<p>Could any current Olin students share their reasoning....
why Olin over other colleges, specifically Caltech,
Stanford or Princeton...</p>
<p>It all depends what your goals are. For engineering, there are several recent articles in various publications that may answer why Olin is "the best?" Olin</a> College : About Olin : Media Coverage</p>
<p>arwen15 - I posted most of this reply on another thread, so if you have already seen it I apologize. If you ask most students at Olin why they chose Olin over schools like Caltech, Stanford, and Princeton (which a large majority were also accepted too) they have many reasons. The free tuition is just a bonus. Students at Olin chose their school because they were excited to attend an institution that was shaking up the way engineering is taught in the U.S. They liked the fact that classes are taught using an interdisciplinary approach. In other words, the Calculus, Physics and Engineering principles are all taught during the same class, so the students can see how they are related. They were excited about doing hands-on projects and research from their first day as freshmen at the school. They liked the idea that they would know their professors personally, and that they would never have a TA teaching their class. They appreciated the cooperative atmosphere at Olin where students work in teams and help each other. The students are awesome at Olin because they have so many other interests besides engineering, and the professors are equally awesome.</p>
<p>Olin ranked very high in several important categories on the Princeton Review website:</p>
<h1>6 Dorms Are Like Palaces</h1>
<h1>7 Best Campus Food</h1>
<h1>12 Great Career/Job Placement Services</h1>
<h1>15 Professors Make Themselves Accessible</h1>
<h1>10 Best Quality of Life</h1>
<p>Olin is different in so many ways from the typical engineering school. The school encourages entrepeneurship, and has recently opened a building called the Foundry that helps students get their start up companies off the ground. It also encourages what they call Passionate Pursuits, where they will help pay (a small amount) for a student to learn something they are passionate about outside of engineering. For instance, I know of two students who studied the flying trapeze in Boston through the Passionate Pursuits program. Olin also encourages students to take a semester to study away. They have programs in Germany, South Korea, Thailand, Chile, Scotland, Sweden, Australia, France, Hungary or you can design your own program with the approval of the administration. One thing you will hear repeatedly from Olin Students is how incredible their fellow students are, not just in an academic way, but also just great people who are interesting to be around. Olin is a very small community. It is very tight-knit and everyone knows everyone else. The campus might be too small and personal for some students, but for those who like this type of environment it is very stimulating.</p>
<p>Thank you conundrum :)</p>
<p>Listening to students rave (and maybe rant) helps me get
a point of view other than a brand image being pushed by
some wiz media handling person....</p>
<p>anyone else ...?</p>
<p>Maybe more Oliners will post here, and give you more of a picture. </p>
<p>But you really need to visit. You'll love it, or hate it, and you'll find that out pretty quickly on a campus visit and talking with a few students. When my daughter went for Candidates Weekend, she was amazed. And there were only 75 students total at that time.</p>
<p>Per 10/08 tour guide, Olin has dropped the teaching of basic Chemistry, Physics and Chemistry because all the applicants had nailed the AP version in High School. Don't apply if you are not ready to rumble. </p>
<p>There are no UROP projects/jobs, of the MIT sort, but you'll have your choice of summer internships.</p>
<p>Business/entrepreneur/engineering courses will be 20% of course load, which is separate from the very large percent of straight engineering classes. Although the engineering classes are interdisciplinary and project based, don't think that you will dodge the hours and hours and hours of straight math classwork and homework. The liberal arts requirements can be completed at Olin or any of the surrounding colleges. </p>
<p>Labs are open 24/7, so long as you have a partner with you. Its a small school and Honor Code is fierce. </p>
<p>Admissions is insanely competitive. Lots of students from Texas and California; one each from other states. Only three to five seats for folks from Massachusetts. </p>
<p>The Freshman class marched past us, leaving the required "natural engineering" class. We noticed that there was not a disproportionate percent of Asians. The demographic seemed more line in line with overall American demographics.</p>
<p>Toadstool,</p>
<p>Are you applying to Olin?</p>
<p>Honor code may be fierce, admissions competitive, but once admitted, everyone is supportive, there's not competition between students.</p>
<p>My son's in the class of 2011 and absolutely loves everything about Olin. He looked at Stanford, Caltech, and Harvey Mudd but the only one of those 3 he applied to was Harvey Mudd. He thought Olin shared some similarities to Harvey Mudd. What really makes the experience for him are the students and faculty. I really don't know where you could find a more awesome group of college students! As my son says, they're all geeks, but "socially adept geeks" and that's so true. Very supportive community with so much creativity and talent. The Honor Code is also a big plus and taken seriously. This semester he's taking a Chinese class at Wellesley, 2 upper level physics classes, and a required "Fundamentals of Business and Entrepreneurship" class. My daughter's a high school senior who's looking at colleges and she's said that her brother's super Olin experience has spoiled her! Alas, she's not interested in pursuing engineering...</p>