Southern California Road Trip: Harvey Mudd
You're about to spend four years of your life on a college campus; you need to make sure it feels right. So hit the road—we did! We took three typical road trips: East Coast, West Coast, and in between. By the way, college visits don't have to mean hours on the interstate. Use our Directory to locate schools near you and walk through the gates. You may find what you're looking for.
The tour guide had just finished explaining a research project in which engineering students had to burn down a high school when someone let out a thunderous "Woohoo!" It was a current student, who had picked up an exam that he was now displaying over his head. Turning to the students on the tour, he announced that he had just earned his first A on an exam at Harvey Mudd. "In high school," the student said, "I always had A's."
Talking your way into this small undergraduate college of math, science, and engineering in Claremont, Calif., requires serious smarts. Once in, students must also have humility and a sense of humor. Engineering majors spend their junior and senior years working in teams on real-world problems that test how much they know—and how long they can go without sleep. The students who burned down a high school were testing a system that could alert first responders to a building collapse. And how about taking out the stress from classes by smashing objects with liquid nitrogen at chemistry club parties?
One recent student presentation drew an audience that included a manufacturer of ultrasonic wire bonders and a global defense and technology firm. While much of what was said sounded impossibly technical, one thing was clear: The Mudders demonstrated leadership, teamwork, and humor (one team thanked its "Domino's delivery guy" for his contribution to its research). On a campus where practically every student rides a skateboard or a unicycle (and occasionally a double-decker bicycle), Maria Klawe, the president, has her own longboard for getting around.
Because science and engineering dominate, the school is trying to make it easier for students to take more classes in the humanities and social sciences (both are required for graduation). Klawe recalls with regret one student who was so busy at Harvey Mudd that she never played any of the four instruments she had learned in high school. The president also frowns at the small number of minorities on campus, including African-Americans; the school has recently hired more women and people of color.
More About Harvey Mudd
Plus factor: School's president likes to say it has an "excellence without arrogance" mentality.
Undergrad enrollment, fall '07: 732
Est. annual cost, '08-'09 (tuition, fees, room and board): $48,606
Southern California Road Trip
- UC-San Diego
- UC-Irvine
- Loyola Marymount University
- Harvey Mudd
Reader Comments
As a Mudd alumna ('99), I echo the article and comments above; no better place in the world to be if you want to get your education from a firehose, but in a supportive environment, and be surrounded by quirky, brilliant people. It's not the right place for everybody but if it is, you'll know. I also echo the reminder about the consortium, which is one of the best parts of the experience (Mudd was the only engineering school I applied to, and the consortium was why; I ended up as a math/classics double major, taking classes on every campus and making friends from most of the schools). I'm glad they're breaking down barriers to humanities classes; that was a problem in my time (but even so, a friend of mine who was a math major at a highly regarded liberal arts college once commented that her Mudd friends got a much better humanities education than she did).
Short version: great place. I still do college fairs for them out east. Nerds unite.
MUDD
Also a proud Mudd parent - it should be noted that Mudd is part of the Claremont College consortium with Pamona, Claremont McKenna, Scripps and Pitzer. The richness of course offerings and cultural activities afforded by that cluster of exceptional institutions is unbeliveable. Mudd sems to provide the inimacy and social support of a small like-minded science and math community but it resides in the middle of a large university community.
Proud Harvey Mudd parent
My daughter graduated from Mudd in 2005. She had a tough but wonderful 4 years hanging out with really comaptable people.
I have been very pleased with how much they challenged her and yet how supportive the environment was. No one should consider going there unless they are ready to work HARD, but knowing they will do so among friends and come out with a great education. It is possible to ITR (become "inelligable to return") but usually it is from too much partying or personal issues. Alcohol can be an issue, although I think much less than most colleges, and some kids discover that they are just not that passionate about math and science and some play too many "ITR games" (role playing games either on or off the computer). Those that get in basically can do the work if they are willing to put in the time and ask for help when they need it.
In contrast, my son has majored in engeneering at a very rigorous large public university. He has also worked hard, gotten good grades (slightly better than the daughter got at Mudd) and I am sure a good technical education. What he hasn't gotten is the humanities and social sciences his sister got at Mudd and the exposure to research and real world projects.
Some people worry about the lack of grade inflation at Mudd (average grade is 3.0 in a school where 90% of the students were in the top 10% of their HS classes.) My daughter fortuneately got a 3.5 anyway, but to encourage others, several grad schools spontaniously told her before seeing her transcript, "don't worry about your GPA, we know you are from Mudd and we don't worry about less than 3.0 GPA from Mudders"
In summary, any student who is good at math and science and wants a "liberal science" education in a challenging envirnment should enjoy Mudd and do will there.
As an aside, those who maybe find Mudd a little too challenging but want a good "liberal science" education may want to check out my alma mater, Lyman Briggs College of Michigan State University. I had never heard of Mudd before my daughter went there, but I had a very similar, although less intense, experience at Briggs and loved it.
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