Admission Process

At Olin we want to learn as much about you as possible—and give you the opportunity to learn all about us that's why our unique admission process includes two stages:

  1. The Application

  2. Candidates’ Weekends


The Application

Students applying to Olin will submit the Common Application, including Olin-specific member questions and application fee, online through the Common Application website. Our application deadline has been extended to January 6, 2024. The application must be submitted by 11:59 PM in the applicant's local time zone on that date. 

All applications are reviewed in January. We have a holistic review process that carefully evaluates each applicant’s academic and personal qualities. In late January, applicants will be notified regarding if they are advancing to the second phase of the admission process, Candidates’ Weekends.

See below for details on our Application Requirements


Candidates' Weekends 2024

Candidates’ Weekends (CW) will be held on:

  • CW1: Friday, February 16 - Saturday, February 17
  • CW2: Friday, February 23 - Saturday, February 24
  • CW3: Friday, March 1 - Saturday, March 2

Applicants will be notified of their Candidate status in late January. Participation in CW is required to continue to be considered for admission to Olin.

Candidates arrive on Friday, spend some time learning about the academic program, have dinner with Olin student hosts and hang out with Oliners in the evening. Saturday morning is reserved for the Design Challenge – an entirely student designed and executed “activity” (it’s hard to find the right word to describe the uniquely Olin fun and chaos that is the Design Challenge). All the evaluative pieces of the weekend take place on Saturday afternoon, including an individual interview and a group exercise.

Coming to campus for a fairly short time – two days – is difficult for anyone living outside the continental United States. Some students may need visas to travel, and for others the flight and associated jet lag will negatively impact their ability to participate fully in CW. Therefore, students living outside the United States will have a virtual interview. More information about this and additional programming will be available soon!

During Candidates' Weekends, you’ll meet and hear from faculty, interact with current students, experience aspects of student life, and celebrate with the community as Olin comes together for these special events. There will be both evaluative components of the program, such as an interview, as well as plenty of opportunities for Candidates to engage with our community and learn more about Olin. After the program, the Admission Committee meets again and makes the final admission decisions. Candidates are notified of their decision by late March. 

Candidates’ Weekends are about learning more about the Candidates in the context of Olin’s unique, highly collaborative setting so that we can craft an intentional cohort of incoming students that will be cohesive but diverse. Candidates will be evaluated by members of the Olin community, and that information will be used by the Admission Committee to make final admission decisions.

If you have any questions about Candidates' Weekend and how it is used in our admission process, please contact us.

The Community Health Response Team (CHRT) at Olin has an ongoing role to monitor and share guidance about community health. You may always visit the Community Health page on our website to see Olin’s most recent plans and recommendations. 

Olin will continue to strongly recommend that employees and students remain up to date with COVID vaccination. “Up to date” means you have had all doses and boosters of vaccine that you are currently eligible for.   

Olin currently has no restrictions on visitors, other than visitors may not come to campus if they are experiencing symptoms of illness or have been diagnosed with a communicable illness. Olin strongly encourages visitors be masked throughout their visit unless actively eating or drinking. Our campus is “mask friendly” for our community members (i.e. current faculty, staff and students) – meaning that anyone who wishes to be masked is free to do so. We expect that all Oliners will respect one another’s desire to mask or not. 

The CHRT monitors the public health situation, and we will follow CDC guidance and update our COVID-19 health policies when necessary.

Once you submit your application, you will receive an email the following day with instructions on how to access your Olin Applicant Status Page. On your Applicant Status Page there will be a form called "Candidates' Weekend Availability Form" that you can submit to indicate if you have any conflicts which would make attending any of the CW weekends impossible. While we do our best to accommodate requests while assigning weekends, we cannot guarantee that each request will be fulfilled. You are assigned a weekend when you are notified that you've become a Candidate.

Everyone has busy lives and competing priorities. We feel very strongly that an in-person CW not only gives us the information to identify students who will benefit from and contribute to the Olin community, but also gives you - the Candidate - important insight into Olin culture, values, and mission. This is why CW is a required part of our process. If you have an unavoidable and unanticipated conflict you may request a change in CW dates, and we will do our best to switch your assigned weekend if space is available; however we can’t guarantee that will be possible.

Students living outside the United States will have a virtual interview. More information about that process will be provided to those Candidates.

We will do everything we can to make it possible for Candidates to come to CW. Each Candidate coming to CW receives a travel stipend to help defray their expenses. Candidates will receive additional information about the travel stipends when they receive their CW invitation.

CW programming is focused primarily on the Candidates. Parents and families may attend CW and participate in programming on the Friday afternoons. There will be no parent/guardian focused programming on Saturdays. Further details about the CW program will be included when students are invited to participate in Candidates' Weekends.

COVID still exists! And CDC guidelines (at this writing) recommend that if you test positive for COVID, you should isolate at home for five days. This means that you can’t travel to campus for CW, so we will either assign you to another weekend, if possible, or offer you a virtual interview. While we will do our best to reassign you to another weekend, we cannot guarantee that it will be possible. 

CDC guidelines  (again, at this writing) recommend that if you are exposed to COVID but still test negative, you no longer need to isolate at home for five days. You may still travel and attend CW, but you will need to abide by our masking requirements while on campus. If you test negative for COVID, we want you to come to campus!

