<p>Wow, GeekMom! That link you posted was AWESOME! No wonder you felt better after reading it! Those pranks were hilarious. I think my son would really enjoy being a part of them – or instigating them. He’d love the Wave! (btw, the way you posed your question was equally entertaining … broccoli or lasagna. Funny. And exactly what I want to know!)</p>
<p>Anyway, thanks for the really relevant link. That thread told me a lot. Does your son start this fall? Or is he a rising high school senior like mine?</p>
Neither? He was a once-accelerated senior last year, and applied to colleges and graduated like every other senior. Now he’s taking a gap year to continue a cool internship and grow up a year.</p>
<p>He’s laid-back and adultish and helpful like your son, but procrastinates and does his homework at the last minute, and when he’s reading (constantly) it’s usually geek stuff, and he is fairly socially awkward.</p>
<p>I think your paragraph describing your son sounds like a Mudder - they aren’t all the same. And it’s my uninformed opinion that “party hard” doesn’t exactly mean the same thing at Mudd and Caltech as it does elsewhere. My guess is that, while there is drinking and even drinking to excess, most of them don’t drink to excess most of the time. And that the construction of the machine to help you drink is just as much fun as the drinking itself.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t say odd man out due to lack of intensity, but you certainly need to really like math, science, and engineering to be able to get through all the classes. I don’t exactly know what is generally meant by “partying people” but every weekend I would drink with the same group of 10-15 of my friends in our suite, which I would consider more as ‘hanging out.’ There are the 200 people dorm parties, but generally about once a month at Mudd, more frequently on the other campuses, and I don’t get the impression that there are tons of Mudders who go to them (frequently at least). Typically it’s mostly just in-dorm or a few close dorms together. The school is so small that you are generally familiar with the like-minded people in your class. Plus, I don’t know if you’ve seen the campus, but you can get to any dorm from your own with a quick 1-10 minute walk, so it’s easy to get to any of your friends. I’m fairly certain he could find a group of people that he would like to be around, when people think of ‘Mudder’ they may get a certain impression, but I think the only real similarity between us all is that we’re far more likely to make a science joke, and everyone will understand. (Responses will vary however, from excited giggling to groans.)</p>
<p>Doing homework at the last minute at Mudd is starting at say 6 the night before and working till 11-12 and getting half to three-quarters of it done, generally not a good idea. As for drinking and drinking to excess, the frequency really depends on the student, though a survey they did last year showed a steady increase from freshman to senior year… It also showed that people think that others drink more than they actually do. There is a large discrepancy between dorms however, so you can easily choose a dorm that suits you.</p>
<p>@Simple Life: What is your son’s planned major? That definitely makes a difference in workload. Engineers and CS majors have lots of required classes, so there’s not much chance to choose “easy” classes. Other majors have significantly more free electives, so they have a bit more control over workload. Also, if he’s an engineer, he should expect to work hard if he goes to any good engineering school, whether public or private.</p>
<p>I should also mention that the new core eliminates quantum optics (half of 1st semester) and replaces the old mandatory E&M lab with a choice lab (3rd semester). This makes the core less physics heavy. </p>
<p>Your son should visit and see how he like people on campus. I’m sure that if he finds “his people” then he’s guaranteed to have fun. He sounds like he’d fit in just fine in Case or Atwood. </p>
<p>I know I’ve definitely had more fun at Mudd than I did in high school. It’s just a question of working efficiently to have time for random distractions, from IM sports to board games to Rock Band to trips to Jay’s Place.</p>
<p>That being said, the workload is an adjustment for some people. Some of my suitemates got away with just an hour or so of homework a night in high school, so working more than that on a consistent basis took a little getting used to. Overall though, they felt like they had a fun year too.</p>