Harvey Mudd College
Encyclopedia
Harvey Mudd College is a private residential
liberal arts college
of science
, engineering
, and mathematics
, located in Claremont, California
. It is one of the institutions of the contiguous Claremont Colleges
, which share adjoining campus grounds.
Harvey Mudd 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.
Harvey Mudd College's mission is to educate scientist
s, engineer
s, and mathematician
s to be well-versed in the social sciences
and humanities
so that they better understand the impact of their work on society. The college 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 Independent 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 places an unusually 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, 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; 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.
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.
— the highest rate of any college or university in the nation. 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
.
, Harvey Mudd College is tied for 14th with Grinnell College
, United States Military Academy
, and Washington and Lee University
among liberal arts colleges in the United States
as rated by the U.S. News and World Report and as of 2011, is ranked as the best undergraduate engineering program at a school whose highest degree is a bachelor's or master's by U.S. News & World Report
. Also in 2009, Forbes
ranked it 33rd among their list of the 600 best American colleges. In 2006, Harvey Mudd was also named one of the "new Ivy leagues" by Kaplan
and Newsweek
, while the mathematics department won the first American Mathematical Society
Award for Exemplary Program.
Harvey Mudd College is said to be one of the few colleges in the US with very low grade inflation. This perception may be due to a period of significant grade deflation in the late 1970s and early 1980s. As of 2008, only six 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 2010, no American school has won the world competition since.
Harvey Mudd College, 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 in their admissions process. In August 2007, however (the beginning of the application process for the class of 2012), HMC began accepting ACT results, a year after Wake Forest abandoned its former SAT-only policy.
According to self-reported data on PayScale, graduates of Harvey Mudd College earn the highest salaries among graduates of any college in the United States.
The official names for the dormitories are (listed in order of construction):
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. They did such a precise job that the construction crew didn't notice until after they had laid the foundation (and after the prank team informed someone on the project about the shifted stakes), but California earthquake law forced them to re-survey the site and bring in engineering consultation. The cost of this (nearly $5,000) was born by the pranksters .
South Dorm is in the northwest corner of the quad. "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) was built, there was one corner of the quad available (the northwest) and one directional name, "South", remaining. To this day "South" dorm is more north on the compass than "North" dorm is.
The fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth dorms built are Atwood, Case, Linde, and Sontag, 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." 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 the newest dorm, 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'. Two examples of these traditions are the parties Long Tall Glasses (a formal affair thrown by North) and TQ Nite (a tequila-centered party formerly thrown by West). The personality of a given dorm experiences changes over the years, however, as Harvey Mudd alumni may find upon visiting their alma mater
long after graduation.
, Harvey Mudd College, and Scripps College
compete as one team. Male athletic teams are called the Stags, and women's teams are called the Athenas. The teams participate in the NCAA
's Division III and in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
.
In the early 1970s the first unicycle appeared on campus. The unicycling club, known as Gonzo Unicycle Madness, was formed, and to this day organizes an annual 9.6 mile ride known as "The Foster's Run," to the "Donut Man" donut shop in Glendora
(originally known as "Foster's Donuts" hence the name of the event) for strawberry donuts. Upon return to the campus, the ritual of the "shakedown" takes place (dismounting and then repeatedly jumping up and down), a necessary procedure after a unicycle ride of nearly twenty miles. Sometimes unicyclists on campus also meet to play unicycle hockey
. In the early 1990s, though, the ridership of unicycles waned at the college. Currently, only a few Mudders ride unicycles, many of them at "South" dorm.
A student-led organization, Increasing Harvey Mudd's Traditional Practices (IHTP), works to revive college traditions that have slowly faded over the years, and also starts new traditions that the group hopes to see take root on campus. It hosts annual events such as the 5-Class Competition, Friday Nooners, Wednesday Nighters, Frosh/Soph Games, and the Thomas-Garrett Affair.
