First Year Experience

Hello,

I am so excited to welcome you to Olin College!  I am Patrick Clarkson, the Associate Director of Residence Life here at Olin and I have the pleasure of being your guide through to move in day and beyond.  This is your first of our Welcome Onboard Wednesdays (WOW) emails that go out every Wednesday to the Class of 2028 through the summer.  Each email will include a mix of informational updates and to-do list items for you.  It can feel like an avalanche of tasks, so my goal is to give you one each week to check off and together we will get everything done just in time for move-in day!

This week’s topics are Setting Up Your Olin Email, submitting your ID card photo, and Registering with Disability Services as needed.  We have a companion page within the my.olin.edu portal if you would like to skip ahead in the task list (this is especially helpful if you are going off the grid for some fascinating excursion this summer).  You can find the Onboarding Poral here, just note the last few items are still being setup.

Task Highlight: ID Card Photos

At Olin your Student ID card acts as your key to buildings, your meal plan, and your library card all in one.  On move-in day we hope to have everyone’s ID cards printed and ready for you, but we need your help in getting ID card photos uploaded to the form linked below. 

Your ID card photo has the same level of requirements as a passport photo as you will see on our Olin submission form, for that reason I want to encourage you to use the State Department’s Photo Tool to test if your photo is acceptable.  In the past, about half of the student submissions get bounced back but I think with this tool your class can beat out the record set last year by Class of 2027.

The IT team will alert you via your Olin Email if the photo does not meet the criteria, this happens manually in batches throughout the next few weeks as we get your ID cards prepped and printed.  If your photo is rejected, feel free to ask IT for more information or email me and we can figure it out together.  Starting next Wednesday, I will open up the housing profile and roommate matching form to students who have successfully submitted an ID card photo.

ID Card Photo Form: https://forms.office.com/r/wjc8Xh80bY

Around the Oval: Each week the WOW email will highlight a space around campus in an effort to show you more of the campus you will call home for the next four years.  Today we are starting off strong and wrong with the biggest and best spot-on campus – the Oval!

Olin Spotlight: Disability Services at Olin(DSO)

At DSO, we get to know each student registered with our office through a highly interactive process, and we hope to be a great source of support to you while on your college journey! If you are a student who is interested in registering with Disability Services at Olin, please go to https://www.olin.edu/student-life/disability-services for more information.  The earlier you submit your registration form, the more time we have to work together to be ready for the fall.  That said, for coordination with campus partners, such as Housing and Dining Services, please submit your registration form by Thursday, June 13th.  Once the Disability Services Form is submitted, Adva Waranyuwat and the team from DSO will reach out to you as soon as possible to discuss next steps.  If you have any questions, you can contact DSO at disabilityservices@olin.edu at disability.services@olin.edu. 

Virtually Here! My Olin Portal

Check out my.olin.edu – this is the main Olin portal where you will find nifty things like the OLink newsletter and the student directory, as well as important things like your Student Account summary and direct deposit information.

Today’s Checklist

All of my on-boarding emails to you will end with a quick checklist, here is your first one:

• Olin Email: Checked!  If you are seeing this email you have successfully made it into your Olin Email account.  All future communications from Olin will go to this account, so stay tuned!
• Disability Services: As needed Link: https://www.olin.edu/student-life/disability-services
• ID Card Photo: Submit a passport-ready photo at https://forms.office.com/r/wjc8Xh80bY
• Health Insurance: Stay tuned to your Olin email for information about our student health insurance plan. All students are automatically enrolled in the insurance plan and are charged the full premium unless they complete the waiver process. It is very important to watch for that deadline and complete the waiver if you already have sufficient insurance coverage.
• Required Health Information: By now, you should have received an e-mail in your Olin account from Babson Health Services with details about how to submit your required health and immunization information. You can access the Student Health Portal here. You are expected to submit the required information by July 1st. If you have questions about these requirements or the Student Health Portal, please contact Babson Health Services at healthservices@babson.edu.

Can you believe you move in just 83 days from today??  Almost makes you say WOW we have a lot to do this summer!  Expect another WOW email next Wednesday but until then if you have any questions or concerns do not hesitate to hit that reply.

Thank you,

Patrick

Patrick H Clarkson (He/They)

Associate Director of Residence Life

Olin College of Engineering

pclarkson@olin.edu

Hello,

Is your Olin inbox warming up just like this weather?  If you have not received messages from Babson Health and University Health Plans – reply and I will work with you to get that figured out.  It is very valuable to follow up with these two tasks early on.  With Babson Health, your Health form will need to be approved by a medical provider.  With University Health Plans, you will either select the plan you need or complete the waiver if you already have the necessary health insurance coverage.  For folks who are waiving coverage, the sooner you waive the coverage the sooner it will come off your student account bill.

