Harvey Mudd College

Responses from the Student Interview

From a student  who identifies as Major: Engineering with a concentration in Economics
Minor: None
Student Self Identifies as: Biracial: Chinese and Caucasian Heterosexual Male

Summary

I’m a student-athlete

Background

Gender Identity: Male
Race/Ethnicity: Biracial: Chinese and Caucasian
Sexual Orientation: Heterosexual

High School Experience: Private school in San Jose, California with a graduating class of 430 students. There was a strong culture of going to college.
First Generation College Student: No
Major: Engineering with a concentration in Economics
Minor: None

Extracurricular Activities: I’m a student-athlete
What impact did your sport have on your experience?
I think it’s a pretty positive thing. When we’re in season, we have to manage our time well because we don’t have as much free time as other students do. We have practice every day, and games twice a week that take up five hours out of the day. The busier you are, the more efficient you have to be with your time. It’s pretty manageable, you just have to be on top of all your assignments.

Academic Experience

Can you describe the weekly coursework for your Engineering major?
Experimental Engineering is a lab-based course where we are designing a fully autonomous underwater robot to collect temperature and depth data, and we’ll launch it in the Pacific Ocean. The class is pretty much a giant group project, and it has some problem sets on MATLAB. Most of the work is done in class. Other classes are very problem set based.
Economics classes are more reading based. The class I took last semester consisted of weekly readings, and we’d go over those readings in lecture. We had three exams, but no actual homework besides the readings.
Is there anything you feel your major’s department has done especially well or poorly academically?
The major is General Engineering, and they almost advertise the major as a five in one because you take classes in a wide variety of engineering disciplines. I’m taking an engineering mechanics course, and in the past, I’ve taken a thermodynamics course. In the future, I’ll take some Electrical Engineering courses. This is a really cool part of the program because for me it really exposes you to the main engineering disciplines, so you know what you want to get into. Once you take the broad engineering classes, you have to take the more specialized tech electives in a certain engineering field.
How would you describe the learning environment? Is it particularly competitive or collaborative?
It’s very collaborative and I wouldn’t necessarily say we get pitted against each other. Because it’s such a small school and everyone knows each other, you often work with the same people on problem sets. The fact that it’s so collaborative helps make the students here so successful. We learn how to work with teams to figure out problems. [The total undergraduate population is 889 students.]
Why did you pick your major? Are you happy with your choice?
I’ve always gravitated toward the math and sciences, like Physics and Calculus. Once I got to Mudd, there were only a few majors to choose from. I know that Mudd has a very good Engineering school, and for me, it was the best fit for what I think my strengths are. As I’ve been taking the courses, I’m enjoying the curriculum so far. For the first three semesters, you only take Core Curriculum classes, which are classes in each of the major disciplines offered. You get to see the broad picture which helps you figure out what you really want to take.

Reasons to Attend

1) If you love studying, working, and want to be challenged.
2) If you like video games and more solitary activities, this place is perfect for you.
3) The professors and students are amazing. They are always trying to help.
4) There’s definitely a party culture here. They party among themselves. It’s interesting to see the socially awkward people partying among themselves. They build their own social skills within their own circles.
5) The Computer Science and Engineering programs are definitely pretty excellent.
6) If you want really good dining hall food.

Reasons Not to Attend

1) You can get stuck in the Mudd bubble, so you might not see a lot of people off campus.
2) If you want to meet new people all the time, this place might not be good for you.
3) If you get stressed out easily and don’t enjoy studying, don’t come here.

Around Campus

Where have you lived during college?
Freshman: North Dorm with 1 roommate and two suitemates.
Sophomore: North Dorm with 1 roommate and two suitemates.
How did you like your living situation?
I’ve enjoyed living in the North Dorm. Each dorm at Mudd has its own culture and community, and everybody in the dorm kind of knows each other since it’s so small. It’s a pretty active community I’d say. There are always people hanging out outside and doing activities.
How was transitioning from your hometown in San Jose to Claremont, CA?
It wasn’t too difficult since I’m only moving six hours South, so I’m pretty close to home. College living is just so different than when you live at home and have to drive to school, to practice, or whatever extracurricular activities you do. In college, everything is right here. I never really got homesick because I was so busy, so it was a pretty seamless transition I’d say.
Can you describe the level of safety you’ve experienced on and around campus?
I feel completely safe. Everybody leaves their skateboard on the skateboard racks unlocked, and there’s hardly ever been a problem. My roommate has had a board get stolen in the past, but for the most part it’s a pretty safe and mellow campus. It wouldn’t be the students stealing from each other, it would be someone from off-campus coming onto campus knowing we leave our things unlocked.

