Accepted RD for 2010

Colleges and Universities A-Z Harvey Mudd College
21

<p>Decision: Accepted!!!</p>

<p>Stats:</p>

<pre><code>* SAT: 2310 (800, 800, 710) screw writing ;-)
* SAT IIs: 800 IIC, 770 Chemistry, 770 US History
* GPA:4.0/4.7
* Rank:1/415
* Other stats: good leadership and some math competitions, nothing national though
</code></pre>

<p>Subjective:</p>

<pre><code>* Essays: Awesome! I really felt they conveyed the true me.
* Teacher Recs: Couldn't be better
* Counselor Rec: pretty good
* Hook (if any): Nothing really.
</code></pre>

<p>Location/Person:</p>

<pre><code>* State or Country: CA
* School Type: Public
* Ethnicity:Asian
* Gender:Male
* major strength/weakness: all round academics and decent ECs/nothing mindblowing when it comes to awards
* why you think you were accepted/rejected/defered: Wow, I love Mudd, but it looks like my decision will boil down to Caltech and Stanford (if I somehow make it in).
</code></pre>

<p>Other Factors: I got the Merit Award, which brought a big smile to my face. I think Mudd's a cool school.</p>

22

<p>My son was waitlisted also. For 2004 (listed in current US News online), 259 people were waitlisted, 33 accepted a spot on the waitlist, but nobody was actually enrolled from it.</p>

<p>With the increase in applications that all the colleges are reporting, it will be interesting to see what the yield numbers are and if the number of people getting off the waitlist changes this year.</p>

23

<p>Mud... hahaha. That's like dirt and water. Hahaha...</p>

24

<p>Decision: Accepted</p>

<p>Stats:[ul]
[<em>] SAT:2330
[</em>] SAT IIs:Math IIC-800 Chemistry-800 Physics-800
[<em>] GPA:3.82
[</em>] Rank:N/A
[<em>] Other stats:
[/ul]Subjective:[ul]
[</em>] Essays:I was really proud of my Common App essay, and my extra Harvey Mudd one was pretty good. Not perfect.
[<em>] Teacher Recs:Excellent- I had two great teachers whose class I had done well in. I also had both teachers for two years, so they know me well.
[</em>] Counselor Rec:Really enthusiastic recommendation, I think- He suggested Harvey Mudd to me, so he probably pushed me in this recommendation.
[<em>] Hook (if any):I did research over the summer at BU
[/ul]Location/Person:[ul]
[</em>] State or Country:NY
[<em>] School Type:Public
[</em>] Ethnicity:White
[<em>] Gender:Male
[/ul]Other Factors:[ul]
[</em>] Extracurriculars:President of Robotics Club, which does well in national competitions, Trombone, Piano, Tae Kwon Do
[<em>] Why I think I was accepted/deferred:Scores and recommendations. Also, I guess I'm an extremely well-rounded student, which Mudd says they're looking for.
[</em>] Other thoughts:I won't be enrolling here, as I was accepted to Caltech. However, congratulations to everyone that will be, this looks like a fantastic school.
[/ul]</p>

<p>EDIT:Fixed minor html glitches</p>

25

<p>hmm I still haven't gotten anything. Is there anyone else still waiting?</p>

26

<p>I noticed that on the letter of admission, the dean wrote a handwritten note about the research. I think it's considerate of her to write a personalized note on the accepted students' letters, and the sort of thing only a college as small as Harvey Mudd can provide. Of course, it also helps boost their yield...</p>

27

<p>I havnt gotten my mail yet. I live in Thailand, so when should i expect to get my mail?</p>