We get it. We are all emerging from two years of curtailed interaction with one another. COVID has not gone away, but we are all gradually learning how to live safely with it. We understand that some people have household members with complicating heath issues which also impact the ability to travel. We know that viewpoints and levels of concern vary as well. We are committed to hosting in-person events that are safe for all participants – Candidates as well as all members of the Olin community. Olin currently requires all community members (staff, faculty, and students) to be fully vaccinated (having all doses and boosters of vaccine that they are currently eligible for) against COVID-19 (unless they have a medical or religious reason not to be vaccinated). We strongly encourage visitors to wears masks while on campus and expect all members of the community to respect the choice of any individual to wear a mask. You may read more about how we monitor situations that may impact the health of the Olin community on our website.

If you have any questions about the application or admission process, please contact us at apply@olin.edu.

Application Requirements

Students applying to Olin will submit the Common Application, including Olin-specific questions and application fee, online through the Common Application website. Our application deadline for the 2023-2024 application cycle has been extended to January 6, 2024The application must be submitted by 11:59 PM in the applicant's local time zone on that date. 

All applications are reviewed in January. We have a holistic review process that carefully evaluates each applicant’s academic and personal qualities. In late January, applicants will be notified regarding if they are advancing to the second phase of the admission process, Candidates’ Weekends.

A complete application includes each of the following required materials. (Please note the application must be submitted by January 6, 2024).

Required Materials

Must be submitted online by January 4, 2024 through the Common Application website

$85; fee waiver request can be submitted via the Common Application

Complete with high school transcript (translated to English if in another language) and School Profile - both sent by school. We are unable to accept transcripts sent directly by applicants.

Complete with letter of recommendation from your school counselor 

We require two Letters of Recommendation. One Letter of Recommendation must be from a STEM teacher. This person must have taught you in a high school class such as Calculus, Physics, Computer Science, or another STEM elective. The other Letter of Recommendation may be from a teacher of your choice. This person must be someone who has taught you in a high school class.

A first quarter or term report card or a first semester progress report must be submitted with your application. We cannot accept self-reported grades; all grade reports and transcripts must be submitted directly from your school. Your high school counselor may upload a grade report to your application as an Optional Report or Mid Year Report, or may email your grades to us at apply@olin.edu

We are extending the temporary suspension of our standardized test requirement through the 2025-26 application cycle (for Fall 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026 enrollment). 

Any applicant may submit SAT or ACT test scores; these scores will be an optional component of the application. Students who do not submit scores will not be penalized nor will they be at a disadvantage in Olin’s application process. All applications will continue to be evaluated through Olin’s holistic review process which includes academic performance and optional testing, if submitted, as well as the applicant’s talents, experiences, character and potential contributions to the college and community. Olin’s highly personalized application reading process takes into account the context and environment of the applicant’s academic experience. Be sure to check out our FAQs for further questions about testing requirements for the current admission cycle.

For students attending high school within the U.S. that would like to submit test scores: Self-reported or official SAT or ACT scores may be used for application review. You may self-report your test scores on the Common Application, or upload a copy of your score report to your Olin Applicant Status Page (which will become accessible after you submit an application to Olin). Test scores sent directly from the testing agency (College Board or ACT), or that appear on an official high school transcript or are submitted directly by a high school counselor to Olin are considered official. Students who are admitted to and choose to enroll at Olin will be required to submit official test scores at that time, if they were not submitted with the application. Please note: if an application is reviewed with self-reported testing and the official testing submitted upon enrollment does not validate those scores, Olin College reserves the right to rescind the student’s offer of admission.

For students attending high school outside the U.S. that would like to submit test scores: Official SAT or ACT scores must be submitted with the application to Olin. Test scores sent directly from the testing agency (College Board or ACT) or that appear on an official high school transcript are considered official. All testing results must be received by our January application deadline.

Our school codes are:

SAT: 2824

ACT: 1883

*All required forms can be accessed through your Common Application account.

English Language Proficiency Exam Policy

For applicants whose primary language is not English, we highly recommend providing the results of an English proficiency exam, unless a student has been enrolled in an English instruction school for at least four years. Olin will accept TOEFL (internet-based), IELTS, Duolingo and PTE. The following chart provides recommended minimum scores to ensure English proficiency necessary for success in the Olin classroom. Test scores may be sent directly to Olin from the testing agency or self-reported on the application or applicant status page. Scores must be verified upon enrollment.

Test Recommended Minimum Score
TOEFL (Internet-based) 100+
IELTS 7+
Duolingo 120+
PTE 65+

 


Optional Materials

In addition to the required materials above, any of the following materials may be included in your application:

  • AP and IB Exam Scores – While we are very interested in students who have taken advanced coursework, we do not offer any credit for AP or IB tests. You may report your scores in your application or send us a score report.

  • SAT Subject Tests – You may report your scores in your application or send us a score report.

  • Interview Report – If you interviewed with a representative from Olin, an interview report will be included in your application.

Our mailing address is:

Olin College of Engineering

Office of Admission & Financial Aid

1000 Olin Way

Needham, MA 02492

Fax number: 781-292-2210


 

Application Timeline

   

August 1, 2023

Common Application is available online for students applying for college entry in 2024

Extended to January 6, 2024

Deadline for submitting the Common Application along with the Olin supplemental questions and application fee

The application and Olin-specific questions must be submitted by 11:59 PM in the applicant's local time zone.

Late January 2024

Applicants notified if they have achieved "Candidate" status

February 2024

Deadline to apply for need-based financial aid by submitting the FAFSA form

Learn more about Olin's scholarship and need-based aid programs

February 16-17, 2024

February 23-24, 2024

March 1-2, 2024

Candidates’ Weekends

Late March 2024

Admission and Financial Aid notifications mailed and posted online

May 1, 2024

National reply deadline for admitted students to select their school of choice

If you have any questions about our admission process, please don't hesitate to contact us at apply@olin.edu.