Georgia Tech vs Harvey Mudd vs Rice

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On behalf of my child:
I want to start by saying that cost is not a factor for me. Each school costs virtually the same.

I’m interested in pursuing either quant (first choice) or tech (FAANG). However, I’m open to the medical field as well. If I go the CS path, I’m interested in going to grad school, and if not, I’m interested in going to med school.

At Georgia Tech, I would major in computer science. At Harvey Mudd, I would do their joint major in computer science and mathematics. At Rice, I would switch to biomedical engineering on a premed track.

HMC isn’t properly placed on the rankings, and I’ve heard this is because it’s only undergrad, but I’ve heard many amazing things about its CS program. From their senior outcomes page, I can see a lot of people getting into FAANG or amazing grad schools like Stanford. I’ve also seen it sometimes mentioned during conversations about good schools for quant, but this is rare in comparison to giants like MIT, Harvard, the rest of the Ivies, Caltech, Stanford, etc. Some people say that HMC is on a tier that’s almost on the level as MIT or Caltech, but I can’t get myself to fully believe this; its reputation is only backed up by hearsay, not a definitive ranking. I believe that it could be easier to stand out in a smaller school like this for, say, quant internships, but because those at HMC are very competitive applicants, it could be true that the school being smaller doesn’t change anything. The students at Georgia Tech are also very competitive applicants, though, so I fear it would be harder to stand out there.

Georgia Tech is ranked as T10 for CS. However, I’ve heard that you often get auditorium-style seating for lectures, and I’m afraid that would negatively impact my learning. I’m also unsure if its CS program is better than Harvey Mudd’s CS program; I can’t tell because Harvey Mudd isn’t ranked properly. I’d appreciate more information on this. I’ve never seen a direct comparison between the two schools for CS. Due to the large size of Tech’s CS program, I’m afraid that it would also be difficult to get opportunities. On the other hand, I have heard that FAANG, quant firms, and basically every company you’ve heard of attends Georgia Tech’s CS job fairs, so this fear may be unfounded.

Rice is the only school I have to pick from that actually ranks as a T20 school overall and not just for a certain major. However, because their CS program is lacking (I believe) in comparison to Georgia Tech or HMC, I’m more interested in what else they have to offer. The medical field is super interesting to me, and I wouldn’t mind pivoting at all. Please don’t take the switch of career paths into account. I’ve heard that biomedical engineering can be used as a track for premed before medical school, and Rice boasts a T10 BME program. If I went down this path, I could attend a school that is both T20 overall and T10 for my major.

Out of these schools, which would be the best choice? Once again, please do not take cost into account. Thanks!

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Re quant, note that the industry hires a very small number of people, perhaps a few hundred undergrads each year. The number was higher a few years ago, but AI has made new hires more efficient, reducing the number needed. In other words, it’s extremely competitive.

There are also two significantly different types of jobs for quant. The first is quant trader, which is very focused on fast mental math, particularly probability. Two types of people who tend to excel in this role are excellent poker players, and those who did very well on the AMC math tests. Target colleges for these hires include MIT, Harvard, Princeton and Stanford, although there can be a smattering from other places as well. Depending upon the hiring company, required software skills ranges from non-existent (e.g. Jane Street) to moderately strong (e.g. HRT).

The other type of job is software engineer which is focused upon creating fast and accurate code for very difficult algorithms. No special math skills are needed here. Top target colleges for these hires include CMU, MIT, Stanford, and Berkeley, although other colleges like Cornell, Georgia Tech, Harvard and Brown will also get a look.

So to answer your specific question, a degree from Georgia Tech would be best for quant, or for another equally selective industry like AI. But again, these are very competitive hires.

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Unlike quant companies, FAANG companies have historically hired from a large number of colleges. For example, FAANGs have readily hired from San Jose State. So from that perspective, any of your three colleges will be fine.

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Do you want to be in CS - or BME? Take med school out of the equation.

That’s the first decision.

Ga Tech allows you a free major change - so that’s appealing.

Rice has a residential college system and I believe is flexible.

Harvey Mudd is a part of the Claremont schools.

Grad school isn’t relevant.

