<p>This is really making me mad. Princeton review gives an the academic rating of 98 to Olin and only 87 to the Cooper Union. PR puts Olin as having some of the best profs but puts Cooper in the list of "profs get lowest marks". Many other things have been in favor of Olin.</p>
<p>What's the deal here? Since when is Olin better than the Cooper union. The darn school hasn't even graduated it's first class yet.</p>
<p>Olin and Cooper, interestingly enough, are the only two LAC schools that give all admitted students full tuition scholarships. So naturally, it's not a surprise that the Cooper Union and Olin both are in the "best values" category.</p>
<p>Olin is better than Cooper Union for a while now... Yes, they haven't graduated their first class yet, but they've headhunted a large number of BIG NAME professors (I put 'big name' in caps for a reason...!) away from the likes of CalTech, MIT, and Harvey Mudd. Olin started out with the intent of making their college the <em>best</em> engineering college out there, luring in all the incredibly competitive professors and incredibly competitive students and providing them with the best facilities and equipment that Mr. Olin's money can buy. And y'know, it's darned tough to compete with that! Would've been nice if Olin had been around when I was a HS senior, but I think I did pretty well with Rice. ;)</p>
<p>I look forward to seeing the sort of graduate the Olin lets loose on the engineering world. Should be pretty incredible! =)</p>
<p>Yes, Olin is doing some amazing things. It is hard to rate them at the top since they are so new, but I would not be suprised to see them there soon. Cooper Union is still an excellent school too.</p>
<p>If you have, you'd notice something. We're insane. No really. Masocistic would probably describe us best. Im a freshman here now, and well, Ive been using solid works already. Most normaly frosh dont get to poke that with a stick for a year atleast. I also get MatLab, Maple and other things.<br>
And the Profs really are that amazing. Ever heard of Gill Pratt? Yeah, he was the head of the MIT leg lab. Dr. Moody? Head of Harvey Mudd's math department. I can go on. Most of our profs left nice tenured postions at other places to come here. where there is no tenure. They have to love it. they also have to love to teach. And they teach well.<br>
We're small enough where you know everyone ,there is a community.
I really dont know how to put such an amazing place into words. But Olin does kick the enginering world's ass. Things here are really different, they teach really differently. and its amazing. We have projects and we learn things from those. We are given a big idea and learn things about it. </p>
<p>Olins an amazing place. When you visit it you'll understand. I'm waiting for the class of 06 to graduate and make their mark. Then olin will have made its mark. Every one here is amazing, thats why we are here.
Now, off my speal before I go into the whole admissons thing.
(and thanks amy, you have a free spot to sleep under my bed any time you visit! and ill even feed you better than goldfish and pringles) </p>
<pre><code>Great story. It does sound amazing. Go tell them there's a professor from Arkansas that would love to teach there! Of course I'm happy where I'm at and we are following the same model as Olin - emply world class professors who love to teach.
</code></pre>
<p>I am pretty sure most engineering schools use maple, matlab, etc. in the first term.</p>
<p>The PR academic ratings are a little weird. Princeton gets a 88 and Cornell an 89.</p>
<p>With that being said, Olin is an awesome school. So is Cooper Union. We all know it is impossible to rank these schools, let's just include both of them in the top tier of small engineering schools (with Harvey Mudd and Rose-Hulman). They all use world class professors who love to teach. They are all personal when it comes to insuring their students succeed. Which is the best? Who really can say?</p>
<p>I know that engineering schools tend to use Maple. Matlab I'm not so sure about, but I'll take your word for it.
Anyway, the point isn't that we get to use Matlab. The point is that we get to design our own projects doing Very Cool Things with Matlab, and Femlab (finite element modelling) and SolidWorks and Visual Nastran (dynamic simulations).
I would guess that some other schools let student so other similar Very Cool Things, but since I've only been attended Olin, I wouldn't know.</p>
<p>Many schools use Matlab. But I think you are right, doing FEM along with SolidWorks and dynamic simulations is not something that is done by typical freshman. Sounds like an amazing experience.</p>