While many parents tend to exaggerate the virtues of the colleges their kids attend or attended, @intparent is not exaggerating in any of her descriptions of HMC. As I wrote, we visited, I met faculty and students, toured the classes and facilities, and spoke with the President (who is an amazing individual in her own right).
Clearly, OP should select either Northwestern University or Harvey Mudd College. A visit to each school should be enough to help OP make a final decision.
However, if there is a chance of switching majors, then Northwestern offers more options.
If OP wants to continue with wrestling and / or football, then Harvey Mudd is the better choice as both sports are probably too competitive for OP at Northwestern University.
Northwestern is no bigger than Mudd if you count just the comp sci majors. The way I see the data is proximity is the number one factor. Contrary to what some people may think, most tech jobs aren’t that high paying in the Bay Area once you adjust for the insane cost of living (I live here). Any sensible non-local would think twice before taking an offer and relocating especially if he/she got offers elsewhere (it’s not like Silicon Valley is the only place with tech jobs). It’s pretty intimidating if you look up 1-br apartment costing $3,500+ a month while considering. Northwestern is much further away than most of the schools on the list and Mudd. The number two factor is the sheer size of grads in tech/comp sci programs; that explains why CMU, UIUC, GaTech are there. Princeton/MIT wouldn’t be there not so much because of PhD (they don’t have high fraction going into PhD like you think); it’s because their programs are a lot smaller compared to most on the list. Remember, GaTech is a PUBLIC tech school. One more thing, USC is close to the size of some public, so it got both the size and proximity.
I looked up number of grads employed in prominent companies in Silicon Valley before on LinkedIn; NU actually has some pretty decent numbers considering the distance and size of their comp sci program.
“However, if there is a chance of switching majors, then Northwestern offers more options” @Publisher
I’m not sure that this is true, as I thought that Mudd allows a student to earn an “off-campus major” at any of the Claremont colleges, in a major that Mudd doesn’t offer. Think these students have to earn a minor in a Mudd technical department. Pomona, Scripps, CMC, & Pitzer, offer nearly every major a student would be interested in. @intparent would be the expert on this.
@StanfordGSB00 I’m confused about your confusion. UIUC is ranked far above NU in terms of computer science and is one of the premier CS schools in the nation. (And it’s a different school from UIC.)
CS? Mudd with lowest cost? Easy decision…Mudd.
Harvey Mudd.
So I agree if the student is unsure about a STEM major, then I wouldn’t pick Mudd. Technically it is possible to major on the other campuses. But the Mudd core is a tough round of fast paced STEM classes (required no matter what the major), and really the school is STEM focused. I’d discourage a student who didn’t think they will end up in some kind of STEM major.
Not every Mudder stays in STEM after college, though. Most do, but I know one in law school, and another in a library science masters program. Mudders are a varied crowd. 
I know of others who work at Google, SpaceX, Facebook, national labs, Lincoln Labs, start ups, and are in various grad school programs around the country.
I agree that the main reason not to choose Mudd is if there is uncertainty about remaining in STEM. As intparent says, you can do an off-campus major, but the heavy STEM core requirements are non-negotiable even in that case.
However, Mudd has one of the most highly-regarded CS programs in the country. There is great cameraderie among the students that arises both from the “dorm culture” and from navigating the core curriculum together. At the same time, one is not confined to this close-knit group only; there are nearly as many total undergraduates on the combined 5C’s campus as at Northwestern. Both D3 and club sports at Mudd are joint with Claremont McKenna and (in the case of women’s teams) Scripps. The Joint Music Program ensembles are joint among all schools but Pomona, and Pomona’s ensembles are open to the other schools as well. There are many clubs and activities that are shared throughout the 5C’s, and social activities on all campuses are open to all. So there’s plenty of room to branch out and make friends with diverse interests and pursuits.
I see no reason to keep RPI on the table. It’s your most expensive school and there is no metric on which it comes out ahead of Mudd - not academically, not socially, not in terms of location.
So the decision is between Northwestern and Mudd. Depending on what you’re looking for, Northwestern could be the better choice - for example, if you specifically wanted to do one of their CS+X programs because of a strong interest in one of the “X” subject areas in which Northwestern is strongest, such as journalism or business. If you really would rather not take a heavy load of physical and natural sciences in the first two years (in addition to higher math which is heavy at both schools), and would prefer to combine a CS skill-set with other areas of emphasis, then Northwestern would be a better fit.
But for “straight” CS with a broad/deep STEM core curriculum, Mudd is the clear choice.
