Harvey Mudd College: A Premier STEM-Focused Liberal Arts Education

Harvey Mudd College (HMC) is a highly regarded private liberal arts college with a strong emphasis on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Located in Claremont, California, it stands out as a unique institution that combines a rigorous technical education with a broad foundation in the humanities and social sciences. As part of the Claremont Colleges consortium, Harvey Mudd offers its students access to a wide range of resources and opportunities.

A Legacy of Excellence

Harvey Mudd College was founded in 1955 with a vision to attract the nation’s brightest students and provide them with a rigorous scientific and technological education coupled with a strong curricular emphasis in the humanities and social sciences. The college was funded by $2 million from the estate of Harvey Seeley Mudd, an initial investor in the Cyprus Mines Corporation. Although involved in the planning of the new institution, Mudd passed away before it opened. Classes began in 1957 with a class of 48 students, 7 faculty and one building-Mildred E. Mudd Hall, a dormitory. Claremont Men's College (Claremont McKenna College), and labs in the Baxter Science Building until additional buildings could be built: Jacobs Science Building (1959), Thomas-Garett Hall (1961) and Platt Campus Center (1963).

Harvey Mudd has a legacy of preparing its graduates for success. Graduates of Harvey Mudd earn PhD degrees in science and engineering at one of the highest rates in the nation.

Rankings and Recognition

Harvey Mudd College consistently receives high rankings from various publications.

In the 2026 edition of Best Colleges, Harvey Mudd College is ranked No. 10 in National Liberal Arts Colleges.
Niche.com ranks Harvey Mudd as the nation’s top liberal arts college and the seventh-best school overall in the nation for Physics, 16th for Math, and 16th for Chemistry.
Harvey Mudd is recognized as a top-tier STEM college with all the support and benefits of a liberal arts college.

Academics

Harvey Mudd offers four-year degrees in a variety of STEM fields, including:

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Chemistry
Mathematics
Physics
Computer Science
Biology
Engineering

It also offers interdisciplinary degrees such as mathematical and computational biology, and joint majors in:

Computer Science and Mathematics
Computer Science and Physics
Physics and Mathematics
Biology and Chemistry
Biology and Climate
Computer Science and Climate
Chemistry and Climate

The Common Core Curriculum

All HMC students are required to take the college's Common Core Curriculum, typically throughout their freshman and sophomore years. The Core gives you a broad scientific background coupled with academic writing and critical inquiry. Our educational experience starts with the Common Core, a set of coordinated courses from every department-biology, chemistry, computer science, engineering, math, physics and humanities, social sciences and the arts. The major builds depth and technical competence in a chosen field. Majors at Harvey Mudd emphasize a broad-based, interdisciplinary approach to equip our students with problem-solving skills and the ability to adapt to any challenge.

Humanities, Social Sciences, and the Arts (HSA)

Harvey Mudd is a liberal arts college where students have the opportunity to major in a STEM field while taking nearly a third of their classes in humanities, social sciences and the arts (HSA). The HSA requirement encourages students to pursue their interests in philosophy, psychology, political science, sociology, literature, music, photography, media studies and many other fields. With dynamic professors at Harvey Mudd and the other Claremont Colleges, you will be able to take courses in a wide range of topics of interest to you.

Experiential Learning

Coursework comes alive with project-based experiential learning and graduate-level research opportunities. Every student completes a yearlong senior project in either original research or the Clinic Program, depending on the major. You’ll finish your major by completing real-world research (thesis) or a clinic project. Clinic engages juniors and seniors in solving real-world, technical problems for companies and organizations. Students work alongside faculty as colleagues, investigating open-ended questions, presenting findings at national conferences and co-publishing papers.

Mudders Can

A two-week residential program where students build real problem-solving, critical-thinking and collaboration skills through hands-on STEAM projects, labs and community experiences.

Admissions

Harvey Mudd's admissions process is highly selective. For the class of 2026, the college received 4,440 applications and admitted 593 applicants (a 13.4% acceptance rate). The average GPA for students admitted to Harvey Mudd is 4.17. Admitted students will have taken the most rigorous coursework possible in high school with a strong showing of AP/IB courses on their transcripts. The average SAT score for applicants admitted to Harvey Mudd is 1530. The average ACT score for applicants admitted to Harvey Mudd is 35. Though Harvey Mudd has a test-optional policy for the submission of standardized test scores, potential applicants should have at least an SAT score of 1530 to be thought of as serious contenders.

