Harvey Mudd College
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Harvey Mudd College (HMC) is a private liberal arts college in Claremont, California, focused on science and engineering. It is part of the Claremont Colleges, which share adjoining campus grounds and resources. The college enrolled 902 undergraduate students Template:As of and awards the Bachelor of Science degree.
The college was funded by the friends and family of Harvey Seeley Mudd, one of the initial investors in the Cyprus Mines Corporation.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Although involved in the planning of the new institution, Mudd died before it opened in 1955. The campus was designed by Edward Durell Stone in a New Formalist style.
History
Template:Expand section Harvey Mudd College was founded in 1955.<ref name="HMC first 20">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name= "History official">Template:Cite web</ref> Classes began in 1957 with a class of 48 students, 7 faculty and one building–Mildred E. Mudd Hall, a dormitory. Classes and meals took place at Claremont Men's College (Claremont McKenna College), and labs in the Baxter Science Building until additional buildings could be built: Jacobs Science Building (1959), Thomas-Garett Hall (1961) and Platt Campus Center (1963). By 1966, the campus had grown to 283 students and 43 faculty.<ref name="HMC first 20" />
Under the presidency of Maria Klawe as of 2006, Harvey Mudd became a leading advocate for women in STEM in higher education.<ref name="Fiske 2020">Template:Cite book</ref>
In April 2017, all classes were cancelled for two days in response to tensions on campus over workload, race issues, and mistrust of faculty.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Contributing events included the deaths of two Mudd students and a Scripps student that year and the leak of the Wabash Report on teaching, learning, and workload at Mudd.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
On July 1, 2023, Harriet Nembhard became the sixth President of Harvey Mudd College.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Campus
The original buildings of the campus, designed by Edward Durell Stone and completed in 1959,<ref name="TSL campus">Template:Cite news</ref> feature "knobbly concrete squares that students of Harvey Mudd affectionately call "warts" and use as hooks for skateboards."<ref name="Spencer">Template:Cite web</ref> The school's unofficial mascot "Wally the Wart" is an anthropomorphic concrete wart.<ref name="Spencer" />
In 2013, Travel and Leisure named the college as one of "America's ugliest college campuses" and noted that while Stone regarded his design as a "Modernist masterpiece", the result was "layering drab, slab-sided buildings with Beaux-Arts decoration."<ref name="Spencer" />
Academic buildings
The official names for the academic buildings of Harvey Mudd College are:<ref name="campusmap" />
- F.W. Olin Science Center ("Olin") - 1992<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- Parsons Engineering Building ("Parsons") - 1972
- R. Michael Shanahan Center for Teaching and Learning ("Shan") - 2013<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- Jacobs Science Center ("Jacobs") - 1959
- W.M. Keck Laboratories ("Keck")
- Scott A. McGregor Computer Science Center ("Greg") - 2021<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Dormitories
The official names for the dormitories of Harvey Mudd College are (listed in order of construction):<ref name="campusmap">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- Mildred E. Mudd Hall ("East") - 1957
- West Hall ("West") - 1958
- North Hall ("North") - 1959
- Marks Residence Hall ("South") - 1968
- J. L. Atwood Residence Hall ("Atwood") - 1981
- Case Residence Hall ("Case") - 1985
- Ronald and Maxine Linde Residence Hall ("Linde") - 1993
- Frederick and Susan Sontag Residence Hall ("Sontag") - 2004
- Wayne and Julie Drinkward Residence Hall ("Drinkward")<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> - 2015
- Garrett House - completed in 1959 as the president's house, converted to a dorm in 2023
Until the addition of the Linde and Sontag dorms, Atwood and Case dorms were occasionally referred to as New Dorm and New Dorm II; Mildred E. Mudd Hall and Marks Hall are almost invariably referred to as East Dorm and South Dorm.
