Hi! I’m a senior and I’m trying to narrow down my college list. I want to major in computer science, and obviously Mudd’s amazing in STEM, but Pomona also have very strong academics and everyone says that CS is a field where it doesn’t matter where you got your degree as long as you have experience. I attended Harvey Mudd’s WISTEM program where I got to stay on campus for 3 days and sleep in a dorm and everything and while I love the school, I also found the other colleges very endearing. The only college where I wouldn’t be interested in applying is CMC, because it’s a little too conservative for me. I don’t find Pitzer too appealing either just because I don’t really have a reason to like it enough to want to off-major if that makes sense. When I was at Mudd, Pomona was the college that I didn’t really get to see, but the campus is bigger than Mudd’s, and it seemed like the students were more preppy. I also really liked Scripps. The campus is so, so beautiful and I’m also looking at other women’s colleges here in the northeast (Bryn Mawr, Smith, Mount Holyoke). From what I’ve gathered from their website, I could off-major in CS at either Mudd or Pomona and I feel like the benefits of attending a women’s college would be enough for me to want to major at a different school (even if it’s just across the street).
Can anyone offer me some help on how to decide which colleges to apply to? Some more insight on how the culture and social scenes differ would be helpful. I live in NJ, so visiting again is off the table.
I’m a big fan on the Claremont Colleges — I have a D at Scripps and an S at Mudd. If you like all three colleges (and have the stats), then I’d recommend applying to all 3. I don’t think you could go wrong at any of them. Of course each has a different “vibe” and each has different core requirements. Maybe look at those to help you decide. Obviously at Mudd, you will be taking a lot of STEM courses as your core–bio, chem, physics, math, and CS regardless of your major. (If you love CS but hope to never take another bio or chem class, then Mudd wouldn’t be a good choice). Mudd has a big “dorm culture” but the dorms themselves are nothing to brag about (except, I assume the new one—haven’t checked it out) while Scripps has beautiful dorms which large living rooms. Obviously, at Scripps, there is a lot of emphasis on women’s topics and issues that wouldn’t be as prevalent elsewhere. These are just a few examples of little things that might help you make a final decision, but if you generally like all 3 why not apply to all 3 of them?
Think about finances as well. Run the NPC’s on each and see how you do. Mudd and Scripps also offer scholarships (though very competitive), while Pomona does not. All of them meet need, however.
Feel free to PM me if you have specific questions.
I agree with the above suggestion: if you love all three, then why not apply to all three? Is your college list already quite large? Right now I already see 6 colleges and I suspect you have more on your mind.
Yes, it’s way too long for me to apply to all of them. I really need to start visiting the ones on the east coast, and I’m planning on that bringing the number down, so I’m more concerned with narrowing down the colleges that I wouldn’t be able to visit unless I got in (any not in the northeast) which I got down to 6. I’d like to at least rule one of them out (I’m thinking 5 northeast/5 farther away?). I guess I should go back to research xD