<p>Your CC advice has been extremely valuable during the college process. This month, I have been extremely lucky to make a choice between these amazing schools. I have done a good amount of reading on all four schools (even the 20+page Berkeley warning!) but any advice coming from alumni/knowledgeable students would be much appreciated. I plan on going into CS-math, and I prefer a small-medium sized, quirky liberal-arts environment. I know that all four schools (with only UChi CS being a drawback) are excellent and educational but they all have their particular 'personalities.' </p>
<p>Personally, Caltech (fit) and Berkeley(OOS tuition, mechE) have been crossed off my list after visiting all the schools the past summer. Therefore, I've somewhat narrowed it down to UChicago at around $15k (no loans) and Harvey Mudd College at $25k. I am currently divided between UChicago and HMC which have 'clicked' with me and always been my top two choices from the very beginning. HMC would have had a slight edge if 1. it wasn't $10k more expensive per year through loans and 2. honestly, the fact that NO ONE seems to have heard about HMC, especially in the Mid-West. This includes professors I have asked for advice at four different universities. While I realize that for number 1. their ROI and job/graduation placements would help significantly, my family is not in a position where they can afford to pay the additional extra 10k per year without loans. I also understand that a 'name' shouldn't matter but it saddening when one's family urges you to pick a school based on its name (aka Caltech, despite how it doesn't resonate with me). </p>
<p>Any recommendations on the advantages and disadvantages of the schools? Also, please comment on any major points that should be taken into account. Thank you for the support!</p>
<p>Thank you for the reply bluebayou! I have visited all the schools this past summer, and the travel expenses add up to about to be about the same for all the schools.</p>
<p>Just saying, Harvey Mudd has an ugly campus and is in smoggy LA. Blech.</p>
<p>Anyways, I would go with UChicago, but that’s probably my personal biases going through. Harvey Mudd Comp Sci is amazing but really…you can’t go wrong with Chicago. It’s an amazing school. It’s not like their comp sci is bad.</p>
<p>Plus, it’s cheaper. An extra 10k a year is a lot, and if you don’t have preferences one way or another, why not just go with the cheaper option?</p>
<p>Mudd sounds like a better fit for undergraduate experience, but not unless your parents can afford the $40k additional. Not only is it cheaper, the Gargoyles are much cooler than the butt-ugly HMC complex. :)</p>
<p>$40,000 in extra debt is not really desirable when Chicago is a perfectly good school for CS and math.</p>
<p>Harvey Mudd’s ROI in Payscale rankings is high because it is 35% engineering majors, 26% CS majors, and 14% math/statistics majors with relatively well paid job prospects, while only 3% are biology majors with relatively low paid job prospects. Note that the top schools in those ROI rankings tend to be either engineering/CS-heavy or are heavily recruited by elite banking and consulting companies (or sometimes both).</p>
<p>UChicago because it’s a better school (IMO - I hadn’t even heard about Harvey Mudd prior to this year, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not a great school either) and because it’s cheaper! Its math program is amazing! Congrats!</p>
<p>Although TBH Caltech sounds really appealing for techy majors.</p>
<p>Thank you for your replies! Photodad, I actually applied to Berkeley as a mechanical engineering major because I don’t have enough experience to choose between CS-math-engineering with certainty. Any recommendations about this?</p>
<p>ucbalumnus, thank you for the info, and do you know if the math-CS prospects at UChicago are close to having “relatively well paid job prospects” as well ?</p>
<p>There is no reason why a CS or math major at Chicago should not have decent job prospects like CS or math majors at other schools. However, note that many smaller companies recruit locally and regionally due to convenience, so a Chicago student may see more midwest recruiters, while a Harvey Mudd student may see more southern California recruiters.</p>
<p>Chicago, not only its cheaper but also it’s ca/ math department is excellent. I personally know several of them and they are all intelligent students with good job placement.</p>
<p>ucbalumnus, Chicago is indeed a school I would be grateful to attend! </p>
