illuminescent

Hey, I’m posting this for a friend. (He edited this himself)
He’s basically deciding between Harvey Mudd and Columbia for ED and is struggling to make a decision.
Personally, I’ve visited both and I think HMC might be a better fit for his personality: smaller classes, tight community, focus on students, silicon valley. NYC might be a little too much for him. His personality can be described as quirky, and a bit nerdy I guess? He kinda has like mild ADHD, so a very jumpy kid if you get what I mean.
He wants to major in physics, computer science, or something like that. He’s a very interesting and quirky cool kid. He likes drumming and sports (Not like athlete sports, more of exercising). He hates writing and the humanities. He could be uncontrollably active in class discussion and too much one direction lecturing would likely bore him.
So here’s the question, the thing he’s struggling on is HMC’s prestige and coming from a Chinese family, prestige is everything. Plus the opportunities, alumni connection, and diversity at Columbia might be better.
My personal theory is if he’s going to apply to grad engineering school, which he will, people will only care about his last degree and HMC will provide a better learning environment and undergraduate education for him. I’m a social sciences and humanities person and I don’t know much about the sciences so help guys?
Thanks tons!

rhg3rd

Columbia would be a very bad fit. First, one is either in Columbia College or SEAS at Columbia . Columbia College has an extensive core curriculum of specific required courses emphasizing writing and humanities. In order to major in the sciences, like physics, at Columbia you must be in Columbia College and not in SEAS. Secondly, even in SEAS students are required to take University Writing and a year of Literature Humanities or Contemporary Civilization plus a semester or either Art Humanities or Music Humanities from the Columbia College core curriculum of specific required cores. Plus SEAS requires other humanities and social sciences electives that are not Columbia College core courses. SEAS does have an applied math/applied physics department and majors. However, applied physics has its own upper level courses different from those of the regular physics department in Columbia. Applied physics is also a much weaker program compared to one in the physics department at Columbia.

Harvey Mudd is extremely highly regarded institution in the sciences and engineering. Harvey Mudd is second only to Caltech in term of Ph.D. productivity. In many ways, it is far more elite than Columbia's SEAS. Columbia SEAS has 3-2 engineering with over 100 colleges and small universities. Many of these 3-2 transfer students enter from academically weak institutions like CUNY Queen's College on a guaranteed admission basis.

Lastly, Cornell's engineering school would be a much better fit compared to Columbia for what is being described. Cornell Engineering has strong computer science and an excellent engineering physics program. Further, one can take the physics department versions of upper level courses for an engineering physics major at Cornell. For someone who likes sports, Cornell has a big campus and plenty of space to play sports, run or bike.

shyams

He may want to consider Brown. No course requirements, ED option.

illuminescent

Thanks guys, especially rhg3rd for your detailed answer! He chose to apply to Harvey Mudd because of the small community and prestige within the engineering world. He also convinced his family that fit>the name of the school (I guarantee you this is not an easy thing to do with Chinese parents)

muckdogs07

Agree that HMC looks like the right fit here. But it should be noted that HMC also has distribution requirements (albeit not as extensive as Columbia's) that take up most of the first year.

Kind if a sad situation with parents because especially for physics/computer science the "elite" schools do not always have the best programs even at the undergrad level. Carnegie Mellon, U Maryland (honors) and Illinois (honors) are probably all better than Columbia for physics/computer science as an undergrad.

dum dum pop

I went to Mudd and have lived in NYC... I'd choose southern california any day! As far as name recognition goes, the current president is doing a lot to improve Mudd's recognition. For my first job interview out of school, I was supposed to do a technical interview to make sure I could do the math for the job. It went like this:

Interviewer: So where did you go to school?
Me: Harvey Mudd.
Interviewer: Haha! Ok, this interview is over.

I was hired immediately Moral of the story: even if the person on the street doesn't know who Mudd is, the person hiring you for a tech/engineering/math position will.