Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering

Olin College is a selective, private educational institution created by the Franklin W. Olin Foundation. It is a response to a desire for new methods within the United States engineering educational establishment. As a result, it serves an important role as a pedagogical experiment. The vast financial resources of the Olin Foundation allow it to grant full-tuition scholarships and, in the early years, full room scholarships to all students. It admitted its first incoming class of 75 students in 2002, and its second class of 75 in 2003 and expects to grow to an approximate size of 300 students.

Construction of the first phase of the campus has been completed, and construction on the second dorm has begun. Richard Miller was inaugurated as the college's first president on May 3, 2003.

Olin is located in Needham, Massachusetts (in the Boston area), adjacent to the campus of Babson College.

The Olin Experiment

Olin is very different from traditional educational institutions. Not all of these differences were pioneered there, but it is the first one to combine them. They include:

• Project-based learning. Starting with freshman year, the curriculum is built around actual design and construction projects. The "capstone" project occupies about half of senior year.
• Group learning activities. Lectures are routinely interrupted to allow the students to break up into groups and solve problems independently on separate whiteboards.
• Small class sizes and first-name relations with faculty and staff.
• A strong focus on areas of study outside the exact sciences.
• "Multidisciplinary course blocks" emphasizing the connections between different areas of study.
• Cross-registration with nearby institutions, presently including Babson College, Wellesley College (for both men and women), and Brandeis University.
• The development in its students of "relentless pursuit of opportunity beyond the resources they currently control" (Howard Stevenson)
• Equal enrollment of men and women
• Five-year contracts for faculty members, with no opportunity for tenure.
• An honor code

External link

Olin College website