As for FANNG - this isn’t 2015. It’s 2025. And FAANG hires from everywhere - UT Chattanooga, N Georgia, Arizona - so many schools.

The rank of these is irrelevant - they are three different schools.

Visit all and choose what you feel is best.

All will get you to FAANG, all will get you to med school.

So figure out what you like.

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My wife has been in CS and engineering for a few decades, and she says that yes, HMC is all that.

There is also no such thing as “definitive ranking” in colleges. The supposedly “definitive rankings” that do exist are like ranking systems for all vehicles, with no separation between SUVs, sedans, trucks, etc, and it is created by the people who run the car sale ads.

HMC has a tiny student body, and even fewer undergraduates than Caltech. People mostly know about Caltech because of it’s graduate school and faculty research.

Since you spoke about a PhD or an MD, HMC is only second to Caltech in the percent of students who end up with a PhD in STEM, 28.7% versus 17.8% for MIT, 11.3% for Rice, 9.1% for Stanford, while Georgia Tech doesn’t even break the top 50, so lower than 6%. Looking only a CS, HMC comes in at the top with 7.4% of their gradates ending up with a PhD in CS, inching out Caltech (7.2%), and MIT (2.5%)

HMC has only 200-240 graduates a year, but they are heavily recruited, much as are the graduates of Caltech. I cannot compare the two, since HMC provides data of the Seniors before graduation, and Caltech does so after graduation. However, before graduation 85% of HMC graduates either had accepted a job offer, or had been accepted to grad school.

All that being said, HMC is a Liberal Arts College, and very different sort of place than either GTech or MIT or Rice. Many students would have a difficult time fitting in and feeling comfortable, and that is far worse when there are 900 students in the entire college, versus thousands or tens of thousands.

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I’ll reiterate. There is no such thing as “a definitive ranking”.

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You put your finger on a key difference among these 3 schools when you referenced the large classes at Georgia Tech. To put it in stark terms, here are the student:faculty ratios at each of the three:

21:1 - Georgia tech
8:1 — Harvey Mudd
6:1 — Rice

This is first and foremost an educational decision since you’ve taken cost out of the equation. I think these numbers alone speak to the difference in educational experience that you’ll have at each of these three.

Med School is a very, very difficult admission. As an example, here’s the case of a recent med school applicant I’ve spoken with: nothing less than an A undergrad at an Ivy and 97th %ile on MCAT. Published research as undergrad and worked for a med related company for 1+ years after college. Submitted 27 med school apps, got to the interview stage at 3, accepted at 2 top med schools (one Ivy). But what happened with the other 24? Unknown.

One thing we do know for med school admissions is that grades are very important. We also know that high grades are tougher to come by in engineering than in other majors. It is also not necessary to go to med school to be a biomedical engineer - or even desirable. So, it’s probably best to make a choice between these 2 interests early on.

So, is it computer science or engineering? With regard to CS, Rice is not lacking. 13% of their graduates are CS majors. At Harvey Mudd, their stated goal is to educate engineering generalists. So, if you want to specialize in something as specific as biomedical engineering on the undergrad level, Harvey Mudd is not the place.

By the process of elimination, Rice is the one which stands out to me as the one best equipped to offer a high quality education in any of the fields of interest. (14% of its graduates are engineering majors and 8% are math majors.) l have/had 2 grandkids at Rice, sometimes referred to as “the Harvard of the South”, and can simply say that it delivers on what it promises and it lives up to its reputation. Neither have/had majors in your field(s) but I have a 3rd grandson at a different university majoring in biomedical engineering, so I have an appreciation for the issues in that field as well as in engineering in general.

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FWIW, my Rice engineering grad son is at a FAANG
Rice is a special place. He chose it over GT and after visiting Harvey Mudd, did not apply. He visited all 3. They are very different.

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My wife has been in CS and engineering for a few decades, and she says that yes, HMC is all that.

Just wanted to reemphasize that HMC is really on that level. My husband attended HMC for Physics…was an ok student, but not stellar in his Soph and Junior Years. His Senior year, he applied to PhD programs, was admitted to several top 10 programs and attended UIUC. He had been so well prepped by HMC that he ended up passing his PhD Quals without ever sitting for a single class. He only spent a year at UIUC (got a MS) and ultimately finishing is PhD at Caltech. Most of his classmates (especially in CS and Math) had top offers or attended top graduate schools. It is a very special place if it’s the right place for you.

