<p>Peggy, you make perfect sense. Smart, hard-working kids who have a passion are what the school looks for, which sounds like your S. I think an essay about helping with day care kids could be quite interesting and unusual,too!</p>
<p>Ah, but playing with and taking care of toddlers isn't "macho". He'll want to write an essay on scratching and spitting and taking a soccer ball in the face for the team.</p>
<p>We are definitely keeping Olin on our list. If for no other reason than Husband would love to see a game at Fenway Park . . .</p>
<p>Peg</p>
<p>I hadn't heard of Olin College before this post, but I certainly knew the Olin name (from main graduate school library at Cornell University). A quick on-line search showed that there are Olin libraries on a lot of college campuses (including Washington University in St. Louis, to name one other example). </p>
<p>The point is that Olin College isn't your typical start-up. It has the support of a major educational philanthropical foundation, and is named for the founder of the family fortune who endowed the foundation. I wouldn't be too worried about it folding its tent any time soon.</p>
<p>And there are Olin science buildings on a dozen major campuses, and the faculty and leadership team they've pulled together in Needham are distinguished, committed, innovative, and enthusiastic. The students there are all excellent and motivated, and turned down other fine offers at top institutions to attend. The approach certainly seems to be working at some levels; time will tell how well it endures.</p>
<p>My is one of those who has had year-long physics for majors and multivariable calculus at a university already, and we asked a lot about that "problem" at the candidate's weekend. We were told that even though it is unusual (and perhaps not desirable) to test out of first-year math and science, they will not require kids to attend classes and do work in the parts of it they know well. They said students could work with the teachers to skip that part or do something else, etc. They assured my son that he would not be required to repeat work, and olin is now his top choice over Stanford, MIT, Caltech, etc.</p>