Women at Olin

Rachel Boy ‘15

Software Engineer Tableau Software

“I love using my technical skills to solve problems.

I’m particularly passionate about data, and using data analysis to discover connections, improve processes, and inform decision making.”

Ambika Goel ‘16

Foothill High School Pleasanton, CA

“ I am most grateful for the classmates I learned with - and from while at Olin.

I particularly cherish the group of women I got to know.”

Meena Vembusubramanian ‘08

MBA, Harvard Business School Project Manager, Amazon Robotics

“In coming to Olin, I had no idea how incredibly busy I’d be with lots of project work, especially extracurriculars - Olin Rock Orchestra (ORO) and Research of Electric Vehicles at Olin (REVO) - are extremely meaningful in terms of my academic learning.”

Women at Olin

Supporting Women

19%

50%

Women studying engineering in the United States

Women studying engineering at Olin College

Creating EngineerInnovators

Why Everyone Loves Olin...

I

O

n 2002, Olin College was the first engineering college to open in this country in five decades. Its founders had a bold vision to start a new type of engineering college that would be “... an important and constant contributor to the advancement of engineering education in America and throughout the world.”

With no academic departments or faculty tenure, Olin was designed to be different from the beginning, which included a commitment to gender balance. The first partner class of 30 students who helped to design the curriculum and establish Olin’s entrepreneurial and studentdriven culture consisted of 15-women.

Gender balance was seen as critical to expanding the capacity and capabilities of the next generation of engineer-innovators, and it’s working.

lin takes a radically different approach toward educating undergraduate engineers. Its projectbased curriculum provides a broad range of experiences and technical instruction, helping students develop personal confidence and teambased skills. At Olin, students are focused on people, concentrating on understanding their problems; developing solutions; and then understanding how to deliver products and services to them in the marketplace and in their communities.

There are many specific efforts that help women succeed at Olin: Olin is listed #1 (38.9%) for the percentage of female faculty teaching engineering courses by the American Society for Engineering Education; more than twice the national average (15.2%).

Faculty members proactively monitor class dynamics and provide coaching to help ALL students identify hidden biases, take control of their learning goals and development, and grow as team members and leaders.

Several faculty members are actively investigating gender and undergraduate engineering at Olin and elsewhere, including the impact of project-based learning on first-year success, gender schema and the role of intrinsic motivation in the learning experience.

All students are required to develop proficiency in using tools and machinery, enabling men and women to push the boundaries of their knowledge while tackling real-world problems.

It’s Working Since its inception, Olin has graduated the highest percentage of women with bachelor’s degrees in engineering of any co-ed college in the country.

45% of Olin’s alumni are women, all have engineering degrees.

37% of Olin alumni have gone to or are currently enrolled in graduate school, most of them at top-ranked universities based on US News & World Report rankings, in fields including Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Bioengineering. Nearly half of these postgraduates are women.

Olin graduates are highly sought after (regardless of gender) by employers, commanding on average more than $78,000 in starting salaries.

Of the prestigious scholarships and fellowships won by our students, more than half are earned by women, including: Two-thirds of the Fulbright winners at Olin are women. Olin has been named a top producer of Fulbright Scholars several times in the past few years.

26 Olin women received National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship; comprising 55% of NSF awards to Oliners.

An Olin woman won the Gates Cambridge Scholarship; one of only 40 given in the U.S. every year.

Olin is a national educational innovation laboratory. New models of learning are rapidly shared with other colleges and universities through its Collaboratory.

Debbie Chachra

Associate Professor, Material Science

“I do this research Olin boasts more Grand Challenge Scholars per capita than any other because I’m trying college; 54% are women. to make people’s lives The Clare Boothe Luce Program granted Olin $180,000 to support up better, but also because to 24 women scholars who are undergraduates to pursue research I’m trying to make our culture with a faculty better. I want engineering to be advisor.

BOW a better place for women— Babson - Olin - Wellesley and the world to be Olin partners with Wellesley College, one a better place for of the country’s top liberal arts colleges for women, and Babson College, renowned for women.” its focus on entrepreneurship.