<p>I've been looking at several colleges now and Harvey Mudd seems to have caught my eye, as I've heard a whole bunch of good things about its academics and its top-notch professors in math and the hard sciences.</p>
<p>So right now, Mudd is looking like a fantastic choice. My question is, what are some its bad points? I'm not asking this to dissuade me from going, of course, but rather to get a fuller view of the college as a whole.</p>
<p>And obviously you can feel free to add in some more positive points about Harvey Mudd if you want to.</p>
<p>1) The city of Claremont leaves a lot to be desired as a college town. There is very little to do immediately outside of the 5C's, and public transportation is not very good or frequent.</p>
<p>2) The male-female ratio at HMC is not the best, although this is partially offset by the other colleges and by the increasing percentage of females (over 40 percent for the incoming class).</p>
<p>3) If you find you want to major in a subject that is not math, science or engineering, it is difficult to do so and still get through Mudd's demanding technical core.</p>
<p>4) There are a LOT of requirements: the technical core, a load of Hum/SS stuff, on campus and off campus regulations, PE, etc..., so while you still have some freedom, a lot is expected of you that you may not necessarily want to do (depends on who you are).</p>
<p>5) If layman prestige matters a lot to you, HMC does not quite inspire the same name recognition as say MIT or Harvard, although I feel this is not very important.</p>
<p>6) You may find out that you do not particularly like an incredibly small environment where it's very difficult to hide from your professors or from the student body. You might seek a larger crowd that not even the other colleges can necessarily provide you. The small size of Mudd can be a pro as well, but you have to be sure that you are okay with it.</p>
<p>7) Admissions artificially gives the upper hand to females and URMs. (though, this may not be bad in your eyes it ****es me off)</p>
<p>8) I feel very unloved from the administration for being a "white" male. Perhaps this comes from the lack of financial aid that I get when I need it. (However, professors are definitely very awesome!)</p>
<p>9) Like before, I think financial aid is F-ed up. They give lots of money and attention to females and URMs and I feel that it is unfair (reverse sexism)</p>
<p>10) The tough grading here can really get on your nerves. I'm really getting tired of being graded...</p>
<p>11) HMC has lost roughly 2/3 of the paperwork I've sent in. I don't know why.</p>
<p>12) If you are slightly late on payments you get penalized. (Once I was 4 hours late getting my room deposit in and I lost my room draw number and was put "last".)</p>
<p>13) I don't know where HMC spends all of its money...sure the professors and facilities are great but what else does the tuition money pay for? Is there a black hole on campus?</p>
<p>14) I think core is very useful for general education and building skills but I hate it. Still, I know it was good for me but it made me unhappy for 2 years.</p>
<p>Princeton Review seems to have quite a few negative things to say about the campus, mostly based on student input. When I visited I thought it was really beautiful, better than any other I had seen, but perhaps I just didn't see the ugly parts.</p>
<p>I think the campus is beautiful in its own way. It is fairly modest, yet, has consistant architecture. I think the blockiness is what people generally have a problem with.</p>
<p>We expected the campus to be ugly when we visited (after reading PR and comments here), and I didn't think it was so bad. It kinda grew on me. DS had no objections, but he tends not to care about aethetics. I would find the lack of seasons hard to handle -- I like snow and springtime!</p>
<p>Hmm, how is the workload exactly? Like, how much time would you that you would spend everyday on homework, and how much sleep (if any >_>) do you get?</p>
<p>And is the tough grading because the classes are just really hard or because some teachers are unnecessarily picky?</p>
<p>What about grade deflation and the fact that most people probably have never heard of Harvey Mudd? Is Harvey Mudd well-known and respected amongst employers and graduate firms or is that a myth perpetuated by the admissions offices?</p>
<p>My parents keep bringing this up whenever they argue I should be going to some big-name ivy that doesn't suit my interests.</p>
<p>Employeers love mudd. They have a really strong relationship with some great companies through the clinic program. I think one was sponsored by google last year. No, its not MIT, but just about anyone that knows mudd loves mudd.</p>
<p>As for the courseload, that really depends. I HATED doing chem hw and chem lab, but I enjoyed a lot of the other stuff so it wasnt so bad. I had plenty of freetime. That said, youll learn to budget your time first semester (<3 pass/fail).</p>