Harvey Mudd College (HMC) is a
private residential liberal arts college of science, engineering, and
mathematics, founded in 1955 and located in Claremont, California, United
States. It is one of the institutions of the contiguous Claremont Colleges,
which share adjoining campus grounds. The college's mission is: "Harvey
Mudd College seeks to educate engineers, scientists, and mathematicians well
versed in all of these areas and in the humanities and the social sciences so
that they may assume leadership in their fields with a clear understanding of
the impact of their work on society."
Harvey Mudd College shares
university resources such as libraries, dining halls, health services, and
campus security, with the other institutions in the Claremont Colleges,
including Pitzer College, Scripps College, Claremont McKenna College, Pomona
College, Claremont Graduate University, and Keck Graduate Institute of Applied
Life Sciences, but each college is independently managed by its own faculty,
board of trustees, and college endowment and has its own separate admissions
process. Students at Harvey Mudd are encouraged to take classes (acceptable for
academic credit at Harvey Mudd) at the other four Claremont colleges,
especially classes outside their major of study. Together the Claremont
Colleges provide the resources and opportunities of a large university while
enabling the specialization and personal attention afforded by the individual
colleges. The Bachelor of Science diploma received at graduation is issued by
Harvey Mudd College.
The college is named after Harvey
Seeley Mudd, one of the initial investors in the Cyprus Mines Corporation.
Although involved in the planning of the new institution, Mudd died before it
opened. Harvey Mudd College was funded by Mudd's friends and family, and named
in his honor.
In keeping with the college's
mission, HMC offers four-year degrees in chemistry, mathematics, physics,
computer science, biology, and engineering, as well as interdisciplinary
degrees in mathematical biology, and a joint major in either computer science
and mathematics; or biology and chemistry. Students may also elect to complete
an Individual Program of Study (IPS) made up of courses of their own choosing.
Usually between two and five students graduate with an IPS degree each year.
Finally, one may choose 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.
Because of its mission statement,
Harvey Mudd College places a strong emphasis on general science education,
requiring a full one-third of math, science, and engineering courses, known as
the "common core", outside of one's major. Students are also required
to take another one-third of their courses in the humanities, social sciences,
and the arts, in keeping with the school's tradition of "science with a
conscience". The final one-third of courses comprises those in the
student's major. The integration of research and education is an important component
of the educational experience at Harvey Mudd College; upon graduation, every
student has experienced some kind of research, usually in the form of a senior
thesis or a Clinic Program. The undergraduate focus of HMC means that, unlike
many larger science and engineering institutions, undergraduates at HMC get
unique access to research positions over the summer and during the school
year.[citation needed]
A unique opportunity for HMC
students is the Clinic Program, which focuses primarily on projects in the fields
of engineering, computer science, physics, and math. In the Clinic Program,
teams of students work for a year on a project suggested by a company. They are
expected to make regular reports to the company and to deliver a product at the
end of the year. The Clinic Program offers students a first-hand look at a
particular industry and allows the sponsoring company to hire an inexpensive
Clinic team of four students, whom they often try to recruit after
graduation
Harvey Mudd today still maintains
the highest rate of science and engineering Ph.D. production among all
undergraduate colleges and second highest (Caltech ranks first and MIT third)
compared to all universities and colleges, according to a 2008 report by the
National Science Foundation.
Money Magazine ranked Harvey Mudd
7th in the country out of the nearly 1500 schools it evaluated for its 2014
Best Colleges ranking. The Daily Beast ranked Harvey Mudd 78th in the country
out of the nearly 2000 schools it evaluated for its 2013 Best Colleges ranking.According
to U.S. News & World Report's 2015 America's Best Colleges rankings, Harvey
Mudd College is tied for the 15th best liberal arts college in the United
Statesand is tied for the best undergraduate engineering school in the US whose
highest degree is a Master's. Forbes in 2014 rated Harvey Mudd College #52 of
its America's Best Colleges ranking, which includes military academies,
national universities, and liberal arts colleges. In 2006, Harvey Mudd was also
named one of the "new Ivy leagues" by Kaplan and Newsweek.
Harvey Mudd College is one of the
few colleges in the US with very low grade inflation. As of 2010, only seven
students in the history of the college have achieved a perfect 4.0 GPA
In 1997, Harvey Mudd College became
the sole American undergraduate-only institution ever to win 1st place in the
ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest. As of 2015, no American
school has won the world competition since.
According to PayScale, graduates of
Harvey Mudd College earn the highest salaries among graduates of any college in
the United States.The Harvey Mudd College mathematics department is highly
ranked and was the 2006 recipient of theAmerican Mathematical Society award for
an Exemplary Program or Achievement in a Mathematics Department.Two of the
department's alumni, Joshua Greene and Aaron Archer, were winners and honorable
mention for the Morgan Prize in 2002 and 1998 respectively. The Morgan Prize is
an annual award given to an undergraduate student in the US, Canada, or Mexico
who demonstrates superior mathematics research.