Why Olin?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Olin College
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<p>I was briefly intrigued by Olin during the time I was applying for college, partly because they offered free tuition (and room at the time) and the smaller class size. The down sides I saw for Olin were the following (some in retrospect):</p>

<p>1) Lack of alumni network: alumni network is an integral part of networking. I’ve been able to make instant connections with people all over the US because of the large alumni network. It has led to many opportunities both socially and professionally that I otherwise would not have gotten.
2) Lack of diversity: it’s difficult to achieve the level of diversity that larger schools offer merely because of the class size. The beauty of the college experience isn’t just about academics; it’s about making life-long connections. Engineering tends to attract a certain type of students with similar views; it is also important to see how other people think and live.
3) Lack of faculty/facility: a key point of engineering is research. Having the opportunity to do undergraduate research with Nobel laureates or renowned national labs is not available. I still get e-mails, ~3 years after graduation, from professors about exciting job/research opportunities.
4) Lack of the “college experience”: for me, the key point of the undergraduate experience is about finding yourself: through exploring different fields: liberal arts, business, etc; through building social skills; through participating is social activities; through partaking in boycotts and demonstrations; through doing immature things with friends; through cheering on your team to a national championship. The more serious endeavors should be reserved for graduate level studies. When you look back at your college experience 50 years down the line, will you remember the things you’ve learn in your Heat Transfers class, or will you likely remember the great moments you’ve shared with your buddies playing a prank on the school. </p>

<p>The free tuition (although not free for overall cost) and smaller class size was even matched by my institution, after receiving a scholarship and accepted to the honors college. I’m sure the high caliber students Olin accept most likely match. </p>

<p>I’m interested in seeing your (applicant’s/candidate’s) perspective on choosing Olin. How did you weigh the pros and cons for your decision? Why did you come to your decision.</p>

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<p>What is your institution? Cooper union?
there are not many schools with free tuition policy.</p>

<p>Why do you want"diversity"?</p>

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<p>Ok, so Olin has 1. Changed since you were applying to college. You would have been about the first year that the college was accepting, and so it had established just about no roots. Now, though, after going to a Candidate's Weekend of my own, I understand a bit more about it. First, let's deal with diversity. I agree wholeheartedly, diversity is extremely important: however, diversity is almost pointless if you're not going to hang out with the diverse people on campus. At Olin, they do attract a diverse crowd, and due to the small size everyone WILL hang out with everyone else.
Now let's look at the lack of the "college" experience. True, you won't get to go to big games, but there's plenty to do around campus and in Boston. Furthermore, if you're going to Olin, they seem pretty darn good in their admissions. Nearly everyone I talked ot was interesting and someone who I could see myself hanging out with, no problem, because they've got so much going on. If I'm really only compatible with half the class, rather than everyone that it seemed, that still makes 40 people a year that I can really get to know well. More than my whole 4 years of high school, with a class size of 700.
Now let's move on to facilities: yes, the school is small. But the amount of money spent per student is one of the highest in the nation. Which means many toys (in the form of big machinery) to play with. Want to make a mold for a new gidget? OK, go do it! Yes, Olin students have to eb a little inventive, and willing to go otu and research and design on their own, but it correlates into making useful, meaningful creations. Oh, and if I go to school anywhere but Olin, I'm not majoring in engineering: this actually is a typical thread among the Olin students, that many of them don't want to go and do engineering for industry, but rather become doctors or lawyers or work with the CIA or such. </p>

<p>Now, as to MY reasons for applying: many of them are up there (though some of that I didn't realize until candidate's weekend). However, the initial reason was the money. Then I looked into the program, and realized that Olin teaches a mode of thought rather than a subject. I want to interact with people in a way many engineers, such as my father, rarely or never do. But understanding an engineering problem-solving technique, understanding how to think in a way that discovers the root of a question, and how to grasp the solution, intrigues me to no end. My safety school doesn't really do that: they focus on engineering so that their engineers can go into the workforce, can be given a set of requirements and create a gidget that meets those specifications. Which is why I'd major in something else, like a liberal arts type major: because I like to find ways of thinking and applying my thought, rather than just discovering one use for my mode of thought.</p>

