<p>Early August is probably the worst time to visit in terms of smog. The temperatures get lower as the year goes on, and the rain keeps the air cleaner in the spring. The smog is definitely not visually attractive, but the only time that I’ve found the air to be even remotely hard to breathe was when the foothills were on fire two years ago. Granted, my hometown is 5000 feet higher than Claremont, so I may simply be accustomed to being deprived of good oxygen. </p>
<p>I worried about my Mudder son who has asthma, but he has had no problem at all with the air quality. The fires were an issue a few years ago, but the air quality hasn’t been any issue. The heat in August is bad, but the cold desert nights and the dry air are wonderful for anyone with allergies.</p>
<p>The campus isn’t beautiful, pretty, etc, but it’s not at all dumpy. The beat up furniture and the pirate flag stuff is mostly outside of West, giving that dorm its hard-earned reputation of being badass.</p>
<p>Someone mentioned that the dorms are dumpy, as in “As parents we thought the Mudd dorms were the worst we’d ever toured. But truly it was a non-factor for my son. He liked the geeky vibe.” Geeky vibe - yes. Worst you’ve ever toured? I suppose that depends on the other schools you toured… but unless your only comparison is Olin and a Hilton hotel room, and you toured Linde after a major party night, I don’t believe this is a common conclusion. For reference, my dad and I toured 27 campuses (no I’m not kidding) before choosing Mudd and I looked at the interiors of at least 15 of them. I would put the dorms in Mudd to be somewhere between #3 to #7, with Olin’s and Colorado School of Mines’ freshman housing on top of the list, and low-end CU Boulder dorm and a filthy MIT dorm room on the bottom. Also consider that Mudd’s housekeeping comes by to vacuum, wash windows, clean bathrooms, etc every week. There are FAR worse alternatives!</p>
<p>Its been several years since we toured Mudd, but I do recall being disappointed at the appearance of the buildings. The rest of the Claremont consortium is much prettier, and its still a great place to go and a wonderful educational opportunity.</p>
<p>I think I was the parent posted in quote #23. </p>
<p>We did tour many college campuses (including CO School of Mines and Olin. And CalTech too which I thought was fine). In retrospect I suspect our concern about Mudd dorms had to do with the fact that the tourguide showed us his own dorm - it was not a “model” as seen on many tours. And it was reallly trashed. My impression at the time was they dorms were windowless and w/o AC, but I’ve since learned there is AC. </p>
<p>None of the above mattered to my son. He probably thought the outside couches were appealing even though a turn-off to me/parent.</p>
<p>Also remembered… some schools (including MIT and FPI) did not let us inside dorms, I think due to “security reasons” and/or campus logistics… So we only saw outside of the dorms.</p>
<p>Mudd dorms do , indeed, all have AC and windows. We saw a fairly small, random assortment of ‘sample dorm rooms’ along our tour time, and at Mudd, a real dorm room. It seemed about average to me. My son’s room now seems quite reasonable.</p>
<p>My new Mudder’s room (in the oldest dorm on campus) is definitely a dump (with a good AC), but it’s not much different from what I had when I was in school. I don’t think my unemployed 18 year old needs to live in a palace. He has great furniture. And no matter how nice the room is, once he moved in it would be a dump anyway. At least it has swipe cards instead of keys.</p>
<p>You should also definitely check out the Scripps Scholars program next door at Scripps. My niece is having a nice portionofthe tuition covered by the program for 4 years. If I had a daughter with these interests it would be a huge attraction.</p>
At least it has swipe cards instead of keys.</p>![http://www.hmc.edu/building/images/fancybox/courtyard2.jpg[/url]](http://www.hmc.edu/building/images/fancybox/courtyard2.jpg%5B/url%5D){kind=link}
