Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering

Olin College will open in Fall 2002 as the first new engineering college in the United States in more than 45 years. Its goal is to do nothing less than reinvent engineering education.

The school's mission statement: The founding principle of Olin College of Engineering is to prepare leaders able to predict, create and manage the technologies of the future. The Olin education will be provided at little or no cost to bright, talented, creative, and ambitious students, regardless of their financial circumstances. The faculty, curriculum, and facilities will be unsurpassed and deliberately designed for fast and continuous change to adapt to technology and meet the business needs of the 21st century.

The Olin Foundation, famous for contributing to education building construction, announced their support of the school in 1997. Olin acquired a 70-acre site from Babson College in Needham, Massachusetts. The first 30 students will arrive in Fall 2001, and will be Partners in the school's design process before joining the class of 2006.

One important point about this school that's kind of lost in the mission statement is this: "little or no cost".

Every student accepted to Olin is given a $130,000 scholarship to the school. That covers both tuition and room. The actual cost to the student is about 7,000 dollars a year, most of which goes to covering food, the required laptop and travel expenses.

Olin is also closely tied to the surrounding schools, including Babson College, Brandeis University and Wellesley, allowing Olin students access to a broad range of liberal arts courses, as well as the world class engineering faculty.

The second class (2007) was just admitted, and it looks like about 90% of them are are going to matriculate there. This would give Olin the highest rate in the country by a substantial margin.