Franklin W Olin College of Engineering Top Questions

What is your overall opinion of this school?

Harper

It's a small high pressure school. You will work harder than you ever expected but will have fun doing it. Olin is full of high achieving people doing amazing things. There are only 350 of us and you are forced to live on campus for four years and because of this you quickly learn how to not be a dick. Olin is not for standard academics, which is to say, people who create, build, innovate, and push boundaries are what make Olin "Olin". It's not that you wont succeed as the standard pset desk jockey, you'll just not add much to the school, and if you're not going to add much, don't come. Allow someone else who's creativity and drive would be squashed at a large school to take your place. When you leave Olin you will have a skill set that not many students in the nation have. On the whole, you will not be as good of a "formal engineer" as MIT, Caltech, or Stanford students. However you can beat the pants off them when it comes to working in small high pressure engineering teams or solving ambiguous tough problems. This makes you *very* valuable to companies. Instead of being some sad CAD/code/lab monkey in some large bureaucracy you have the skills to move into the business world and kick butt and take names all the while acting as a creative and effective engineer.

Gray

One think I'd change about Olin? I'd focus the faculty search a little more on those professors that teach better than they research. After all, this is an undergraduate school. On the other hand, as a future grad student, I am enjoying nothing more than my research with Dave Barrett. About the town of Needham, I think I'd add at least one place to buy coffee late at night! The town closes at 8 :(