<p>Hi, I know that colleges are holistic when they look at candidates, but I'm really interested in Harvey Mudd, and I was wondering, will it look bad that I got B's both semesters of AP Calculus AB? I'm a junior and our Calc program is really intense (people who took it said that it helped immensely in their college math classes), although maybe a quarter of students who take it get A's, I guess that Calculus is just not my strength. I've taken a rigorous course and have gotten A's in all my others classes (so far). It's just that I know HMC is very math-focused, and that fact that I struggled with high school math,will it look bad? Sorry, lot's of run on sentences! Thanks in advance :) </p>
<p>It will help if you get a “5” on the test and send that score to Mudd – they don’t use it for placement, but it could help your admissions chances. </p>
<p>I’m not strong in Math in standardized testing either. While I got an 800 in reading and 780 in writing, I got a 710 in math (careless errors kills me). For Math 2, I got 770. Should I bother retaking the Math 2? Will they see that I took it twice? </p>
<p>I believe you are supposed to send all scores. if you think you can do better, take it again. But I wouldn’t just worry that it “looks bad”. Math is a huge part of the core at Mudd and many majors there. The pace is really fast – for example, Linear Algebra is covered in one quarter, and so is Differential Equations. And everyone has to take those, Multivariable Calc, and Linear Algebra/Differential Equations II (both also 1/4 classes) as part of the Core. I am not saying you could not do it, but it will likely require a very intense effort on your part and your grades may be nothing to write home about – no curve at Mudd. Now you won’t be the only one if you scrape through with lower-than-you-would-like grades, and there is tons of help available. “D” is passing at Mudd, and I have heard the phrase "D stands for ‘Done’. I am in no way discouraging you from applying – my kid is struggling through the math part of core at the moment, she didn’t come from a super strong math prep background. And she loves it in spite of the difficulty. But you need to be prepared to work really, really hard, especially if you are not a top math student and you still manage to get admitted.</p>
<p>THERE IS NO CURVE? Oh my goodness thank you for telling, this just shows my lack of knowledge. And just a question: so despite the fact that people get D’s, they still get job offers/graduate school acceptances? Dang.</p>
<p>I believe they do. This question was asked at a student panel at accepted student days last spring. There were about half a dozen students on the panel, and they agreed that every senior they knew with possibly 1-2 exceptions who had not really actually taken any actions to find a job or put in grad school apps had something lined up after graduation. And given the size of Mudd, I think between the six of them they probably do know every senior! I think it helps that most students have stronger grades in their major. </p>
<p>Mudd is a very cooperative place – partly because there is no curve. (I think of it as sort of like going over the big wall in the obstacle course ). Students help each other a lot, and there is a lot of free tutoring available from older students (formally set up tutoring sessions). I think there are some low credit P/F classes (1 credit, .5 credit, etc) that a student are encouraged to add to their schedule that is just “extra prep” sessions for some of the hardest classes – i don’t think they are in the course catalog.</p>
<p>Thank you so much intparent! While I love what I’ve heard about Mudd, I’m going to have to seriously consider going to this school because of my weakness in math :P. Haha potential chemical engineering major here </p>
<p>So not sure if you are aware, but Mudd only offers a general engineering major. Here is what their website says about this:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>And (newsflash, just was talking to my kid about the exams she just finished), apparently they DO bend the ‘no curve’ rule sometimes, although she is not clear on when… She said several students definitely dropped the core Mechanics & Wave Motion physics class she was in this semester by the drop date because they did so poorly on the midterm, so students still fail stuff or drop. She might have a better idea of how/when they curve when her grades come out in a few weeks. She has calculated what she expects to get based on the syllabus info on % breakdown and the grades she has received, so it will be interesting to see if any of her grades are different from what she expects.</p>
). Students help each other a lot, and there is a lot of free tutoring available from older students (formally set up tutoring sessions). I think there are some low credit P/F classes (1 credit, .5 credit, etc) that a student are encouraged to add to their schedule that is just “extra prep” sessions for some of the hardest classes – i don’t think they are in the course catalog.</p>