<p>First, if this is inappropriate for this forum feel free to ignore/delete. </p>
<p>I committed to Harvey Mudd. I've certainly fallen in love with it, in most respects. Yesterday, I was accepted off of the Yale waitlist unexpectedly. </p>
<p>Basically, I guess I'd like to hear opinions of students who've faced similar type decisions I guess. Just trying to throw some rationale around in my head.</p>
<p>Thanks
-Ray</p>
<p>[Prospective Engineering Major]</p>
<p>I think its tough for a lot of people to help you out, because very few have had to make your specific choice. Maybe the larger “College Search and Selection” board will help you out a little more?</p>
<p>Closest relevant thread?</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/yale-university/474242-nerds-love-yale-after-caltech-mit-acceptance.html?highlight=yale+caltech[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/yale-university/474242-nerds-love-yale-after-caltech-mit-acceptance.html?highlight=yale+caltech</a></p>
<p>I’m not an expert, but I have a couple of things to say about your choice. When my son was visiting colleges, we visited Harvey Mudd. I can certainly see the draw to that school. It is a unique place. My worry, as well as his, was that he would have no life outside of studying there. We met with the Claremont Mudd baseball coach. When asked how many Mudd students played on the team, the answer was zero. He told us that there has never been a Mudd student on the team. They just don’t have time for outside activities. This feeling was confirmed when we later that week visited Stanford. We met someone who was going to grad school at Stanford and had gone to undergrad at Harvey Mudd. When we asked him about the two schools. He said Stanford was a joke. He had loved Harvey Mudd, but said it was soooooo hard. Also, my son’s friend was accepted to both Mudd and Princeton engineering. Chose Princeton for two reasons: first, he thought he would have more of a life there (Mudd would be much more intense and less well rounded) and secondly, an engineering degree at Mudd is for general engineering. At Princeton (and Yale) you can specialize in mechanical, electrical, whatever. At Mudd, there is no question that you would have to continue on the grad school to specialize. Hope this was a little helpful.</p>
<p>MSauce: Thanks, I posted a thread there. </p>
<p>Descartesz: Thanks, that was a helpful thread to read. </p>
<p>Boomie: Thanks. If you don’t mind, how long ago was your experience with Mudd? I have also spoken with Coach Randy Town and visited with the team on gameday and such. If I attend Mudd, I will play baseball as long as I can. I still get your point, but the Coach told me that a few kids have done it in the past, so I figure I can try. I was rejected from Princeton, Stanford, Caltech, MIT, and almost surprisingly Cornell. MIT, Stanford, and Princeton were my top three choices. I certainly had a worthy resume but it was a tough year. I’d be going there if I could. Just my opinion, but I’d say Mudd is academically well rounded because of the humanities requirement. Also I think the general engineering degree is actually a huge asset in the real world because of the depth of the interdisciplinary program. So in rereading this I realize it kinda turned into a reflective pity response, but regardless I truly appreciate the input.</p>
<p>OP, don’t forget to let us know which way you end up going.</p>
<p>Sorry it took me so long to get back to you. My son is graduating this year. We toured CMC/Harvey Mudd in November of 2008. This is when coach Town told me that Mudd students are never on the baseball team. I just think you would have more of a life at Yale. HMC is all consuming. Call coach Town and talk to him about it, if it isn’t too late. Obviously, it’s too late to be recruited for the Yale team, but I’m sure there is a club baseball team, and I am fairly sure you would have the extra time for outside activities like that at Yale. Let us know what you decide.</p>
<p>Do whatever you’d feel most comfortable with. I could say that I’d pick Yale, but I don’t know much about HMC (edit: none) so I can’t really say haha! Good luck :)</p>
<p>I’m sure this is over and done with but I figured I’d comment for future generations.
I went to Mudd as Computer Science major and played football for the HMC/CMC. My brother went to Yale as American Studies major, so I think I can comment on the relative merits of each school.
Harvey Mudd’s education is second to none. I do a decent amount of college recruiting now and can confidentially say that Mudd students come out of the program better prepared for a technical career or graduate school than any other college I know of, including Yale. That being said the difference between a Mudd prepared student and a Yale (or Harvard, MIT, Caltech, or Rose-Hulman) prepared student is, in the grand scheme of things, not that big.
You can definitly play varsity sports at Mudd, just not many do. The relative lack of time at Mudd versus Yale is balanced by the fact that varsity sports at the claremont schools aren’t quite as time consuming as at Yale (DI versus DIII and all that). I bet you don’t see many engineers on the Yale baseball team eithier.
Ultimately though I think the big difference between Mudd and Yale is that, as far as I can tell, Elis are happier before graduation and Mudders are happier after. Hope that helps everyone.</p>
<p>Also for the information of posterity, the OP appears to have chosen Mudd according to this thread:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvey-mudd-college/927522-hmc-vs-yale.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvey-mudd-college/927522-hmc-vs-yale.html</a></p>