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<p>chsowlflax17. I think you have much deeper insight into college experience/life than I've had when I was a high school senior. I wish I had that kind of foresight. I really hope you gain the broader perspective on life at Olin and not tunnel vision into engineering.</p>

<p>I actually know one person from the Olin's inaugural class, but he had a very much engineering focused experience. That's reason I want to point it out some of the flaws to perspective Olin students, so that they will not have regrets later on. But it sounds like it may be an isolated case. </p>

<p>To answer yucca's question. I went to University of Texas, after scholarship and in-state tuition, the cost of my education was minimal. I, too, thought diversity (I'm not talking about racial diversity, I'm talking about cultural diversity) isn't important before college. But the most important things I learned from my tenure there was not from my engineering classes, but through interactions with non-engineering students. To be able to look at world events through different lens, to be able to broaden scope of my horizon, was by far the more important in the long run. Since I was in the honors program, my class size was more like 20 instead of 400. The classes had a mix of engineering and non-engineering majors, so it was great for making deep connections while getting a fresh perspective. I basically had the best of both world, small class in a big university with huge alumni base (also, everyone doesn't know everyone else's business). I had a blast watching my team winning national championship. The energy you get from being in a stadium packed full of the school color, cheering at the top of your lungs, thousands singing the fight song as one is indescribable. Friend I knew that went to smaller (liberal art) colleges often says the one regret is not have experience the college sports atmosphere. Sports and school spirit is a huge bonding factor, you don't feel alone even though you are but a spec in a sea of burnt-orange. That spirit also translate into life after school. I've been able to strike up conversations and make connections thousands of miles removed from Austin, just because of that common bond. Of course, having gone to one of the biggest state schools makes finding alumni thousands of miles away a bit easier ;-)</p>

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<p>There are definite benefits to both kinds of schools. It may even be that students that choose either type of school, i.e. an undergraduate college vs. an honors program at a research-university, want similar things: merit-based affordability, small class sizes, close student-professor relationships, and school pride. </p>

<p>Liu02bhs: I'm glad you had such a good experience at UT-Austin. If I'm not mistaken, one of my favorite professors at Olin went to UT-Austin, and he's very much part of the core group of Olin's faculty.</p>

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<p>I was a member if the inaugural class and I was an Olin Partner (one of 30 students who spent my first year out of high school developing the curriculum, student life etc. before I became a freshman my 2nd year). What you posted was totally true for you and this is true for me. Some of my thoughts:</p>

<p>1) Lack of alumni network
This is a bigger issue then I wish it was and probably not as big of an issue as you think it is. </p>

<p>When I went to Olin, there were no alumni. So, Olin recruited our parents to act as alumni (faculty and staff also used any connections they could). Many students got internships in the early years through parents who were impressed with Olin and convinced their companies (IBM is one example) to hire Olin students. During my time at Olin I interned all five summers at the following jobs: my local city engineering department, State Farm’s systems engineering department, doing user-centered-ish stuff for a heart surgeon in Ohio, Lockheed Martin (Systems engineering), Boeing (Plant & Facilities Engineering). Granted, I was pretty much the first Olin student to work at each of these companies but they gave me a chance and it worked out. And now other students have worked at many of those places.</p>

<p>Now there are 3 classes of alumni, now that is only about ~200 alumni but it’s way more than 0. If we had a bigger network, it would be better for sure, but we do have a very strategically placed network. If you want to work at google, yahoo, ideo, ibm, boeing, and so many others, we have alumni there. However, if you want to work in a smaller town or in the middle of the US, you will probably have to forge your own way.</p>

<p>The hardest thing for Olin students will be getting your foot in the door. Frankly most companies still haven’t heard at Olin. When I worked at Lockheed Martin some interns got a hold of an HR handbook that listed the breakdown from recruiting. HR had quotas saying that they had to recruit something like 80% of all interns from 25 target schools. The interesting thing about these schools is that it wasn’t MIT, Caltech, etc, but local schools like University of Central FL. Olin of course wasn’t on their preferred school list. That more than a lack of alums could hurt Olin student’s chances when applying to work at huge companies with intricate HR policies.</p>