Task Highlight: SIBBs Matching

The Olin SIBBs (that’s Students Interested in Building Bridges) is a program that matches first-year students with an upper-class “sibling” to be a useful point of contact as you prepare to arrive on campus and then connect you with folks around campus once you arrive.  The matching form linked below is like the Roommate Matching form, the big difference here is that your responses are shared with a committee of students who review and match you with a big SIBB.  Our goal is to match every incoming student with a big SIBB by mid July.

SIBBs Form: https://forms.office.com/r/vhP3JbB9wg

Around the Oval: While your room in West Hall is your home away from home at Olin, some students find that the shop becomes their home away from dorm.  The Olin Shops feature an array of small and large spaces chalk full of production equipment.

https://machineshop.olin.edu/space

 Highlighting Helpers: ARCs

Next week we will dive into advising at Olin.  In Academic Support, we have 3 major types of student helpers.  These are the CAs (Course Assistants), Peer Tutors, and most uniquely the Academic Resource CoDesigners (ARCs).  ARCs are available as academic resources to students who may need assistance with academic skills such as time management, prioritization, study skills, stress management, etc.  ARCs are trained in facilitation and listening skills, academic skills coaching, and peer mentorship. ARCs will be available to meet 1:1 and also as part of a walk-in service called the ARCade, located in the Library.  ARCs may also associate with particular classes as a resource for students, facilitate workshops on timely issues that affect students, and create resources for students to use. 

You will meet the ARCs at Orientation, but if you are seeking to learn more about Academic Support at Olin check out https://www.olin.edu/academics/academic-support.

 Virtually Here! Babson Health Portal

The Online Student Health (OSH) Portal offers a method of secure communication between you & Babson Health Services. Through the OSH Portal you are able to complete required medical forms. https://babson.medicatconnect.com/

Today’s Checklist

You can visit the Onboarding Poral here to find more details and the full pre-arrival checklist.

• Disability Services: As needed Link: https://www.olin.edu/student-life/disability-services
• Health Insurance: Log into www.universityhealthplans.com  to enroll or waive health insurance coverage
• Required Health Information: You can access the Student Health Portal here. Completing the Health History and Immunization form is probably the most difficult, so I will leave this reminder here for a few weeks.
• ID Card Photo: No Submission: Submit a passport-ready photo at https://forms.office.com/r/wjc8Xh80bY
• SIBBs Matching Form: https://forms.office.com/r/vhP3JbB9wg

Class of 2028 is already uniquely successful – everyone has accessed their Olin email accounts.  This is unheard of in past years, usually we have 1 or 2 folks who wait until late June to join us here in the ever flowing Olin inbox!  Next week my colleague, Barb Luciano, will be sending out our WOW email while I am on a bit of a road trip seeing the West for the first time.

Thank you,

Patrick

Hello,

We are rolling right through week 3 of the summer onboarding!  If you are considering submitting a Class of 2028 T-Shirt design, be sure to send it in by Tuesday so we can include it as an option in voting.

Task Highlight: Advising Matching

Today’s task is from Adva Waranyuwat, the Assistant Dean of Student Affairs and an Instructor at Olin: Hi Class of 2028, I am Adva and I’m joined by Shannon Tocher, Assistant Director for Accessibility and Advising and together we comprise the student academic support unit on campus!  One of the areas of responsibility we have at Olin is coordinating advising!  Your advisor is someone you can turn to for support, academic planning, and decision-making, as well as a great general resource for you on campus.  To start creating the connections between you and your future advisor, we have some questions for you. Your responses to these questions will be used as part of the process to match you to your advisor and will be shared with them thereafter, so please make sure to share stories that you are comfortable sharing with your future advisor.  You can write anything from a paragraph to a page per response, and this is meant to be enlightening and fun while giving you a chance to share your personality.  There are no wrong answers here! 

Our goal is to get all responses in by June 27th so that Advisor matching can get started soon.

Advisor Reflection Questions: https://olin.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_4TrP0ol3obPo22O

Around the Oval: You will learn that the library is a major hub for life on campus at Olin.  Within the depths of the library, you will find the quiet reading room which is a favorite spot to curl up with a good read or focus on AHS homework. https://library.olin.edu/

Highlighting Helpers: R2s

R2s, or Resident Resources, are the student leaders who drive the residential culture at Olin.  Most colleges have RAs, or Resident Assistants, but since our founding Olin College has sought out ways to cultivate the correct support for students.  While we focus our training on the R2s being able to connect students with resources on and off campus, R2s are more than just a resource distribution point.   R2s primary focus is to build connections between Oliners, as the best resource we have is each other.

