<p>I know their are a number of parents on this site and was wondering now that half the year is over, how does your child like Olin as a freshman? Do they have a favorite class? One that is/was very challenging? Was it a hard adjustment with the workload? What do they do for fun? Any insights, my son would love to go to Olin but he needs to make CW first.</p>
<p>momengineering - You might want to go to the bottom of the Olin section and change the view so you can see all the threads posted over the years. It’s not that I don’t want to answer your questions b/c I LOVE talking about Olin, but this will give you the opportunity to hear from many perspectives.</p>
<p>My son is currently a sophomore. I LOVES Olin. I can’t convince him to leave for a semester to study away. He is looking for a job in Boston this summer so he can stay at school. He loves the work, his friends, the stretch. He has been fine with the workload, but he likes schoolwork. Oliners are always working on something. There are no slackers. But most are very happy. It is a very competitive admissions process so be sure your son has other great options.</p>
<p>Olin freshmen work incredibly hard considering the first semester is pass/fail. But they seem to love what they do. </p>
<p>There is lots of project work. There is not a lot of traditional freshman engineering classes, but there is no lack of academic rigor;) The “Design Nature” class seems to consume a lot of their time and interest. You can google to find more info on that.</p>
<p>My daughter just completed her first semester. She had a great time. You must absolutely be on board with project work and group work in order to like Olin. Her favorite class was either ModSim or her AHS class (Anthro). She chose to do her final ModSim project presentation as her Expo presentation.</p>
<p>The standard course load for first semester students this year was 5 classes:
- Design Nature
- ModCon (Modeling & Control)
- ModSim (Modeling & Simulation of the Physical World)
- an AHS foundation course (Arts/Humanities/Social Science)
- OIE (Olin Introductory Experience – a continuation of freshman orientation)</p>
<p>The students only get a choice in AHS and that’s the only difference in their schedules. They take Design Nature, ModCon, ModSim, and OIE at the same time, sometimes all together in the big lecture hall and sometimes in smaller studio groups.</p>
<p>Evidently the sophomores were jealous because this year’s first years had only one day a week of 9 AM classes whereas last year there were 4 days a week of 9 AM classes. Yes, 9 AM counts as an early class at Olin!</p>
<p>My daughter had no final exams. There were final projects due in Design Nature, ModCon, and ModSim. The final project in Design Nature ended with an evaluation by the target audience (4th graders) as well as the instructors. The final project in ModSim was a formal presentation in business clothes, complete with a formal academic-style poster. OIE had no final. Her AHS course had a final paper instead of an exam.</p>
<p>mathinokc did a good summary! </p>
<p>Our Olin 2015er, and avid musician and composer, enjoyed his AHS elective - “Wired”. <a href=“http://digitalcommons.olin.edu/ahse_1122/[/url]”>http://digitalcommons.olin.edu/ahse_1122/</a></p>
<p>He also has been doing OCO - Olin Conductorless Orchestra (1 credit). [AHSE</a> 0112: The Olin Conductorless Orchestra | AHSE | Olin College of Engineering](<a href=“http://digitalcommons.olin.edu/ahse_0112/]AHSE”>http://digitalcommons.olin.edu/ahse_0112/)</p>
<p>Thanks mathinokc. I guess it must be the difference between having son vs daughter. i found out more about freshman year from your post than I did from my son.</p>
<p>Thank you all, this was very informative</p>
<p>Just curious, but what kind of CAD software did they use in the modeling courses?</p>
<p>Also, are grades given for group projects, with everyone getting the same grade in a group? That is almost always a problem in high school, but I’m guessing it is not a problem at Olin (given your statement that there are “no slackers”)? I think I have read that the kids are not focused on grades, but more on what they learn at Olin;
I like that, if true.</p>
<p>Do either of your kids mention any downside to the group project focus in the curriculum?</p>
<p>I hear a lot about Solidworks. One of the co-founders teaches at Olin. </p>
<p>First semester is pass/fail at Olin (and Mudd and MIT too I think). That helps foster collaboration. I’ve heard no complaints from DS about group grades, but I heard none in hs either. </p>
