Carnegie Mellon vs. Harvey Mudd

<p>Hey guys; Im an international applicant and i have to pick between Carnegie Mellon and Harvey Mudd. From whatever I know of the 2, im pretty unsure where I would be best off (though im leaning a little towards CM) but I really need some help in deciding where I should go. Please give your opinion of both cos Im really really very confused!</p>

<p>harvey mudd= good weather
also part of 5 college consurtium
only focused on undergraduate, so YOU get all the attention, and oppurtunities in research.</p>

<p>I always wanted to attend a highly tech-focused university where there were about equal amounts of guys and girls. Mudd’s ratio, last I checked (and this is blatantly obvious on campus as well) is 4:1, guy-girl. Carnegie’s is a little less than 50/50 (I think it’s 40/60). This, I feel, lends the school a greater sense of diversity.</p>

<p>I live nearby and have a lot of friends that have attended HM. They say it has the feel of a small-school environment-- in other words, gossip travels like wildfire. Relationships, drama, theatrics, et cetera. I’m not entirely sure I’d want to experience that; it sounds like High School 2.0.</p>

<p>Popking, my daughter and I visited both Mudd and CMU. She ended up not even applying to Mudd because of Core. So first thing you need to do is understand their Core requirements (which did get relaxed for next year I believe) and decide if that’s for you. After that, environmentally the two schools are very different. </p>

<p>Mudd is in a warm climate in a small town and is a tiny college. CMU is in a somewhat lousy climate in a large city and is a medium sized college.</p>

<p>Mudd has the consortium colleges to take supplemental courses from but is really a technical school. CMU has several different schools which are each strong providing a lot of diversity on the same campus.</p>

<p>One thing CMU lacks vs the Claremont consortium is the stellar liberal arts Pomona provides. CMU does, however, have a highly ranked and extremely selective School of Fine Arts that provides another dimension of diversity. Also, UPitt is about a 10 minute walk. Even if you never take a course there, add 20,000 Pitt students to 10,000 (incl grad) CMU students and you have a substantial student base in a busy, interesting, cosmopolitan section of Pittsburgh (Oakland).</p>

<p>Precisely because of their grad programs and numerous institutes on campus, research opportunities are plentiful. </p>

<p>Yeah the weather’s not the best.</p>

<p>“I always wanted to attend a highly tech-focused university where there were about equal amounts of guys and girls. Mudd’s ratio, last I checked (and this is blatantly obvious on campus as well) is 4:1, guy-girl. Carnegie’s is a little less than 50/50 (I think it’s 40/60). This, I feel, lends the school a greater sense of diversity.”</p>

<p>Um… Mudd is about 40/60 as well. Maria Klawe (the president) has apparently made huge efforts to balance it out and it’s sitting around 40/60 right now according to the class profiles. Definitely not 4:1.</p>

<p>In what area are you interested? Other than CS, I think Mudd wins hands down in terms of quality. CS is a tougher call, but Mudd was still my son’s first choice. Any issues with size and girls is offset by the 5 Cs, and it is closer to 60/40 right now. Mudd is great if you want an environment where you have close relationships with the profs and your classmates.</p>

<p>Sorry should have been clearer…I want to do an engineering major. Im trying to be as unbiased as possible cos its a really big financial commitment for me and i really need to know which is better. Thanks for the help</p>

<p>HM will be very different than most other schools since I believe they only offer the General Engineering degree (or something of that sort) with a small couple of concentrations. At CMU you’ll probably have a lot more academic freedom to choose courses (we have a very lax core), and be able to really concentrate in whatever field you’re interested in. I’m not sure if HM is on trimesters/quarters, but that might be something to consider as well. If you’re someone that needs time for info to sink in/absorb, 10 week quarters are brutal. I’ve had both now, and I like semesters waaaaaaay better.</p>

<p>Either school is a great institution, it really comes down to how you want your college experience to be.</p>

<p>Well after a decent amount of thought Im pretty sure CMU is the best for me. I dont really find Harvey Mudd’s core appealing though the weather and size are big pluses. Thanks for all the help guys and while youre at it, could someone tell me if international students get merit scholarships from CMU on admission? I searched every corner of the website and it seems as if it doesnt but the commonapp asks if (being international) I would require a scholarship from CMU. I STILL havent got my fat letter and ive been squirming in anticipation for a while now… :s</p>