These connection points start off small, with your R2 seeking to support your roommate relationship foundations and lead your O-Team during Orientation to build connections among the Class of 2028.  Once classes get started, R2s seek opportunities to illuminate lounge culture and bring folks together within your wing, floor, or even all of West Hall.  The R2s work together to bridge connections between the cohorts of students at Olin and seek out individual opportunities for connections to yield our uniquely engaged student population.

R2s can help you with your roommate relationships, conflicts in community, building connections, pointing you to invaluable resources like mental health care and academic supports, and probably most importantly unlock your door should you get locked out.  We always have an R2 On Call at (781) 953-0061, and your R2 will reach out in early August (once housing assignments are set and the R2s return early to get trained).

Virtually Here! Olin Hub on Discord

You will find we use too many different communication platforms at Olin – but Discord is my favorite for finding life at Olin.  I am myself a member of the ResLife (obviously), Bike CoOp, and Library discords but I hear the real fun happens in the student-only servers.  You can join the Olin College hub with your olin.edu email, below I linked the ResLife server (as hubs don’t have links which is weird, but I trust you can find it!)

https://discord.com/invite/NPtgjxFx

Today’s Checklist

You can visit the Onboarding Portal here to find more details and the full pre-arrival checklist.  Next week our checklist here in the email will go live with updates on your status of each task.

• Health Insurance: Log into www.universityhealthplans.com  to enroll or waive health insurance coverage
• Required Health Information: You can access the Student Health Portal here. Completing the Health History and Immunization form is probably the most difficult, so I will leave this reminder here for a few weeks.
• ID Card Photo: Submit a passport-ready photo at https://forms.office.com/r/wjc8Xh80bY
• SIBBs Matching Form: https://forms.office.com/r/vhP3JbB9wg
• Advisor Reflection: https://olin.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_4TrP0ol3obPo22O

SIBBs matching will get started Friday, so be sure to complete that matching form today or tomorrow.

Thank you, and looking forward to seeing you on campus!

Barb

Barb Luciano  (She/Her)

Academic Life & StAR Administrative Assistant

Olin College of Engineering

bluciano@olin.edu

Hello,

Ya’ll do a great job of keeping onboarding easy!  This week we are doing a big check-in of the existing tasks and launching our Class of 2028 Shirt Design contest.  I managed to break the housing form in testing, so that will wait for next week.  In the meantime, this is a great week to reply with questions!  I will either know or connect you with a person who knows the answer to your questions.

Task Highlight: Shirt Vote!

We have received 6 designs so far for a Class of 2028 shirt design!  It’s really getting the shirt designs and the SIBBs profiles that start to hint at what your class vibes are going to be, I am excited to see where we land.  In the voting form below, you can rank all 6 designs.  I swear there was one more design in my inbox, so I might add one more in (and highlight that next week) if there are any last minute additions. 

Shirt Design Vote: https://forms.office.com/r/iFk1cES49Y

Around the Oval: The Jam Room is a student space dedicated to music located in the Campus Center just beyond the Mail Room.  The Jam Room is home to a collection of community instruments so you can just pop by and jam out but also offers space for students to store personal instruments. 

Olin Spotlight: Olin Conductorless Orchestra

Did you know Olin has a very active community around music?  There are many ways to get engaged in different clubs and organizations, and even spaces like the Jam room in the campus center to engage with the music communities at Olin, the hallmark of this community is the Olin Conductorless Orchestra.  Here is a message from Diana Dabby, the Music Program Director and faculty member at Olin:

OCO is different from any other college orchestra:  it is the only college conductorless orchestra of its kind in the country!   Composed of passionate individuals who bring their musical talents to a larger ensemble, OCO has existed since the inception of Olin College.  So there’s a lot of history associated with the group for many people:  alumni, staff, faculty, and students.  When the orchestra performs, the musicians bring much joy to the community, playing pieces that are predominantly classical.  You’ll find there are many Oliners who love the intricacy, emotion, and beauty of this music.  Audiences pick up on this as well, moved not only by the music but also by the group making music together, without a conductor.  Yet playing in a conductorless orchestra is more challenging and fosters a wider array of musicianship skills than a conducted orchestra.  Students learn to hear beyond their own instruments and sections, with a sense of timing, intonation, and dynamics that consistently grows.  If you are a player who is dedicated and committed to excellence, then OCO offers you opportunities to move forward, both as an individual instrumentalist and as part of a group. 

So, if you’re interested and want to allocate your time and talent to the growing tradition of making concerted music at Olin, please let me know the following:

• Would you like to participate in the Olin Conductorless Orchestra?
• What is your principal instrument?
• How many hours/week do you devote to practicing your instrument?
• What questions do you have about the commitment to our orchestra?
• What honors or distinctions have you earned?   [optional]

Email to:  Diana Dabby Diana.Dabby@olin.edu

 Virtually Here! Dining Services at Olin

More and more this WOW email is just a reflection of my Orientation planning meetings – I just left from a meeting with Ricardo, Himanshu, and Chef Sam planning out the meals we will have during Orientation week.  This week’s helpful bookmark is their menu site.  It still has the last regular week of the year up, but this is a good sense of what the dining hall offers and is updated weekly throughout the year so you know what is coming next.

https://rebeccasculinarygroup.com/olin/menu-items/

Today’s Checklist

You can visit the Onboarding Poral here to find more details and the full pre-arrival checklist. 

