<p>Son was waitlisted at Olin and accepted to Carnegie Mellon computer science program. He seems pretty sure he wants to do computer science although last summer he was thinking physics or engineering so I don't know if he will change his mind again! </p>
<p>Pros of Olin: location-close to home, 1/2 tuition scholarship, reputation
Cons of Olin: small size, not in a city, have to wait a year</p>
<p>Pros of CMU: reputation of CS is great, in a city, more social stuff?
Cons of CMU: more expensive, further away, if he changes to engineering not as good a reputation as Olin for engineering I don't think</p>
<p>His ultimate goal is to work for google or microsoft or similar type company. Which would you choose and why?</p>
<p>I believe CMU is ranked #4 for Computer Science.</p>
<p>Olin has limited engineering choices. But, it gives you a strong engineering base. Find out the range of potential changes in majors, and their likelihood. I would say that if the chance is less than 60% that he will finish in a field that Olin offers, then that would be a strong reason to choose CMU (assuming that CMU offers the other areas). Having to change college can easily wipe out any cost advantage.</p>
<p>Most of all, what does your S think (assuming that S could start either school this fall)? Why does he like Olin, and why does he like CMU? What doesn’t he like about Olin and CMU? What is S’s learning style? Is either school better suited for that?</p>
<p>If S is still on the edge, then pick CMU, but keep the Olin waitlist. A bird in the hand …</p>
<p>If S really likes Olin, then take a year off. Try to find an internship for a year and gain some real world experience.</p>
<p>Will Olin allow S to attend CMU for a year, and then enroll next year? I could see the benefit in that. Take the core classes (physics, calculus, chemistry, programming class), and see how he likes CMU and CS. That should keep him on track for graduation. If he looses interest in CS (or gains an interest somewhere else), then that might make a difference on whether he should continue at CMU or enroll at Olin.</p>
<p>Not hard to talk with Olin to see if they will accept the classes.</p>
<p>Look at the typical Olin Freshmen schedule, and pick classes at CMU that mirror them. Then ask Olin if they will accept those classes for transfer credit.</p>
<p>Find out the preferred programming language(s) at Olin, and take classes in those.</p>
<p>For engineers, Calc through Multi variable/linear algebra (differential equations can also be beneficial - required for ECE majors), Physics, Chemistry, and Statistics are the basics, and are pretty generic. A writing course is also helpful (this one might have more transfer issues). Note: Olin seems to have a general requirement in Biology.</p>
<p>Note: Since Olin has their specific Notebook computer, try to avoid buying one for CMU.</p>
<p>We have someone who did a year at CMU in the WL gap year before coming to Olin as a freshman. I don’t recall if he transferred credits (I can ask if you want), but I don’t think he regrets a thing.</p>
<p>CS at Olin is slightly less traditional and therefore could be understood to be slightly weaker. We have fewer strictly CS classes, most of the CS curriculum is spread across classes like Foundations of CS, Computational Modeling, and so on… but we have a boat load of students graduating into cutting-edge tech jobs every year. :)</p>
<p>S did ECE (Electrical and Computer Engineering) and I know a lot of his friends went to work at Microsoft/Google/Facebook. All those companies recruit at Olin. I don’t know about CMU’s work placement statistics but you could check with them to find out. </p>
<p>I think it’s a matter of what school feels like the best fit for your son.
Waiting a year isn’t the worst thing, there are so many possibilities. He might also get off the waitlist, I’ve heard of that happening as well.</p>
<p>My son is on the wait list. Of course we hope he gets off and can start at Olin this fall. But if he does not get off, my hope is that he does something unlike anything he would do at Olin. If he attends a college or university, I hope he forgoes STEM courses and takes SCUBA or art or dance or the history of rock and roll. I also hope he gets a job so he can help pay for Olin the following year. Or some income he earns could be used to do some travelling. He won’t forget calculus or chemistry, and I hope he wouldn’t forget cool stuff he “got” to do during a gap. It’s confusing at home right now, and the above are my hopes, not his plans. Hey, I can hope.</p>
<p>Be aware that although most freshman engineering courses are similar at various colleges, Olin has it’s own unique freshman curriculum. Few courses would transfer. Most likely a transfer student would need to spend 4 years at Olin.</p>
<p>A transfer student is likely to spend 4 years at Olin: true. If I recall correctly, we have only had one exception, and that was a transfer student who did 3 years at U of Illinois in a very similar design-centric program and joined Olin as a junior.</p>
<p>However, transferring credits has been done before, and the student I alluded to did transfer math and physics credits from CMU. CMU has a very strong math and physics program, which probably helped his case.</p>
<p>My daughter was able to place out of Linearity 1 & 2 due to prior work (done in high school), but that involved a long (4 hour?) placement test. I don’t think she got credit, though, just placement.</p>
<p>She told me some kids who had done biology research placed out of Modern Biology, but again they just take something higher level instead.</p>
<p>For those thinking computer science and wondering how that translates to Olin, there’s a good Olin PGP blog post today about a senior headed to Computer Science grad school.</p>
<p>PA-C,
I know that the decision deadline is past, so I’m a little late in responding. 20% of Olin’s graduating class last year went to work at Microsoft. You might find this article interesting.</p>
<p>My son graduated from Olin with a degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He turned down CMU’s partial scholarship offer, because he fell in love with Olin. He went on to grad school for a Master’s in Computer Science. Olin prepared him well for his graduate classes.</p>