Princeton Review Ranks Harvey Mudd Labs & Profs Among the Best

Harvey Mudd College is listed among the country’s top undergraduate institutions in The Princeton Review’s 2020 edition of The Best 385 Colleges.

The Princeton Review chooses which colleges to include based on the colleges’ outstanding educational programs, but does not rank the colleges academically. Instead, the annual guide ranks the top 20 colleges in 62 different categories from financial aid to campus food. For the 2020 edition, the top 20 lists are based on The Princeton Review’s survey of 140,000 students attending the 385 colleges.

Top 20 rankings for Harvey Mudd this year include No. 8 in the category “Most Accessible Professors,” No. 8 for “Students Study the Most” and No. 10 for “Best Science Lab Facilities.”

In the Princeton Review profile, students surveyed praised Harvey Mudd professors for being “truly dedicated to undergraduate teaching” and “always willing to spend hours outside of class answering questions.” One student commented that “the work at HMC is very challenging, but I have had the best support system; from the Academic Excellence tutors providing help for all required Core classes to the professors who are readily accessible and enthusiastic helpers.”

Respondents described campus life as rigorous yet rewarding with an honor code that encourages students “to conduct themselves with honesty and integrity both personally and academically and to respect the rights of others.” A student shared that Mudders are “pretty much always eager to help one another.” Commenting about the tight-knit community, a student stated, “There is no segregation based on class year, major, race, academic ability, dorm or anything. Everyone is respectful, smart, aware, supportive and unique.”

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 is praise for the College’s broad Core Curriculum, which “produces scientists who can rise to meet interdisciplinary challenges within the sciences” and facilitates “great post-grad opportunities.”

Harvey Mudd ranked No. 1 for “Best Career Placement” in The Princeton Review’s most recent The Best Value Colleges: 200 Schools with Exceptional ROI, a separate annual college guide published each January.