About

Olin embraces radical forward thinking

As an ever-evolving, dynamic college, we embrace a model of teaching and learning engineering that is forward-thinking, project-based, and centered on collaboration between faculty, and between faculty and students.

We leave behind traditional structures like departments and tenured faculty with the goal of creating innovative, integrated learning experiences.

Olin’s mission

Olin College prepares students to become exemplary engineering innovators who recognize needs, design solutions, and engage in creative enterprises for the good of the world. Olin is dedicated to continual discovery and development of effective learning approaches and environments, and to co-developing educational transformation with collaborators around the globe.

Olin faculty

Our faculty drive Olin’s goal of transforming how engineering is taught and learned. They come from diverse backgrounds, and bring unique knowledge and experience to Olin’s provocative educational experiment, and to the lives of our students.

Unlike faculty in a traditional engineering school, Olin faculty have the freedom to embrace interdisciplinary, innovative approaches to learning that don’t exist anywhere but at Olin.

Learn more about our faculty

Olin is situated on 75 acres in Needham, Massachusetts.

Our partners and collaborators at Babson College, Wellesley College and Brandeis University are easily accessible from our campus, and we’re just minutes from the renowned educational and technological hubs of Boston and Cambridge.

Our seven buildings curve around a welcoming central green space, forming what we call the “The Oval.” This thriving living and learning hub is defined its communal spaces, where students and faculty can engage in hands-on, team-based experimentation. From our design studios, to the robotics labs, to the library, every learning facility is optimized for interaction and exploration.

We are a close-knit community by design: nearly all Olin students live on campus, in one of our two residence halls, both of which offer exceptional amenities:

• Each of the double rooms in West Hall has a private bath, air conditioning and cable.
• East Hall has 19 suites, each containing six single occupancy bedrooms, a small living room, two bathroom areas and a suite-sized micro-fridge. There are also 32 double-occupancy bedrooms.
• Both offer Ethernet connections, fiber-optic capability and wireless access

From the moment you step on campus at Olin, you feel a buzz of energy and activity—and once you experience it, you want to be a part of it.

Olin's History

The Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering received its educational charter from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1997, the same year the Franklin W. Olin Foundation announced its ambitious plans for the college. Planning and architectural design work for a state-of-the-art campus began almost immediately. By the end of 1999, the new institution's leadership team had been hired, and site development work commenced on 70 acres adjacent to Babson College. Leadership developed a set of founding precepts to guide the College’s work. Olin's first faculty members joined the college by September 2000.

The founding faculty came well qualified to their task of inventing the new curriculum, but at a college dedicated to being student-centered, they could not do it alone. The college recruited student 30 student "partners" for a special pre-freshman year (2001-02) during which they worked closely with the faculty to create the curriculum and a framework for the student life programs.

In August 2002, the Olin Partners were joined by equally well-qualified classmates to form Olin's inaugural freshman class of 75 students. Other institutional milestones since the opening of the college include the first Commencement (2006), accreditation (2006-07), the establishment of the Babson-Olin-Wellesley collaboration (2009), the first Reunion (2011) and the 10th anniversary celebration (2012).

Learn more.