<p>My s is considering Harvey Mudd, but before we trek halfway across the country to visit it, I was hoping to get some insight from current students about the impact of HM being part of the Claremont consortium.</p>
<p>My s is very high-achieving in math and science, but is looking for a good liberal arts experience--as distinct from being immersed in a nothing-but-science-matters atmosphere. So he's not interested in engineering schools like MIT, and is strongly considering good LACs like Grinnell. The advantage to HM is that it has the high-level science and math of an engineering school but it's also part of the Claremont system. So (at least on paper) lots of access to classes--and classmates--who aren't exclusively tecchies. (And, yes the unfavorable male/female ratio at engineering schools matters to him too.)</p>
<p>But is this really how it is? I understand the various Claremont schools share the same campus, but do they really interact? Or do they, in practice, operate (academically, socially, whatever) as separate little worlds? </p>
<p>Thanks for any advice you can offer.</p>
<p>Socially there is a very high level of interaction between the schools. Every weekend I find myself going to multiple campuses for parties. A lot of parties are "5C" meaning they are for every college, no matter which campus hosts them. And plenty of people show up from every college. I usually eat at another school's dinning hall probably 5 times a week (especially on the weekends when my friends and I will go off campus for a more prolonged meal).</p>
<p>I'm just a frosh, but it seems to me like there is a decent amount of academic interaction. I know people in some of my classes are from the other 4 schools. And right now we're choosing our 2nd semester humanities class and we can take it at any school, and there's tons of options.</p>
<p>Most people interact and have friends at other schools. It's like your own school is your family and the other schools are groups of friends. That's the best analogy I can think of.</p>
<p>Thanks for your very helpful reply. I'll pass it on to my son.</p>
<p>My S is also a freshman, and his take on the interaction between the 5Cs is similar to that of atomicfusion. </p>
<p>He'll be taking two Hum classes at Pomona in the Spring semester.</p>
<p>I think there is less interaction with HMC among the 5C's because it's more geographically isolated, and more importantly, because HMCers study all the time (not a bad thing.) That being said, HMC still enjoys the benefits of the 5C's and contributes in many ways to the other colleges (parties, etc.). Also, HMC has historically had a good relationship with Scripps.</p>
<p>If your son wants to make sure he isn't smothered by an "all math/science, all the time" environment, he should consider Pitzer or Claremont McKenna, which share an AMAZING Joint Science program with Scripps. PZ and CMC are much more "liberal artsy" than HMC.</p>
<p>Harvey Mudd is not an "all math/science, all the time" environment at all. What makes HMC unique is that we must take plenty of Hum classes too. Our students are generally more well rounded than the students at tech schools like MIT and Caltech. Harvey Mudd is about as focused on liberal arts as a tech school can get.</p>
<p>Honestly I just can't see how you can recommend Pitzer or CMC for science if the OP's son weren't absolutely in love with those schools. Harvey Mudd is considered one of the best colleges in the nation for science, while those two aren't on the radar at all.</p>
<p>I meant that relative to other true liberal arts colleges, HMC is very math/science oriented.</p>