• Health Insurance: Log into www.universityhealthplans.com  to enroll or waive health insurance coverage
• Required Health Information: You can access the Student Health Portal here. Completing the Health History and Immunization form is probably the most difficult, so I will leave this reminder here for a few weeks.
• ID Card Photo: (NOTE – this section has not been updated this week) Submit a passport-ready photo at https://forms.office.com/r/wjc8Xh80bY
• SIBBs Matching Form: https://forms.office.com/r/vhP3JbB9wg
• Advisor Reflection:  https://olin.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_4TrP0ol3obPo22O

As soon as I can start to send out the housing profile, I will start sending it to folks that have an ID card photo submitted!  That should be by the end of this week.

Thank you,

Patrick H Clarkson (He/They)

Associate Director of Residence Life

Olin College of Engineering

pclarkson@olin.edu

Hello,

We have made it to July, which means you will be here at Olin NEXT MONTH! Its less terrifying when you recall that move-in is August 27, so we really have 2 more months of prep time.  Today I have the most information for you so far!  We are launching the Housing Profile, introducing Financial Aid & HOPES, and connecting you with your big SIBB.

Before we get too far into the fun stuff, I like to highlight that student account bills went live this week, you should have received an email from Student Accounts with details around where to find your student account and how to make payment. Here is a link to that email: https://acrobat.adobe.com/link/review?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:98c1dfdd-f2b5-3bcb-b968-3eef7249d3dd

Task Highlight: Housing Profile

The Housing Profile collects everything you need to be assigned to housing and matched to a roommate.  First it will have you review our housing agreement; this acts as the formal agreement between you and the college and outlines important policies in regard to living on campus. Once you have signed the housing agreement, the form will walk you through a handful of questions that we utilize to intentionally pair all incoming students with roommates.  After the roommate questionnaire, you will complete your emergency contact form, census data, and dietary details – so be sure to set aside a chunk of time for this first task!

This year I have set a goal to get all ID photos submitted early, so the housing link will only show up if you have sent in your initial ID Photo.  My plan is working already, the Class of 2028 already has 80% of ID photos in.*

Highlighting Helpers: HOPES

We are the reason for the consonant in the office acronym! You all know OAFA (Office of Admission and Financial Aid) at this point and WE keep you from sounding like you are yodeling when talking about the folks who fostered your decision to come here.

For those of you who completed the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) and received federal or need-based aid - a couple of reminders:

1. Students are required to reapply for financial aid every year. Next year the FAFSA will be so much easier! (Fingers crossed, it will be available in October again!)
2. Your college student record is protected by FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) regulations that safeguard your privacy. This means that we can only discuss your financial aid record with you unless you complete a release form.
3. Approved financial aid will show as pending credit on your billing statement which is generated by Student Accounts. Contact Student Accounts for any questions regarding your billing statement. 4. Financial aid will host monthly office hours. You can also email us at finaid@olin.edu if you have specific questions or want to set up an appointment.

Throughout the academic year we will enrich your college experience with our financial wellness program. Oliners named our program HOPES: Helping Oliners Plan Economic Success as it is a program designed to help you develop lifelong financial skills.

Virtually Here! Kindros

Within OFYI (Olin First Year Introduction) you will engage in a with our financial wellness program, HOPES, and you are going to get great at budgeting! Our goal is to help you learn why this matters now and here, (as well as always and everywhere). We will also provide some Olin specific tips and tricks. If you want to get a head start, create your account with your Olin email address and check out the budgeting tab:

Kindros Link: www.olin.kindros.com

 Meet Your Big SIBB!

The Olin SIBBs (that’s Students Interested in Building Bridges) is a program that matches first-year students with an upper-class “sibling” to be a useful point of contact as you prepare to arrive on campus and then connect you with folks around campus once you arrive.  Our SIBBs committee was able to match every incoming first year with a big SIBB for this Fall.  You most likely will not meet your big SIBB in person until they arrive to campus, but between now and then use your SIBB as a pen pal to connect with.  We hope that they will not be too busy in their summer internships and excursions to see todays email, but it might take a few days for them to first make contact.  They have all most likely lived in West Hall, taken the same first year classes you will take, and eaten in the dining hall so they are really an amazing resource on life at Olin.

