<p>GO TO OLIN!!! I will be attending Olin in the Fall. I do not know much about Harvey Mudd, but Olin is a top top school which has such a self-selectivity of applicants. When I visited there the first time for something called Candidate’s Weekend (if you apply, you will find out about this), I noted that unlike when I visited other top schools such as Yale, Princeton, Columbia, Penn, etc., the students there seemed to be extremely, extremely intelligent. I could sense that these were the smartest people I had ever met. Also, it was extremely apparent that the kids at Olin were all very focused, motivated, and ambitious. All seemed to “dream big”.</p>
<p>Olin is stealing students from MIT, Stanford, CMU, Harvard, Princeton, and other top schools. Every applicant I met at Olin had applied to MIT, Carnegie Mellon, Stanford, Caltech, Cornell, and other extremely selective schools. Their first-choice schools seemed to be either MIT, Olin, or Stanford. Also, I have talked to 2 professors at my local state University who had both conducted research recently at MIT. They said that people they knew at MIT were all watching Olin very closely and were extremely excited about the school and also a little wary because Olin was taking many of their applicants who had been offered admission. </p>
<p>Olin’s name seems to be up and coming in both academia and the workforce. Last year they had 6 students go to work at Google and 4 to Microsoft among other top companies. Also, they had many kids go to Stanford, MIT, Cornell and other top schools for science, math and engineering, but also schools such as Yale Law or Harvard Business school. There didn’t seem to be any non Tier 1 schools that the students were planning on attending.</p>
<p>Olin is revolutionizing the way America teaches Engineering with a “do then learn” approach and focuses on producing Engineers who are NOT the stereotypical backroom Engineer, but rather Engineers who will interact and communicate with clients and the community and who will become future leaders of innovation in the scientific/technological fields and will work to benefit society. Also, they have a very entrepreneurial spirit and work to help and encourage their students and graduates to start a company and to patent their ideas. Many Olin students join or found a tech startup during or immediately after graduating. And I think something like 10% of my entering class has founded a technological company in high school. One girl is even ranked 30-something for reciting digits of pi!</p>
<p>Expanding on the entrepreneurial side of Olin (something that really attracted me to Olin), Olin has a partnership with Babson College (and also with Wellesley and Brandeis), the top business college in the US for entrepreneurship, in which you cross-register with them and are allowed to take any of their classes and use many of their resources. Many Olin and Babson students freqently work together for classes and entrepreneurial ventures.</p>
<p>There are many other great things about Olin, but my post is already huge. If you would like to know more or have any questions, PM me!</p>