<p>Btw, the stats of ppl accepted looks incredible. congrats</p>

28

<p>Decision: Denied</p>

<p>Stats:[ul]
[<em>] Fee Waiver Used?: No, but I never paid the fee (I realized once I applied that it couldn't be paid online and I sort of decided that I wasn't going to go to HMC anyway)
[</em>] SAT I (by section): 760 Math, 680 CR, 650 Writing = 2090
[<em>] SAT IIs: 790 Math II, 700 Physics, 670 Chem
[</em>] ACT: 31/31 (Math 34/35, English 34/34)
[<em>] APs: Microecon: 3, Euro History: 2, Macroecon: 1
[</em>] IBs: Null
[<em>] GPA, Weighted and Unweighted: Weighted should be ~4.0 (I've taken probably 60% honors courses), Unwtd is 3.5ish
[</em>] Rank: 70s to 80s out of 330
[<em>] Senior Yr Courseload: Very large... tons of AP courses
[</em>] Number of Apps from Your School: Probably just me
[<em>] Other stats: Extracurriculars
[/ul]Subjective:[ul]
[</em>] ECs listed on app: Award for work of art in local show, NHS, Academic Letter, Honor Roll, Science Club officer, Art Club, etc.
[<em>] Job/Work Experience: Physics research (paid) at the University of Iowa over the summer
[</em>] Essays: Generally strong since this was my last app and I had the hang of it.
[<em>] Teacher Recs: Strong... all the teachers know me well
[</em>] Counselor Rec: Average
[<em>] Interview (feel and general location): Didn't Interview
[</em>] Hook (if any): The physics research
[/ul]Location/Person:[ul]
[<em>] State or Country: Iowa
[</em>] School Type: Public
[<em>] Ethnicity: White
[</em>] Gender: Male
[li] Why you think you were accepted/deferred/denied: Assuming they reviewed my app normally (and didn't just throw it out since I never paid), probably the GPA is a bit low.[/li][/ul]
General Comments/Congratulations/Venting/Commiserations,etc: I sort of want to meet a guy named Peter Osgood...</p>

29

<p>admiral, i'm curious as to why you choose caltech over harvey mudd. (i had the dilemma as well...hmc/mit/cit.) what field(s) are you looking into? i'm just curious.</p>

<p>btw, congrats on both!</p>

30

<p>treewannabe,
lol. dude, did you visit mudd? skating is like the biggest thing here!</p>

<p>btw, those are some sweet stats. i hope to see you next year at mudd.</p>

31

<p>What's bigger: skateboards or unicycles?</p>

<p>I'm very tempted to go to Mudd, but I'm scared of the courseload and the low GPA.</p>

32

<p>lol. yes, there are unicycles...but there only are 20-30 of them in regular use.
i did a study last semester and i found that roughly 23% of mudd students skateboard to class at least once a week. </p>

<p>As for the courseload-
My class (09) is the last class to have the traditional coursework. They are revamping academics (in particular the humanities, and changing the core CS requirement from Java to Python). They are making the load a little bit more flexible for the students. Your class will be the first. 8-9 classes per semester is a challenging load, especially when 7 of them are technical.</p>

<p>You know, to be quite honest, I hate and love Mudd at the same time. I emailed MIT to see if I could transfer last minute (last week) but unfortunately, I missed the deadline. Mudd is extremely difficult (probably still with the revamping as well). </p>

<p>You are lucky to get 5 hours a sleep a night--- infact that is a good night's sleep. Last night, I was very excited to get 6. A normal sleeping amount for frosh Sunday-Tuesday is 4 hours (hw till 3:30, up at 7:30, class at 8). Perhaps this is why my beard has gone formed white patches. Rest assured, however, you can sleep after class or on Thursdays and Fridays a lot. </p>

<p>Now for the reason I am still here--- You honestly receive an education that is unparalleled...virtually to anywhere. I know, deep down (thru the battered depression), that I am getting my money's worth...and that is saying a lot considering it is $44k/yr. People hype on their schools because they are proud...that is understandable. I hear a lot of crap... "UCB is so much better than Harvey Mudd. Infact, what kind of a name is Harvey Mudd?! Haha". Caltech students rip on you because they think that Mudd is a cheap imitation. It is not. In fact, Mudd has pulled up into the ranks (and beating) of MIT, Caltech, Harvard, Yale, and Stanford when our students compete against each-other in academic challenges.</p>

<p>Mudd is only an option for you if you are a strong enough to put aside pop-culture recognition and common prestige. I am a pretty resilient/tough person. I have done div I drumcorps, drumline for 4 years, worked at JPL, and got myself through school. I was the best in math/science (and in some fields of music) at my HS. I tutored the tutors.</p>

<p>When I got to Mudd, everything changed. You have to find it in yourself to not let an opportunity like Mudd slip through your fingers if you are able/willing to accept. You WILL get depressed. You WILL cry. You WILL think you are stupid. When you leave Mudd (even for breaks), you then realize how incredibly smart/sharp you are even to those that you revered genius before...those friends in HS who went to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, UC Berkeley.</p>