Social Opportunities

What kind of nightlife or weekend activities do you participate in at Harvey Mudd?
Since there’s not much around the campuses, people generally stay on campus and go out at night to a basketball game or parties on campus. The Claremont schools do things called the 5 C parties, which are themed parties that anybody from the 5 Claremont Colleges can go to. They are advertised school wide, so everyone knows they’re happening. We’ll sometimes hang out in the courtyard because our dorm is a U shape.
What nights of the week do you regularly do things?
Thursday and Saturday nights are the biggest nights. For some reason, Fridays never end up having a lot of people out.
What’s an alternative to going to a party or a bar that you like for a night out?
Me and my friends enjoy going to concerts, and since L.A. is such a big city, there are always good concerts going on. A lot of the artists we like frequently play shows in L.A. There’s a Mexican place down a couple miles from campus with dollar margarita night.
How happy are you with the weekend activities or nightlife at your school? Is there anything you would change if you could?
I’d say I’m pretty happy with what we have. Considering it’s such a small school, there’s not a ton we can change. Going out on the weekend is always a good time. Mudd is known as the school with most of the introverted people, and some might think of Mudders as weird, but they just don’t get to know the people. I would generally say people from Mudd are less social than people from any of the other schools. Every weekend there are still things going on, it’s just from the other campuses point of view that we are less social than them.

Campus Culture

How did you meet your closest friends?
Some of my closest friends are my roommates. Two of the three of them are on my sports team as well. I met the rest of my close friends because we live in the same dorm. It took me a couple of months to start hanging out with some of the other kids from my dorm, but because we live so close, we are always working on all the same homework together.
Do you like the dorm community at Mudd?
I definitely do. The dorm I live in is most fitting to my personality.
How has the size of your school influenced your social experience? [The total undergraduate population is 889 students.]
For me, it’s a little small because you walk around every day and see the same faces. The fact that the other Claremont schools are less than a block away, makes it seem less small. It if wasn’t for the other schools nearby it would be too much, and I don’t think I’d enjoy it as much.
How would you describe the overall social scene at Harvey Mudd?
On weekends people are always doing stuff, it’s not like it’s a quiet campus all the time where nobody goes out. On a normal night, there will be people walking around or partying in their courtyard, or just hanging out and having fun.
To what extent do people of different races and sexual orientations mix socially?
Pretty much 100%. The school is very open-minded, liberal, and everybody is accepting of anybody’s differences. We mix races and hang out with people of different sexual orientations. It’s not an exclusive community, and people are always very inclusive of one another. [The population is 31% White, 3% Black, 20% Hispanic, and 19% Asian.]
Do you feel like you are more of a student of Harvey Mudd or a student of the Five College Consortium?
I’d say I’m definitely more of a student of Mudd. You really feel the Mudd community when you go here and are in classes with the same people. We do take all of our technical classes at Mudd, so we’re around Mudd’s campus the majority of our time.

Careers

What have you used the career office for? How helpful have they been?
The career office is really helpful for working on your resume, and we have career fairs here twice a year. I went to the Engineering job fair in the Fall. It was pretty interesting and was my first career fair where I talked to recruiters.
Have you learned any computer programs or computer languages that will be helpful professionally?
We worked with R in one of our core Math and Statistics classes. We use SolidWorks in one of our Engineering classes, and we have had to use Excel a decent amount because we work with data. We’ve definitely used a wide variety of computer software. We’ve also used LabVIEW, which is for Electrical Engineering purposes.

Financial Aid

Have you used financial aid? If so, accommodating was the office to your needs?
They are decent with financial aid. My family isn’t necessarily in need of a huge chunk of financial aid, but they did give us some, which was pretty helpful. I think they do a good job of financial aid with people whose families otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford this school.