Application Requirements

Applicants admitted to Harvey Mudd are required to have acquired the following credits in high school:

One (1) year of calculus
One (1) year of chemistry
One (1) year of physics

Applicants admitted to Harvey Mudd are recommended to have acquired the following credits in high school:

Four (4) years of English
Two (2) years of social science, including history
Two (2) years of a foreign language

Application Deadlines

Harvey Mudd has three admissions deadlines:

Early Decision I: November 15th (notification by mid-December)
Early Decision II and Regular Decision: January 5th (notification by early- to mid-February and mid-March, respectively)

Financial Aid

The school's tuition and fees are $73,100. Forty-five percent of first-year students receive need-based financial aid, and the average net price for federal loan recipients is $39,671. Harvey Mudd also has numerous merit-based scholarships for its applicants. For many of its merit-based scholarships, candidates are automatically determined upon applying to Harvey Mudd. Fee Waiver Info Available to all qualified students.

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Campus Life

Harvey Mudd College has a total undergraduate enrollment of 921 (fall 2024), and the campus size is 33 acres. The student-faculty ratio at Harvey Mudd College is 8:1. Harvey Mudd nurtures a close-knit, creative, fun-loving community that is passionate about learning. Mudders Can. Academic and residential life is governed by a student-led Honor Code.

Residence Halls

Until the addition of the Linde and Sontag dorms, Atwood and Case dorms were occasionally referred to as New Dorm and New Dorm II; Mildred E. "East" was the first dorm, but it wasn't until "West" was built west of it that it was actually referred to as "East". Then, "North" was built, directly north of "East". The fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth dorms built are Atwood, Case, Linde, Sontag, and Drinkward, respectively. They were initially referred to as "the colonies" by some students, a reference to the fact that they were newer and at the farthest end of the campus; these dorms are now more commonly referred to as "the outer dorms", with the four directional dorms referred to as "the inner dorms".

Athletics

Athletes from Harvey Mudd compete alongside athletes from Claremont McKenna College and Scripps College as the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Stags and Athenas (CMS). The teams participate in NCAA Division III in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC). The mascot for the men's teams is Stanley the Stag, and the women's teams are the Athenas. The other sports combination of the Claremont Colleges, and CMS' primary rival, is the team made up of Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens (PP).

Pranks

The California Institute of Technology (Caltech), another university with strength in the natural sciences and engineering, is located 26 miles (42 km) away from Harvey Mudd College. Mudders occasionally amuse themselves by pranking Caltech. For example, in 1986, students from Mudd stole a memorial cannon from Fleming House at Caltech (originally from the National Guard) by dressing as maintenance people and carting it off on a flatbed truck for "cleaning". The students eventually returned the cannon after Caltech threatened to take legal action.

Student Culture

At Harvey Mudd, everyone is passionate about something, "whether it's their schoolwork, extracurriculars that vary from sports to music to LARP , or parties and pranks." The combination of engineering and humanities emphasized in the curriculum attracts a curious and engaged student body. The school attracts "a healthy blend of personalities:" students who are "interested in intense and difficult STEM classes, …but who also care more about their impact on the world and having a strong humanities/liberal arts background." Shared interests make it easy to make friends on campus.

While studying is "one of the primary social activities at Harvey Mudd College," students make time for "hanging out with friends or partying" on the weekends. As a part of the Claremont Consortium, students get "resources typical of a larger institution: solid party culture, athletics, [and] opportunities for research" and they find it "really refreshing to talk to people from other campuses." Highlights at Harvey Mudd itself focus on both tinkerers and gamers. "Being in the Makerspace [a student-run collective workshop open 24/7] is just awesome," and in the Machine Shop, you can "learn how to effectively design" with manufacturing in mind.

Career Services

The Office of Career Services (OCS) is known for finding internship opportunities for students. One student in particular notes that a dedicated adviser “worked very hard to help me find a summer internship, calling many of his friends and passing around my resume.” And it’s not just the OCS offering assistance-students also mention that their professors help them find jobs and internships. And Mudd provides “first-rate preparation for graduate study or (especially for the engineering major) success in the job market.” The OCS seeks to aid students at every step of the way with career guides and “career monographs” to help develop professional skills and visualize the pathways open to them through various majors. Students can also set up advising appointments or just drop in and speak to a peer consultant. Six years after graduation, the median salary for graduates is $115,107.

Campus Location and Visiting

Harvey Mudd College is located at 301 Platt Blvd., Claremont, CA 91711. Campus tours are available Sept-May 11am,1:30pm and 3:30pm. Ontario International Airport is 5 miles from campus. The Claremont Doubletree(909-626-2411) shuttle takes passengers from the airport to the hotel, which is just 5 blocks from campus. Taxis are also available at the airport for the ride to campus. From I-10, exit onto Indian Hill Blvd. North. Take Indian Hill N. for about 1 3/4 miles to 12th St. Turn right (east) on 12th St. for 5 blocks to the admissions office in Kingston Hall at 301 Platt Blvd. (Platt Blvd is the continuation of 12th St.

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