During the construction of Case Dorm some students decided as a prank to move all of the survey stakes exactly six inches in one direction.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
"East" was the first dorm, but it wasn't until "West" was built west of it that it was actually referred to as "East". Then, "North" was built, directly north of "East". When the fourth dorm, Marks Hall, was built, there was one corner of the quad available (the northwest) and one directional name, "South", remaining.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> To this day, "South" dorm is the northernmost HMC inner dorm.
The fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth dorms built are Atwood, Case, Linde, Sontag, and Drinkward, respectively. They were initially referred to as "the colonies" by some students, a reference to the fact that they were newer and at the farthest end of the campus; these dorms are now more commonly referred to as "the outer dorms", with the four directional dorms referred to as "the inner dorms". The college had initially purchased an apartment building adjacent to the newer dorms to house additional students, but it was demolished to make room for Sontag.
Since any HMC student, regardless of class year, can live in any of the dormitories, several of the dorms have accumulated long-standing traditions and so-called "personalities".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Academics
HMC offers four-year degrees in chemistry, mathematics, physics, computer science, biology, and engineering, interdisciplinary degrees in mathematical and computational biology, and joint majors in computer science and mathematics; computer science and physics; physics and mathematics; and biology and chemistry. Students may also elect an Individual Program of Study (IPS) or an off-campus major offered by any of the other Claremont Colleges, provided one also completes a minor in one of the technical fields that Harvey Mudd offers as a major.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The college maintains an intense academic culture.<ref name="Fiske 2020" />
All HMC students are required to take the college's Common Core Curriculum,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> typically throughout their freshman and sophomore years. This includes courses in computer science, engineering, biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics, writing, a critical inquiry course, and a social impact course.
Its most popular majors, by 2023 graduates, were:<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- Computer Science (55)
- Engineering (53)
- Computer Science & Mathematics (44)
- Mathematics (16)
In 2018, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported that in response to student "complaints first to mental-health counsellors and then to outside evaluators," the college was "considering how to ease pressure on students without sacrificing rigour."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Admissions
For the class of 2026, the college received 4,440 applications and admitted 593 applicants (a 13.4% acceptance rate). Of the 237 freshmen who enrolled, the middle 50% of SAT scores reported were 760–790 in mathematics and 720–770 in reading and writing, while the ACT Composite range was 34–36.<ref name="CDS">Template:Cite web</ref>
Harvey Mudd, along with Wake Forest University, long held out as the last four-year colleges or universities in the U.S. to accept only SAT and not ACT test scores for admission.<ref name="SAT holdout">Template:Cite news</ref> In August 2007, at the beginning of the application process for the class of 2012, HMC began accepting ACT results,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> a year after Wake Forest abandoned its former SAT-only policy.<ref name="SAT holdout" />
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Harvey Mudd waived the requirement for SAT or ACT scores for the graduating classes of 2021 or 2022.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> This policy was extended to the classes of 2023 and 2024.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The college is need-blind for domestic applicants.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Rankings
Template:Infobox US university ranking
Washington Monthly ranked Harvey Mudd second in 2024 among 194 liberal arts colleges in the U.S. based on its contribution to the public good, as measured by social mobility, research, and promoting public service.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Money magazine ranked Harvey Mudd 136th out of 744 in its "Best Colleges For Your Money 2019" report.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In U.S. News & World ReportTemplate:'s 2025 "America's Best Colleges" report, Harvey Mudd College is tied for the 12th best U.S. liberal arts college, and is third among undergraduate engineering schools in the U.S. whose highest degree is a Master's.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Forbes in 2019 rated it 23rd in its "America's Top Colleges" ranking of 650 military academies, national universities and liberal arts colleges.
