Harvey Mudd in Princeton Review’s 382 Best Colleges

Harvey Mudd College was named one of the country’s top undergraduate institutions in The Princeton Review’s 2018 college guide, The Best 382 Colleges.

The Princeton Review chooses which colleges to include based on their outstanding educational programs, but does not rank the colleges academically. Instead, the guide ranks the top 20 colleges in 62 different categories from financial aid to campus food. The top 20 lists are based on The Princeton Review’s survey of 137,000 students attending the 382 colleges.

Harvey Mudd ranked No. 1 in the category “Students Study the Most,” No. 5 for “Best Science Lab Facilities,” No. 9 for “Most Accessible Professors,” No. 12 for “There’s a Game?,” No. 13 for “LGBTQ-Friendly” and No. 16 for “Professors Get High Marks.”

In the Princeton Review profile, students surveyed praised Harvey Mudd professors for being both brilliant and accessible. “Most of them know my name and will stop to talk any time,” a student reported. “Lectures and office hours are amazing! Professors really want you to understand the material.”

Students described themselves as “outgoing, quirky and fun but very studious,” with a “brimming passion for science and a love of knowledge for its own sake.” Students stated that while the academics at Harvey Mudd are rigorous, they felt strong support from professors and the student body in a collaborative atmosphere. A survey respondent wrote, “The academic experience is heightened by the students…who act cooperatively rather than competitively to conquer the material rather than each other.”

Students also wrote that they valued the student-led Honor Code, which calls for integrity both inside and outside the classroom. “The trust the faculty has for the students gives us a sense of responsibility, and thus everyone lives up to expectations,” a survey respondent wrote.

The profile described Harvey Mudd as an excellent program in the sciences and engineering with strong undergraduate research opportunities and a very high percentage of students who go to graduate school. Among the student comments were that Harvey Mudd offers “a personalized education that you can’t get at a larger technical university.”

“We picked the 382 ‘best’ colleges for our book primarily for their outstanding academics: we highly recommend each one,” said Robert Franek, The Princeton Review’s Editor-in-Chief and the book’s lead author. “However, we know applicants need far more than an academic rating or ranking to find the college that will be best for them. We created our 62 ranking lists to help narrow that search. They are based entirely on data we gather beyond academics that gives insight into what the schools’ enrolled students say about their professors, administrators, school services, campus culture and student life. In the end, it’s all about the fit.”