Interdorm competitions are also regularly held, ranging from water polo
to broomball
.
themselves. The Honor Code states:
The Honor Code is so well followed that the college entrusts the students to 24-hour per day access to all buildings, including labs, and permits take-home exams, specified either as open-book or closed-book, or as timed or un-timed.
The original buildings of campus were designed by Edward Durell Stone
. Most are covered with thousands of square concrete
features, called "warts" by the students, which would be perfectly suited to buildering
except that, while some are set into the wall, others are simply glued on. In addition, these warts have the unusual usefulness of being great 'shelves' for unicycles and skateboards. One can walk towards Galileo Hall and see the warts (especially those near the entrances of buildings) being used as racks for unicycles and skateboards. Interestingly enough, the unofficial mascot of Harvey Mudd (featured on many college handbooks and other publications) is one of these concrete blocks with a face, arms, and legs, named "Wally the Wart."
Most of the computer labs and many classrooms are located in the basements (called the Libra Complex) of the concrete-block buildings. All of the buildings that make up the Libra Complex are interconnected via a series of underground tunnels, enabling convenient inter-building access.
, another school known for its strength in the natural sciences and engineering, is located 26 miles away from Harvey Mudd College. From time to time, Mudders have been known to 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." Harvey Mudd eventually returned the cannon after the Caltech President threatened to take legal action. In 2006, MIT replicated the prank and moved the same cannon to their campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts
.
Another Mudd prank involved slight modifications to a freeway sign. By placing parentheses around Pasadena City College
, a nearby community college, Mudd students changed the sign to read:
California Institute of Technology
(Pasadena City College)
Next Exit
(1972) and Stan Love
(1987), and diplomat Richard H. Jones
(1972).
Residential college
A residential college is an organisational pattern for a division of a university that places academic activity in a community setting of students and faculty, usually at a residence and with shared meals, the college having a degree of autonomy and a federated relationship with the overall...
liberal arts college
Liberal arts college
A liberal arts college is one with a primary emphasis on undergraduate study in the liberal arts and sciences.Students in the liberal arts generally major in a particular discipline while receiving exposure to a wide range of academic subjects, including sciences as well as the traditional...
of science
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
, engineering
Engineering
Engineering is the discipline, art, skill and profession of acquiring and applying scientific, mathematical, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design and build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes that safely realize improvements to the lives of...
, and mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
, located in Claremont, California
Claremont, California
Claremont is a small affluent college town in eastern Los Angeles County, California, United States, about east of downtown Los Angeles at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains. The population as of the 2010 census is 34,926. Claremont is known for its seven higher-education institutions, its...
. It is one of the institutions of the contiguous Claremont Colleges
Claremont Colleges
The Claremont Colleges are a prestigious American consortium of five undergraduate and two graduate schools of higher education located in Claremont, California, a city east of downtown Los Angeles...
, which share adjoining campus grounds.
Harvey Mudd shares university resources such as libraries, dining halls, health services, and campus security, with the other institutions in the Claremont Colleges, including Pitzer College
Pitzer College
Pitzer College is a private residential liberal arts college located in Claremont, California, a college town approximately east of downtown Los Angeles. Pitzer College is one of the Claremont Colleges....
, Scripps College
Scripps College
Scripps College is a progressive liberal arts women's college in Claremont, California, United States. It is a member of the Claremont Colleges. Scripps ranks 3rd for the nation's best women's college, ahead of Barnard College, Mount Holyoke College, and Bryn Mawr College at 23rd on the list for...
, Claremont McKenna College
Claremont McKenna College
Claremont McKenna College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college and a member of the Claremont Colleges located in Claremont, California. The campus is located east of Downtown Los Angeles...
, Pomona College
Pomona College
Pomona College is a private, residential, liberal arts college in Claremont, California. Founded in 1887 in Pomona, California by a group of Congregationalists, the college moved to Claremont in 1889 to the site of a hotel, retaining its name. The school enrolls 1,548 students.The founding member...