See Email for Big SIBB Match

Today’s Checklist

You can visit the Onboarding Poral here to find more details and the full pre-arrival checklist.  All of the tasks with merged information were updated as of yesterday, so if you think you have completed a task but it is marked as incomplete here reach out for support.

Checklist with status:

• Required Health Information: You can access the Student Health Portal here.
• ID Card Photo: https://forms.office.com/r/wjc8Xh80bY
• Advisor Reflection: https://olin.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_4TrP0ol3obPo22O

Reminders without status updates:

• Health Insurance: Log into www.universityhealthplans.com  to enroll or waive health insurance coverage
• Pay your Student Account Balance: Log into the my.olin.edu portal to find your student account within the MyStAR section today.

The Class of 2028 T-Shirt Design contest has been fiercely competitive.  We have 1 additional submission.  We also have had a good bit of confusion, ranking a shirt design as a 10 is saying it is your favorite option.  I welcome you to vote again, I will remove the duplicate votes and go with whichever of your votes was the last one submitted.  Here is that link: https://forms.office.com/r/iFk1cES49Y

Your big SIBB might reach out to you at any moment, but don’t be shy to reach out to them either!  One of the best things about Olin is the peer to peer support, Oliners help each other more than any other students I have known.

Thank you,

Patrick

Patrick Clarkson (He/They)

Director of Residence Life

Olin College of Engineering

pclarkson@olin.edu

*PS: If you are unable to get an ID card photo in prior to move-in, just let me know and I will send you the housing profile link.

Hello,

Inevitably every summer I nearly forget to send the WOW email on Wednesday, but here it is!  This week we get out the vote, tell the story of Olin, and get ready for the housing profile deadline.

Huge thanks to students who were able to get ID photos in and have an early start to the Housing Profile.  We figured out an issue with the roommate gender question (if this is unresolved for you, reply to check in).  For everyone else, I will include the housing profile link below.  The official deadline for the housing profile is July 23rd, but if we all get it in sooner the roommate matching process will start rolling early!

Housing Profile:  https://olin.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_bHDpToMZgTGcJbo

Task Highlight: Photo Release

While you have not even arrived on campus yet, we know from day one we will want to get you involved in telling the story of Olin.  For that reason, today’s task is completing the Photo Release Form.  Our Strategic Communications team (OSCOM) may want to publicize campus events in its own outlets, or in external media. Toward this end, the OSCOM regularly takes photographs, records video and writes news stories about campus events and developments. We would like your permission to be able to use these materials in our communication programs.  This form has you either agree to your photo being used in publications or allows you to ask to not be included.

Photo Release Link: Located within the Onboarding Portal

Around the Oval: We step just outside the Oval today to pop into the Weissman Foundry.  The Foundry is the only physical building shared between the BOW Colleges (Babson-Olin-Wellesley).  It is a maker space with a wealth of resources for bringing ideas into reality.  Learn more at https://www.foundry.babson.edu/

Civic Duty: Voting from College

At Olin, we value equity and justice, trust, learning and growth, sustainability, and collaboration for the benefit of others, especially those who are most in need.  Throughout your time at Olin there will be many ways for you to engage directly in impact-centered work around these values, but did you know there is a simple step you can take now to support these values?  Register to vote!

For US citizens: As a student in Massachusetts, you get to choose where you vote! It’s smart to take a moment now to decide if you will vote absentee back home or register locally here in Needham.  If you are planning to vote absentee, will you need to complete in-person registration at your local Board of Elections or can you complete it online?  If you are planning to vote locally, you will need to register but can do so via online/mail-in.  https://www.eac.gov/voters/register-and-vote-in-your-state  is a great resource for voter registration in all 50 states, including voting locally here in Massachusetts.

For non-US citizens: You should take a moment now to think about what it takes for you to vote absentee in your country of citizenship if elections are taking place while you are on campus.  Voting varies greatly country to country (you will find the US has a unique mess of voting laws) and I am not finding any good global resources for voting registration – I smell a good opportunity for engineering here.  If you need assistance figuring out if you are able to vote while at Olin– I bet we can find a good resource together or I might be able to connect you with someone from the Olin community who might know more! 

Virtually Here! IT Wiki

The IT wiki is one of the most useful websites at Olin.  Here you will find out all the ins and outs to WiFi, printing, the laptop you will receive on move-in day, and so much more!  This is one to bookmark: https://wikis.olin.edu/it/

Today’s Checklist

You can visit the Onboarding Portal here to find more details and the full pre-arrival checklist.  All of the tasks with merged information were updated as of yesterday, so if you think you have completed a task but it is marked as incomplete here reach out for support.

(Checklist status will return next week!)

