The Final Choice --wow this is tough! --Cornell, Olin, MIT

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I'm having a really hard time deciding on where I might go to study Electrical Engineering.
its probably self selecting anyway but in the odd event I was accepted to all three whats the better choice.
(I think I have a decent chance - 2300+ SATs, 1 B+ in AP US History, lots of sports & ECs)</p>

<p>After visiting all three
Cornell is beautiful!!, I went running with the running club and we went through amazing Gorges and over suspension bridges ..there are spectacular Gardens -- the grounds and surrounding area is stunning. The campus is spread out but the walk brings you by really nice buildings and nice court yards and the Bells that ring from the tower really touch you deep. I was brought to a Hockey Game and there was a lot of school spirit and it was really nice when they sang their Cornell song as a whole stadium,,,that was really cool!!. and the engineering program is really solid with lots of rigor. The University offers so much more than just engineering.</p>

<p>OLIN is tiny!!!
but the environment and people are huge. The university is big on teaming and collaboration, not only student to student, but student to teacher and beyond. I will admit it that it feels like a creepy little genius school... because it seems like everyone there really is a genius and the school is set up so that they all work together. I am 100% certain that if I went to OLIN I would become the best engineer I could be. The small size, the teaming with other kids, the commitment of the faculty to me as an undergraduate. I have been going through interviews with other schools but I think the OLIN interview will be the only one that determines if I get admitted. A mandatory weekend long interview where I am evaluated against other qualified candidates...wow.. its competitive just to be invited to the Candidates weekend interview. I love the honor code, I love the undergraduate focus... I know this is not about the money but the average starting salary for grads last year was $83,000. amazing. only 3 majors EE, ME, gen eng (but I know I want to be EE) and no sports... whew ...very cool school. but no one knows about the school...its an unknown with my friends and teachers.</p>

<p>MIT
Everyone knows MIT. instant name recognition... for the rest of my life no one would doubt my intellect if I was labeled as MIT.
MIT is a big tech school with lots of possibilities, they also have Div III sports if I needed an outlet to change my routine. Everyone wants to go to MIT so my visits were kind of impersonal, I was one of the millions of kids that hopes to go there.. so I couldn't connect on a personal level through my visits.. but I do see it as a school where the students are passionate about what they study. The school is more than just a college for undergrads-- it seemed like MIT is set up to give Graduate students more attention. The undergrads take the classes and do there best to pass. I know Cambridge and Boston are right there but I don't really go out much... but what I did like was that the Charles river is an AWESOME place for a run... I could go out anytime and run along the river and feel safe and it is spectacularly beautiful... and I could also learn to sail on the Charles and give that a try. it looks like they have a lot of things available beyond the school and the school itself is great.</p>

<p>So what to pick -- they are so different & so excellent
Cornell, solid academics, beautiful setting, school spirit, lots of opportunity.
OLIN, undergrad focused, personal attention, I would become the best engineer in this environment.
MIT, excellent reputation, lots of rigor, self study environment (like Cornell), Tech school vibe</p>

2

<p>How do you know for certain that you’d become “the best engineer you could be” at Olin? I have no real life experience with either 3 schools, but I don’t know if you could just assume that from the information you gather by visiting.</p>

<p>In any case, I think it’s best to decide where you want to go AFTER you get your acceptances/rejections for a couple reasons:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Like you said, you might not get accepted to all 3 anyways, so there’s no point deciding now. Chances are if you decide your first choice is MIT and you don’t get in, you’re going to feel pretty down (or maybe that’s just me, I don’t know).</p></li>
<li><p>This may or not be applicable to you depending on your financial situation but you don’t know your aid packages yet. That could be a big factor if say, Cornell offers you a full ride and Olin does not.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>I guess if you’re choosing though, just look at where you think you fit best. Don’t worry about “name recognition” and stuff because all 3 are well known to those in the EE field, and perhaps the only people who would be impressed by an MIT degree over an Olin one are those who aren’t as familiar with engineering schools. You can’t go wrong with any of these schools for EE so just go with whatever you think you’ll fit in best (I realize how cliche this advice is but I don’t think anyone could REALLY help you out with this more than you can yourself).</p>

3

<p>This was a “Message in the Bottle” post … I tossed the note into the sea wondering who may pick it up and offer their perspective</p>

<p>I know its clich</p>

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<p>

Almost every practicing electrical engineer in the US has heard of MIT. The same cannot be said about Olin College.</p>

5

<p>Don’t go crazy with the analysis since the odds of getting into all three are extremely low.
When you get accepted try to re-visit the ones you got into. At that point, you will have a better idea of what really matters to you. And what you can afford!
Olin is the outlier, so read other threads in here on it using the search feature.
How much time are you spending analyzing the pros/cons of schools that you are more likely to be admitted to? I know you think you are well qualified, but so are the vast majority of applicants to those three schools.
Think of those applications as lottery tickets. Invest your time elsewhere until you hear back from them…</p>

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<p>I can normally tell what a persons favorites are by the way they write about the schools in the thread, but in your case, I can see it’s really, really close. There doesn’t seem to be any obvious favorite, but I think I can rank them. And from your perspective, I don’t think you’d regret choosing any one of them. So, based on what you’ve written, it seems like your ranking is:</p>

