1. First and foremost, go Olin College! It sounds like a really special place where liberal arts and engineering are valued. I wish more colleges followed this model.
2. It's not very surprising and likely a statistical quirk that their per capita founding rate is so high. After reading this piece on why the highest and lowest cancer rates by county in the US are in rural counties, I am seeing this statistical phenomenon everywhere: https://books.google.com/books?id=JRueDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA14&lpg=P...
I would not call a nearby chemical dump 'random noise'.
Consider the dean of a tiny school wants to be different where the dean of a large school wants to be better at a wide range of things. The first dean will have a larger impact on a smaller number of things. Further, the dean of the smaller schools choice of focus is going to have a major impact.
Comments
Two comments:
1. First and foremost, go Olin College! It sounds like a really special place where liberal arts and engineering are valued. I wish more colleges followed this model.
2. It's not very surprising and likely a statistical quirk that their per capita founding rate is so high. After reading this piece on why the highest and lowest cancer rates by county in the US are in rural counties, I am seeing this statistical phenomenon everywhere: https://books.google.com/books?id=JRueDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA14&lpg=P...
It's not just random noise. A small population is more impacted by individual events so far there is often reasons for such aberrations.
That is random noise. A small population is impacted far more by noise.

I would not call a nearby chemical dump 'random noise'.
Consider the dean of a tiny school wants to be different where the dean of a large school wants to be better at a wide range of things. The first dean will have a larger impact on a smaller number of things. Further, the dean of the smaller schools choice of focus is going to have a major impact.