• Required Health Information: You can access the Student Health Portal here.
• ID Card Photo: https://forms.office.com/r/wjc8Xh80bY
• Advisor Reflection: https://olin.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_4TrP0ol3obPo22O
• Health Insurance: Log into www.universityhealthplans.com  to enroll or waive health insurance coverage
• Pay your Student Account Balance: Log into the my.olin.edu portal to find your student account within the MyStAR section today.
• Complete Your Housing Profile: https://olin.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_bHDpToMZgTGcJbo

Tomorrow we close the vote for the Class of 2024 shirt design, so jump in there today and have your voice heard: https://forms.office.com/r/iFk1cES49Y

Thank you,

Patrick

Patrick Clarkson (He/They)

Director of Residence Life

Olin College of Engineering

pclarkson@olin.edu

Hello,

This is a big week for your Olin Inbox!  You should receive your first orientation training via Vector, Friday you will get the PGP News for the first time, and soon you will be added to the All Students Listserv!   Today’s WOW highlights an update about your Olin account from IT, launches our next task – direct deposit, and includes a welcome from PGP (that’s Post-Graduate Planning, AKA Career Services).

In the very near future, you will be required to use multi-factor authentication (MFA) to access Olin online services, including email. To save yourself time later, you can take a moment to pre-configure multi-factor authentication (MFA) for your Olin account following these instructions. If you have any difficulty enabling MFA on your Olin account, please contact the Olin IT Help Desk (helpdesk@olin.edu).  MFA Instructions link: https://wikis.olin.edu/it/doku.php?id=configure_mfa

Task Highlight: Setup Direct Deposit

You might have found this task when you went to view your Student Account bill, but this impacts more areas of life at Olin than you might guess.  The college will deposit expense reimbursements, student account refunds and payroll payments electronically.  We encourage 100% of students to complete this process as so many students end up needing to utilize the reimbursement process in at least one class, in addition to all the students who end up with on-campus jobs and student account refunds.  Please take a few minutes to provide your bank information securely through the student portal. Be sure to complete this form correctly and double check all your account information.

MyStAR: https://my.olin.edu/ICS/My_StAR/Student_Private_Data/

Around the Oval: Our next peak into a space at Olin is located in the East Hall Basement and is known as the Ball & Bike Room.  This photo is old as the room is a hot mess today, but typically this space is home to our massive collection of recreation equipment for community use including a dozen bicycles, 29 unicycles, countless balls and outdoor chairs.  It is also home to the bike repair shop run by the Bike Co-Op and Community Bike Steward.  If you bring a personal bicycle, it must be stored outdoors or in your room – so if you are not a heavy bicycle user it might make sense to leave the bike at home and utilize our community bikes.

Welcome from Post-Graduate Planning

Hello and welcome, Class of 2028!

The Office of Post-Graduate Planning is excited to meet you! We are the team that will help you prepare for internships, research, grad school and prestigious scholarships and fellowships. You can stop by and see us on the third floor of the Campus Center (CC 316), but we will also be joining you during Orientation and your First Year Experience Course (OFYI).

One of the first things we will be working on is your professional resume. If you already have one great, we can’t wait to see it. If you haven’t created one yet, don’t worry, we will be hosting resume workshops during the first two weeks of school. We will also be having a Mock Career Fair to be sure you are comfortable and confident before the fall career fair at the end of September.

While you are planning what to bring to Olin, you may want to consider packing a nice outfit that you can wear to the career fair as well as any interviews you might have. Don’t have any professional clothes? No worries, we’ve got you covered. Feel free to pop into the Expressions Rack (CC 331).

Wondering where to find out more about Career Services and our events? Be sure to check out our weekly newsletter, the PGP News! Your first one will hit your inbox this Friday, July 19. 

See you soon, Kristin, Suzanne, Courtney. 

 Virtually Here! Handshake

Olin students and alumni have access to Handshake to search for technical experiences, learn about career and grad school info sessions, join virtual career fairs, and schedule appointments with the career services team. You should have received an email from Handshake inviting you to activate your new account. If you cannot find/did not receive this email no worries, just click the link below, enter your Olin email address and choose the forgot password option.

Handshake Link: https://olin.joinhandshake.com/edu

Today’s Checklist

You can visit the Onboarding Portal here to find more details and the full pre-arrival checklist.  All of the tasks with merged information were updated as of yesterday, so if you think you have completed a task but it is marked as incomplete here reach out for support.

