Harvey Mudd College

Claremont, CA · founded 1955 · 900 students · technical institute · SCIAC (Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference)

Known for: Harvey Mudd College is one of the nation's premier undergraduate institutions for engineering, science, and mathematics, renowned for its rigorous core curriculum that blends technical expertise with humanities and social sciences. It is a member of the Claremont Colleges consortium.

Rankings

U.S. News liberal arts: #28
Forbes: #45

Top programmes

Engineering
Computer Science
Mathematics
Physics
Chemistry

Notable alumni

George "Pinky" Nelson — NASA astronaut
Catherine Coleman — NASA astronaut
Stanley Mazor — Co-inventor of the microprocessor
John Gage — Co-founder of Sun Microsystems and creator of 'The Network is the Computer' slogan
Ruth Bader Ginsburg — Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (attended for a summer program)

Traditions

The Clinic Program (senior capstone with industry sponsors)
The Wart Run
The Harvey Mudd College Casino Night
Pi Day celebrations

If Harvey Mudd College were…

As a food: Molecular gastronomy tasting menu — Technically complex, intellectually stimulating, requires precision and collaboration, and transforms basic ingredients into something surprising. It's delicious but also exhausting to experience, and you need to appreci
As an athlete: Simone Biles — Performs at an almost superhuman technical level, makes incredibly difficult things look manageable through preparation and teamwork, and succeeds in an environment where precision and innovation are everything. Small in
As a person alive today: Elon Musk — Love him or hate him, he embodies the Mudd ethos: technically brilliant, ambitious to the point of absurdity, willing to tackle impossible problems, and convinced that engineering can solve anything. The intensity and th
As a historical figure: Richard Feynman — Brilliant physicist who combined technical mastery with playfulness, loved solving puzzles for their own sake, and believed in explaining complex ideas clearly. He embodied the Mudd ideal of being both rigorously technic
As a movie or TV show: Silicon Valley (HBO) — Nerdy, technically accurate, full of people who are brilliant but socially awkward, and centered on collaboration under pressure to build something innovative. The humor comes from the intensity and the absurdity of tech
As a US president: Herbert Hoover — Stanford-trained engineer who believed technical expertise could solve social problems, organized massive relief efforts, and was more comfortable with systems than people. Brilliant but perhaps too confident in engineer
As a city: Palo Alto, California — Tech-focused, intense, collaborative, expensive, and full of brilliant people solving hard problems while sometimes losing sight of the human element. It's where innovation happens but also where burnout is normalized, a
As an element: Titanium — Strong, lightweight, resistant to corrosion, and essential for aerospace engineering and high-performance applications. It's not the most common element, but when you need something that can withstand extreme conditions
As a car: 2006 Subaru WRX STI — Harvey Mudd is this turbocharged rally beast—small, ferociously engineered, beloved by nerds who optimize everything, and punches way above its weight class with a cult following that worships horsepower-per-liter and pr

Campus life

Life at Harvey Mudd is intensely collaborative and academically focused, with a strong honor code fostering a supportive environment. Social life is heavily integrated with the other Claremont Colleges, offering a wide range of activities while maintaining a close-knit, quirky community on its own campus.