NEWS: Olin is Recognized for its Outstanding Educational Value in Fiske’s 2024 Guide to Best Buy Colleges

July 11, 2023

Fiske’s Guide to Colleges has designated Olin College of Engineering one of the 20 Best Buy Colleges and Universities of 2024.

These are schools that, in the judgment of the editors, offer “outstanding educational value as determined by academic quality in relation to the net cost of attendance.”

Fiske’s notes of Olin, “For those who have what it takes, Olin College offers a top-notch engineering degree at a bargain price."

Fiske’s continues, “Olin students have watched their school grow up and blossom before their eyes, frequently taking part in shaping its innovative approach to engineering education. Students here value interdisciplinary, project-based instruction, and the importance of ‘learning to learn,’ and they graduate inspired to shake up the workforce. As one junior comments, ‘Olin is pretty quirky, and we like to think we’re different—passionate, weird, and doing fun things.’”

The Guide quotes multiple Olin students, including one senior who noted, “I think our healthy disregard for tradition makes life a little more interesting.” 

In addition to the rigorous coursework, Fiske’s notes that 85 percent of students conduct research with faculty members. Each student also completes one of two options—SCOPE (Senior Capstone Program in Engineering) or ADE (Affordable Design and Entrepreneurship)—for a yearlong, team-based senior capstone project, in which they apply their knowledge to solving real-world problems, in partnership with outside organizations or communities.

For 40 years, the Fiske Guide to Colleges has chosen a select group of schools noted for quality academic offerings and affordable cost for its annual Best Buy list. The tradition continues with the Fiske Guide to Colleges Best Buys of 2024, comprising twenty public and private colleges and universities.

Founded in 1997, Olin instills passion and ignites innovation in its students and prepares them to envision, create and deliver products, services, and systems that transform and improve people’s lives around the world. Olin teaches students to be explorers and creators who design their own path forward. By challenging norms and sharing its unique approach to education, Olin is revolutionizing the way engineers, and all undergraduates, learn and create knowledge. Located in Needham Massachusetts, Olin is ranked among the top-three undergraduate engineering programs in the country by U.S. News & World Report. Learn more at Olin.edu.