Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering

The Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering (often called simply Olin College) is a private undergraduate engineering college located in Needham, Massachusetts (near Boston), adjacent to the Babson College campus. Olin College is noted in the engineering community for its youth, small size, project-based curriculum, and large endowment funded primarily by the F. W. Olin Foundation. The College currently awards the full-tuition Olin Scholarship to each admitted student. Unlike many institutions, Olin College does not have separate academic departments. Consequently, no separate budgets exist for different majors or subject areas. All faculty members hold five-year renewable contracts with no opportunity for tenure. The college was accredited by the regional accreditation board NEASC on December 6, 2006. Olin's degree programs in Electrical/Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Engineering received accreditation from the Engineering Accreditation Commission of Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) on August 31, 2007.

History

Olin College was founded by the F. W. Olin Foundation in 1997. The foundation donated most of its remaining financial resources to the college, providing Olin with an endowment worth approximately 460 million dollars. Richard Miller was ceremonially inaugurated as the college's first president on May 3, 2003.

In a program known as "Invention 2000", Olin College hired its first faculty and invited 30 students, known as "Olin Partners," to help them form the first curriculum. The Olin Partners lived in temporary housing and spent their first year after high school investigating assessment and grading methods, jump-starting the student culture, and experimenting with forms of engineering education.

Olin admitted its first full class of 75 students in 2002. This class included the Olin Partners, a group of deferred students known as the Virtual Olin Partners, and recent high school graduates. After admitting three more classes, the college reached its full size of approximately 300 in fall 2005.

The Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering (often called simply Olin College) is a private undergraduate engineering college located in Needham, Massachusetts (near Boston), adjacent to the Babson College campus. Olin College is noted in the engineering community for its youth, small size, project-based curriculum, and large endowment funded primarily by the F. W. Olin Foundation. The College currently awards the full-tuition Olin Scholarship to each admitted student. Unlike many institutions, Olin College does not have separate academic departments. Consequently, no separate budgets exist for different majors or subject areas. All faculty members hold five-year renewable contracts with no opportunity for tenure. The college was accredited by the regional accreditation board NEASC on December 6, 2006. Olin's degree programs in Electrical/Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Engineering received accreditation from the Engineering Accreditation Commission of Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) on August 31, 2007.