<p>Givens:
-I'm definitely (~99%) sure I want to go into STEM, probably engineering of some sort.
-Accepted RD into both UC Berkeley (MSE) and Harvey Mudd College (unspecified major)
-At the moment, I want to go to grad school (either for an MBA or further work in STEM), preferably at UC Berkeley, and settle down in Silicon Valley. How does UCB stack up against Mudd for grad school prospects? HMC touts its figures but UCB Career Center doesn't provide much data.
-Career prospects (call me naive LOL): Probably industry (NASA? ;D) , or (less likely) college professor at a research university (I love research and teaching but the K-12 public school system really disheartens me)
-$30k/year at Berkeley; $60k/year at Mudd. No aid from either, and I don't expect to stumble upon any Nobel prizes in the next three weeks.
-Interested in humanities. Can't live without music. I currently play cello at a very high level (for a non-major, that is), and I need musical opportunities to stay sane.
-Live about an hour south of UC Berkeley.
-If I go to Cal, I will probably (>50%) do a joint major in MSE/EECS.
-If I go to Harvey Mudd College, I will probably (>50%) major in Engineering (only a general engineering degree) while trying to develop a strong CS background, just because everybody in Silicon Valley loves CS.
-Personally, I think I will enjoy any hard science major roughly equally.</p>
<p>The Question: Cal vs Mudd? I know I'm supposed to make my own decision, but I'd appreciate some thoughts on both sides of the issue. Any thoughts on the majors I mention? I hear many good things about Berkeley EECS and Berkeley Chem, and less things about Mudd's individual programs but many good things about Mudd engineering as a whole.</p>
<p>Frankly, as much as my son (and I) love Mudd, unless your family is truly loaded, I wouldn’t take the additional cost. </p>
<p>But for info other than that…I don’t know anything about UCB but here’s what I know about Mudd. Mudd’s Career Service department and opportunities really are good. Mudd’s big into its humanities requirements, and even though Mudd itself doesn’t offer that much, the students are able to take classes at the other schools. Obviously, UCB will have more variety of musical offerings, but Mudd will have many. You don’t mention school size - what is your preference here? </p>
<p>You could easily a degree at Mudd that looks a lot like EECS, although of course your degree would only say Engineering or CS. You’re not entirely sure what you want to major in; is it easy to transfer at UCB?</p>
<p>You’ll have to decide if the extra cost is worth it, but you will likely get much more individual attention at Mudd and you will get far more direct contact with your professors. Mud has no grad school, so the professors are their to serve only the undergrads whereas Berkeley will have a lot of TA’s for undergraduate classes. Much of Berkeley’s reputation is based on there grad school. Classes will be much smaller at Mudd and Mudd Graduates earn some of the highest salaries of any colleges. Mud undergrads do a lot of research - much more part of the norm than for Cal undergrads. Also a very high percentage of Mud Graduates get into grad school. On the down side, Mudd is one of the best schools that almost no-one knows about. You won’t be able to tell people you go to Harvey Mudd and have very many of them know what that means.</p>
<p>When you say >50% - You already know exactly what you will be majoring in at Cal - not very easy to change your major. You got to choose one major and that’s what you got accepted for. At Mudd you are not locked in - you have an opportunity to explore a bit before you decide. My take is that Mudd is more collaborative where Cal is more competitive between students. As a general rule, you are not going to have a problem getting the classes you want/need at a private school like Mudd. That can be a problem at Cal although many people get through in 4 years.</p>
<p>It is a lot of extra money - only you can say whether it is worth it - but you would certainly get a good education at Mudd - whether that would be better than Cal depends on what you make of it. If you are hung up on recognition for getting into and going to a great school, only a thin sliver of the population will understand what your Mudd degree is all about. If you can afford either and the money is not a big issue, Mudd might have an edge for an undergraduate degree, especially if you think you want to go to grad school. If you have to take out loans to do it, I don’t think I’d advocate for that.</p>
<p>I won’t have to take out loans, despite my lack of financial aid. I just attended ASP and I liked it there. It seems like the surrounding area is pretty sleepy though. </p>
<p>my daughter got into Mudd and i absolutely agree, if Mudd was well known and popular. But I think people who know what academics is, they have heard about HMC. we attended the ASP and was amazed by the college and their research internship and clinic program. we are deciding between UCLA & Mudd, any thoughts on that and I am also concerned about dorms, was bit scary.</p>
<p>My S got the Mudd, UCLA and CMU. He is very frustrating to make the decision of college selection. There are always some pros and cons for each of them. Hard to decide.</p>
<p>Personally I prefer UCLA since there are much more choises just in case he does not like the EE. However for CMU, the only choice is CS and HMC is engineering.</p>
<p>As a parent of a Mudd jr, I just want to say what a great experience it has been for her. Last summer she was doing research in robotics on campus (paid) and is now doing a semester in Paris studying French for her required humanities focus. She’s been to lots of subsidized events in LA, musicals mostly because thats what she likes. She takes classes at the other colleges and took piano lessons last semester. HMC is not at all just engineering (although that is the general engineering degree you receive if you are doing engineering.) My D is majoring in CS.</p>
<p>Take a look at where the grads go to for graduate school & jobs, you’ll be impressed.</p>
<p>Also the parties are great I’ve been told. The dorms are fine, much less scary to the students than the parents. </p>
<p>Please Help me here we have to make a decision and i am so confused. we were considering HMC, but not sure about their need based scholarship, they are giving almost 28000 this year but don’t really know how it will be for the rest of the 3 years. I heard they take primary home equity into consideration, if that is the case house prices are going up drastically and i dont know if that will reduce our scholarship amount next year and not sure if we will get the same scholarship. please help me. excuse me if i am confusing.</p>
<p>Call the financial aid office tomorrow and ask them how they take home equity into account. I talked to them today about an issue, and they were very helpful. Are you saying that you have only need based aid and loans, no merit aid? Not unusual at Mudd. They give some merit aid which would typically apply every year through your four years, but it is awarded with the acceptance letters, and I don’t think they give out any more later.</p>
<p>Yup, she mailed her deposit in today. I knew she was leaning that way last week, so I ordered a Mudd t-shirt on the sly for her so she would have one for May 1. Didn’t show her until she sealed up the envelopes last night (just in case she changed her mind).</p>
<p>Congrats! My younger D has decided on Mudd too. Her older sister is a Jr there now! (Well, actually she is currently doing a semester abroad, so technically not at Mudd right now.) I really didn’t imagine both my girls would be going to HMC a couple years ago. It is a great school. If you have any questions I might be able to answer about life at Mudd feel free to private message me.</p>
<p>Thanks! No questions now, we are sort of collapsed in exhaustion at the end of two years of visiting, applying, and then flying coast to coast for various accepted student days last week. But I am sure I will have some! Does your younger D have a dorm preference? Mine thinks she might want to live in West. :eek: Her grandma is already going to freak out at the choice of Mudd, I can only imagine her visiting with my D living in West…</p>
<p>Again… this thread is old, you may find they are not tracking it any more (like the other one you were asking on earlier). Send a private message to those posters, you are more likely to get a response.</p>
I knew she was leaning that way last week, so I ordered a Mudd t-shirt on the sly for her so she would have one for May 1. Didn’t show her until she sealed up the envelopes last night (just in case she changed her mind).</p>