<p>i have always wanted to know the answer to this question
its acceptance rate is around 28~33%
but acceptance rate doesn't always accurately reflect how hard to get accepted
from various sources, i found out that it is the hardest LAC to get into...
while others claim that the statement is exaggerated...
i think the best source is CC... so do u know how hard it is?</p>
<p>I disagree that it’s the hardest LAC to get in. I mean I even think Pomona next door to HMC is harder to get in.
But, I do say it’s super hard. I say it’s comparable to UPenn</p>
<p>who the heck would apply to a school named Harvey Mudd?
i’ll tell you who… people who are damn serious about math/science/engineering.</p>
<p>the applicant pool is semi self-selecting. it is arguably one of the most incredible student pools (as an “average”) in the nation. there aren’t wannabes applying because they have a fantasy of prestige. the average hmc applicant is superb.</p>
<p>that is why it is hard to get in…</p>
<p>well put</p>
<p>but definitely, Harvey Mudd is a confusing one. As an applicant myself, I’ve heard many different responses from being as hard as Caltech to get in to being as hard as Berkeley.</p>
<p>I think it’s about the middle</p>
<p>The Claremont colleges have become immensely popular over the years, and as a result, their SAT ranges have sky-rocketed. That’s not always a predictor of how hard it is to get in, but with an average of ~750 on the Math portion, you have to be a top applicant in all aspects.
I’d say its pretty hard, and you stand a fair chance if you have the scores.</p>
<p>As long as you have good SATs,subject tests and a good GPA…you will get in…no sweat dude…</p>
<p>techfreak… definitely not.
Harvey Mudd, I realized look at application VERY holistically. Yes, I realized that most rejects were ones with low scores, but from what I see from previous acceptance/rejections, numbers aren’t all. (I won’t say numbers are not ENOUGH because I’ve seen some relatively low numbers get in too)</p>
<p>My son’s favorite is Mudd, but he refused to apply ED because he hasn’t done an overnight there. So he is applying to other schools - Caltech, Yale, Stanford, Olin, Rice, etc. as backups. I get a kick out of the fact that <em>just based on admit percent</em>, his favorite is the easiest to get into and he’s using all the more difficult ones as backup! 
Even his safety has a lower admit percent than Mudd!</p>
<p>I’m betting a lot of kids would have applied Early Action… but ED is just too binding for most. </p>
<p>I think the Mudd rate showed 21% admit rate for males, but it seems like the whole bunch of kids applying are a pretty darned talented group. </p>
<p>Good luck to the ED kids.</p>
<p>Mudd is rated the MOST selective liberal arts college in the US by US News and World Report. This is based on the accepted students’ SAT 1 scores and % of accepted students who have a top decile class rank in high school. </p>
<p>The acceptance rate is higher than some other LACs, but this is not what is measured by the selectivity rating. The reason the overall acceptance rate is higher than, say, Pomona, is that Mudd applicants are self-selecting (similar to University of Chicago). Those who are intimidated by the reputation of academic rigor, or unsure about their strength and interest in science, math, or engineering, don’t apply in the first place. I would guess that Mudd’s applicant pool has higher stats than Pomona’s. </p>
<p>From the website: “By all objective measures, Harvey Mudd students rank among the nation’s best: for four of the last five years, the Harvey Mudd freshman class has led the country in its percentage of National Merit Scholars; and 25% were valedictorians of their high school class.”</p>
<p>This is actually more current from the website:</p>
<p>"Ninety-two percent ranked in the top 10 percent of their high school classes (of those high schools that provided rank information). 35 percent of the students in the entering class were valedictorian or salutatorian of their graduating high school class. The middle 50 percent of the class received the following SAT scores:</p>
<p>Critical Reading: 680-770
Writing: 665-750
Math: 740-790
Math 2 Subject: 760-800 </p>
<p>It’s not surprising that about 30 percent of HMC students are National Merit Scholars. Only one other liberal arts college in the country has more. In other words, you’ll be surrounded by people who take academics as seriously as you do."</p>
<p>Re: #3
That makes a lot of sense. I was wondering why Harvey Mudd appeared to have such a high admit rate (>50% for girls, wow) and yet was supposed to be super-selective.
Does anyone have information on how hard it is to get accepted to for international students? i.e. those who neither reside in nor are citizens of the US?</p>
<p>@arbitraryname one people from my school (Vietnamese) won the silver medal at the IChO, got accepted at MIT but rejected ED from Harvey Mudd</p>
<p>@HaMinhTran this thread is five years old ;)</p>
<p>and yes Harvey Mudd is extremely difficult to get into and is usually considered a reach school</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Yup, stats have changed since this thread was started in 2009 – acceptance rate was 13% this year.</p>
<p>does anyone know what the female acceptance rate is now? Has it changed similarly?</p>
<p>You can tell from looking at the Common Data Set (a useful thing to do for any college you want to see information on!). You just Google “<college name=”"> Common Data Set", and you will usually find it.</college></p>
<p>I just looked, and the acceptance rate for women in 2013-14 (most recent year the CDS is out there for) is 33%. It may have dropped some last year. Now, I do think the pool of women that apply is somewhat self selecting – high test scores, strong interest in tech. But give it a shot! My D2 loves it.</p>
<p>HMC average SAT scores among admits are higher than about half of the Ivy League, Stanford, Duke/Northwestern/JHU, and every other LAC. Yes, it is a self-selecting pool of applicants.</p>
what schools did you or your children go to?