Oh Harvey!

Colleges & Universities A-Z Harvey Mudd College
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<p>And I've gotten involved in a lot of discussions with my friends just at dinner. These several debates with some very intelligent people with extremely different backgrounds have broadened my views. </p>

<p>I'm sure that any kind of person here would be fine. There is a group of people that would fit basically any kind of personality. Incoming students will be placed into dorms with like-minded people, and that is where a lot of friendships come from, at least at the start of the year. People in south dorm do not drink smoke or play WoW very much, but they have one of the strongest communities on campus.</p>

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<p>atomicfusion,
Thanks -- that is very encouraging. DS likes to sit up til all hours and talk to people about obscure things ranging from xkcd to hash products (the programming kind ;)) to math proofs through origami, so he'll be glad to hear there's some "life of the mind" as well. He was already sold when he saw the banner for midnight ultimate in one of the Mudd cafeterias last summer.</p>

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<p>CountingDown - I actually have a few Scripps friends who have elected to live on Mudd's campus because of the community atmosphere. The atmosphere is just very social, in general, and your description of what your son likes to do sounds preeeetty much perfect. I've walked through many a 3am weekend "obscure things" fest ;)</p>

<p>And as always, for other social events, remember the rest of the consortium. As a non-drinker, and as someone with many sub-free Mudd friends, it's not generally a hindrance should one choose to skip that scene.</p>

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<p>I came away with a very positive attitude about Mudd. Both of my parents were converted themselves. My sole qualm is the fact that compared to mechanical and electrical engineering, Mudd's engineering curriculum doesn't focus quite so much on chemical engineering, which would make that aspect of the Mudd education highly theoretical for me. To wit, though, as Professor Duron, who impressed me very much, put it, "It's all in the math." Even so, given that every other school I'm considering has a dedicated chemical engineering program, and despite RocketDA's and Harvey Mudd's argument that a broad-based engineering curriculum is most useful at this stage in human development, I'm still on the fence in regards to Harvey.</p>

<p>The folks with whom I played frisbee Sunday night all seemed quite normal, as did most of the students and prospectives I encountered. I was pleasantly surprised to meet one interested in philosophy! I must say, though, I had a hell of a time playing frisbee.</p>

<p>The only time I encountered a surprising surfeit of nerdiness was at the ITR games, which I personally enjoyed very much. The seasoned ITR veterans weren't jerks, either; on the contrary, they were energetic and nice to prospectives about the whole affair.</p>

<p>On the whole, I was uniformly surprised at the friendliness of every Mudd student I encountered. Slightly bookish, yes, but not adverse to a good deed, which stems partially from the Honor Code, another aspect of Mudd which I liked very much. This gave me the impression that Mudd looks for such student in its selection process, which says something about everybody who was accepted.</p>

<p>As I said, I enjoyed Harvey Mudd very much, but I have yet another two weeks before I must make my final decision. Mudd certainly didn't fail to impress, though.</p>

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<p>Harvey Mudd food is amazing.</p>

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<p>
[quote]
Harvey Mudd food is amazing.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>I thought that too for about the first month. Then I slowly realized it's terrible and now I refuse to eat at Mudd's dining hall. Try the other 5 dining halls and you'll see that they are far better than Mudd's. </p>

<p>Whenever I think of the Hoch's asian food now I think of stomach flu (got it a few weeks ago, maybe from that). The taco tuesday and thursday are also terrible. The deserts are usually left over from the last day. The burgers and fries are terrible, even worse than McDonald's. The sandwich bar is alright, and sometimes they have some good random food, but overall I'd rather be eating my high school's cafeteria food...</p>

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<p>The food is just a matter of preference. Personally, Mudd is one of my favorite places to eat. These days, my friends and I go there more often than any other off-campus dining hall, and quite probably even more often than we go to Scripps. The burger bar is great, I like the fries, the pizza is amazing, they have sushi almost every Saturday night, really good chicken curry, nice salad bar, a few excellent soups, raspberry lemonade, chocolate chips and blueberries for the waffle iron at brunch, a juicer complete with a billion oranges to make your own fresh squeezed juice at breakfast, a smoothie bar every morning, and the best coffee machine to be found anywhere on the 5Cs (not to mention that they also have some of the nicest staff around).</p>

<p>So hey...to each her own ;)</p>

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<p>Wow, I guess I touched a lot of nerves.....After reading them ALL (including my own initial response), the first thing I will do is to apologize to 2much2do...my fault. When I first read your post I misread a few words and felt you were bashing against mudd and became very defensive about it. Second, with so many people turned down, again I misinterpreted and felt that you were not gratefull at the oportunity you were given. Again, my apologies....if anything I hope this sparked enough responses to help you make a better decision.
I found the students there bright....and after hours of telling us how hard it was and the drop out rate was 14%?....I came out with a different impression. So when I read your post, or should I say misread your post, I thought that there was a little arrogance and that mudd was not as competative as you thought it would be...I felt a little defensive.<br>
again, apologies to all....I am not really the way I came across....but I am alittle older and sometimes we have "go for the jugular discussions" with people we feel comfortable with. My mistake.
By the way, my wife read this...I almost had to sleep with the dog outside. Also, too ashamed to show my son...</p>

