<p>Olin is “free” after you pay $18,123 for room, board etc. [Olin</a> College : Admission : Costs and Scholarship Information](<a href=“http://www.olin.edu/admission/costs.asp]Olin”>http://www.olin.edu/admission/costs.asp). And they are actually discussing the possibility of charging about $10,000 tuition fee next year (in essence reducing the scholarship by $10K) although to the best of my knowledge the decision has not been made.</p>
<p>Other than that Olin has a very narrow focus specializing in electrical/mechanical/general engineering. Olin does not offer computer/bio or any other kind of engineering, it’s purely project oriented and has no research to speak of, Olin is still virtually unknown in academic and professional circles.</p>
<p>Assuming that the cost of attending HMC is not significantly different from the cost of attending Olin I would definitely recommend HMC which has everything Olin has to offer plus much much more - it’s bigger, better known, provides better research opportunities and a significant number of engineering and science majors and disciplines not available at Olin.</p>