• Housing Profile: https://olin.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_bHDpToMZgTGcJbo
• Required Health Information: You can access the Student Health Portal here.
• ID Card Photo: https://forms.office.com/r/wjc8Xh80bY
• Advisor Reflection: https://olin.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_4TrP0ol3obPo22O

• Vector Training: Stay tuned to your Olin inbox for an email with the subject line “Olin College of Engineering assigned you a training”
• Health Insurance: Log into www.universityhealthplans.com  to enroll or waive health insurance coverage
• Pay your Student Account Balance: Log into the my.olin.edu portal to find your student account within the MyStAR section today.
• Photo Release Form: https://my.olin.edu/ICS/Academic__Student_Life/First_Year_Onboarding.jn…

And finally, we have a design!  Our first place design is by Jason Shen and will be on the Class of 2028 Shirts!  Thank you to all of the folks who submitted designs, while Jason’s design won with over 600 points, all the designs pulled in at least 350 points so it was a tight race!  Be sure to include your shirt size in the last section of the housing form (apologies for how long that form is!) as we are ordering shirts next week.

Thank you,

Patrick

Hello,

With just 34 days until move-in, we are getting terribly close to the end of summer!  I hope you are getting out and enjoying some summer fun, last week I got to finally go to Fenway Stadium (for a concert, I don’t have the patience for baseball).  I am keeping this weeks email short in length because it includes video introductions of your AHS(Arts, Humanities, Sciences) course options – lets jump to it!

AHS: Arts, Humanities, & Sciences

All first-year students at Olin enroll in the same set of “like” courses each fall.  These include cool topics like "Quantitative Engineering Analysis", "Modeling and Simulation of the Physical World" and “Design Nature”, which will magically appear in your fall schedule.  You will also be registered for something called OFYI. During Orientation, you will learn about OFYI, the Olin First Year Introductory seminar which engages students in topics around succeeding at Olin like teaming, resume development, and gratitude.  Your one big moment of choice for your first semester courses comes in with your AHS foundation course.

To help you in selecting which AHS course to select, we have a Primer and Course Introduction Videos.  I would encourage you to watch all the course introductions to really get a good sense of each faculty member and their courses focus.  To help with this, the introduction video and the last course intro video are hosted by the same professor, Dr. Rob Martello. 

Finally, once you have reviewed the course options you will complete the survey linked below to rank your top choices in AHS foundations for this Fall.  This is firmly due Friday, August 9th so that we can get folks registered for their courses.

AHS Foundation Primer: https://acrobat.adobe.com/link/review?uri=urn%3Aaaid%3Ascds%3AUS%3A4db56168-fbd3-33ad-868e-0b1634d5fd14

AHS Course Introduction Video Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvexLOJGQ74vNzFS7uk0u_3wMUKS4txSF

AHS Course Survey: https://forms.office.com/r/n7sxT3rCHk

Task Highlight: Online Trainings

(We believe all technical difficulties have been ironed out at this point.)

As part of joining the Olin community, you are required to complete these three trainings before you arrive on campus.  You should have received emails assigning you these trainings.  We recognize that the topics of sexual assault and consent can be difficult, so we have attached resources to the course.  And if you need additional support or you have questions, you can contact Frances Mantak, Director of Wellness, at fmantak@olin.edu.  Finally, the first section of the course on Sexual Assault Prevention includes questions about demographics, opinions and experiences of sexual assault.  Because Olin is so small, you do not need to complete this section.  Just hit the ‘Skip’ button or click through the questions without answering them.

If you have any questions about the Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging course, you can contact Breauna Campbell, Associate Director of Student Equity and Access, at bcampbell@olin.edu

Olin Vector Training Portal: https://olin-ma.vectorlmsedu.com/training/home

Virtually Here! Lists.Olin.edu

Olin has a unique email culture and a huge part of that ecosystem is ListServs.  At this site you can sign up for the various public lists within the Olin Community.  Note, many of these are small or defunct lists but some like Help_Me and Carpe are popular among students, staff, and faculty: https://lists.olin.edu/mailman/listinfo

Today’s Checklist

Today in the Onboarding Portal  you will find links to each individual AHS course under the embed of the AHS Foundation plalist.  Below’s checklist features status updates for many of the tasks that still remain open for completion:

• Housing Profile: https://olin.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_bHDpToMZgTGcJbo
• Required Health Information: You can access the Student Health Portal here.
• ID Card Photo: https://forms.office.com/r/wjc8Xh80bY
• Advisor Reflection: https://olin.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_4TrP0ol3obPo22O
• Photo Release Form: https://my.olin.edu/ICS/Academic__Student_Life/First_Year_Onboarding.jn…

• Vector Training: https://olin-ma.vectorlmsedu.com/training/home
• Health Insurance: Log into www.universityhealthplans.com  to enroll or waive health insurance coverage
• Pay your Student Account Balance: Log into the my.olin.edu portal to find your student account within the MyStAR section today.
• AHS Course Survey: https://forms.office.com/r/n7sxT3rCHk

Thank you,

Patrick

Patrick Clarkson (He/They)