<p>My Oliner has not mentioned downside, only excitement. But he is not a big talker (or complainer). In general there could be plenty of downside to group project focus, especially near the end of the semester when so many things need to come together. Olin curriculum would not be good for procrastinators. Many engineering students (probably including myself 30 years ago) would be better served by traditional curriculum. But the hs seniors that get pumped by CW tend to really like the project approach.</p>
<p>The CAD software they use is SolidWorks. They use MatLab for mathematical modeling.</p>
<p>I know that in the Design Nature evaluations at the end of the semester, each student was given a certain # of “dollars” and they had to assign those dollars out to the various members of the team in increments of 100 and could not give everyone the same amount. This internal evaluation was just part of the grade on the project. Since the class is pass/no record, it’s hard to tell whether everyone got the same grade on the project, but the implication is that they did not.</p>
<p>Groups range from 2 people (the final ModSim project was done in pairs) to as many as 5 (the final Design Nature project was done in groups of 4-5).</p>
<p>I know that there can be some frustration with team members on a group project. No one is a slacker, but sometimes people have other commitments (especially at the end of the semester) and that can make collaboration outside of class difficult. People get sick, too; usually at the worst possible times. My daughter’s Design Nature group had a Babson student in it. Coordinating with him was much harder than coordinating with Oliners who all had the same schedule. I think the group project frustration is less than in a typical high school situation where you often have one student content to do no work at all, but this is the real world and everyone doesn’t contribute equally so there will always be some frustration.</p>
<p>Good points above. </p>
<p>Thinking more on it, DS probably had more trouble coordinating the many hs IB projects due to travel/schedule logistics. In hs most of his classmates were busy with ECs, homework, job… and some of them lived 20 miles away. At Olin there are schedule challenges… but the travel is easy.</p>
<p>Thank guys! Your comments will be really helpful if CW invite comes.</p>
<p>In the next couple weeks, any additional perspectives (pros and cons) on the small size of Olin? This will be an important consideration regarding “Am I a good match?”, especially in terms of social life and opportunities for research projects with faculty. </p>
<p>Are Olin guys or gals (or neither or both) more happy with the social life?</p>
<p>Is it easy or competitive to work with faculty on research? (or do kids not have the time except during summer?)</p>
<p>The tough thing about Olin is that it is very small (probably feeling smaller each year AND there are only engineering majors. So it is important that you ponder the trade-offs. </p>
<p>Here are some factors (pros to some, cons to others)
- 4 years of dorm life / dorm food
- lack of flexibility on roommate arrangements
- same crowd in most the freshman classes
- small number of profs
- limited class selection (mitigated by cross-reg at other colleges)
- lots of rigorous classes, group projects
- high expectations for every student </p>
<p>My Oliner is not all that chatty at home, so I can’t comment much on social life. I do know he has seemed to be busy but happy.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>How is that any different than any other college? I understand all frosh have roommates (matched with a summertime quiz?) and all (most?) sophomores - seniors have singles? What did you mean by lack of flexibility?</p>
<p>The other items don’t seem that bad, even the small number of faculty/classes/classmates since I’d rather have a small number of all awesome rather than a huge selection that range from awesome to awful. The dorms and food sound fantastic as well? I guess students who are well matched need to make sure that most of their desired subjects are taught at Olin, however.</p>
<p>Thanks!!</p>
<p>LakeLightning --</p>
<p>The roommate matching quiz is pretty minimal. It was just a few questions. That said, it’s worked out pretty well for my daughter. I don’t know whether she and her roommate will room together again next year, but they get along fine. (And they were pretty much a worst case match – my daughter’s original “matched” roommate deferred after roommate assignments were made, so my daughter was re-assigned.)</p>
<p>There are 2 dorms. One dorm is all double rooms (each with private bath).
