HMC On Campus Day

<p>Anyone else going tomorrow? I'll be coming up from San Diego, the 15 better not have that much traffic on a Saturday morning. For those who haven't heard (probably too late to register, but oh well):</p>

<p><a href="http://www.hmc.edu/admission1/experiencehmc1/campusday.html?PHPSESSID=9783f86dae9f75ccb4e2c9ca263a2ca3%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.hmc.edu/admission1/experiencehmc1/campusday.html?PHPSESSID=9783f86dae9f75ccb4e2c9ca263a2ca3&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Well, for those who wanted to, but couldn't make it, here's what happened:</p>

<p>10-11:55 - Introduction to HMC (including a great talk from President Klawe, she didn't try to hide that some people won't fit in at HMC: "if you can't stand living with people who love math and science for 4 years, we don't want you" or something along those lines, in a nice way), including extra bits about what you'll be doing in Humanities and clinics/reasearch.
12-12:30 - Lunch: really nice sandwiches w/ Lay's, brownie, apple, pasta salad, and a mint. Not bad for free :D
12:30-2 - Major field information sessions with a department head honcho. I did engineering and mathematics (only really interested in Eng, but Professor Castro was still pretty cool).
2-3 - HMC student Q&A session. Nice and fun and relaxed, and the 6 Mudders we got to interrogate were really diverse and actually interesting people. Not everything we heard in that room can be shared, but in case anyone was in the A-L group, I was the one who asked to show us what to do with a passed out drunk person.
3-4 - Admissions and Financial Aid presentation. In case sme of you are unfortunate enough to have never heard Peter Osgood (Director of Admissions), he's fricking hilarious. And not in a bad way, but he looked and sounded like John Hodgman (PC in the Get a Mac ads). Those of you who get to meet (or even better, interview) with him, get ready to laugh. Anyway, Peter talked about the usual "what we're looking for" stuff, you know the drill (he had tons of funny anecdotes to keep it going, like the applicant who took the SAT 13 times, or the one who submitted 25 supplemental letters of rec). Les Butler also appeased the parents and explained aid, nothing much new there.
4-5(5:30 in my case) - Walking tour. I was with 10 or so others following our sophomore, who was also pretty funny (noticing a trend?). We went to each end of campus (not too hard ;)), including by some Eng/CompSci labs, the library, rec & student centers, and in his dorm (East). This is where I really got a better understanding of HMC - our tour gide had loaned his room key to someone else, but some guys who were just hanging out outside offered to let us in their dorms, without notice. That says something about kind, accommodating, and cool students.</p>

<p>Overall, I got a different (but even better!) feel for HMC from spending 8 hours at the place. It's hard, but there's a real community there that just doesn't exist at Caltech or MIT. There's plenty of hardcore math/science/engineering people, but if you get sick of them, there's more than 4,000 other smart but different people to hang out with. I really got to like the idea of the Claremont system, and the options it gives you: don't like the HMC food? Go over to CMC for breakfast, Pitzer for lunch, and Pomona for dinner, if you want. Want to take something more interesting for your Humanities requirement? Take a psychology class at Pitzer or Shakespeare at Pomona.</p>

<p>Oh, and in case you're still reading at this point: everyone in funny. No, really, I was able to work on practicing spontaneous laughter. It may not be surprising that students 2-3 years older can crack jokes that I can relate to, but the administrative staff and profs were great as well. I don't want to tarnish their humor, but one humanities prof used a drawing of 2 guys smiling at each other, while they prepare to stab or hammer each other, to show what we would be learning, for example. The little side notes about each dorm were great as well, like West: 'you'll see them at night, having fun with fire'. Overall, if you're interested in HMC, try to get out there. If you're spending any significant amount of time to get out there, try and spend the night there .</p>

<p>Wow, great post; you oughta put up a college visit report when you get the chance! </p>

<p>I'm so excited to visit now. Everything I've read about Mudd so far has been great. I'm just hoping I'll get in.</p>

<p>I was there too and wholeheartedly concur with all of the above. Everyone there was friendly, funny, and just generally normal (though I don't think they would let anyone else be a tour guide.) The president was really cool because she's learning to ride a skateboard, will do a really big jigsaw puzzle with freshmen, etc. The M-Z student panel was really great - we discussed beer pong.</p>

<p>HOWEVER, I do not recall getting a mint with my lunch. I'm a little bummed.</p>

