<p>This is a tough call to make, but if the priority is teaching experience, Mudd provides quite a bit of that. Besides AE tutoring for core courses and various tutors assigned to upper level courses such as TBP tutors for engineering and grutors for CS classes, Mudd also runs an outreach science bus program for nearby elementary schools and a homework hotline for students in grades 4-12. Both the programs seem eager to recruit, so getting placement shouldn’t be a problem for a motivated student, and they’ll provide plenty of hands-on experience working with students.</p>
<p>Academic nerdiness is definitely strongly present at Mudd, though like most places you find your crowd. If you want to avoid it you can (to a degree, anyway), and if you want to throw yourself right into you can easily find a group of people willing to engage with you in the nerdiest of conversations. It’s probably easier to find here than at Stanford, but unless you really love being surrounded by that kind of atmosphere, I’m certain you could find similar groups of people at Stanford if you looked.</p>
<p>The atmosphere of Claremont is rather quiet, there’s absolutely nothing to do in the town at night. Then again, I’ve spent a summer at Stanford and Palo Alto and Palo Alto doesn’t seem to be the most exciting town in the world either. In both cases it seems the campus is the place to be; one is just considerably larger than the other. Academic intensity? While intense, Mudd is VERY collaborative, it’s expected of the students. I can’t speak confidently for Stanford.</p>