It is smaller, had a relatively substantial core/liberal studies department, has a broad core of classes in your first year or two, etc. Being a member of the consortium at Claremont is awesome if you want to be immersed in a highly STEM student body while also having a broader student body adjacent.

One of our son’s closest friends is doing a Math/Engineering double at HM. Double majors are rare and this student had to convince the math department to test her out of some courses (she had taken all of her math at a local university in high school and even at Mudd, she average 98 on all math tests until they let her test out), but she has LOVED her experience, done some great research, and had an experience that I would say rivals Caltech or MIT.

My husband was the assistant coach for a sports at Caltech while doing his PhD, so he was close with some undergrads, and he felt like his experience at HM was superior to what he saw there

I know this is more anecdotal, but thought I’d chime in

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Congratulations to your kid on three great acceptances! Others far more knkowledgeable than I have spoken to the specifics of the fields that your kid is interested in. But I will raise a couple of points:

Seconding this:

Some colleges will calculate student/faculty ratios in different ways, but these numbers feel generally right to me. The feel of being at Georgia Tech (with its nearly 20k undergrads) is likely to be quite different than at Rice (about 4600 undergrads) or Harvey Mudd (about 950 undergrads, but about 6k or so with the Claremont Consortium).

Has your kid visited all three schools, preferably while they’re in session? I suspect that some definite preferences would appear if your kid visits these.

Secondly, have your kid go through and map out what a 4-year program would look like at each school looking at required gen eds, classes required for the major, etc, while subtracting any classes that your kid may get AP or DE credit for (I strongly suspect that Georgia Tech is most accepting of credits…though there are a number of folks who think that students should not request credit for classes that will be part of their majors or pre-med reqs). I believe that Harvey Mudd has a fairly broad set of gen eds, but am unsure on the other two. Again, this is an activity that is likely to produce some definite preferences.

Good luck to your kid with the decision!

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Yes, HMC core and general education requirements are extensive, including 11 courses in humanities, social science, and arts. For any college, they can be looked up on their web sites.

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They are all fantastic options so congrats! Your post-graduation options will depend on your accomplishments during college rather than which one of these wonderful colleges you attend. This is a case where three reasonable people could make three different choices. Pick the school where you feel YOU will thrive.

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Cannot underscore this enough OP. Having been to all three campuses for visits, I cannot imagine having anything other than very strong and clear personal preferences among them.

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Yep- I neglected to mention so added above that our son visited all three campuses. They are very different. As I mentioned, he chose Rice over GT and did not apply to Harvey Mudd although it was very intriguing to him. He applied early decision to Rice.

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Why do you want to go to grad school? Grad school is especially irrelevant for CS. Our son is earning his CS master’s at GT but only because the Army requires it of him, business does not. At all. Unless there is some CS specialty you’re interested in pursuing toward a PhD for research/teaching, you do not need grad school for this field.

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I would add on HMC to point out that the student who fits at HMC and the student who fits best at GT are generally not the same person. HMC can be too small and too isolating. If you haven’t visited absolutely do that first.

GT will probably give you access to a more diverse CS curriculum but Mudd students are known to be a very creative group and companies love them.

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Just to piggyback but if you’re entering industry a BS will suffice. However, there are some niche circumstances where an MS/PhD will help. Some of the startups and spinoffs from places like CMU look for PhD’s. Especially AI/ML. I haven’t looked lately but Duolingo came to mind. They were looking for PhD’s previously.

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My daughter was a BME at Rice. Excellent program! It’s a pretty small engineering discipline at Rice and she got to know her professors well, which lead to some great opportunities and excellent recommendation letters for grad school. Changing majors is VERY easy. But keep in mind that while about 1/3 of the BME’s at Rice are pre-med, it is not an easy route to take for med school. Grades are super important for med school and engineering classes are tough (everywhere, not just Rice). Georgia Tech also has a great BME program - my daughter applied there for grad school but ended up choosing not to go.

As others have stated, each school has a very different vibe and different pros and cons.