 10% higher salary because they graduated from Harvard; or (and this is my leaning) do they have higher salaries because they or their families already had connections to begin with? This isn't true of all ivy grads, but it sure is true of a higher number from ivies, than say, the 4th tier schools.</p>
<p>In terms of hiring, second to connections comes the school. Yes, we will call in the ivy grad before the graduate of "never heard of it U". But we will call in the ivy grad about as often as we call in the graduate of the flagship state school. Our people assume that there are a lot of truly talented people who couldn't afford higher ranked schools, and we always assume the state school is 60% populated by kids we don't want to hire; but 40% populated by kids we would be lucky to hire. In many respects, the best local state school will always rank (at least, at our firm) right alongside the higher-ranked schools. We are like law firms in that regard - it is often every bit as good to be a grad of U of Illinois when you're applying to the Chicago office of a company, than to be a graduate of a top 25 school. (People usually like to hire their fellow alumni, and you're likely to run into them in your own state.)</p>
<p>Third - but always critical - is the interview. When I'm asked to interview someone, and they bomb the interview, I really don't care who gave them a diploma - they're out of my office pretty quickly.</p>
<p>^^ Thank you, once again, "It's not what you know, it's WHO you know." </p>
<p>The *gold*en rule!</p>