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<li><p>Yes, there is a writing intensive freshman course. The core has changed a little bit since I got here, but she will definitely be taking a writing oriented course with <20 people. </p></li>
<li><p>There isn’t really a library at Mudd anymore. Sprague, the tall building at the end of campus is now a “teaching and learning building”. It has a few dual-boot macs, nice ergonomic chairs, a bunch of white boards, and couches with little rest thingies to put your notebook/laptop on (instead of on your lap). It just got remodeled last summer and is an AWESOME place to work, in part because the frosh are too silly to have learned how to study in ac-end yet, and the upperclassmen forget that it exists (I’m a junior and practically live in Sprague these days. It’s awesome, and I shouldn’t be letting people know about it so it will stay relatively quiet). The second and third floors are locked and reserved for CS and Math clinics, respectively.</p></li>
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<p>As for libraries, the 5C library (Honnold-Mudd) isn’t too far away, and it’s a decent place to do work too. They even have an “absolute silence” floor, which I quite frankly find <em>too</em> quiet for my taste. All of the books that used to be in Sprague are now in Honnold-Mudd. Also, the ground floor there is a cafe that has really tasty food that you can buy with your flex dollars (including cheesecake! andbagelsandcoffeeandwrapsandsushiand…), but it’s a pretty loud environment to try to do work in. There’s also Denison library at Scripps, which looks like it came straight out of Harry Potter. It has slightly weird hours, but it’s a pretty cool place (I just discovered it this semester, and wish I had known that Mudders were allowed in there earlier).</p>
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<li>There is no “student union” at Mudd, though I’m not really sure what that’s supposed to mean. The LAC has a gym, weight room, computer lab, coffee station, massage chair ping pong/ice hockey/pool, movies, and a ton of random stuff that we’re allowed to check out (for example: marshmallow skewers, nerf guns, board games). I’m probably missing something. But quite frankly, the LAC is pretty underused. I only hang out in the LAC about once a year. </li>
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<p>The central hangout place is probably Platt. If you went on a tour they probably took you there - it’s the big room with all the nice brown leather couches, and the tables + whiteboards in the back. There are people there doing homework at all hours of the night, but the location isn’t very conducive to actually getting work done efficiently. When I go there I expect to get caught up in random conversations and trip to Jay’s Place (the food place just downstairs). People also play board games and D&D there on weekends (as well as a few week nights). The dance team hosts salsa night there every other week or so (the couches are pushed aside to reveal the wooden, but sometimes sticky and not good for your nice dance shoes, dance floor). There are practice rooms in Platt too, so if you’re musician it’s pretty convenient. When I was in piano lessons I would run into other piano players and random friends all the time on the way to the practice rooms, and we’d hang out and work in Platt later on.</p>
<p>The other social center is the inner dorms. Most of them are pretty open to anyone walking in, especially if you start dropping by during the first few weeks of school so they get used to you. West usually has a fire going in their courtyard and people hang out there. Lots of people hang out in East’s lounge, and you can typically find people there who will be happy to join you in a board game or card game (yes they have homework in their lap, but Easties are very distractable when presented with anything else to do!). The partying type will go to North on the later nights of the week to play beer pong and hang out. Things happen in South too, but there isn’t as much of a guarantee that you can find people in the lounge or courtyard.</p>
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<li>That is a tricky question. I imagine it’s a lot harder to get to know people if you are placed in an Atwood Suite as a frosh. That said, I think they normally try to take that into consideration and place people in there who will be willing to wander to the inner dorms and elsewhere to find new friends. Atwood frosh can also hang out with other Atwood frosh - after all, there is a dorm lounge that they can take over (same is true of Sontag and Linde. In fact, Sontag’s lounge is frequently taken over by its frosh residents). For the upperclassmen in the suite, meeting people isn’t that big of a deal. They’ve already found their friends, and they pulled this suite with some of them, so they’re happy. They’ll probably either visit people in other dorms (if they have an inner dorm connection, they might try to get their frosh involved with that dorm) or always have a bunch of friends in that suite. Atwood, Sontag, and Linde all have the potential to be the loneliest of dorms for the freshman, but each year I’ve only seen a couple of people who look like they were really limited by their location. </li>
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<p>It’s impossible to tell whether Mudd is a good fit for someone just based on a blog post. However, the fact that she “didn’t want to leave” and doesn’t appear to have been turned off by anything is probably a good sign. The administration definitely puts on a show for the students, which can be a bit of a problem, but hopefully she spent some time wandering the campus on her own last night (or played frisbee or ITR games, both of which have current students and give a pretty good picture of Mudd life, in my opinion). My final choice was down to an east coast school (University of Virginia) and Mudd as well. The schools were so different, but it was ridiculously hard for me to decide for who knows what reason (it might have helped if I had gone to ASP…). Best of luck with the decision!</p>
<p>(Sorry about the length of this post. I just wrote whatever came to mind, and I’m not going to edit it because I really should stop procrastinating on sleep)</p>