<p>


It was in a little unmarked wrapper at the bottom of the bag. Good things come to those who dig deeper ;)</p>

<p>But the humor can be geeky, right? </p>

<p>On my visit, there were some pretty geeky things going around...</p>

<ul>
<li>People giving each other cards saying : "You're so cool I have to measure you in Kelvin"</li>
<li>A masking tape drawing on the wall with a cocktail glass with NaCl in it and the caption, "Bond. Ionic Bond. Taken, Not Shared."</li>
<li>Other corny stuff like that.</li>
</ul>

<p>Overall it WAS funny, but it was, well, geek humor :)</p>

<p>loll I like the Kelvin one. I have to use that sometime.</p>

<p>Really... I thought the Kelvin one was too geeky. I actually liked the cocktail one, because at least it related to (James Bond) popular culture.</p>

<p>Yo momma is SO fat I had to integrate her by parts.</p>

<p>How diverse is HMC in terms of race? Is it more liberal or conservative? Are gays/lesbians accepted?</p>

<p>Can you also answer this in terms of the whole Claremont consortium as well?</p>

<p>HMC's Diversity Resource page: Diversity</a> Resources</p>

<p>Re: Mudd's Ethnic Diversity</p>

<p>College Pr0wler says that Mudd, "without having a high percentage of non-Asian minorities, still manages to be quite diverse. Students here come from all over the world, and everyone is very willing to share their experiences with each other. People here have been known to make duct tape menorahs and teach each other languages. There’s a lot of political and economic diversity, too, and most students have incredibly amazing stories to tell, but you never know until you ask. It’s a lot of fun to get to know Mudders." And it is true that the Claremont Colleges have a great deal of cultural and geographic diversity (vs. say, the UCs, which tend to have much greater ethnic diversity, but far less geographic diversity...both important in their own ways).</p>

<p>Specifically, the student body is: 59% Caucasian, 24% Asian-American, 6% Latino/a, 2% African-American, 2% Native American, 7% Other/No Response.</p>

<p>Re: Mudd's Gay/Lesbian Acceptance</p>

<p>Princeton Review ranks Mudd as #16 for "Gay Community Accepted."</p>

<p>Re: Mudd's Political Leanings</p>

<p>The school is generally thought of as being the most apolitical of the Consortium. As far as I've ever witnessed, all viewpoints are welcomed and respected. There are a lot of political outlets in Claremont, but not as much activism or tension on Mudd itself (at least not relatively speaking). That said, all of Claremont leans to the left (more or less, depending on which campus you're visiting).</p>

<p>For the rest of Claremont, things vary...</p>

<p>Re: 5C Ethnic Diversity</p>

<p>CMC: 15.1% (174) Asian, 3.9% (45) African American, 12.5% (144) Latino, 0.5% (6) Native American.</p>

<p>Pitzer: US News ranks Pitzer as the 5th most diverse private co-ed LAC in the top tier. Princeton Review ranks the school 8th for "Lots of Race/Class Interaction." 30% of this year's first-year class are students of color.</p>

<p>Pomona: "In a voluntary self-report, 7 percent of all current Pomona students identified themselves as African American, 16 percent as Asian American, 11 percent as Latino American and 1 percent as Native American." (Student body is approximately 1,500).</p>

<p>Scripps: 24% ethnic minority students (116 Asian/Asian-American, 30 African American, 52 Chicana/Latina, 4 Native American, 208 Other)</p>

<p>Re: 5C Political Leanings</p>

<p>Generally, I'm told that the campuses, from most to least liberal, go Pitzer, Scripps, Pomona, Claremont McKenna (with Mudd often being left out of the spectrum). In my experience, this felt pretty true, but note that the schools as wholes really only cover the left half of the political spectrum. CMC is often called conservative, but its student body is actually split almost 50/50, so it's really very balanced and moderate (but conservative relative to the rest of Claremont). Even among those who identify as right-wing, the conservatism tends to be more fiscal than social. So in general, there are strong leftist leanings throughout Claremont. Conservative viewpoints will probably find the most tolerant audiences at CMC and Mudd.</p>

<p>Re: 5C Gay/Lesbian Acceptance</p>

<p>If I were to "rank" the schools in terms of gay/lesbian tolerance, the list would probably resemble that of political leanings (inserting Mudd somewhere near the front), but ranging from "almost totally tolerant" to "still pretty tolerant." The LGBT community is active and visible throughout Claremont. See the Queer Resource Center's page here: Queer</a> Resource Center @ Pomona Campus. </p>

