Harvey Mudd in Princeton Review’s 379 Best Colleges

Harvey Mudd College was named one of the country’s top undergraduate institutions in The Princeton Review’s 2015 college guide, “The Best 379 Colleges.”

The Princeton Review does not rank the colleges academically or from 1 to 379 in any category. Instead it reports 62 ranking lists of top 20 colleges in various categories. The lists are entirely based on The Princeton Review’s survey of 130,000 students (about 343 per campus on average) attending the colleges.

Harvey Mudd ranked No. 1 in the category “Students Study the Most,” No. 8 for “Best Science Lab Facilities,” No. 13 for “Professors Get High Marks,” No. 13 for “Easiest Campus to Get Around” and No. 17 for “Lots Of Race/Class Interaction.”

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 were 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.”

“Every college in our book offers outstanding academics,” noted Robert Franek, the guide’s author and Princeton Review senior vice president/publisher. “These colleges differ significantly in their program offerings, campus culture, locales and cost. Our purpose is not to crown one college ‘best’ overall or to rank these distinctive schools 1 to 379 on any single topic. We present our 62 ranking lists to give applicants the broader base of campus feedback to choose the college that’s best for them.”