<p>Here is a little interpretation.</p>
<p>Harvey Mudd, MIT and Caltech all get very strong students.</p>
<p>Both Caltech and Harvey Mudd are small.</p>
<p>Since MIT is larger it can offer introductory courses at more than one level.
For this reason it can take care of the most advanced students
while also providing a quality education to just the very smart.
For this reason MIT can take a somewhat wider range of student
and it would appear that it has been able to diversify the class while
it maintains an excellent program for all admitted.</p>
<p>Caltech is in a more difficult situation. It should admit some of the most brilliant
students in the country, students who would not likely end up at Harvey Mudd.
Since it is so small it really cannot drop too far from such a high level. It will certainly
admit students who would also be a good fit with Mudd and some of these students
may be better off going to Mudd. It cannot however take all of the students who
would go to MIT because in the Caltech environment some of these students would
not succeed.</p>
<p>Mudd is in some ways like Caltech in the sense that it does not have different
levels of classes. On the other hand it probably does not get too many
of the students who would be in the top 20% of Caltech. This allows for a little more
room in choosing students who perhaps did not have certain opportunities in high school.
These students may have a good chance to get into MIT but not Caltech.</p>
<p>In the past it may have been a bad decision to take these students because the core was long and difficult at Mudd as it is at Caltech. However with the change in the core and the addition
of a couple of courses in calculus and chemistry for those that need extra help
Mudd is able to reach a somewhat more diverse group. </p>
<p>In the data this shows up as the increase in the percentage that score below 700
on the Math SAT. Of course it would be better to also have data on the SAT Math subject test but I do not know where to find that data.</p>
<p>I should say that I think that in many ways this is a good move on the part of Harvey Mudd.
It is also a dynamic process. With a greater percentage of women on the Mudd campus
the school will become attractive to a wider set of students some of who may not have
wanted to attend the school before. This makes it difficult to predict the mix of students
Mudd will be able to attract in the future.</p>