My son 26 is talking to coaches from Mudd and Middlebury to run track. He is leaning toward Mudd because he loves STEM, but we have concerns that with the track plus Mudd’s famous workload, he will have no life outside of sports and academics. Would appreciate input from folks with current Mudd athletes. TIA!
He might want to ask Mudd Admissions to put him in contact with some current Mudd student athletes. There are going to be parents here with student athletes at a variety of rigorous colleges, but Mudd specifically is getting to be a pretty narrow pool.
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In my opinion, it is best to ask the coach to put him in contact with members of the team not admissions.
Most likely the team will be part of his social circle - so important to know the team.
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That does sound like an even better idea!
I also know LAC-recruited kids who went on visits and stayed with team members. Not sure if that is practical, but I think for a lot of them that was a really valuable experience (usually positive, but sometimes not).
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This is pretty common practice to have official and unofficial visits and these begin in very early Fall for recruits for most sports - one more data point for this poster to spend more time looking at academic and team fit.
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I don’t have a Mudd athlete or a D3 athlete - so maybe this won’t be helpful. I do have a child that recently graduated and was a D1/Ivy athlete and know kids at the other Claremont colleges on teams (not Mudd) - so have a few thoughts:
School + sports will be the two main things and social life is usually team focused. I remember a presentation at our child’s HS and the head of school said kids can do two things well and they need to pick - it was more of a warning to parents to not pile on tons of activities - but it always stuck with me.
These kids can have a social life - but define social life? Our daughter had a lot of fun on Saturday nights - but wasn’t going out the other nights of the week - rarely at best. She would still tell you she had a great social life, as she had fun at practice, enjoyed her classes and group projects, had meals with others on and off campus and study time with peers.
Not always, but most athletes form deep friendships within their team and sometimes cross over with other teams and this is social - if you love your sport it may be work, but it is also a joy.
For the kids I know at the Claremont schools they are not is season all year for their sports, so plenty of time off their sport with only training - no commitments over Spring break or Winter break and they could come home and travel with friends/family - I am guessing this is how it works for D3 - but guessing your son’s training and competition schedule will be similar for both schools with just meet travel time different.
STEM majors and sports are not always encouraged, but this is what Mudd does so the school will know how to schedule and accommodate these majors.
Hopefully you hear from a Mudd family and the coach will be able to answer these questions and provide you son contacts within the team to have more private conversations too.
Congrats to your son and good luck with his decision - recruiting is a roller coaster…or at least in my opinion 
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Several former track teammates of my kids ended up at Mudd. They all loved it. There are tradeoffs just like in HS but track athletes can do a lot outside of sport/academics.
The sport is actually an advantage for many, as a lot of the social activities are with teammates (they don’t have to be, but a lot of times track people like hanging out with each other). It’s a built-in social group from day one.
As others mention, I’d chat with current team members about this if you get a chance. The coach can usually facilitate this.
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Being a Mudd student-athlete could end up being a social advantage, as the your son will also be teammates/friends with kids from Claremont McKenna and Scripps (most meets are men and women.)
Thanks for all the input. My kid has gotten some really useful info from current Mudd kids and is working on figuring it out.
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