The other dorm is part double rooms and part suites. The suites have 6 individual bedrooms and 2 baths.</p>
<p>The dorms are approximately the same size. So, you can tell that all/most sophomores-seniors don’t have singles.</p>
<p>Registration for spring semester was interesting. My daughter’s schedule was pretty limited by course time conflicts. That said, she ended up with something she’s very happy with. If you want to look at schedules for current and past semesters, check out star.olin.edu on the Records & Registration tab. Note that the catalog often lags what’s in the registration booklet.</p>
<p>The social life at Olin is what you make of it. My daughter’s not the party type. Her social life revolves around her co-curric (Por Supuesto), her club memberships, and little things like Nick Tatar’s apartment hours (his family is the resident faculty in her dorm) and Sibb family suppers. When I look at her calendar, she had scheduled meals with others at least 6 times a week last semester. There were evening activities she was participating in 3-4 nights a week on a normal week.</p>
<p>She says the food is pretty good. </p>
<p>There are 2 e-mail lists used frequently by Oliners. One is called “Carpe Diem” (for opportunities) and the other is “Help Me” (rides needed, etc.). Something just came across Carpe Diem this week about an opportunity to do math research for credit this next semester. So, research is available during the school year, but you need to have allowed yourself time in your schedule to do it.</p>
<p>One good thing about the small size of Olin is that it’s easier to get to know the faculty . They will see you around. You will see them around. </p>
<p>Advising is spread across all faculty members (so the engineering professors aren’t drowned in advisees). My daughter has a math professor as an advisor and loves him. He’s an awesome match for her because she loves math despite being a mechanical engineering major.</p>
<p>Because things are small, it’s easy to hear about opportunities or things that are going on. If you wonder about something, then you can ask in any group that’s mixed classes and someone will know about it or will know someone who has done it. The upperclassmen seem to be really helpful. There’s a sense of an intentional community – people have chosen this super small school and both alums and current students want to help each other out.</p>
<p>The small community is helpful for parents, too. Parent volunteers contacted each new family this summer to answer questions.</p>
<p>mathinokc: Wow! Thanks so much for your perspective and info. All these topics are really useful, and I’d welcome anyone else to pipe in with additional thoughts. More questions may come next month if lucky enough to receive that CW invite!</p>
<p>Lake - The lack of roommate flexibility was a minor comment, relating to the tiny size of Olin. In DS’s case, the roommate matching freshman year worked well (and I think that is usually the case). But if it didn’t there would not be as many options to switch in future years. At bigger schools there are a variety of possible roommates and lots of options for dorm/apartments/etc… often with a choice of single room.</p>
<p>As a current student, I would like to point out that it is entirely not true that there is a lack of flexibility on roommate arrangements. Olin is so flexible that if something doesn’t work out halfway through the semester, something can be done (mutual swap or move into an open single/double/suite or something like that). Every year students engage in “roomdraw” where students pick new roommates/suitemates and in some sense bid for rooming. There is no expectation at all that you would keep the same roommate for the next year, let alone all four years.</p>
<p>I realize that freshmen are in doubles. What % (approx) of sophomores, juniors, and seniors are in doubles? When would it become relatively easy to get a single if that is what a student would like?</p>
<p>For the roomdraw, do students just pair up in the spring, and then put their room bid in together, like at other places, then?</p>
<p>At Olin, we call singles-in-double-spaced-rooms singles and suite-singles… eh, just part of living in a suite. Approximately 100% of seniors end up in suites (with singles) and ~25% of juniors end up in suites (with singles). Now, make special exceptions for people who require a medical single for, well, medical reasons. Everyone else is expected to be in a double; the way roomdraw works is suite draw happens first, then doubles + medical singles draw; regular singles (if anyone really is that intent on trying for a single) are placed (you don’t get to pick your room) after all of that and exchange students and more, because “everyone else is expected to be in a double”. Some semesters we have had 0 free rooms and students who tried for singles ended up in a double with an exchange student or another student who tried for a single. Some other semesters, we have enough for a few singles. When would it become easy to have your own space? Well, definitely senior-year, probably junior-year, and probably not sophomore-year. Unless you (do not attempt) find ways to drive your roommates crazy and make them want to leave you :P</p>
<p>Roomdraw works like other places: generally, yes; no “squatting rights” if you’ve heard of those, class rank priority, then lottery priority…</p>