Yes, you know your kid best and good point about resilient engineers, although I wouldn’t blame any of them for whining about social isolation in a pandemic. A little empathy from the Dean would have been appropriate! Well, glad he’s starting afresh this fall. Rose Hulman managed Covid very well as you probably know 
OP here … Our older son loved Rose from the moment he set foot on the campus, did Catapult and still loved it (so much so he almost didn’t apply anywhere else), and then at the last minute decided to go to WPI for purely location-related reasons; we live in MA, and he had an unrelated opportunity that really required him to stay in state. He took a gap year 2019-2020, and started at WPI in the fall of 2020.
He was miserable beyond miserable from Day 2 and I could echo a majority of what @CaryPlanner said about his son’s experience, even including a conversation with a dean who had a similar lack of concern about terrible first-year teaching. Yes, COVID was miserable, and we all got that, but the attitude and teaching of some his professors was really not acceptable, and at $50K+ a year, students shouldn’t have to put up with a year of terrible teaching to get to the “good classes”. Plus, we discovered that there are several unexpected consequences of 7-week terms which I discussed in this thread: Feedback on WPI - #11 by HomeschoolMomMA.
He suffered through A and B terms (got all As and Bs) and then took a leave for second semester, and at this point he is not planning to return to WPI at all. We were so disheartened by all that we learned about WPI through our older son’s firsthand experience that WPI became an option of last resort for our younger son. (Happily, he got into his top choice that wasn’t a moonshot and will be starting there in the fall.) Like @CaryPlanner, I think it’s possible our older son might have been able to overlook the terrible teaching and learning context and be okay at WPI in a non-COVID context, if he had been able to interact with other students, both socially and for academic collaboration and support and commiseration. But that’s not what happened, and he’s moved on and we’re okay with that.
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Thank you for sharing and linking your other post. This is all very informative and good to know as we consider options for next year.
Any word on the experience at HMC?
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Harvey Mudd is filled with brilliant, hard working, collaborative, down to earth kids…who are diverse in identifiers and talents. 52% female at orientation and graduation. It’s about 1,000 undergrads but is literally next door (buildings are so close you think it’s all one college) to Claremont McKenna, Pitzer, Pomona and Scripps so you have the resources (health services, library, sports teams, choir, band, etc) and diverse people/majors/classes of 5,000. You will take classes and eat at the other schools at times and with the same schedule and dining plan, it’s seamless.
Professors are brilliant and committed to teaching as there are only undergrads…research is important but not the driving force for profs. The college gives professors money to have small groups to their homes for dinner or to take them out. Every prof knew my kid and lit up with a story about him.
The core curriculum for three semesters (like CalTech, my kid’s other fav acceptance) means you are well versed in CS, physics, math, etc and helps expose you to all before declaring your major. No AP credit as they want you to learn it their way. My kid tested into top level of about everything from physics to CS so was always challenged, but kids who didn’t have background in CS or few APs in their high school could start at a good level for them.
Lots of hands on labs. Excellent RAs meant even with a year completely off campus for COVID thanks to LA County rules, the frosh seemed to all make friends and build great study groups. Students live on campus all four years. Freshmen are spread throughout all dorms, so someone is always around who can help with that tricky problem set. Kids work incredibly hard, but because everyone is in it together, they don’t seem to mind. Kids get amazing good paying internships and even in 2020, the seniors all seemed to have jobs for after graduation before senior year began. They consistently have top paying early and mid-career salary, beating all other colleges even MIT and Stanford.
Fantastic food…lots of variety every meal and healthy and kid friendly choices. Noodle bowls, sushi, salmon, burgers, pizza, etc. Chef will make something just for you if you don’t find something you can eat.
My son’s engineering class freshman year had a huge Arduino competition. The grutor (grader/tutor) for the class decided to paint the competition table that day to make it look nice, not understanding that the sensors were reading the sheen of light reflection of the paint, not just the color. The top kids in the class had more advanced coding they’d spent weeks prepping, that got ruined by this painting. Argh. The kids calmly explained to the professors, and they were definitely disappointed, but everyone kept cool. A perfect example of why every top company wants to hire these collaborative, brilliant, kind, down to earth, mature kids. Kids who weren’t in the class came to watch for fun (also common) but did classwork while they watched…definitely Mudd. My kid was a grutor so often he knew exactly which problem was tripping someone up by just the homework #. He loved rocketry, robotics, hearhere Christian journal, underwater sub, and more.
The Honor Code means you leave your detergent in the laundry room with your name on it, your laptop in the dining hall and it’s safe, you get many take-home tests you can take in your pjs at midnight or in the always sunny courtyard while your laundry runs, and you can count on your friends to call you out if you aren’t reporting a mental health struggle. Honor Code pervades all and makes you a desired employee.
Mudders are loyal to their school and each other. A very independent, brilliant, happy group who stop each day to eat dinner together or play a word game in the courtyard. Someone will always help you with a problem set or give you a ride to Target. A gorgeous, safe, walkable town of Claremont, just 20 minutes from the Ontario airport. Phenomenal parent support group lets you know why the kids are so great. No frats, but some athletes some robot kids some musicians some of most anything. It’s crazy expensive and super hard but the right fit for certain kids.
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and HSA requirements for the nerdy types?
HMC is a LAC so about as many HSAs (humanities) as STEM classes. My kid minored in economics and found his classes to be extremely well taught.