, Claremont Graduate University
Claremont Graduate University
Claremont Graduate University is a private, all-graduate research university located in Claremont, California, a city east of downtown Los Angeles...
, and Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Life Sciences
Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Life Sciences
Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Life Sciences is a specialized graduate school in Claremont, California. It was founded in 1997 through a startup grant of $50 million from the W. M. Keck Foundation...
, 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
Bachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years .-Australia:In Australia, the BSc is a 3 year degree, offered from 1st year on...
diploma received at graduation is issued by Harvey Mudd College.
The college is named after Harvey Seeley Mudd
Harvey Seeley Mudd
Harvey Seeley Mudd was a mining engineer and founder, investor, and president of Cyprus Mines Corporation, a Los Angeles-based international enterprise that operated copper mines on the island of Cyprus. The science and engineering college Harvey Mudd College was named in memory of him...
, one of the initial investors in the Cyprus Mines Corporation
Cyprus Mines Corporation
The Cyprus Mines Corporation was an early twentieth century American mining company based in Cyprus. In 1914, Charles G. Gunther began prospecting in the Skouriotissa area after reading in ancient books that the island was rich in copper and noticing promising ancient Roman slag heaps in the area....
. 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.
Academics
Scientist
A scientist in a broad sense is one engaging in a systematic activity to acquire knowledge. In a more restricted sense, a scientist is an individual who uses the scientific method. The person may be an expert in one or more areas of science. This article focuses on the more restricted use of the word...
s, engineer
Engineer
An engineer is a professional practitioner of engineering, concerned with applying scientific knowledge, mathematics and ingenuity to develop solutions for technical problems. Engineers design materials, structures, machines and systems while considering the limitations imposed by practicality,...
s, and mathematician
Mathematician
A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with quantity, structure, space, and change....
s to be well-versed in the social sciences
Social sciences
Social science is the field of study concerned with society. "Social science" is commonly used as an umbrella term to refer to a plurality of fields outside of the natural sciences usually exclusive of the administrative or managerial sciences...
and humanities
Humanities
The humanities are academic disciplines that study the human condition, using methods that are primarily analytical, critical, or speculative, as distinguished from the mainly empirical approaches of the natural sciences....
so that they better understand the impact of their work on society. The college offers four-year degrees in chemistry
Chemistry
Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....
, mathematics, physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
, computer science
Computer science
Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...
, biology
Biology
Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...
, and engineering
Engineering
Engineering is the discipline, art, skill and profession of acquiring and applying scientific, mathematical, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design and build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes that safely realize improvements to the lives of...
, as well as interdisciplinary degrees in mathematical biology
Mathematical biology
Mathematical and theoretical biology is an interdisciplinary scientific research field with a range of applications in biology, medicine and biotechnology...
, and a joint major in either computer science and mathematics; or biology and chemistry. Students may also elect to complete an Independent 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
Mission statement
A mission statement is a statement of the purpose of a company or organization. The mission statement should guide the actions of the organization, spell out its overall goal, provide a path, and guide decision-making...
, Harvey Mudd places an unusually 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, 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; 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.
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.
Reputation
The middle 50% of entering SAT scores are 740–800 (out of 800) in mathematics, 690–760 in critical reading, and 680–760 in writing. A third of the student body are National Merit Scholars, and at one point, about 40 percent of graduates were going on to earn a Ph.D.Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
— the highest rate of any college or university in the nation. 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
National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation is a United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National Institutes of Health...
.
, Harvey Mudd College is tied for 14th with Grinnell College
Grinnell College
Grinnell College is a private liberal arts college in Grinnell, Iowa, U.S. known for its strong tradition of social activism. It was founded in 1846, when a group of pioneer New England Congregationalists established the Trustees of Iowa College....
, United States Military Academy
United States Military Academy
The United States Military Academy at West Point is a four-year coeducational federal service academy located at West Point, New York. The academy sits on scenic high ground overlooking the Hudson River, north of New York City...
