An important omission is that Olin is on the same property as Babson, one if the top entrepreneurship schools in the country. Olin kids can attend Babson classes and have access to Babson resources.
So, imagine an engineering college where you have a very favorable student:teacher ratio plus a 5min walk to a world class entrepreneurship education.
I went to babson, took a few classes at olin, my thesis advisor was an olin grad.
Many of the olin students are brilliant, quirky, very progressive, want to give back with their high quality (and what used to be 100% fully funded from endowments and grants, think its 50% now) education. Think this is a large point that gets overlooked - graduate an engineering degree debt free and it is easier to give back through a start up or social venture :)
Huge emphasis on actually building things in capstone classes. Fantastic faculty and amazing machine shop resources for such a small school. Some of the best students in my negotiations and accounting classes were from Olin. Additionally wellesley college is a 10 min bus ride for access to top-notch liberal arts classes. Lucky to have that mixture for sure.
Olin alumni here. Having Babson nearby definitely added to my experience. I was intensely interested in entrepreneurship during school, and took several Babson classes.
They're definitely very different and independent schools, however. While I have several friends from Babson, my social & professional life has drifted away from there. Of the companies mentioned in the article a handful of them (like Big Belly) are the results of fruitful Olin-Babson collaborations. The majority of companies that come out of the two schools, however, have had less cross-campus collaboration than I think many would like.
So, imagine an engineering college where you have a very favorable student:teacher ratio plus a 5min walk to a world class entrepreneurship education.