Admission Process

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.

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 continental 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 program will be included when students are invited to participate in Candidates' Weekends. Please note that we are unable to subsidize travel or accommodations for accompanying family members.

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. 

Olin College policy is consistent with CDC guidelines regarding COVID and other respiratory viruses. Community members and visitors to campus who are healthy are not required to wear a mask. Any individuals preferring to mask may do so. We will have a supply of masks at Candidates’ Weekends and will provide them upon request. 

Must be submitted online by December 15, 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 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 FAQ 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 December application deadline.

Our school codes are:

SAT: 2824

ACT: 1883