, and Washington and Lee University
Washington and Lee University
Washington and Lee University is a private liberal arts college in Lexington, Virginia, United States.The classical school from which Washington and Lee descended was established in 1749 as Augusta Academy, about north of its present location. In 1776 it was renamed Liberty Hall in a burst of...
among liberal arts colleges in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
as rated by the U.S. News and World Report and as of 2011, is ranked as the best undergraduate engineering program at a school whose highest degree is a bachelor's or master's by U.S. News & World Report
U.S. News & World Report
U.S. News & World Report is an American news magazine published from Washington, D.C. Along with Time and Newsweek it was for many years a leading news weekly, focusing more than its counterparts on political, economic, health and education stories...
. Also in 2009, Forbes
Forbes
Forbes is an American publishing and media company. Its flagship publication, the Forbes magazine, is published biweekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune, which is also published biweekly, and Business Week...
ranked it 33rd among their list of the 600 best American colleges. In 2006, Harvey Mudd was also named one of the "new Ivy leagues" by Kaplan
Kaplan, Inc.
Kaplan, Inc. is a for-profit corporation headquartered in New York City and was founded in 1938 by Stanley Kaplan. Kaplan provides higher education programs, professional training courses, test preparation materials and other services for various levels of education...
and Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
, while the mathematics department won the first American Mathematical Society
American Mathematical Society
The American Mathematical Society is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and scholarship, which it does with various publications and conferences as well as annual monetary awards and prizes to mathematicians.The society is one of the...
Award for Exemplary Program.
Harvey Mudd College is said to be one of the few colleges in the US with very low grade inflation. This perception may be due to a period of significant grade deflation in the late 1970s and early 1980s. As of 2008, only six 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
ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest
ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest is an annual multi-tiered computer programming competition among the universities of the world. The contest is sponsored by IBM. Headquartered at Baylor University, with autonomous regions on six continents, the ICPC is directed by Baylor Professor...
. As of 2010, no American school has won the world competition since.
Harvey Mudd College, along with Wake Forest University
Wake Forest University
Wake Forest University is a private, coeducational university in the U.S. state of North Carolina, founded in 1834. The university received its name from its original location in Wake Forest, north of Raleigh, North Carolina, the state capital. The Reynolda Campus, the university's main campus, is...
, long held out as the last four-year colleges or universities in the U.S. to accept only SAT
SAT
The SAT Reasoning Test is a standardized test for college admissions in the United States. The SAT is owned, published, and developed by the College Board, a nonprofit organization in the United States. It was formerly developed, published, and scored by the Educational Testing Service which still...
and not ACT test scores in their admissions process. In August 2007, however (the beginning of the application process for the class of 2012), HMC began accepting ACT results, a year after Wake Forest abandoned its former SAT-only policy.
According to self-reported data on PayScale, graduates of Harvey Mudd College earn the highest salaries among graduates of any college in the United States.
Student life
The cost for attending Harvey Mudd (tuition, student body fee, and room & board) total $51,037.00 for the 2009–2010 academic year. Financial aid is offered on the basis of both need and merit. Approximately 83% of students receive financial aid, and 40% qualify for merit-based awards.Harvey Mudd College dormitories
- Mildred E. Mudd Hall ("East")
- West Hall ("West")
- North Hall ("North")
- Marks Residence Hall ("South")
- J. L. Atwood Residence Hall (Atwood)
- Case Residence Hall (Case)
- Ronald and Maxine Linde Residence Hall (Linde)
- Frederick and Susan Sontag Residence Hall (Sontag)
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. They did such a precise job that the construction crew didn't notice until after they had laid the foundation (and after the prank team informed someone on the project about the shifted stakes), but California earthquake law forced them to re-survey the site and bring in engineering consultation. The cost of this (nearly $5,000) was born by the pranksters .
The fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth dorms built are Atwood, Case, Linde, and Sontag, 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." 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 the newest dorm, 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'. Two examples of these traditions are the parties Long Tall Glasses (a formal affair thrown by North) and TQ Nite (a tequila-centered party formerly thrown by West). The personality of a given dorm experiences changes over the years, however, as Harvey Mudd alumni may find upon visiting their alma mater
Alma mater
Alma mater , pronounced ), was used in ancient Rome as a title for various mother goddesses, especially Ceres or Cybele, and in Christianity for the Virgin Mary.-General term:...
long after graduation.
Athletics
Athletics teams from Claremont McKenna CollegeClaremont McKenna College
Claremont McKenna College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college and a member of the Claremont Colleges located in Claremont, California. The campus is located east of Downtown Los Angeles...
, Harvey Mudd College, and Scripps College
Scripps College
Scripps College is a progressive liberal arts women's college in Claremont, California, United States. It is a member of the Claremont Colleges. Scripps ranks 3rd for the nation's best women's college, ahead of Barnard College, Mount Holyoke College, and Bryn Mawr College at 23rd on the list for...
compete as one team. Male athletic teams are called the Stags, and women's teams are called the Athenas. The teams participate in the NCAA
National Collegiate Athletic Association
The National Collegiate Athletic Association is a semi-voluntary association of 1,281 institutions, conferences, organizations and individuals that organizes the athletic programs of many colleges and universities in the United States...
's Division III and in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
The Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference is a college athletic conference that operates in the NCAA's Division III. The conference was founded in 1915 and it consists of twelve small private schools which are located in Southern California and organized into nine athletic programs...
.
College traditions
Individual dorms at Harvey Mudd have their own unique traditions, but the College itself hosts some campus traditions.In the early 1970s the first unicycle appeared on campus. The unicycling club, known as Gonzo Unicycle Madness, was formed, and to this day organizes an annual 9.6 mile ride known as "The Foster's Run," to the "Donut Man" donut shop in Glendora
Glendora, California
Glendora is a municipality in Los Angeles County, California, United States, east of downtown Los Angeles. As of the 2010 census, the population of Glendora was 50,073....
(originally known as "Foster's Donuts" hence the name of the event) for strawberry donuts. Upon return to the campus, the ritual of the "shakedown" takes place (dismounting and then repeatedly jumping up and down), a necessary procedure after a unicycle ride of nearly twenty miles. Sometimes unicyclists on campus also meet to play unicycle hockey
Unicycle hockey
Unicycle hockey is a team sport, similar to roller or inline hockey, except that each player must be mounted on a unicycle to play the ball...
. In the early 1990s, though, the ridership of unicycles waned at the college. Currently, only a few Mudders ride unicycles, many of them at "South" dorm.
A student-led organization, Increasing Harvey Mudd's Traditional Practices (IHTP), works to revive college traditions that have slowly faded over the years, and also starts new traditions that the group hopes to see take root on campus. It hosts annual events such as the 5-Class Competition, Friday Nooners, Wednesday Nighters, Frosh/Soph Games, and the Thomas-Garrett Affair.
Interdorm competitions are also regularly held, ranging from water polo
Water polo
Water polo is a team water sport. The playing team consists of six field players and one goalkeeper. The winner of the game is the team that scores more goals. Game play involves swimming, treading water , players passing the ball while being defended by opponents, and scoring by throwing into a...
to broomball
Broomball
Broomball is a recreational ice game originating in Canada and played around the world. It is played in a hockey rink, either indoors or outdoors, depending on climate and location. Broomball is popular in the Canadian province of Manitoba, where Glenella is the Broomball Capital of the World...
.
The HMC honor code
HMC students developed, live by and enforce an Honor CodeHonor code
An honour code or honour system is a set of rules or principles governing a community based on a set of rules or ideals that define what constitutes honorable behavior within that community. The use of an honor code depends on the idea that people can be trusted to act honorably...
themselves. The Honor Code states:
The Honor Code is so well followed that the college entrusts the students to 24-hour per day access to all buildings, including labs, and permits take-home exams, specified either as open-book or closed-book, or as timed or un-timed.
Architecture
Edward Durell Stone
Edward Durell Stone was a twentieth century American architect who worked primarily in the Modernist style.-Early life:...
