Given Mudd’s ACT and SAT M ranges, plus the requirement for calculus in high school, plus the self-selection to apply there in the first place, it is not too surprising that most of the students could wind up in a comparable position after a while, at least in math.
I will see if I can determine whether the high schools in our general geographic region that do not offer physics at all do offer calculus. Presumably Mudd also requires high-school physics, even if the high school does not teach it?
An increasing number of students are taking multi-variable calculus in high school. In my view, E&M after multi-variable calculus is a quite different experience than E&M while trying to learn multi-variable calculus at the same time.