Hey guys,
I’m pretty torn between which of these schools to apply ED to. They are quite different and I am very aware of that, but I have visited both and like them a lot. In my eyes their engineering programs are equal in caliber so I have no clue how to decide. Any help or guidance would be much appreciated.
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I don’t know about CMU but when my son was applying a couple of years ago, ED at Harvey Mudd didn’t provide any boost in acceptance rates. So if your main goal in applying ED is to get a statistical edge in acceptance, check the ED acceptance rates at both schools against their RD rates.
All that being said: If you really like both, then it might be wiser to apply RD to both so you can have more time to decide and the potential to compare costs.
CMU is at the very apex of topflight engineering/CS schools alongside MIT/Caltech/Stanford/Berkeley whereas Harvey Mudd is elite in its own right, but is edged out slightly by CMU.
However, that edging out is so minor that you should give more consideration to the specific environments, school cultures, etc.
Do you want an LAC environment with access to offerings from the Claremont College consortium with academic strengths spanning a wide spectrum or attend CMU with its heavily engineering/CS dominated campus culture and academic offerings which with the exception of engineering/CS or Dramatic Arts, isn’t considered special enough* even by many CMU alums I’ve known.
- Most CMU alums I've known have stated if their kids disclosed they were applying to CMU to major in anything other than engineering/CS or the Dramatic Arts, they'd strongly persuade their kids to apply to other colleges with far stronger strengths in those areas or attend their in-state college instead.
How do you feel about different weather climates?
Where do you want to live after you graduate? West Coast? East Coast?
Can you afford either of these?
Will ED give you a boost?
Will either have more course offerings in non engineering areas?
Only you can decide. Both are fantastic schools. Ask yourself if you got into both which would you chose and that should be your ED school or as suggested above if you can’t decide that than apply to both RD.
You must be very flexible in what you are looking for in colleges. Carnegie Mellon and Harvey Mudd are so different in many ways.
Harvey Mudd has ED2. You can apply to CMU ED first and if you don’t get in, apply ED2 to Harvey Mudd.
A word of caution if you do as mentioned above, if you are accepted into CMU under ED, you are contractually obligating yourself to attend and withdraw your application from Harvey Mudd.
I really don’t think CMU edges Mudd academically. They are certainly different in physical campus and size.
I recommend looking at what kind of environment you are looking for. If you are looking for a more focused atmosphere of more work and hardly any play, then CMU is your college. But Harvey Mudd will help you grow not as engineer, but as a person as well. The LAC environment of Harvey Mudd and the consortium they operate under provides a broader base in terms of engineering. I have heard that CMU’s atmosphere is also pretty cutthroat (someone correct me if I am wrong) so that is something to consider as well.