Can I get into Mudd without being a genius?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Harvey Mudd College
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<p>Hey, </p>

<p>after reading some of the people's profiles asking if they'd be admitted, it seemed kind of scary. I know everyone at mudd is smart, but are they all geniuses?</p>

<p>For me, my freshman year was crap- 3.5 GPA, they offered no Honors or APs..</p>

<p>Then i transfered to a catholic prep school. I got some Bs.</p>

<p>My weighted GPA is 4.2, my unweighted is 3.7. I've taken a total of 4 APs, and 3 honors.
My math course Is AP Calculus BC, and my science course is Honors Physics. I'm a Junior.</p>

<p>I have yet to take the SATs.</p>

<p>My extracurriculars:</p>

<p>Youth Group
JSA
Newspaper
I was a part time manager for the football team, ran with
the cross country team over the summer, and played jv soccer.
I do Community Service by tutoring at some impoverished elementary schools.
I started the chess club at my school (It's a new school, I will be in the first graduating class)
Student Council
Enviormental Club (Co-founder)
I want to start a Robotics club
I am the blood drive coordinator
I'm in the art club
I want to do sports my senior year (Varisty Tennis?)
and get the Academic Honors Society started at my school</p>

<p>I have had a part-time job doing an internship in human resources over the summer
I have county chess awards
I'm entering my drawings and poetry for awards and publication
And I plan to take a summer program in either engineering/robotics or physics</p>

<p>Considering my graduating class has about 60 kids, I don't know if ill be in the top 10%, although i should. Some of the students are applying to harvard and top notch schools, so its a big competition.</p>

<p>Looking at what others have posted.. i don't feel as secure as I had about being accepted at harvey mudd.. Would i not be a good fit? I've heard a lot about it and it's definitely a school I would love to attend. By the way, I am female if that means anything regarding this.</p>

2

<p>Correction, AP Calculus AB. I'm in a class of 5 kids haha. I skipped precalculus too..</p>

<p>I'm taking BC or the college equivalent next year if they don't offer it at my school.</p>

3

<p>I would say that the majority of students at HMC are geniuses by the common definitions (>135 IQ, top 2% in IQ, etc). If you're already worried about the intelligence of your peers, I would suggest not coming to Mudd. You're going to be competing (in context of the curve) against some very smart people for grades in very difficult classes.</p>

<p>Right now I would say HMC is a reach for you. However, you should post a thread in the chances forum once you get your SAT scores.</p>

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<p>Oh come on. Nobody who got into Mudd from my school was a <em>genius</em>. That definitely includes me. Let's not toss around compliments too quickly, or the term "genius" becomes really meaningless. I know a Mudd physics graduate + some who went there in my year + others like myself who just got in, and none of them qualifies as a genius. Same with Caltech...they're very high scoring, good students, and far beyond the level of the tests like AP Physics and AP Calculus.</p>

<p>Then again, I rest my case because they may very well be geniuses by the common definition...my advice is not to refrain from going to Mudd, rather to try to overcome your fear and realize you can be very smart.</p>

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<p>Yeah, if you take your average student at some big name private school to be "smart" then Mudd students are probably geniuses....probably much higher scoring, etc.</p>

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<p>"Genius" is a very loaded term. By some definitions of IQ, yes, anything above 135 is a genius, however, this is not the usual usage.</p>

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<p>I have posted many times that, for instance, private schools like the standard HYPS category grow increasingly more wary of accepting what are classified as "purely intellectual" students. I.e., without anything else like EC's. I think HMC is likely to be a more forgiving of these types, and in fact encourages them. Hence, I think the percentage of students who're overall quite academically oriented [beyond just a few laughs and good scores and grades] will be fairly high.</p>

<p>Then again, I think if someone is really into math, science and engineering, just going to that environment can trigger him/her to become more academic, if that's what they want.</p>

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<p>no chance lol jk idk i think everyone has some sort of a shot</p>

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<p>I think we're all being a bit silly by not asking Blackroses what she means by "genius" in the first place. Obviously, it is probably unlikely even a single HMC student is going to be the next Terence Tao. Unlikely, I'd say, in any university in the world =]</p>

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<p>I think you are all being a bit silly by actually debating what "genius" means.</p>

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<p>I believe that Mudd requires completion of BC Calc prior to matriculation. (Check the website to see if they have changed this policy, but that was the case last year, and the admissions folks doing HS visits made that very clear as well.) If they accept you, you'll have to take a summer class to catch up. Mudd also offers a summer math program for incoming freshmen, I believe.</p>

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<p>Thanks guys for your responses, they're helpful. I understand you should finish Calculus BC before going there, and I will have, so no worries there.</p>

<p>As for what "genius" means... I just meant extremely smart out of this work kind of people, who are extremely academic oriented. But I guess that's still a bit of a broad description- I guess I'll just see what the people are like when I tour there and sit in on a class. :]</p>

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<p>Hm, now you gave a characterization of that, I can answer that I'm certain there will be <em>some</em> who'll meet your characterization in any good school you look at. I think most undergrads at my school are pretty normal, just good students...but there's the share of top students who're just REALLY REALLY academic and naturally into it, the kinds you cannot possibly see not getting a Ph.D., and destined to go into academia. </p>

<p>And Seiken, I think having her specify what she means is a good idea because while I certainly agree it's horrible to toss a term like that around lightly, one might as well figure out what she's asking if a legitimate answer is to be given.</p>

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<p>I'd say roughly 15% of Mudders are geniuses. I'd say about 3% are prodigious savants.</p>

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<p>
[quote]
Oh come on. Nobody who got into Mudd from my school was a <em>genius</em>. That definitely includes me. Let's not toss around compliments too quickly, or the term "genius" becomes really meaningless. I know a Mudd physics graduate + some who went there in my year + others like myself who just got in, and none of them qualifies as a genius. Same with Caltech...they're very high scoring, good students, and far beyond the level of the tests like AP Physics and AP Calculus.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Note that I said "by the common definitions". A Majority of Mudd (,Caltech, MIT, Olin) students have >135 IQ.</p>

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<p>Sure, I also agreed with you that by the common definition, this may be true. Whatever the heck "common definition" is =] I definitely didn't know such a definition existed.</p>

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<p>Things might have changed a whole lot, but I graduated from Mudd class of 2000, and I am nothing close to a genius. Am I in the upper echelon of the population in terms of intelligence? I suppose, but to me, a genius is someone for whom difficult material and concepts just come to naturally and without a lot of effort. I didn't know many people like that when I was at Mudd.</p>

<p>I'm a high school math teacher now, and one of my calculus BC kids applied to Mudd early decision and she got in! I don't mean this as a slight at all, but she's not a 'genius' either. However she's extremely bright, and socially well-adjusted (which is something that's not THAT common at Mudd), friendly, and involved in a lot of extra-curriculars. I'm happy that Mudd isn't just looking for raw numbers on a transcript and continues to look at each student as a whole.</p>

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<p>I like your comment, thank you. =]</p>

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<p>"I suppose, but to me, a genius is someone for whom difficult material and concepts just come to naturally and without a lot of effort. I didn't know many people like that when I was at Mudd."</p>

<p>Yeah this coincides with my opinion of those accepted. There are surely geniuses out there, but there ain't many, and chances are they're scattered. It's highly unlikely in my books that there is a single school in the U.S. where most students are geniuses...there are those of FAR higher level than even your standard image of a very smart student, but geniuses are far and few. I'd brush this off as whimsical use of terminology, but honestly we should at least preserve the integrity of the term to an extent.</p>