<ol>
<li>Olin</li>
<li>Cornell</li>
<li>MIT</li>
</ol>

<p>And you kind of feel guilty about making MIT #3. To reassure you, about 1/3 of the students accepted to MIT turn it down for something else. I doubt that all of them were accepted to “better” schools, as there really aren’t any. I’m sure they chose schools that fit them better, which is exactly what you should do, should you have to make that choice - choose the school you feel most comfortable at.</p>

7

<p>Olin is a very very good school and one of the highest ranked schools of engineering in the country - their progress at climbing the rankings and getting recognition in the past couple years is astounding. So if you’re lucky enough to get into it, don’t feel bad about attending. :slight_smile:
For now, you’ve applied to all three. Wait and see. The choice may be made for you by the admission officers… If you get into any of the three, you’ll be lucky, and if you get into all three come back to the forum in March or April. :slight_smile:
Do you have safeties? Because the odds of getting into any of these three schools are really low.</p>

8

<p>All three are selective enough that applying to them all as reaches is the way to go. THe person you are today, may not have the same outlooks as the person you will be in April when the decision comes up. Things will have happened. So don’t worry about it till them.</p>

9

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<p>Frankly, as I’ve said before, I think Olin is way way overrated. </p>

<p>It’s a well hyped experiment that has yet to prove it’s a success.</p>

10

<p>Yeah, I really wouldn’t go with Olin when you are looking at Cornell and MIT. I would strike it off the list off the bat.</p>

<p>Between Cornell and MIT, I would go with MIT for engineering and any hard science degrees, while I would go with Cornell for any humanities or soft degrees (poli sci, etc.).</p>

11

<p>ClassicRockerDad–I’m not exactly sure what you are waiting for in terms of Olin “proving its worth” to you, you seem to really have something against it, and for that I’m sorry. </p>

<p>For the OP, no point in “deciding” now, because it’s not really a choice for you yet. See where you get in, and revisit. Olin is not for everyone, but if you feel you like it, you absolutely cannot go wrong there educationally–it’s top notch. It is not an “experiment”…yes, there are companies and industries which either haven’t heard of it yet or have had a less than stellar experience with the ONE graduate they hired–no doubt. But most every company with a handful of Olin grads continues to come back for more. Colleges and Universities around the world continue to visit and to make or strengthen their partnerships with Olin. </p>

<p>Olin is trying to do something that is much bigger than what happens on campus in Needham. Only you will know whether or not you want to be part of that mission. Good luck, PAYNE101, I hope you get an invite to Candidates Weekend!</p>

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<p>Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts…
Good or bad ,all views are helpful. </p>

<p>I’ve already done EA for my safety schools … and I know the 3 schools I’ve mentioned are reaches.</p>

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<p>First of all, it’s November and thus unlikely that you have been accepted to all three of these yet, so I’m not sure why this is a pressing issue for you right now. You have plenty of time to mull over them and decide.</p>

<p>If it was up to me, personally, I would select Cornell. It has a great reputation and has great engineering, but also has a large Greek scene, more school spirit than the other two, a pretty awesome social scene and is a large university with plenty of social opportunities. I love universities with lots of school spirit and I’m a work hard, play hard kind of person. Also, if I had to go to college all over, I would choose a college in a small college town (like Ithaca) as opposed to in a large city (Boston) because I like to do things on-campus with friends. If you go to college in a big city, by junior and senior year everyone wants to go out into the city and that’s not my scene.</p>

<p>I also think people overestimate the social situations in which their school name comes up. First of all, I don’t make a habit of asking where people went to undergrad unless it’s salient to a conversation. Second of all, I wouldn’t automatically assume someone is intelligent because they went to a top school - but that’s probably because I go to an Ivy and while most people are smart, there’s a lot of variance in what “smart” means here (and some of the students here do very dumb things).</p>

14

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</p>

<p>So much baloney. What have they really done - zilch, zippo, nada, the big 0. </p>

<p>Teach your students something! </p>

<p>You have great students. Work them. Stop wasting their time and killing their dreams with your BS hype. </p>

<p>This place is nothing compared to Harvey Mudd or Cooper Union.</p>

15

<p>Juillet… I haven’t been accepted anywhere yet.
I’ve only hit the send button on a few early action applications… and I’m finishing the others for Regular Decision.</p>

<p>I suppose … I could have waited till March to post this message when I have actual acceptances in hand. but today I still have a chance to change my applications and maybe add or drop a school … As a kid, I think I know where I would like to go based on a few visits and marketing views … I’m simply using this sight (and your feedback) as one tool to help me with my decision. Its nice getting raw, unbiased feedback (good or bad)… I don’t work in a company… I have no idea what makes one graduate better than another… I’m too young to have friends that are graduates from any of these schools. All I know is that I plan to go to college next fall. I need to finish my applications by the end of next month and make a final decision in spring.</p>

<p>Once again I really appreciate your thoughts… The 3 schools I mentioned (Cornell/Olin/MIT) where the ones I had at the top of my list…I was trying to pick a favorite and I was having a hard time. but I’ve also got applications to other reaches…places like Cooper Union and Harvey Mudd and Caltech and Stanford and others… all of them are reaches for everyone. I just really appreciate the input from people older than myself and with a view that’s different from my guidance counselor. Once again Thank you … you are all very helpful.</p>

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<p>What do you have on your list other than the reaches???</p>