Director of Residence Life

Olin College of Engineering

pclarkson@olin.edu

At DSO, we get to know each student registered with our office through a highly interactive process, and we hope to be a great source of support to you while on your college journey! If you are a student who is interested in registering with Disability Services at Olin, please go to https://www.olin.edu/student-life/disability-services for more information.  The earlier you submit your registration form, the more time we have to work together to be ready for the fall.  That said, for coordination with campus partners, such as Housing and Dining Services, please submit your registration form by Thursday, June 14th.  Once the Disability Services Form is submitted, Adva Waranyuwat and the team from DSO will reach out to you as soon as possible to discuss next steps.  If you have any questions, you can contact DSO at disabilityservices@olin.edu

Link: https://www.olin.edu/student-life/disability-services

The Olin SIBBs (that’s Students Interested in Building Bridges) is a program that matches first-year students with an upper-class “sibling” to be a useful point of contact as you prepare to arrive on campus and then connect you with folks around campus once you arrive.  The matching form linked below is like the Roommate Matching form, the big difference here is that your responses are shared with a committee of students who review and match you with a big SIBB.  Our goal is to match every incoming student with a big SIBB by early July.

SIBBs Form: https://forms.office.com/r/vhP3JbB9wg

Your advisor is someone you can turn to for support academic planning and decision-making, as well as a great general resource for you on campus.  Your responses to these questions will be used as part of the process to match you to your advisor and will be shared with them thereafter, so please make sure to share stories that you are comfortable sharing with your future advisor.  You can write anything from a paragraph to a page per response, and this is meant to be enlightening and fun while giving you a chance to share your personality.  There are no wrong answers here! 

LINK: https://olin.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_4TrP0ol3obPo22O

At Olin your Student ID card acts as your key to buildings, your meal plan, and your library card all in one.  On move-in day we hope to have everyone’s ID cards printed and ready for you, but we need your help in getting ID card photos uploaded to the form linked below.  Note, your photo will need to be much like a passport photo, with detailed requirements listed on the form.

ID Card Photo Form: https://forms.office.com/r/wjc8Xh80bY

Olin is required to collect proof of immunizations and other health related data.  This includes Immunization Reports, Tuberculosis Screening, Medical Consent form, Telehealth Consent form, scan of Insurance card (if waiving health insurance via UHP).  Students share this information via the HIPPA compliant Student Health Portal maintained by Babson Health Services.  While most offices at Olin are best reached via email, Health Services is most readily available via phone for support in this process - (781)239-6363.

Student Health Portal: http://babson.medicatconnect.com/

Occasionally, Olin College may want to publicize campus events in its own outlets, or in external media. Toward this end, the Office of Communication regularly takes photographs, records video and writes news stories about campus events and developments. We would like your permission to be able to use these materials in our communication programs. By indicating your agreement below, you will provide us with your consent to make use of these materials.

Form Link: https://my.olin.edu/ICS/Academic__Student_Life/First_Year_Onboarding.jn…

This form collects a ton of various information (emergency contacts, student directory listings, census data, dietary information) but is most importantly the survey we use to find your best possible roommate match within the Class of 2028!  Starting off you will read (yes actually read it) and sign the Housing Agreement - we recommend having around 30 minutes set aside to complete this mega form.

Housing Profile Link: https://olin.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_bHDpToMZgTGcJbo

Here in the my.olin.edu portal you will find your student account page.  Bills are posted July 1st and are due by August 1st with a late fee of $150.00 applied for students who have not paid in full or enrolled in a payment plan by August 1.

MyStAR: https://my.olin.edu/ICS/My_StAR/Student_Accounts_and_Financial_Aid.jnz

All first-year students at Olin enroll in the same set of “like” courses each fall.   Your one big moment of choice for your first semester courses comes in with your AHS foundation course.  Learn more about the AHS foundation courses with this Primer and the Course Introduction Videos.  Then complete the survey below to rank your preferences.

AHS Course Ranking Survey: https://forms.office.com/r/n7sxT3rCHk

Each year all students must have health insurance coverage.  For students who have qualifying health insurance coverage, if you waive prior to July 1st you will not see the cost of insurance on your bill.  If you waive between July 1 and August 1, student accounts will update those bills on a rolling basis.

University Health Plans: www.universityhealthplans.com

Olin College will deposit expense reimbursements, student account refunds and payroll payments electronically.  Please take a few minutes to provide your bank information securely through the student portal. This is the fastest way to receive your payment.

MyStAR: https://my.olin.edu/ICS/My_StAR/Student_Private_Data/

We encourage all students to have Renters or Personal Property Insurance while living on campus.  Renters or Personal property insurance is available from National Student Services, Inc. You can apply or obtain more information about this company at http://www.nssi.com. The College is not responsible for your personal belongings, including your laptop computer, while you are on campus. If your family has a homeowner’s policy you should consult it to see if it covers your belongings while you are on campus. Purchasing personal property insurance is optional but encouraged.

National Student Services: http://www.nssi.com