<p>Also, would you mind clarifying if HMC’s connection to the Silicon Valley should be given extra weight? I ask because students facing similar choices reading CC may be wondering this as well. One article that had caught my attention was HMC’s second ranking after Stanford as a top Silicon Valley feeder college, arguably on of the ‘preferred’ areas of tech work:</p>
<p>It is not clear what sample or methodology was used. If it is only those who did the Upstart thing, that may not be representative overall. It is also not obvious whether all degrees or just bachelor’s degrees are included.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, I have not encountered any Yale, Dartmouth, Harvard, or Brown degree holder in the technical side of computer companies.</p>
<p>Harvey Mudd over Berkeley as a top feeder school to Silicon Valley? I seriously doubt that. Anyways, if you’re more concerned about post-college outcomes, I would suggest that you go for Mudd, it having performed much better than Chicago in terms of salary scale of graduates. The price difference between Mudd and Chicago can be paid off easily after having a Mudd degree. </p>
<p>Harvey Mudd’s top performance in Payscale ROI likely has a lot more to do with the mix of majors at that school (35% engineering, 26% CS, 14% math/statistics, only 3% biology) compared to other schools, rather than the quality of specific majors there compared to other schools.</p>
<p>^ That’s true, and I’m inclined to believe that the OP would be majoring in one of those areas that pay very well. So, he’ll be better off going to Mudd, ROI-wise. </p>
<p>I think you will be fine at either, so I’d say save the money and have the Chicago experience. My daughter did math-cs and there is every indication that she could have interviewed wherever she wanted. She went to grad school in the Midwest, but has interned in silicon valley and interviewed there, NYC and in between for jobs. I really don’t think you will be constrained.</p>
<p>OP, congratulations on being accepted at 4 very high-powered schools.
Since you have visited the campuses, the ugliness of Harvey Mudd doesn’t seem to have fazed you. As for undergraduate experience, Mudd is a very close-knit, supportive community, and as such, everyone is geared towards helping each other persevere through the grueling curriculum. You may have sensed that in your visit. Whether or not that experience is worth the extra cost is up to you to decide. You may have to be a bit of a pioneer for your family, though if your post name is an indication and you are Asian, be aware that the incoming class is around 30% Asian.</p>
<p>You are also concerned about the lack of name recognition, well, be prepared for:
“Where are you going to school?” “Harvey Mudd”
“HARVARD MED??!!” (look of astonishment) “No, Harvey Mudd”.
“Oh…” (look of puzzlement/disappointment).
However, the ROI and the silicon valley feeder data, acknowledging flaws in the analyses, do provide support that Mudd graduates can be very successful. From the latest career placement information, last year’s seniors went to Microsoft (8), SpaceX (5), Yelp (4), LinkedIn(3)… Those going to grad school went to Caltech (3), MIT (3), Berkeley (3), Stanford (3), and yes, even Harvard Med… So, lets say that Mudd’s success at placing graduates belies its apparent lack of name recognition in the general population. It’s a difficult decision, and I think you’ll be successful either place.</p>
<p>Congratulations on being accepted to them! At such good schools, I do not think you can make a bad choice. That being said, I think CalTech or University of Chicago (maybe even UCB) will be best for you. Try to decide based on non-academic standards, since the level of rigour is more or less the same at these schools. </p>
<p>My kid turned down U of Chicago last year for Mudd, and is very happy at Mudd now. One of her concerns about Chicago is that it seemed competitive vs. collaborative to her. And it seemed like if she struggled with the academics, there wasn’t a lot of support (very “sink or swim” environment). She works her tail off at Mudd, but has a really close group of friends who are all going through the core together and feels like she can get help almost any time of the day or night from a fellow freshman or older students (the dorms are intentionally mixed age so they have close relationships with older students), and there are also a lot of tutoring sessions she attends for help.</p>