<p>I'm a '10 alum who wanted to go to grad school, but never did. A friend of my sister's was asking me about going to Olin if she's interested in grad school, and I realized that (for her at least), there were a lot of misconceptions. I decided to resurrect my old CC account to inform those of you still making a decision.</p>
<p>I remember talking to Olin students and the admissions office before I decided to go to Olin regarding this. They assured me that Olin does indeed prepare you well for grad school. They talked to me about some of the cool projects people were doing, showed me grad school placement stats, and I was convinced (plus the free-ride didn't hurt).</p>
<p>There are some things I wish I knew back then.</p>
<p>The main problem is that being a small school, Olin doesn't have a lot of opportunities that look good when applying to grad school programs. I know many classmates who did cool projects, but these were more towards "look, I did something cool and now I'm on reddit" vs. "look, I did something cool and now I'm published." The former are great when you're applying for a job at a company, but people looking at your grad school apps will care a lot more about the latter.</p>
<p>I wish someone had told me this back in 2006. When you apply to a graduate school, really what happens is that professors look at your app and then try to see if you'd be a good fit for the school in general, and for their lab in general. These days, there are so many people applying to grad schools that it's really competitive. The best applicants have a record of research in the specific area they're interested in, and usually have publications. This shows the person looking at your application two things. You are really interested in research because you've shown your dedication and have carried it through to publication. You are a capable researcher who can produce results and not just wander in circles or to a dead-end. </p>
<p>It's really hard to demonstrate these qualities at a small school like Olin. Because the school is so small, the number of projects you can work on is pretty small. It might work out if your interests align perfectly with a faculty member's, but usually that's not the case.</p>
<p>And if you are lucky enough to find a good match, odds are you won't publish. Whenever you look at a grad school lab, you'll see a certain kind of structure to it. There's always a PI (or more), who's basically the professor running the lab. There are a handful of grad students in the lab, actively working on research. And usually there's a small number of undergrads working the lab too. These undergrads usually work with a grad student on a specific project. The grad student helps direct the project and make sure it's moving forwards towards some reasonable attainable goal. Having the grad student in the loop is really important. They're better than a professor (in some ways) because they have more time to talk to you and direct you.</p>
<p>Olin doesn't really have this structure at all. If you want to do a "research" project, what often happens is you'll connect with a faculty member, discuss what you want to do, and then go do it over the course of a semester. Usually, at the end of the semester, you've done some cool work, but it wasn't really want you were expecting, it's not a finished product, and it's not publishable. </p>
<p>It's much easier (although still difficult) to get a publication at a larger school. You'll be working on a project that has a long track record (ie, not just something you thought of one day), so it's more likely to be going somewhere. You'll be working with grad students who both know what they're doing and will put effort into the project (because often its tied to their own research) with the goal of working towards a publication (because, in the end, that's what the grad student wants/needs as well).</p>
<p>The number of research projects that lead to a publication at Olin are pretty small (smaller than at a bigger university). This is pretty detrimental to those who are applying to grad schools. Anyone looking at your application will think "ok, so you did some cool stuff, but how do I know you'll be productive in my lab?" Usually, there are a few students in each class who were lucky enough to publish, but usually these are from summers spent elsewhere, or (rarely) students who got really lucky in finding the perfect match between what they (and a largeish group of your peers) wanted to do and what a faculty member was doing. </p>
<p>Olin used to have class-by-class stats on their website, but I can't find them anymore. They have cumulative stats for the top employers/grad schools though. You'll see that over the past 8 classes, there have been many more people who've gone into industry than grad school. At bigger universities, it's more like 50-50. This difference isn't just due to different interests.</p>
<p>You can make it work. You can go to Olin and then go to grad school. But expect it to be harder than if you were to go a big university.</p>
<p>(Apologies for the long and raw post. I guess I'm still a little bitter - I always wanted to go to grad school and four years out, I still haven't. I guess I'll go disappear from CC for another few years now.)</p>