@fatherofsam Does she love Olin enough to wait a year? My son did, and it went by quickly. He loves Olin and wouldn’t wan to be anywhere else.
My son is also waitlisted. He had already decided Olin was worth a years’ wait though he has great options. We are fully behind helping plan a great gap year. But will need help because if he earns money it changes the need and not sure we can defer scholarships.
My friend’s daughter was also wait-listed, and it was her fist choice. She isn’t yet sure if she’ll wait an extra year because she doesn’t have any interim plans. They’re thinking about it.
@fatherofsam My son also was waitlisted and we waited. It was hard. He was one of the older kids in his grade and he was ready to be out of our house. He had other great options for college. But it is not a race to get a BS and he is a hands-on mechanical engineer thriving in (one of?) the most revolutionary engineering schools on the planet. He made the right choice.
Just adding my 2 cents. My son was waitlisted and opted for the gap year. He found internships and did some personal projects. Didn’t waste a minute. To him, nothing compared to Olin, so he really didn’t consider his other options. Olin is everything he thought it would be and can’t picture himself anywhere else.
@Macgrrrl my son had some outside scholarships and each of them were valid for 2 years so he as able to use them. Check each scholarship individually.
I was waitlisted, unfortunately. I’m not currently interested in taking a gap year, so I’m just going to sit tight and see if I hear from them. It sucks, but I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to go visit the school and get to know it. Olin really takes time to get to know their applicants and it’s obvious they care about their students. Congrats to everyone that was accepted!
My son was accepted to Olin. When he got accepted I thought it was his first choice and he would immediately enroll. But he is trying to decide between Olin and WPI. I think he prefers Olin, it is just very hard to make a final choice.
WPI is a fine school and has some things that Olin doesn’t have, like Greek Life and team sports.
@NoVADad99 - in the end, my D decided to pass on the gap year and she enrolled at Georgia Tech. Olin was her top choice, but she didn’t want to wait a year to attend. Honestly, I also think the wait list felt like a rejection to her and soured her a little on Olin.
And, as she was contemplating her decision, she realized that Georgia Tech has a number of great characteristics. She was admitted to the honors program so she still will have a small community of students to bond with, some smaller honors classes, etc. And, with the larger student body next to a large city, she will have additional opportunities not available at Olin.
She will certainly miss the tight knit family feel of Olin and the truly one of a kind academic approach at Olin, but she is happy with her decision.
Good luck all on your (or your son’s / daughter’s) decisions!
Olin put up their first of 2 admission blogs by first years today. I think the are supposed to give perspective and insight into the decision process when Olin is on the table.
Remove the spaces to read it here : http://www.olin.edu/ blog /the-olinsider/post/letter-the-admitted-students-love-someone-who-was-your-shoes/
what is this gap year people on this thread are talking about? Do they give people the chance to enroll after taking a gap year? Is this something they do every year? Or are you taking a gap year in the hopes of getting in after a year?
Yes and yes. Applicants who are waitlisted are offered guaranteed admission the following year. Each year a few waitlisted applicants take them up on this offer.
@kjake2000 Olin has a unique waitlist policy. Waitlisted students are guaranteed admission the following year. If a student does not get off the waitlist in the year they applied, they can take a gap year and start the following fall. Of course some admitted students (not waitlisted) also take gap years. Olin is happy to defer enrollment. The varied experience enriches the incoming class.
do they still reapply the year after a waitlist? Or do they just go attend as part of the next year’s class?
@jeffgordon
@kjake2000 A waitlisted student must inform Olin of their desire to stay on the list but they do not need to reapply. That much is the same as it was a few years ago when my son was waitlisted. There have been some recent changes See http://olin.edu/blog/olin-admission/post/the-waiting-place/
@kjake2000 There are lots of blogs from students during their gap years (fondly referred to as gappies) and the exciting things they’ve done.
http://www.olin.edu/blog/olin-admission/category/gap-year-blogs/?page=1
I’ve heard personal stories of biking across South America, working with FIRST robotics to bring technology education and robotics classes to underprivileged areas, interning at cool start-ups designing parts for drones or special equipment to test satellites before they launch. Lets us know if you have any other questions.
Congrats!
If you are waitlisted does it mean that you get in automatically the following year?
@CompSciApplicant in previous years they have waitlisted roughly 30 students. Traditionally, those students that don’t get pulled from the waitlist were given guaranteed admission the following year. They needed to put a deposit down to hold their spot, write a small paper on what they intend to do with their gap year, and in more recent years, had to promise that they weren’t going to go to school anywhere else during that year. Not sure what this year holds for them. That announcement is generally made at the closing discussion of Candidate’s Weekend. Last year they took 90 first years instead of the traditional 84. No idea what this year’s number is.
Also, you do understand that they don’t have a comp sci degree, right? Its an engineering degree with a computing concentration. Not at all your typical comp sci degree.