The OLINformer

As the application deadline approaches… some topical/timely questions that many of you have been asking…

1. May I submit music/art/other extra stuff for my application?

We are certainly open to supplemental pieces to an application! However, please note that anything sent to us becomes the property of Olin College (i.e. we won’t send it back) and that we cannot guarantee that any supplemental materials (excluding letters of recommendation) will be reviewed. Given the size of our applicant pool, there are simply some things that we cannot get to in our short reading season if we’re to actually read ALL of the applications submitted!

2. May I send additional recommendations? Do you prefer a science or math teacher for the second teacher recommendation?

The simple answer is the first part is… Yes, most definitely! But don’t go crazy - we don’t need letters from every teacher you’ve ever had or the department chairs or headmaster/principal of your school. It’s about the quality of the letter and how well the person knows you, not the title underneath the signature.

If you’d like to submit an additional recommendation, it should still add dimension to your application. And since it’s supplemental, it doesn’t have to be academic. So ask your boss or Scout Master; consider your band director or coach; essentially, any adult mentor in your life would be a great addition to your file. Remember: an extra letter of recommendation is just that - icing on the cake! We do not require it and you won’t be at a disadvantage if you don’t submit an additional recommendation.

With regard to the second part of the questions above, we encourage you to consider asking a non-math/science teacher for the second letter of recommendation. The purpose of the Teacher Recommendations is to give us some perspective on what you’re like as a student. If have both of your letters come from teachers math and science, we often times get a rather one-dimensional view of you. So think about asking your English or history teacher (or some other humanities or social science instructor) - even if you didn’t make your best grades in those classes, those teachers often have great insight to share with us and can help flesh out your application by providing us with a different angle. But if you’d like both of your letters to come from math/science teachers, that is perfectly fine! We promise!

3. How strict are the 500 and 300 word limits on the essays?

We are not militant about the essay length, but we do expect students to abide to those guidelines as closely as possible. The word limits are guidelines; however, please don’t go too crazy over the limits. They exist so that we don’t get bogged down in really long essays and are actually read everything in everyone’s application files. If you go over by a few words, no worries - we can assure you that we do not sit around counting the number of words in each essay and then throw out the ones over 300/500 words!

4. Will you accept my scores from the December SAT and/or ACT?

Absolutely! As we’ve noted on the website, we are accepting scores from the December 1st SAT and the December 8th ACT test dates.

However, be sure that you submit your online application by the December 1st deadline (less than 3 weeks away)!

So those have been some of the hot topics of late. Hope you found these answers helpful. Good luck and we are getting really excited about reading all of your applications!!

~The Olin College Office of Admission

While Olin’s application deadline is December 1, we are aware that many applicants from California may have had their lives disrupted by the recent devastating wildfires - please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have questions or concerns about how this might affect your ability to complete the application by our deadline. We will definitely make every effort to be as flexible as possible with regard to your situation.

Best wishes and we look forward to reading ALL of your applications!
The Olin College Office of Admission

It’s getting on towards November, which means that a) Olin students are passing around a NASTY cold b) mid-semester projects and midterms are coming due and c) it’s 70 degrees outside. The first two make sense, and there may actually be a cause and effect relationship going on there. Letter C is throwing me for a loop. The leaves have turned beautiful shades of red, orange and yellow, and many of them are starting to fall to the ground. The sun is going down earlier and earlier each day and yet…. most of the students I saw yesterday were wearing shorts and flip-flops. This makes Halloween costume-planning difficult because to me, it feels like August, and as everyone knows, Halloween is not an August holiday. Still, I feel the need to come up with SOMETHING because the Faculty and Staff Costume Competition is happening next Wednesday in the Dining Hall. Hopefully inspiration will strike in the next few days.

Since November is rapidly approaching, that means that there is roughly one month left before our application deadline! We have some work to do on our end as well. We have to process all the pieces of paper that come in the mail each day, all those recommendations and transcripts and test score reports that you’ve been sending us. We also have to go through application reader training, form reading teams, and then train those teams. We’re excited to start reading your applications, so make sure to submit your materials as soon as they’re ready!

-Caitlin

Photo Credit: Kelcy Adamec, ‘09

Caitlin Snow

Assistant Director of Admission

781-292-2212

caitlin.snow@olin.edu

So there’s a rumor amongst some students that the Admission Office is a “fishbowl” (the floor-to-ceiling windows that look out onto the “O” may have something to do with that!)… and upon my return from lunch yesterday, I walked into a scene right out of The Little Mermaid…

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This month has been chock full of events in both External Relations and the Admission office at Olin. We have no fewer than THREE major events on campus this month, two of which were last week, and one next week.

On October 11, we had Career Initiatives Day, for which over 30 companies came to campus to recruit our students. Internships and post graduate plans were discussed, resume and career advice was plentiful, and a productive and successful day was had by all.

Here’s a photo of the action!

On October 12-14 we hosted our annual Family Weekend. 112 families came to join in the activities, which included a showing of the film “The Olin Bubble”, a fire art performance by the Olin Fire Arts Club, an Olin Phoenix Soccer Club game, a family Trivia challenge, tons of informative sessions for parents, and plenty of New Englandesque foods and cheer. It was an absolutely wonderful weekend, with striking blue skies and gorgeous foliage, and a good time was undoubtedly had by all.

Here is a photo of the Olin Phoenix Soccer Club in action:

Here’s a photo of the Phoenix huddle:

Next week, on October 28, we have our annual Fall Open House. We have a full house already, and the RSVP system filled up extremely quickly this year. We are looking forward to meeting everyone who has been in touch with us, and if you weren’t able to RSVP, please come and visit us some other time! We want everyone to have a chance to experience Olin in person, because we know that once you get here you will understand just how wonderful this community truly is.