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<p>^ Very graciously stated. Good luck to your son next year at Mudd :)</p>

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<p>OK, so let's make this a productive thread. Atomicfusion and fellow Mudders -- Do you have any female Mudd student colleagues who would be willing to talk about life at Mudd from their perspective? </p>

<p>The four young women DS knows who were accepted into Mudd have their pick of the elite schools -- don't you guys WANT intelligent women there? </p>

<p>Student615 -- One of my closest friends went to Scripps (and then went on to earn a second BS, two MS degrees and her PhD). One of the smartest women I've ever met!</p>

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<p>ArPlaquette: I think you must have met my son, who is very much interested in philosophy and played ultimate frisbee - fun!</p>

<p>These are certainly big life choices, I am hoping that once son finishes up the round of admitted student visits it is easy and one of the schools just feels right (and I have to admit that I am hoping for Harvey Mudd - my husband and I were so taken with the whole thing.) But ultimately it is not my decision to make.</p>

<p>Good luck to all.</p>

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<p>My first post - I read a few pages of this thread and felt I would comment and then come back and finish reading the remainder.
My daughter was admitted to Mudd, we attended the prefrosh.
She has a broad range and intense background in the humanities. All her scores (including math) support the admission offer.
I believe she too does not feel worthy of admission. I am not suprised. I think there is a complete lack of understanding about females who enter the sciences. There is so very little support early on that a natural funnel effect into the humanities takes place. This lack of confidence is a natural long standing classroom occurrence. There has been little change in secondary education except the inclusion of heroine selected books for reading and the doling out of social/leadership positions. In society as a whole - 30 years later we are still obsessed and monopolized with the explosive subect of abortion.
I felt the Mudd administration demostrated no bias or pandering to these prospective female scientists. They were in the present day. Some of the very proud parents of their gifted sons were not.
If my daughter decides not to attend HMC it would be a shame not to include another extremely multi-dimensional, kind and thoughtful bright star to the HMC community.</p>

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<p>Great post, sunnytraveler.</p>

<p>If your D is as amazing as she sounds, she is definitely worthy of admission. In fact, multi-dimensionality will provide some of the greatest innovation and insight in the near future.</p>

<p>I hope your D is still enthused about HMC. If this is what she WANTS to do, she should do it.</p>

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<p>Hello - first post!</p>

<p>After lurking on CC for the past few months, I thought it was time to contribute to a thread. I am an alumna of Mudd. While I cannot comment on the current culture at Mudd, perhaps my nearly 30 years of perspective after graduation will be on some value to females considering attending this awesome school, particulalry those who are questioning if they want to major in science or engineering.</p>

<p>I choose to attend Mudd (sight unseen!) precisely because I had very wide ranging interests as a HS senior. I LOVED math and science and knew I wanted to focus on those subject, but I did not have a clue what I wanted to major in. I also had keen interests in history and religion/philosophy. I knew I could explore these broad interests at Mudd and the other Claremont Colleges. I also knew that I did not have to narrow down a major choice until well into my sophomore year.</p>

<p>Once there, I found Mudd provided the "best of both worlds" - a very focussed, excellence-driven, (and somewhat "quirky") technical community, and a balanced LAC-like community in Claremont. I enjoyed both tremendously!</p>

<p>Never during my time there was I discouraged from pursuing math and science. There was a "support system" in place for female students (as frosh, we had to live a Scripps, for example), but there is a lot of support for all students at Mudd. In retrospect, I believe the Honor Code sets a strong underlying tone for everything at Mudd, including how students are treated by one another and the faculty.</p>

<p>The common core at Mudd prepares students for an incredibly wide range of careers. Regardless of where someone goes after Mudd, the rigor of the technical curriculum, problem solving skills, teamwork, and scientific method stay with you for life.</p>

<p>Another comment, that is not directed at any poster - One thing I quickly learned at Mudd is that, no matter how smart I thought I was, there is always someone more brilliant than me. I quickly learned not to be intimidated by that, because we all bring "different gifts to the table." I really appreciated being in the company of such billiance and found that most Mudders were easily approachable when I needed help in a subject. On the other hand, I was the one that often kept team projects organized and on-track. I also learned that one does not have to be truly brilliant to be an excellent scientist. I majored in physics, but decided by the end of my Junior year that I did not want to pursue a PhD in Physics, because I just could not get my head around quantum mechanics. Luckily by that time, I had developed an interest in geophysics, fueled by an ability to take multiple geology classes at Pomona. I've worked in geophysics since graduating from Mudd, and I am one of the few geophysicists in my company with only a Bachelors degree. I believe the education I received at Mudd (including Hum/Soc) made this possible. (Interestingly enough, the "advanced concepts" that stumped me at Mudd do come up at work, and I find them much easier to tackle in the context of a "real world" problem.)</p>

<p>I don't know how much of what I've related is still true, but from what I do know, I believe that someone with a similar love for things technical and a wide range of interests would find a home to thrive in at Mudd.</p>

<p>Last (and I know this is a long first post) - Congratulations on your acceptances at Mudd and other schools! You can be very proud of your accomplishments! I doubt I would qualify for Mudd with today's standards, and I am extremely grateful that I had the opportunity.</p>