<p>Mudd is a bubble. It has some crazy phenomenon going on. People here are absolutely brilliant (60% are). This school is worthy of a movie script. Although it may be depressing to never see an "A" again, the rigor/talents of Mudd do not go unnoticed by graduate schools. As an example, a guy down the hall just got into UC Berkeley, Stanford ($170k fellowship), CalTech, and MIT for grad electrical engineering. </p>

<p>I guess it comes down to weighing:
Blissful Uncertainty vs Ass Kicking.</p>

33

<p>Hey, rocketDA.</p>

<p>I'm planning on majoring in chemistry. When I looked at lists of the schools with the best chemistry programs, Caltech seemed to be one of the strongest.</p>

<p>To be honest, I never gave Mudd enough thought. I considered it an excellent option, but not compared to schools like Caltech. Your last post made me rethink my choice a bit, but I still intend to go to Caltech.</p>

<p>First of all, I really want to do research as an undergraduate. Caltech has brilliant faculty, extremely advanced facilities, and a very low student-to-professor ratio. Harvey Mudd doesn't have a graduate school, which is a significant factor for me.</p>

<p>Secondly (and this is meant with no offense to HMC), from what I've heard, Caltech is a far prettier campus. While I like the near-LA location of both schools, I'd prefer Caltech's architechture. This is, of course, based only on college guides and students' opinions. I'll make my own judgement when I go to Pasadena for prefrosh weekend.</p>

<p>Also, as you noted, there's a difference in recognition that I can't bring myself to ignore. Of the three hundred kids in my high school, I think only three or four knew about Harvey Mudd before I told them about it. See, I go to a public school in New York- all kids talk about is the Ivies and other East Coast schools, plus a few flagship state universities. In fact, I've met a lot of seniors that haven't heard of Caltech. I just would have a hard time, every time someone asked me where I was going, saying "Harvey Mudd. It's a very small, extremely rigourous science school in California."</p>

<p>Still, I find Harvey Mudd a fascinating place... but would you mind telling me why you chose to go there over MIT/Caltech? I'm wondering what led to that decision.</p>

34

<p>rocketDA...yeah I did visit Mudd but it was in the summer...the only student I did see happened to be riding a skateboard but I have to wonder what's wrong with plain old walking when campus is so small...on a completely different note how is Mudd with need based aid? I would love to come but even with $10,000 in merit scholarship the cost would be heavy...</p>

35

<p>Admiral,
You bring up some good points about they differences between Mudd and CalTech. In my opinion, CalTech is by far a prettier campus, as you said...don't worry...we all know we go to an ugly school!
I'm afraid that there are a few things that are misleading in your undergraduate endeavors to pursue chemistry (more specifically, do research as an undergrad).
First, CalTech boasts a very low student to faculty ratio. It is something like 3-1 or 4-1. Unfortunately, they include research faculty in the count, which you will never interact with as an undergrad. (I know this because I actually just talked to my phyics lab professor today who is full-time research faculty at CalTech and is a visiting professor at Mudd but just decided to come to Mudd as a full-time professor.)
This leads me to my second point, which is that although CalTech is a world-famous research institute, that does not mean that undergrads are guaranteed any research during their four years. CalTech gets most of their money and prestige from the grad school, not the undergrads. You will be taught heavily by TA's, like my physics lab professor (when she was doing grad at CalTech).
While CalTech has astounding facilities, they neglect to tell you that 90% of it is off limits to undergrad. I know this from talking to my prof and because I worked at JPL (paid by CalTech) 2 summers ago. This issue is swept under the carpet for undergrad. (As I understand, there are a few acceptions from time to time though.)
Point 3 (or 4)- Harvey Mudd currently has the highest percentage of chemistry grads who go on to get PhD's in the nation, including CalTech. (I do believe this source says 80% <a href="http://www.chem.hmc.edu/www_common/chemistry/prospective/intro06.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.chem.hmc.edu/www_common/chemistry/prospective/intro06.htm&lt;/a> ) Although Mudd is not recognized by the general public, it has sent shock waves to the grad schools.</p>