We look forward to hearing from you through info@olin.edu, as well as through the comments section. Keep those applications coming before the December 1 deadline!!

So long for now,

Emily

Emily Tisei Moscol

Assistant Director of Admission

Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering

Emily.Moscol@olin.edu

781-292-2207

Yes, it’s true. I admit it. And if my involvement at our recent National Association for College Admission Counseling (a.k.a. NACAC) Conference in Austin was any indication, I’m a hopeless case! So consider me “Julie, your Cruise Director” for College Search/Admission Resources…

…(if you don’t get the reference, brush up on your 80’s TV shows)…

First of all, I don’t think I ever explained in my blog post last year what NACAC actually does. Silly me! Our mission:

The National Association for College Admission Counseling will support and advance the work of counseling and enrollment professionals as they help all students realize their full educational potential, with particular emphasis on the transition to postsecondary education. NACAC is committed to promoting high professional standards that foster ethical and social responsibility.

Last year, I joked that our national conference is where all of your counselors and college admission folk sit around and talk about YOU, but of course that’s not entirely true…heheh… Actually, one of the things I enjoy most about being at such a small place like Olin is that when I run into one of your counselors and I’m asked about one of our current students, the chances are very good that I not only know who s/he is talking about but that I probably have recently had a conversation (or lunch or played soccer) with that student! I *love* that! But I digress…

Secondly, what made this year’s conference different for me was that I am now a member of a NACAC committee (there are also state and regional associations/committees) and we meet several times a year, one of which is at the national conference. I’ve still got a lot to learn, but just listening to my committee colleagues and taking the opportunity to observe the Assembly - our governing body that initiates, advises and provides consent on association and professional issues - in session was quite educational!

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I am beginning to think that Erico Guizzo has a bit of a crush on Olin College! I kid, I kid… but the IEEE Spectrum Associate Editor has written yet another glowing blog about Olin - this time, in response to the recent New York Times Magazine article.

So take a look. And yes, feel free to mock my shameless marketing of other people’s impressions of Olin.

P.S. Thanks to Ash ‘09 for giving me the heads up on Mr. Guizzo’s newest Tech Talk post!

Feelin’ the love,
Allison

allison.bahme@olin.edu
781-292-2203
IM: OlinAdmission
http://www.olin.edu/

My original post from 9/21/2007:

So thanks to my Google Alert, I stumbled upon this blog post from IEEE Spectrum Online. Yes, of course, Olin is mentioned! But - more importantly - it touches on how some schools have taken note of the high dropout rates in engineering programs across the nation and are making an effort to shift away from the “boot-camp model of engineering education” and toward “experimental courses” that incorporate “new education models.”

Check it out! And have a good weekend.

Allison

• So maybe you read the letter we mailed to you after the PSAT…
• We think there’s a pretty good chance that our “duct tape” prospectus in the very cool (and reusable!) anti-static bag may have caught your attention…
• If you’re reading this, then you’ve likely been keeping an eye the blogs…
• And there’s even a small chance that you haven’t immediately deleted all our spam-y emails…

You may have already noticed that there is a new name for the blog…

Ladies and gentlemen, we would like to formally announce that Allison’s Blog had now officially become The OLINformer (it’s a nice play off of our student blog name, The Olinsider, don’t you think?)

A big CONGRATULATIONS to Andrew from North Carolina for his winning submission! Besides all the glory and fame he’ll receive for naming the blog(?!?), he is also the proud owner of a snazzy Olin t-shirt. Nice work, Andrew!

We’d also like to send a hearty and heart-felt THANK YOU to everyone else who submitted their ideas. It was a tough decision for us, but in the end, we could only pick one (although the idea of a rotating title ever-so-briefly­ crossed our minds!).

Contest or not, it’s students (and parents and…) like you who help shape what appears in our blog so we are also excited to see that you all have been checking it out. Please continue to offer suggestions and comments – we really do want to know what’s on your mind, so don’t be shy!

Enjoy the long weekend!
Allison, Caitlin and Emily

Hi!

If you’ve already read my “about me” page, you know that I am a relatively recent addition to the Olin admission office. I started working here in June, and spent the summer learning as much as I could about this place. I was surprised to learn that we would not be traveling extensively this fall. Normally, admission officers spend weeks at a time on the road, visiting high schools and attending college fairs. This is a great time to get to know prospective students and get a feel for high schools, but it is also very expensive and exhausting. We’re not traveling this fall for a variety of reasons and instead we hope that you can manage a visit to campus. We think that you can’t really get a sense of what Olin is all about until you come here and talk to us and our students.

So, here I am, sitting in my office on Thursday, October 4th. Am I just twiddling my thumbs, you ask? Far from it. We have a number of big community events coming up, including Career Initiatives Day and Family Weekend, that I am helping to organize. Our big Fall Open House is also approaching on October 28th, which is a great opportunity to chat with students, faculty and alumni, and let’s not forget the daily info sessions and tours. I am also the staff contact for our student blog, the Olinsider, which I encourage you to read. We have some new bloggers this year, including a senior, four juniors, and two freshmen. There will also be “guest blogger” opportunities for alumni and current students. These posts will give you a sense of the variety of experiences that students have while they are here, as well as the variety of personalities. So, rather than having a five-minute conversation with one of us admission officers at a college fair, you can check in with our student bloggers throughout the semester and post comments when one of their posts resonates with you. If you can swing it, we’d love to see you on campus this fall, either at our Open House, or at one of the info sessions. My favorite part of my job is talking to prospective students, so come say hi!

-Caitlin

781-292-2212

caitlin.snow@olin.edu