. Most are covered with thousands of square concrete
Concrete
Concrete is a composite construction material, composed of cement and other cementitious materials such as fly ash and slag cement, aggregate , water and chemical admixtures.The word concrete comes from the Latin word...
features, called "warts" by the students, which would be perfectly suited to buildering
Buildering
Buildering is the act of climbing on the outside of buildings and other artificial structures. The word "buildering" is a portmanteau, combining the word "building" with the climbing term "bouldering".If done without ropes or protection far off the ground, buildering may be dangerous...
except that, while some are set into the wall, others are simply glued on. In addition, these warts have the unusual usefulness of being great 'shelves' for unicycles and skateboards. One can walk towards Galileo Hall and see the warts (especially those near the entrances of buildings) being used as racks for unicycles and skateboards. Interestingly enough, the unofficial mascot of Harvey Mudd (featured on many college handbooks and other publications) is one of these concrete blocks with a face, arms, and legs, named "Wally the Wart."
Most of the computer labs and many classrooms are located in the basements (called the Libra Complex) of the concrete-block buildings. All of the buildings that make up the Libra Complex are interconnected via a series of underground tunnels, enabling convenient inter-building access.
Relations with Caltech
The California Institute of TechnologyCalifornia Institute of Technology
The California Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Pasadena, California, United States. Caltech has six academic divisions with strong emphases on science and engineering...
, another school known for its strength in the natural sciences and engineering, is located 26 miles away from Harvey Mudd College. From time to time, Mudders have been known to 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
United States National Guard
The National Guard of the United States is a reserve military force composed of state National Guard militia members or units under federally recognized active or inactive armed force service for the United States. Militia members are citizen soldiers, meaning they work part time for the National...
) by dressing as maintenance people and carting it off on a flatbed truck for "cleaning." Harvey Mudd eventually returned the cannon after the Caltech President threatened to take legal action. In 2006, MIT replicated the prank and moved the same cannon to their campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
.
Another Mudd prank involved slight modifications to a freeway sign. By placing parentheses around Pasadena City College
Pasadena City College
Pasadena City College is a community college in Pasadena, California, USA, located on Colorado Boulevard. PCC is the third largest community college campus in the United States. PCC was founded in 1924 as Pasadena Junior College. In 1954, Pasadena Junior College merged with another junior...
, a nearby community college, Mudd students changed the sign to read:
(Pasadena City College)
Next Exit
Notable alumni
Notable Harvey Mudd College alumni include astronauts George "Pinky" NelsonGeorge Nelson (astronaut)
George Driver "Pinky" Nelson is a former NASA astronaut.Nelson was born in Charles City, Iowa, but considers Willmar, Minnesota, to be his hometown. His wife Susie is from Alhambra, California. They have two daughters, Aimee and Marti....
(1972) and Stan Love
Stanley G. Love
Dr. Stanley G. Love, PH.D. is an American scientist and a NASA astronaut.-Early Life:Stanley G. Love was born on June 8, 1965 to Glen A. Love and Rhoda M. Love in San Diego, California. However, Love has stated he considers Eugene, Oregon to be his hometown. Love graduated from Winston Churchill...
(1987), and diplomat Richard H. Jones
Richard Jones (U.S. Ambassador to Israel)
Richard Henry Jones is an American diplomat and the current Deputy Executive Director of the International Energy Agency.Jones is a career Foreign Service Officer and member of the Senior Foreign Service...
(1972).
Commencement speakers
Commencement speakers at Harvey Mudd College have included inventors, entertainers, educators, astronauts, and civil rights leaders, among others.- 2011 — Marissa MayerMarissa MayerMarissa Ann Mayer is Vice President of Location and Local Services at the search engine company Google. She has become one of the public faces of Google, providing a number of press interviews and appearing at events frequently to speak on behalf of the company.-Education and career :After...
