<p>I realize that I've been posting similar threads all over the place, but I have two days to decide on college and I'd like to clear up a few issues.</p>
<p>How accepting and supportive is the social environment at U.Chicago compared to the scenes at liberal art colleges such as Harvey Mudd?</p>
<p>a) outside the classroom -- do students have friends? how segregated is the student population in terms of interests and class?</p>
<p>b) inside the classroom -- does competition for grades make people cutthroat about competition or do people get along and help each other?</p>
<p>My son is a sophomore at Mudd, and his best friend (girl) is at U of Chicago.</p>
<p>He loves Mudd. He loves the hard work, the socializing, the intensity, the crazy fun. Realize that at Mudd you are on a nice sized campus (all the Claremont campus is contiguous) in a smallish town east of LA. At U of Ch you are right in the BIG city of Chicago (and actually the neighborhood is a bit sketchy). That is a very different thing.</p>
<p>My son has made terrific friends. He has an paid internship for the summer at USC that he is excited about. I know that his friend likes U of Ch a great deal, but the timing for that school is really different from almost every other schools (she is the last one to leave in Sept., as school doesn’t start until about the third week of Sept), and her vacation breaks are always off kilter with everyone elses.</p>
<p>The weather in LA is really quite fantastic. Chicago can be bitterly cold.</p>
<p>Have you visited? What kind of vibe did you get? When my son visited Mudd it really made his decision for him. Let me know if you want to contact him/her for more Q’s.</p>
<p>One more thing: the first term at Mudd is pass/no pass, which sets the stage for the rest of the time there. People work in groups constantly (it seems every time I call my son he is studying with a group). Group study is incredibly important and encouraged, so you are all in it together. Students are really proud of the accomplishments of other students, which is really cool.</p>
<p>Everything that ElphDriver says about her son’s experience at Mudd I would say about my kids’ experience at Chicago, except for the nice weather part. </p>
<p>They have lots of friends. Class (college or socioeconomic) means little or nothing. One of my kids mainly hangs out with people whose academic (and music, and social) interests are similar to hers, except that for two years her housemate / one of her closest friends was diametrically different in almost every respect. The other kid mainly hangs out with people who share one of several separate extra-curricular interests (a sports team, theater, Scav Hunt); their academic interests and social styles are all over the lot. Both kids also have stayed friends with a few people they knew only because of being in the same House first year.</p>
<p>My kids love being in the city of Chicago. A place like Pasadena would almost be a deal-breaker for them. They have no interest in being in an upscale suburb right now, no matter how charming.</p>
<p>Cut-throat competition, as far as I can tell, is nonexistent, even in pre-med classes. There is lots of collaborative work, and tons of pride in other students’ accomplishments. Intellectual one-upsmanship, however, definitely exists, despite lots of collective effort to damp it down.</p>
<p>And, of course, unlike Mudd, at Chicago no one is studying engineering. “Engineering” is even sort of a dirty word, shorthand for “vocational training we don’t do here”. One of the college’s many self-deprecating mottos is “That’s fine in practice, but how does it work in theory?” Of course, that’s a joke, but it’s only funny because it reflects an attitude that actually exists.</p>
<p>S1 came down to Chicago vs. Mudd last year. Would have been VERY happy at either school. The collaborative atmosphere and lack of cutthroat competition at both schools was a big factor in why these two schools made it to the final round.</p>
<p>Mudd has a bit more of a safety net because of its size – if you are having personal or academic troubles, someone will reach out. Chicago has amazing resources for these things, but it’s up to you to seek them. S loved the faculty at both and felt he would get a lot of personal attention. Socially, Mudd and Chicago are similar, yet different.</p>
<p>S wanted a stellar math program at a school that truly valued the humanities. He felt that he’d get that at Chicago and via the consortium at Mudd. S landed a research spot at another top school for the summer, but feels that the opportunity was there for him to take whether he was at Mudd or Chicago.</p>
<p>Weather was not a factor for him. Nor was distance. </p>
<p>S1 is into theory; engineering – not so much. He felt Chicago would force him outside of his social comfort zone and make him grow more as a person. (I’m not so sure that has been the case; as S2 wisely pointed out after spending a weekend at Chicago with S1, S1 clearly has found friends who share his quirky social vibe.)</p>