Olin College
What a great morning at Olin College of Engineering in Needham, MA with my friend and colleague, Kim Page! Where do I start? Olin is a college of fewer than 400 students where teamwork, project-based learning and practical skills are emphasized. The quantity and quality of maker spaces on campus were extremely impressive. Furthermore, there are no classes in calculus or linear algebra at Olin. Math and science are actually woven into the course content in the first 3 semesters so that students learn while applying the knowledge they are learning. Olin also has a unique admissions process whereby students apply regular decision and hope to be invited for Candidates Weekend when they are interviewed and observed doing design challenges. Our tour guide told us that the emphasis is always on learning in his classes. They can have a project which fails but they can still get an A because they learned why it failed. He also told us that all but 2 of the professors on campus prefer to be addressed by their first name, which tells you a lot about the relationships students have with faculty. Lastly, Olin guarantees all students a 50% tuition scholarship. Lots to love here. It's a unique and wonderful engineering education!