<hr>

<p>All of my specific stats (and a lot of my phraseology) came from the schools' individual websites. Sorry for the lack of organization, but each school displayed the info a bit differently.</p>

<p>You can find more info and stats on the Consortium website: Welcome</a> to Claremont.EDU</p>

<p>that was far more information than I could have hoped for. Thank you.</p>

<p>How related are the schools in the consortium? i.e., I am attracted to a lot of things about each school, but I am interested in a university that is larger than each school as it stands alone. If the Claremont consortium was one school, I'd definitely be interested in attending.</p>

<p>1200 students is too few for me, but 5000 would be fine. How much actual intermingling is there between the campuses? If I matriculated at one school, would it feel like a small LAC or, with the other schools in close proximity, would it be a larger-type-school experience?</p>

<p>I read some CC threads and college visit reports on these schools and some (esp. Pomona) were described as being very "quiet" and "empty," as if not much was going on, although I have heard many great things about all of these schools. </p>

<p>I would not want to feel isolated. I have many interests, enjoy people and want to have fun in addition to getting a great education. I have steered myself away from LACs because of their small size, but wonder if I am restricting myself. I wouldn't be happy at a school of 20,000, either.</p>

<p>I am definitely liberal, and not from CA. I don't know that I could get into a UC because they take such a low % of students from California, plus they are so large.</p>

<p>Thoughts? </p>

<p>Thanks again for such a complete and helpful response.</p>

<p>Its totally up to you whether you want the feel of just your school or one of the entire CC. I do frequently intermingle, and court, off the Mudd campus and have no problem doing so.... unless a problem set has me shut in my room. </p>

<p>Mudd throws the best parties, and so people will certainly be dropping by. </p>

<p>Also, as a transfer student to Mudd who spent a year at a university with 17,000 students, when it comes to socializing there really is not much of a different feel. You will get to know those closest around you wherever you go, unless u want like 7500 friends. The main difference is in the classroom, where you get much more attention.</p>

<p>Like Seiken said, "it's totally up to you whether you want the feel of just your school or one of the entire CC." </p>

<p>There's no way I can overemphasize the amount of interaction I had with the other undergrad schools through my four years...multiple classes on every campus, joint major, cooperative minor, in-depth involvement with multiple 5C (<em>true</em> 5C) orgs, significant other from another campus, very close friends on other campuses. For two years, I lived closer to another campus's dining hall than to my own. One semester, I had 6 courses...5 off-campus, and one on-campus audit. On a very typical day, I might have breakfast at Mudd, classes on CMC, Scripps, and Pitzer, lunch on Scripps, dinner at Mudd, and a rehearsal at Pomona. And to be clear, I loved my school...I certainly wasn't trying to get away from it!</p>

<p>That said, I had a Scripps course with a Pomona senior who claimed that she had never set foot on Scripps' campus prior to the first day of the class. And while that degree of non-interaction is very, very rare, there are definitely people who stray off of their own campuses less often than others (perhaps they have on-campus degrees and aren't deeply involved in off-campus groups, so the majority of their friends are from their own campus, etc...whatever). </p>

<p>In general, Pomona and Mudd tend to have the least interaction with the rest of the consortium. Pomona is large enough to be a bit more self-containing than the other schools, and Mudd students tend not to cross-register as often as students from some other schools (for obvious reasons). The two schools are also on far ends of the consortium, whereas Pitzer, Scripps, and CMC are all nestled between multiple campuses. In my opinion, Pomona and Mudd also have stronger feelings of on-campus "community" than the other schools, so it's a trade-off. And plenty of Pomona and Mudd students interact tons with the rest of the consortium (likewise, some Scripps, CMC, and Pitzer students interact very little). I'm only speaking in generalities.</p>

<p>For the most part, I found the size of the schools to be just perfect. Small enough to feel close-knit and familiar, large enough that you could blend in or meet someone new whenever you wanted to. The important part is that regardless of whether or not you choose to take advantage of the other schools in the consortium, they'll remain totally accessible. So whenever you choose to get off of your own campus, it really is a breeze. </p>

<p>The Consortium (as it works in practice) probably won't make perfect sense without an overnight visit. I'd really encourage staying at Mudd on a Thursday night so that you get a decent sense of the academic as well as social scenes. </p>

<p>Good luck :)</p>