<p>Here is the biggie- Mudd requires Clinic, CalTech does not have Clinic. If you want to talk about real research of real-life problems, you are required to do at least 1 year of this at Harvey Mudd. </p>

<p>General Research:
<a href="http://www.chem.hmc.edu/www_common/chemistry/research/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.chem.hmc.edu/www_common/chemistry/research/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>I can't find a link for chemistry Clinic right now. I'm sorry.</p>

<p>I'm an engineer, so I'm sure I have different criterion for school. I wanted somewhere that I could do undergraduate research and somewhere that I could talk personally to profs and such. With that, I thought (and think) Mudd is a better choice.</p>

36

<p>Treewannabe,
If you have need based aid, Mudd will probably fulfill it. You are lucky to get the merit based aid....on top of that, if you have need, you could be looking at a near full ride.</p>

37

<p>Rocket-</p>

<p>I didn't know about "clinic"- could you enlighten me on that at all?</p>

<p>While I did know the stats about graduate school and Harvey Mudd (and this impressive fact about PhDs was one of the reasons I became interested), the number of students that end up at graduate schools isn't necessarily the best indicator. Note that I don't mean that the quality of the grad schools is different- I'm well aware that Harvey Mudd is taken very seriously by grad schools, and they end up at many of the best. I actually got a chance to speak to a professor of Physical Chemistry at Harvard, and asked specifically about HMC. She assured me that GSAS at Harvard often accepts Mudders, and is aware of the school's academic excellence.</p>

<p>Your thoughts have been very helpful, thank you. You've convinced me to visit Harvey Mudd during my trip to LA for Caltech's prefrosh weekend. I'll see just how ugly the school really is... :-)</p>

<p>One more question, if you don't mind answering it- what do you think about the experience specific to Claremont colleges? Do you know people who register for classes at other Claremont schools?</p>

38

<p>ACCEPTED- However, I'm really surprised about it...it's led me to believe that HMC perhaps isn't as selective as it's made out to be (GPA/rank is of most concern)? Maybe that's because the yield isn't very high. Then again, I haven't been offered aid since I didn't submit the FAFSA (and probably wouldn't get much merit-based aid anyway), and I put my top majors biochem/chem.</p>

<p>Stats:
2200 SAT (750verbal, 720math, 730 writing)
770 Math2, 760chem, 760 U.S. Hist, 740bio
Rank: 30/739
GPA: 3.67UW, 4.08 W...then 1st semester sr year grades: 3.67 UW, 4.5 W. In fact, I've had straight Bs in math besides one C in 1st semester of calc..and 1 A in the 2nd..and a B in 1st semester of calcBC
AP tests: 5 calcAB, 5chem, 5bio, 5euro, 4 USHist, 4 English Lang.&Comp
Schedule: 2 APs soph yr. 5 junior, 5 senior
Essays/Recs- I figured they were pretty standard.
Awards/ECs- pretty standard too..no math/science competitions besides science olympiad and quiz bowl</p>

<p>I should probably talk to some more people about HMC, since up until now, UCB(if i get in)/UCLA have been my choices. Soo do give some reasons to go :D. RocketDA and radioactivepb (in the questions thread) have been quite informative. </p>

<p>Current Mudders/prospective ones- What made you choose HMC? Which schools were your other choices? How do you feel about your decision? Do you wish there were more exposure to humanities (that's one of my concerns)..and um, scared of the brilliant people and work haha</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

39

<p>wow now i'm confused...</p>

<p>i have stats that are nearly identical to hallo88, yet i got waitlisted.
then again, UC Berkeley gave me regents so there's really nothing to complain about. </p>

<p>hey hallo88, i'll trade you my Berkeley regents for your Harvey Mudd acceptance!</p>

40

<p>


</p>

<p>gosh that really is strange O.o (I am a female..maybe that did something?). Sure, we could trade, that could work for me! And if your stats are nearly identical to mine, then it's curious how they choose for regents. I thought all those people are like..near perfect SATs/GPAs. </p>

<p>I'm afraid though of what I may miss out on either way--going to a well-known public school, or a small, rigorous private school...social life/atmosphere vs. attention/research & internship opportunities and the chance to become the very best you can because of the rigorous environment. Any thoughts on it?</p>