Contents |
Basic Information
- Location: Needham, Massachusetts 02492
- Number of Students/Ratio: 304 total; 43% women to 57% men
- Focus for SET: Schools with similar academic rigor and focus; schools of a similar size
- Year founded: 2002
- Academic Calendar:
- Campus Type (urban, suburban, or rural): suburban
- Linked to College Town (Y/N): Y? Certainly committed to linking, but Olin's only six years old.
- Endowment: >$460 million from the F. Olin Foundation
- Tuition plus room/board: Tuition is free, room/board is ~$12,000
- Percent in Greek System: 0
- Admittance rate: 10.8%
- Acceptance rate: 17.2%
- Graduation rate (4 year, 5 year, 6 year): 89.5%, NA, NA
Housing Information
- Options for Housing: Olin College only officially opened in fall of 2002, and the campus is still being built. Currently, Olin has two residence halls-- East and West Hall.
Olin's residence halls are luxurious.
West Hall has only doubles. Each double has a private bath, connections for power and cable TV, as well as voice, data and fiber-optic outlets. Each floor has a common living room with a working fireplace.
The newer East Hall, meant mostly for juniors and seniors, has doubles like those in West Hall and six-person suites. Each suite has a living room, two bathrooms, and a microfridge. East Hall has two music practice rooms, an exercise room, a kitchenette, and space for bicycle storage in addition to the usual lounge areas and study rooms.
However, Olin's residence halls are expensive-- the cost of one academic year's housing is expected to be more than $8,000. In comparison, the cost of room for one academic year at Caltech is about $6,000. Property costs in Pasadena and Needham are comparable.
For board, Olin has a main dining hall in the Campus Center. Board at Olin costs about $4,300 per year, similar to board costs at Caltech.
- Number of Students in Each: 160 in East Hall, 144 in West Hall
- Themed Housing, e.g. Ethnic Houses (Y/N): N
- School-owned Off-campus Housing (Y/N): N
- Housing Allocation Methods: All students are required to live on campus for all four years, but only 99% do. (This puts 3 students off campus.) Unsure of allocation specifics.
Quality of Academics
Olin has a curriculum similar to Caltech's, with a hefty core focused on engineering rather than science. For example, all students take calculus, vector calculus, linear algebra, and probability and statistics. Also like Caltech, Olin allows students the freedom to design their own self-study courses for credit, research for academic credit, and study abroad.
Olin forces students to "do" as well as "learn." Students are required to complete a "capstone" engineering project in teams of four to eight other students. This project, called SCOPE, is typically for a "real-world client." Students also design a one-semester SCOPE-like project in arts/humanities or entrepreneurship. Resources and recognition on the transcript are awarded for "Passionate Pursuits"--not-for-graduation-credit activities of the student's choosing.
These all fall under Olin's guiding academic principle, the "Olin Triangle": engineering/science, entrepreneurship, and arts/humanities. Olin's curriculum integrates these concepts when possible, e.g. SCOPE, Passionate Pursuits, Integrated Course Blocks.
- Does a quick check show existence of any structure to promote high-quality teaching (Y/N): N (?)
- If so, briefly describe:
Administrative Structure
- Student administrative structure
CORe (Council of Olin Representatives) is the BoD equivalent: http://core.olin.edu/about/officers/ Three Vice Presidents that serve as liasons to other nearby universities and one Vice President in charge of communications within Olin. The IHC equivalent (reps from each hall) is integrated into the BoD equivalent, so CORe is the only student government. Unlike Caltech's ASCIT, all Olin students are constituents of CORe; none can "opt out."
The Honor Board Chair, similar to our BoC/CRC, is part of the Olin CoRE. Representatives are listed here:
Olin students can be on student/faculty committees, like at Caltech. A list of committees and representatives are listed here: http://core.olin.edu/apps/committees/viewcmtes.php There are 33 committees with anywhere from 2-11 students on each. Many of the committees appear to help organize and plan student activities, analogous to a fragmented and expanded Social ExComm; others look like fragmented ARC committees that review the curriculum, advisory procedures, etc.
Finally, a Caltech Y equivalent is the SERV (Support, Encourage, and Recognize Volunteerism): http://volunteer.olin.edu/
- Campus-wide administrative structure:
Board of Trustees: http://www.olin.edu/about_olin/board_trustees.asp
President's Cabinet: http://www.olin.edu/faculty_staff/leadership_team.asp
President's Council: http://www.olin.edu/about_olin/presidents_council.asp
My impression is that the Cabinet does the grunge work, the Council is the President's "kitchen cabinet", and the Board of Trustees has the usual function.
Student/Campus Center
- Decision-making process for allocating rooms:
- Area (in ft^2): very small
- Student Groups Provided Space:
Persons of Interest
Students
- Head of Student Government: Michael Ducker, Incoming CoRE President
- Any people we know: Nope.
Administrators
- President: Richard K. Miller, Ph.D.
- Dean: Rod Crafts, Ed.D.
- Head of Student Affairs: Rod Crafts, Ed.D.
- Head of Academic Accountability (Vice-Provost of Education here): Michael E. Moody, Ph.D.
- Head of Housing: They don't seem to have one?
Follow-Up Information For Later
- Popular majors: Electrical and Computer Engineering; Mechanical Engineering; and Engineering, with concentrations in bioengineering, materials, computing, and systems. These are the only majors available.
- Happiness Rating (-3 to 3):
- "I would recommend my school to a close friend with similar interests" ratings (strongly agree, agree, no opinion, disagree, strongly disagree):
- If Y to "school-owned off-campus housing?",