Incidentally, the CMS football team is going to be rebuilding, so if you want to play, there may be an opportunity there for you! https://tsl.news/defending-sciac-champ-cms-football-loses-key-players-to-new-safety-policy/?fbclid=IwAR3qB-OBC6VKSeQKRYLOB6nb3yGH3Exayfr9oeGvIQPjAzLVuSy9SReZfu4
“I am a very ~go with the flow~ type of person.”
I would then lean to Northwestern, HMU and RPI are not “go with the flow” type campuses. Part of it has to do with the stem focus, it can be intense at those places.
“It is an absolutely amazing place”
I did a google search on HMU culture and got this:
“Students talked about not having time to sleep or shower, let alone maintain friendships or engage in extracurriculars. Some faculty members expressed that the more diverse student body was “weaker” or “less capable” than in former years of meeting the challenge of the curriculum.”
To be fair, the president of HMU acknowledged the issues, as opposed trying to sweep it under the carpet and initiated surveys and programs to address them. The npr article is from 2017 so for sure things could have changed.
@IWannaHelp Northwestern has about twice as many engineering+CS students, or more, as HMC. By way of distance -Northwestern is far closer, and an easier to travel from to Silicon Valley than UIUC, Gtech, OR CMU. CMU is no larger than Northwestern, and ks also a private university. The fact is that Northwestern, while an excellent college by any standard, does not have an engineering program which matches CMU’s, UIUC’s, Gtech’s, and definitely not HMC’s.
My comments on graduate school are supported by the numbers, and by the amount of effort that Princeton puts into encouraging their students in activities that will enhance their chances at grad school, such as research assistants in the university, versus activities that enhance students’ chances in industry, namely internships.
I was wrong about MIT, though. They do send their students to industry, but they seem to have a different system of internship-jobs from other top engineering schools, and their students end up in jobs across the country.
Amen to that.
Go with the flow doesn’t necessarily mean not willing to work hard. No one gets into Mudd without very strong academic credentials. My kid showered and ate during core. It is more academically intense than NU. But it is also amazingly collaborative. They house students in mixed class level dorms and suites. The older students help and mentor the frosh a lot. There is a lot of tutoring available, and my kid’s profs were amazingly willing to spend time helping her.
Once I picked her up on campus, and had to wait 2 hours for her while she got help from a physics prof. I thought maybe she’d just been waiting for him, but nope. She and one other student had just gotten a 2 hour tutorial on homework they were struggling with.
Regarding football, I would caution that athletes REALLY have to be organized to pull off Mudd and athletics. Not everyone can do it.
Has OP visited either campus ?
You posted a lot of wrong info or compared apple to oranges. I was talking about number of CS majors. Google, for example, does not hire bunch of chemE and environmental engineers. The largest engineering dept at NU are BME and IE. The Silicon Valley number you cited doesn’t relates to them. You cited a statistics that is relevant primarily for CS. Then you included NU’s liberal arts and theater majors to make your point (same size as CMU)…CMU has a school, not department, of comp sci. I mentioned that CMU, GaTech, and UIUC are there also because of size, not distance. I am sure they are excellent, as they are known to be in CS. Companies hire on campus, not typically having them interview cross country and if they pay for it, does it matter whether there’s direct flight? Your info were all irrelevant so unnecessary. Nobody questioned CMU isn’t better anyway.
HMU doesn’t even have certain disciplines that NU has. How does NU doesn’t match HMU “in engineering”? Technically, comp sci may not be part of engineering. You should have been more specific about CS. FYI, NU is top five in industrial engineering and material science.
Northwestern University offers outstanding options in engineering. When a family member attended, he recalls the engineers were not stressed out because they all had jobs.
Harvey Mudd is a great engineering school. I do not want to encourage OP to attend either school. Visit & decide for yourself. It will not be difficult to draw meaningful distinctions.
Only Harvey Mudd — still trying to make it out to Northwestern to visit
There’s a rarefied aspect to HMC that makes it the more discernible of the two schools for your academic interests, IMO.
you really need to visit. Mudd can be a wonderful educational experience, but a LAC – even with the other colleges – is much different than a mid-sized Uni.
Have you visited any LAC’s in the NE? Mid-Sized uni?
Did you like any vibes?
I know Harvey mudd is is super elite and you have then Claremont consortium.
But NW has the magic blend of academics, school spirit and sports, different types of students, plus the access to Chicago. Also being a major research uni there is course diversity and options for a change of direction, if something else piques your interest as you explore your education.
East coast brand is much stronger outside of the stem world, fwiw.
NWU is one of those great blends for me. I wouldn’t pass it up.