UIUC vs Harvey Mudd

Colleges & Universities Harvey Mudd College
1

<p>I’m going to major in electrical/computer engineering in college. Now I have a choice between UIUC (honor) and Harvey Mudd. I know in general Harvey Mudd is a better school, but UIUC is very famous for its ECE, so I am kinda reluctant to give up UIUC so easily. And I’m concerned with the quality of research I can do at Harvey Mudd, given it’s a small LAC.</p>

<p>Here is some information:

  1. I will do ECE.
  2. Money is not an issue at either school. But UIUC is 10k cheaper than Harvey Mudd because of its lower tuition, should this fact change anything.
  3. The heavier the course load is, the happier I will be. I like studying.
  4. I will go to graduate school.
  5. I’m an international, so the prestige outside the US matters.
  6. For now, let’s just put aside issues like weather, social life, etc. </p>

<p>Does anyone have any ideas on which school I should choose?? Thanks a lot.</p>

2

<p>You should decide based on school style. UIUC is a flagship state school, and probably is larger and has more in terms of the sheer number of things you can do. Harvey Mudd is a more rigid program and asks more in terms of requirements than practically all but Caltech. HMC will have a much more tightly knit class and distinctive student culture, while UIUC will have lots of variation. There is a large core at Mudd. Mudd is higher pressure, although you will have the chance to overload your schedule at UIUC. </p>

<p>Honestly they are very different options!</p>

3

<p>Different options, but both good for your plans. Hard to go wrong with either choice. As to name recognition, I think UIUC has more… for now. Mudd is working on the recognition factor. And Mudd would give you excellent preparation for grad school, although you’d be graduating with a general Engineering degree.</p>

<p>Regarding the quality of research, this will depend to some extent on how aggressively you pursue research opportunities. But it’s worth nothing that you would play a significant role in research in an undergraduate college, without grad students to compete with you for the meaty parts of the projects.</p>

4

<p>UIUC “probably” is larger? Er…the choice of words there is kind of hilarious. You could probably fit all of Mudd’s academic buildings inside of UIUC’s Computer Science department. Well, maybe not quite, but I remember being overwhelmed by the size of UIUC when I visited. Other state flagships like CU-Boulder and University of Virginia didn’t phase me, but something about UIUC just seemed crazy big.</p>

<p>Now that I’m done blabbing about size, you should check out the Clay-Wolkin fellowship at Mudd: <a href=“http://www4.hmc.edu:8001/Engineering/ClayWolkin/[/url]”>http://www4.hmc.edu:8001/Engineering/ClayWolkin/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>I’m not an engineer, so I’m not sure if that’s really the kind of ECE that you’re looking for, but they do some pretty cool stuff in that fellowship, and it’s possible to get in pretty early if you’re really passionate about it (but most people don’t apply to the department fellowships until 2nd semester of their sophomore year). The two professors that I know are CE type people are Prof’s Harris ([David</a> Money Harris’ Home Page](<a href=“http://www3.hmc.edu/~harris/]David”>http://www3.hmc.edu/~harris/)) and Harris ([Professor</a> Sarah Harris](<a href=“http://www3.hmc.edu/~sharris/]Professor”>http://www3.hmc.edu/~sharris/)) (neither related nor married! but they did write a textbook together that’s used pretty widely). If you email them they could probably give you more information or redirect you to a student who could answer any questions you might have (because almost no one reads college confidential, at least not regularly).</p>