Congrats on getting into both of those schools. Olin’s acceptance rate this year is in the 9% range. While I know Harvey Mudd has an excellent reputation, I do not have any first hand experience there. My daughter is a junior Electrical and Computer Engineering student at Olin and couldn’t be happier. Like you, she has absolutely no interest in Mechanical Engineering. Prior to going to Olin, she had a lot of experience using computers in various ways, but never developing software. Even so, the new she wanted to be either a Computer Science or Computer Engineer major. Her time at Olin has prepared her well. She has been able to obtain internships at Lockheed Martin (rewriting code), Microsoft (In their explorer program) and for this summer Athena Health (as a developer). This semester, she is studying abroad in Belgium. She is taking robotics is the only undergrad in the course. Olin’s team oriented, project based curriculum has made her very comfortable in that environment. By the end of Sophomore year, she had enough project management experience and User Oriented Collaborative Design (UOCD) experience to be able to successfully apply it on a project team at Microsoft.
I do no believe that not liking Mechanical Engineering should in any way deter you from going to Olin. You will find that many people feel the same.
What is different about Olin is: 1) You will be in mostly project based collaborative courses instead of lectures. Project based courses are based on active learning. 2) Olin is not about memorizing and regurgitating. Most tests are open book, take home. This is because Olin believes that it is not what you know, but what you know how to do and can you solve problems. 3) Olin is not about grades. When I picked my daughter up at the end of Freshman year I asked her how she gets graded (since so much is team, project based) and she told me that she doesn’t really know and they don’t talk about it much. It is about doing things and trying things. 4) Olin is not about how well a project works. Students are expected to do things outside their knowledge and comfort levels. While everyone strives to make their project a success, projects that don’t work are often the best learning experiences. Analyzing why they failed and how what changes could be implemented if the project were to go through future iterations are just as important and are view in that way. In that way, students are not afraid to try something because it is too hard or too risky. 5) Olin more resembles real life. Students work within project teams and are given project budgets. They generally have to research to obtain the technical knowledge to complete the project. This simulates real life. At Microsoft, she was able to fit into a team with ease where others had difficulty with the collaborative environment. She has learned that whatever the project, she knows that she has the ability to learn the material and apply it to create a solution.
Good luck with your decision.