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Fully Endowed FW Olin College of Engineering Opens

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the philanthropy-is-good dept.

olin01 writes "USA Today has a story on the Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering, which opens this Friday to its freshman class. Olin's goal is to graduate students who are "renaissance engineers," meaning that not only do the have the technical knowledge and skills but also a strong understanding of their context through studies in arts, humanities, social science, and entrepreneurship. This past year, 30 "pre-freshman" worked with faculty, staff, and administration to create the college's curriculum and student live programs. Olin also gives a full tuition scholarship to all admitted students, more information on their website."

7 of 370 comments (clear)

  1. Old idea by El+Cabri · · Score: 2, Informative

    In France schools like Ecole Polytechnique, Ecole Centrale or Ecole des Mines have been doing that for 200 years, with a total output of around 1000 "renaissance engineers" (ingenieur generaliste) per year. In French companies these diplomas usually make you start your career as a supervisor/manager in the industry, in consulting firms or financial services.

  2. University of Iowa by Feynman · · Score: 2, Informative

    My two cents:

    I graduated from The University of Iowa College of Engineering during Dean Miller's last year. (As the article mentions, Miller is now president of Olin College.)

    This concept is very appealing to me. The UI COE prides itself in a student body comprised of those who are "engineers and more." This is one of the reasons I choose to attend Iowa over That Other School. Admittedly, Iowa's curriculum is not much different from the basic curriculum of any other ABET-accredited school. (BTW, we were required to take Rhetoric, like all UI grads, and a number of courses in the humanities and social sciences. In fact, to fulfil, say, the humanities requirement, you had to take a lower-level and upper-level course in the same field.) Yet, the exposure to, and opportunity in, many diverse areas was invaluable. As a hiring manager, I would be very reluctant to hire an engineer that wasn't "well-rounded," with excellent written and verbal communication skills, and a broader perspective on his work.

  3. Quick lowdown on the 2 Olin foundations by Spamlent+Green · · Score: 2, Informative

    FYI, there are 2 Olin Foundations out there which some slashdotters may be familar with -- The FW Olin Foundation, which appears primarily concerned with furthering higher education in science, engineering, and business, and the more conservative John M Olin Foundation, which seems to specialize in throwing money at various right wing pundits.

    FW Olin Foundation blurb: (scroll down to #8)
    http://www.capitalresearch.org/publications/a ltern atives/1998/june.htm

    John M Olin Foundation:
    http://www.mediatransparency.org/fund ers/john_m_ol in_foundation.htm

  4. Olin College Came to my high school by Raul654 · · Score: 3, Informative

    I was a high school senior a couple years ago when they came recruiting 25 graduating kids to help design their curriculum. IIRC, the first 5 years they plan to be free, and offer buisness classes through a partner university up there. (Sorry, I forget which one). They were going to put the 25 kids up in a hotel for the first few weeks, and then in an abandoned church. I decided not to apply when I found out they would give exactly no credit for APs and courses I had already taken. Wonder what become of those people.

    --


    To make laws that man cannot, and will not obey, serves to bring all law into contempt.
    --E.C. Stanton
    1. Re:Olin College Came to my high school by olin01 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Heh. I'm one of those people.

      What actually happened:
      30 students were at Olin this year. In a hotel for a bit, then in modular housing (nice modular housing, but I won't miss it). Well, except for the month we went to France to find out what we did and did not like about international experiences, when we stayed in ENSAM's dorms and worked with Georgia Tech Lorraine.

      We worked with the faculty, staff, and administration to design the curriculum (which consisted of a lot of meetings and testing various pedagogies out) as well as student life programs (honor code, student government, clubs, etc). We worked in six four to five week modules. The first, third, fourth, and sixth modules were curriculum development, the second was community service development, and the fifth was the international experience. We also had some side projects, such as competing against upperclassmen & grad students in the NASA MarsPort competition and earning an outstanding in the ICM. Great group of people to work & live with, we got a lot done.

      At the end of the week we become freshmen.

  5. Re:Can't teach them to drink. by orincorr · · Score: 2, Informative

    Speaking as an Olin student, I have to correct some of your points. #1: We have a student-faculty ratio of about 3:1 right now, which is one of the best anywhere (these are faculty that actually teach, as opposed to only doing research.) #2: We don't offer chemical engineering as a major; if we did, we'd have more faculty devoted to it. In Mech. E, which we do offer as a major, we have 3 full-time professors. For ECE, the figure is even higher. #3: Olin won't require its students to take a separate chemistry class, since most engineers don't end up using it anyway. It'll be combined with Materials Science, which is useful.

  6. it's not really by Trepidity · · Score: 3, Informative
    You'll notice a few similarities:
    • Olin College is funded by the same people who funded Harvey Mudd's Olin building (home of the C.S. and Math departments).
    • Olin College's Dean of Faculty is Michael Moody, until last year the head of the HMC Math department.
    • The mission statement is an almost verbatim copy
    --
    10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10