<p>I would love to go to a college that has a system like Olin College of Engineering: hands on, project and team-based approach to learning. </p>
<p>But I've looked and haven't found anything like Olin. Olin's also too hard to get in, considering they're only accepting 75 students or so and they recently got a lot of publicity.</p>
<p>I've heard that U of Texas Austin has some interesting education reforms, but nothing radical like Olin.</p>
<p>I think you'd find that MOST of the engineering schools present themselves as "hands on" and all that -- but the plain fact remains that there is just a lot of tough material all engineering students have to cover, and then there are lots of opportunities for "hands on" later on in their academic career.</p>
<p>Worcester Polytech has what they call a "project based" curriculum with four very short terms (7 weeks) during the school year. The projects consist of two BIG projects in junior and senior year.</p>
<p>Rensselaer emphasized hands on learning in a big way when we looked at it - and it does seem like they make a big effort anyway...</p>
<p>Northeastern, Rochester Institute, and U of Cincinnati offer very strong co-op programs, which give you the nice option of breaking up the academic stuff with real (paid) work experience.</p>
<p>Also, look into a field called Engineering Technology. It is more hands on and less theoretical based.</p>