Harvey Mudd is ranked 1st nationally for Return on Investment for Students by PayScale's 2024 rankings<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Tuition and other costs
For the 2024–25 academic year, Harvey Mudd's total annual cost of attendance (tuition, fees, and room and board) was $93,131.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> About 70% of freshmen receive financial aid.<ref>Katie Lobosco, The 10 most expensive colleges this year, CNN Money (November 11, 2016).</ref>
Student life
Athletics
Template:Main Athletes from Harvey Mudd compete alongside athletes from Claremont McKenna College and Scripps College as the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Stags and Athenas (CMS).<ref name="CMS Sports and Recreation Overview">Template:Cite news</ref> The teams participate in NCAA Division III in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC). The mascot for the men's teams is Stanley the Stag, and the women's teams are the Athenas. Their colours are cardinal and gold.
According to the Division III Fall Learfield Director's Cup Standings for the 2016–2017 year, CMS ranks 12th among all Division III programs, and first among SCIAC colleges.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The other sports combination of the Claremont Colleges, and CMS' primary rival, is the team made up of Pomona College and Pitzer College known as the Pomona–Pitzer Sagehens (PP). This is known to students as the Sixth Street Rivalry.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Athletic facilities
- Baseball — Bill Arce Field
- Basketball and Volleyball — Roberts Pavilion
- Football and Lacrosse — John Zinda Field
- Softball — Softball Field
- Soccer — John Pritzlaff Field
- Aquatics — Matt M. Axelrood Pool
- Tennis — Biszantz Family Tennis Center
- Track and Field — Burns Track Complex<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Relations with Caltech
The California Institute of Technology (Caltech), another university with strength in the natural sciences and engineering, is located Template:Convert away from Harvey Mudd College. Mudders occasionally amuse themselves by pranking Caltech. For example, in 1986, students from Mudd stole a memorial cannon from Fleming House at Caltech (originally from the National Guard) by dressing as maintenance people and carting it off on a flatbed truck for "cleaning".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="HMC heist">Template:Cite webTemplate:Cbignore</ref> The students eventually returned the cannon after Caltech threatened to take legal action. In 2006, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) replicated the prank and moved the same cannon to their campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Notable alumni
Template:Main Notable Harvey Mudd College alumni include:
- Donald D. Chamberlin, co-inventor of SQL
- Jonathan Gay (1989), creator of Adobe Flash software
- Jennifer Holmgren, CEO of LanzaTech
- Richard H. Jones, diplomat, U.S. ambassador to Israel
- Stan Love, astronaut
- George "Pinky" Nelson, astronaut
- Sean "Day9" Plott, esports commentator and game designer
- Tom Preston-Werner (dropped out), co-founder of GitHub, creator of Gravatar
List of presidents
The following person served as president of Harvey Mudd College:<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
| Template:No. | Image | Name | Term start | Term end | Template:Reference heading |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Joseph Platt | 1955 | 1976 | ||
| 2 | D. Kenneth Baker | 1976 | June 30, 1988 | <ref>Template:Cite news</ref> | |
| 3 | File:Hank Riggs.jpg | Henry E. Riggs | July 1, 1988 | February 28, 1997 | <ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> |
| 4 | Jon C. Strauss | March 1, 1997 | June 30, 2006 | <ref>Template:Cite news</ref> | |
| 5 | File:Maria Klawe 2015.jpg | Maria Klawe | July 1, 2006 | June 30, 2023 | <ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> |
| 6 | Harriet Nembhard | July 1, 2023 | present | <ref>Template:Cite web</ref> |
See also
References
Bibliography
External links
- Template:Official website
- Website of The Student Life, the 5C newspaper
- Official athletics website
- Template:College-navigator
Template:Harvey Mudd College Template:Claremont Colleges Template:Navboxes
- Pages with broken file links
- Harvey Mudd College
- Claremont Colleges
- Claremont, California
- Universities and colleges in Los Angeles County, California
- Liberal arts colleges in California
- San Gabriel Valley
- Schools accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges
- Universities and colleges established in 1955
- 1955 establishments in California
- Science and technology in Greater Los Angeles
- Private universities and colleges in California
- Need-blind educational institutions