- 2010 — Freeman A. Hrabowski III
- 2009 — Dean KamenDean KamenDean L. Kamen is an American entrepreneur and inventor from New Hampshire.Born in Rockville Centre, New York, he attended Worcester Polytechnic Institute, but dropped out before graduating after five years of private advanced research for drug infusion pump AutoSyringe...
- 2008 — Bill NyeBill NyeWilliam Sanford "Bill" Nye , popularly known as Bill Nye the Science Guy, is an American science educator, comedian, television host, actor, mechanical engineer, and scientist...
(the Science Guy) - 2007 — Mae C. Jemison
- 2006 — Joseph B. Platt (founding president of Harvey Mudd College)
- 2005 — Michael G. WilsonMichael G. WilsonMichael Gregg Wilson, OBE is the producer and screenwriter of many modern James Bond movies.-Background:Wilson was born in New York City, New York, the son of Dana and actor Lewis Wilson. His father was the first actor to play the DC Comics character Batman in live action, which he did in the...
(Class of 1963) - 2004 — Henry PetroskiHenry PetroskiHenry Petroski is an American engineer specializing in failure analysis. A professor both of civil engineering and history at Duke University, he is also a prolific author...
- 2003 — Orson Scott CardOrson Scott CardOrson Scott Card is an American author, critic, public speaker, essayist, columnist, and political activist. He writes in several genres, but is primarily known for his science fiction. His novel Ender's Game and its sequel Speaker for the Dead both won Hugo and Nebula Awards, making Card the...
- 2002 — George "Pinky" Nelson (Class of 1972)
- 2001 — Joseph CostelloJoseph CostelloJoseph Costello is a prominent person in electronic design automation industry.He was president and COO of SDA Systems from 1987–1988 and CEO of Cadence Design Systems, which became the largest EDA company under his tenure, from 1988–1997....
(Douglas AdamsDouglas AdamsDouglas Noel Adams was an English writer and dramatist. He is best known as the author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which started life in 1978 as a BBC radio comedy before developing into a "trilogy" of five books that sold over 15 million copies in his lifetime, a television...
was originally scheduled to speak but died two days before the ceremony) - 2000 — Bill NyeBill NyeWilliam Sanford "Bill" Nye , popularly known as Bill Nye the Science Guy, is an American science educator, comedian, television host, actor, mechanical engineer, and scientist...
(the Science Guy) - 1999
- 1998 — Sheila Widnall
- 1997 — John Shalikashvili
- 1996 — Clifford StollClifford Stoll*High-Tech Heretic: Reflections of a Computer Contrarian, Clifford Stoll, 2000, ISBN 0-385-48976-5.-External links:* at Berkeley's Open Computing Facility**, December 3, 1989* copy at Electronic Frontier Foundation, May 1988...
- 1995
- 1994
- 1993 — Daniel GoldinDaniel GoldinDaniel Saul Goldin served as the 9th and longest-tenured Administrator of NASA from April 1, 1992, to November 17, 2001. He was appointed by President George H. W. Bush and also served under President William Jefferson Clinton and George W...
- 1992
- 1991
- 1990 — Sandra Kurtzig
- 1989
- 1988
- 1987 — Ray BradburyRay BradburyRay Douglas Bradbury is an American fantasy, horror, science fiction, and mystery writer. Best known for his dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 and for the science fiction stories gathered together as The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man , Bradbury is one of the most celebrated among 20th...
- 1986
- 1985
- 1984 — Bill CosbyBill CosbyWilliam Henry "Bill" Cosby, Jr. is an American comedian, actor, author, television producer, educator, musician and activist. A veteran stand-up performer, he got his start at various clubs, then landed a starring role in the 1960s action show, I Spy. He later starred in his own series, the...
- 1983 — Arthur LafferArthur LafferArthur Betz Laffer is an American economist who first gained prominence during the Reagan administration as a member of Reagan's Economic Policy Advisory Board . Laffer is best known for the Laffer curve, an illustration of the theory that there exists some tax rate between 0% and 100% that will...