<p>So I'm having a dilemma here between picking Harvey Mudd College (fantastic for CS) vs Claremont McKenna (another college in the 5C, so shares resources with HMC allowing me to take courses at Mudd but the degree will be granted by the home college which is less known for CS) I posted about this on the McKenna forum but I figured I would get more replies here, so here's the link to the original thread: <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/claremont-mckenna-college/1640635-am-i-crazy-to-pick-mckenna-over-hmc-for-comp-sci.html#latest">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/claremont-mckenna-college/1640635-am-i-crazy-to-pick-mckenna-over-hmc-for-comp-sci.html#latest</a></p>
<p>Basically I guess its another fit vs prestige issue although this case is somewhat unique as I would still have the benefit of Mudd's resources while attending the other college. And I am interested in studying Econ as well which McKenna is very well known for. So I would be pursuing a double major at McKenna. Vice versa if I attended Harvey Mudd I would major in CS and concentrate in Economics. </p>
<p>I don’t think it’d really make sense to go to McKenna for CS, but McKenna for econ with a CS second major/minor would make a lot of sense so it depends what your priorities are</p>
<p>I graduated from CMC and my husband graduated from HMC. I was a Math/Biology double major at CMC and took classes at Mudd, but ultimately ended up as a management consultant right after undergrad (more of a typical CMC career track although I took an unconventional path). I loved CMC and think (from your other posts) that you would fit well there. HMC has a unique vibe/social culture and I think if you see yourself as more of a CMC student, you might be unhappy there. My husband was an athlete (ran XC and Track for CMS) and fit well in both environments, but Mudd is definitely a quirkier/nerdier type place. Both of us really value our education and loved our time in Claremont, but if these schools end up being on the list for our kids, we would probably prefer they choose CMC to Mudd.</p>
<p>HMC also has heavier core / breadth requirements than CMC, so that may be a consideration, particularly for a student who wants to do more than one major.</p>
<p>The point about breadth requirements is a good one. One of the things that helped me to get both majors in was the flexibility in humanities requirements at CMC. Still can’t believe I got out of 3 semesters of a foreign language by taking one semester of western civilizations - that was probably not my wisest decision in college (really wished I had taken advantage of the opportunity to solidify spanish), but it did open up 2 semesters for courses for my double major.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.claremontmckenna.edu/registrar/requirements/ge.php”>http://www.claremontmckenna.edu/registrar/requirements/ge.php</a> indicates that CMC now requires third semester college foreign language or equivalent.</p>
<p>For comparison, here are HMC’s core and HSA requirements:
<a href=“Common Core Curriculum | Academics | Harvey Mudd College”>https://www.hmc.edu/academics/common-core-curriculum/</a>
<a href=“The HSA Curriculum | HSA | Harvey Mudd College”>https://www.hmc.edu/hsa/the-hsa-program/</a>
No foreign language required, but everything else is heavier (particularly math and science, as expected, but also humanities, social studies, and arts requirements are greater).</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies guys! </p>
<p>@MYOS1634 I would double major as mentioned but I feel like my priority would be with the CS major. Does that make any difference? </p>
<p>@oldcmcalum Wow you seem like the person that could have answers to all my questions. 
You said “if these schools end up being on the list for our kids, we would probably prefer they choose CMC to Mudd.”. You could perhaps state your reasons why you would prefer to have them choose CMC over Mudd? (Not sure if its related to what they want to study)</p>
<p>Also I just found out about the 5 year BA/BS program at CMC/Mudd. <a href=“http://www.claremontmckenna.edu/rdschool/academic/dual/ba_bs_economics_engi.php”>http://www.claremontmckenna.edu/rdschool/academic/dual/ba_bs_economics_engi.php</a> I know most people in these 3-2 year programs don’t finish because they don’t want to leave all their friends, etc. but considering the fact that these two colleges are essentially on the same campus… I feel like this would be doable? Would you guys recommend this over double majoring from CMC? Not sure though if the BS is just the general engineering degree from Mudd or I could get one for CS. </p>
<p>A 3+2 program has an extra year of costs. A significant part of the extra year would probably be in HMC core / breadth requirements. Both CMC and HMC have grade requirements to make the transfer.</p>
<p>ucbalumnus: makes sense that they finally got rid of the work around for a language :)</p>
<p>tetutato - Our kids are still far from college (I ended up on here helping a friend a few years ago who had a daughter apply to schools and occasionally end up reading the CMC related posts), but my husband and I both felt like students at CMC were more socially well rounded and well adjusted. However, for the right person, HMC is amazing and there are plenty of great students there too. For someone like my husband who ended up with a PhD in Physics from Caltech, Mudd was the perfect place to do undergrad. He needed the rigor of the program and his humanities concentrations (literature and french) could be handled fine through Mudd and other 5 college classes. I don’t think a Physics degree from Joint Science would have been rigorous enough for him. On the other hand, I was a more typical CMC type - strong interest in politics and business despite majoring in Math/Bio. I loved sitting at the head table at the Ath and interacting with interesting speakers. I loved the fact that my classmates were studying something I was interested in even though I didn’t want to major in those topics. I worked at national labs on high end genetics research every summer and even did my Senior Thesis with Lawrence Livermore, but ultimately decided I wasn’t interested in science as a career and being at CMC, I was exposed to all sorts of interesting career opportunities and ended up in consulting (with multiple offers). I was probably not a strong enough Math/Science student for Mudd. I would have survived, but I would have struggled. I think I’m a pretty bright person (graduated honors in both majors, high test scores, etc.), but my exposure to people at LLNL, Mudd, Caltech and even some of my colleagues in consulting really exposed me to people with another level of intellect. I can hang with those folks, but they’re on a different level. The courses I took at Mudd were great, but challenging in a different way than the science and math courses I took at CMC and Pomona and the students were amazingly bright. </p>
<p>If you really want to double major in Econ/CS, I would probably choose CMC and just take the CS courses you need to at Mudd. If you’re excited by the general science program at Mudd (those core courses are tough and include a ton of Physics, engineering, chem, etc.) and the social side of Mudd appeals to you, I’d pick Mudd and major in CS and do a concentration in Econ. I would probably counsel against a 3-2 program - with Claremont, you can take advantage of both campuses within that 4 year time frame and I’d probably save $$ towards grad school or other endeavors later.</p>