Q&A about HMC

Q: How's life at Mudd?
A: Claremont is forty miles from Los Angeles, so it's not in the city proper. The train journey to L.A.'s main station takes 50 min. But there are still things to do both on- and off-campus. It's much easier to get around with a car – this holds for most places in America, except maybe Boston and NYC, but I've been able to explore even without one. Over break, some people went snowboarding and camping. Also, Mudd subsidizes off-campus activities, so on Thursday, four other Mudders and I went to a John Mayer concert in L.A. (Staples Center!)

In terms of academics, HMC is quite similar to NUSHS because the college is small and the professors are very accessible. As a side note, we might take for granted that teachers will always be there for consultations after school, but in American high schools, this isn't the case and teachers normally aren't so committed.

HMC's an engineering/technical school, so offerings in those areas are good, although *somewhat* limited by its size. The other consortium colleges supplement Mudd's sciences, for example, Pomona's neuroscience department is quite strong. As for courses in the humanities, I hear Mudd 'hums' are decent but the other 4Cs have a huge assortment and practically everyone takes courses off-Mudd.

Q: Is Mudd expensive?
A: Compared to other private universities, Mudd is slightly more expensive. Mudd's tuition is $38k, $2k more than Cal Tech. Compared to some public universities, Mudd is substantially more expensive. California residents pay just $8k tuition at Berkeley. Non-California residents and international students pay $31k tuition at Berkeley.

Q: How is Mudd's engineering education compared to larger universities, in the light of the large amount of required courses?
A: Mudd has an extensive technical core, but as a Math major, I would say that the Core classes are very relevant for Engineers. For instance, the required Math courses which I've been taking are Differential Equations and Linear Algebra, which are very important for engineers. If anything, as a Math major, I'd complain that the math Core is a bit too Engineering-y and not proof-based.

The total humanities requirement is 12 classes, which I think is reasonable. I like taking language classes and I plan to take linguistics eventually. Mudd also has distribution requirements – take X classes in Y subject area, etc, but I'm not concerned about that now :)

I don't know a lot about Engineering in particular, but something particularly interesting to me is that the E4 "intro to engineering'' class really emphasizes hands-on and collaborative work. You have to make a hammer, and design/build a creative paperweight. And the capstone of the intro class is an independent project, and my friend Katie is building a better calorimeter, optimizing it so it's smaller. During the campus-wide Presentation Days at the end of the semester, the E4 groups present their work. Engineers also have to do Clinic, a year-long project which is pretty serious. Something related is Global Clinic, where Mudd teams work with students at overseas universities. There's two Mudd teams working with NTU this summer.

In the interests of full disclosure, while plenty of students here do research, the research here isn't at the level of say, Cal Tech. The facilities are okay, but not overly awesome. Professors know that it's impossible to do a lot since they don't have grad students/postdocs. Also, HMC attracts a different type of profs – those who like teaching. Profs who want to win the next Nobel prize won't be coming here, because you need a different sort of environment – with postdocs/grad students – to do really groundbreaking awesome research. That said, I think there's enough opportunities to achieve as much as you want. Also, the professors have really interesting classes. I <3 my Math and Comp. Sci. professors especially! http://www.ted.com/talks/arthur_benjamin_does_mathemagic.html

Q: Why is Mudd so ugly?
A: Mudd is pretty poor, and they're building a new Teaching/Learning building. so they can't spend too much money renovating. I've concluded that Mudd doesn't care too much about its looks – Scripps, the neighbouring women-only college, is really pretty and manicured and has lots of lawns, but then, Scripps has a different image.

Q: Tell me about the PE requirements. Is it compulsory like NUSHS?
A: I wouldn't take PE either if I had a choice, but you get to choose what PE courses to do. Katie did basketball, I'm doing fitness (i.e. work out in the gym) Team sports, like 5C soccer, count for PE.