<p>2) Lack of diversity
I guess this depends what you mean by diversity. You say you don’t mean just race. Well, Olin had something like 85% of students out of state when I attended. And coming from the Midwest it was about all the cultural diversity I could handle at once. Where I come from about 95% or more of the students from my high school went to school instate. At Olin you do have a strange diversity. Everyone has a passion for math and science, and everyone has passions outside of math and since. I’ve found that the opinions of my classmates on day to day life issues vary wildly. We may agree on project based learning but it often ends there ;-) I do think Olin’s interactions with Babson and Wellesley are very important thought. Cross-registering or spending time at those schools gives you access to a diversity of priorities and learning styles that is very important.</p>

<p>Could Olin be more diverse if it was liberal arts or state school, yes, but then it probably could not do other things as well.</p>

<p>3) Lack of faculty/facility
You said, “a key point of engineering is research”. I completely agree with this. Now I haven’t attended MIT or a school with a graduate program but my impression is that at schools with grad programs, grad students do most of the research. At Olin, there are no grad students so undergraduates have many, many opportunities to do research. All of our professors do research and it is all open to student participation. I would guess around 50% of Olin students do at least one semester of research during their time (though this might be different now it was that way when I attended). True, we only have a small number of faculty, so the sheer number and type of opportunities is less than a larger school. Our labs may not be renowned but many of our faculty are.</p>

<p>We don’t have as much space or labs as bigger schools, that is something you sacrifice for a smaller school environment.</p>

<p>However, having a renowned lab and Nobel laureates is not a prerequisite for exciting job/research opportunities from professors. Our professors will do whatever they can to help us out in our chosen areas of focus because they know us on a personal and academic level. I think Olin can give just as much as a bigger school. I think at any school it’s a matter of the student initiating and building a relationship with a professor.</p>

<p>4) Lack of the “college experience”
This one is totally subjective. What a college experience is to one person it is not to another person. To me, football games and large sporting events is a high school thing, not a college thing. However, I know if I had gone to a large state school I might see it differently. I don’t think a particular experience is necessary for it to truly be college.</p>

<p>I do agree college is often about finding yourself. But I don’t agree it has to be about finding yourself academically. You don’t need to go to a liberal arts school to build social skills or be involved in social justice (I know you didn’t say you did but I’m explaining). At Olin we can and do cross register with Babson, Brandeis and Wellesley. We do take liberal arts courses. In almost every class you have to deal with presentation skills, teamwork, analysis and usually some drama and angst.</p>

<p>Maybe you will remember when your team won the national championship. Maybe Olin students will remember winning the Outreach award in the NASA competition or helping a high school FIRST team build their first robot, or pigging out on an Alex Davis Special or stopping the flood in the academic center. If you think Olin is all work and no fun. Or full of super responsible little adults you haven’t visited on a week-end or after 1am. We are generally nerdy and our idea of fun is different than others but we still have it ;-)</p>

<p>Why I choose Olin
My parents didn’t save up for my college; they told me community college or a full-ride, you choose. So I worked hard in school and got 2 full rides. Actually the other school would have paid for everything and given me a stipend but I choose Olin for the culture and the chance. As I mentioned I was an Olin partner. That meant I got to work alongside experienced faculty and yet they listened when my task group recommended chemistry not be required for all engineering majors.</p>

<p>I thought I wanted to do engineering since I hated English and history but loved math and science. I liked Olin. When I went for candidate’s weekend I was enchanted. I thought the people I met there were the most interesting I had ever met. The chance to help design a school sounded cool (I had no idea what it would really be like). Projects are fun so I thought project-based learning sounded great too. I may have had slightly shallow reasons for choosing Olin, but the reasons mentioned early in the bullet points are some of the reasons I recommend it today.</p>

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<p>Well said, Joy!</p>

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<p>Thanks :)</p>

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<p>By the way, Joy, you wouldn't have happened to have helped build the k'nex calculator, would you? Man, that thing is cool, but it would be so much cooler if it still worked...</p>

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<p>Unfortunately no. I think that was done by students 1 or 2 classes behind me.</p>

<p>My most interesting projects involved a pink canon and one with a compressed-gas powered car with saw blades for wheels and a cool game we called FPGA pong.</p>

<p>O, and there was our java program we called "Whack a Prof" where you got a point for every Prof's head you hit with the mallet and lost a point for hitting a student. We even got our profs to records taunting for when you missed and crying when you succeeded.</p>

<p>Projects at Olin are often quite memorable....</p>