Common Core Curriculum

The Core Curriculum at Harvey Mudd College seeks to nurture students’ intellectual curiosity and joy of learning, provide them with foundational knowledge and skills needed for further study in STEM disciplines, and begin a critical engagement with the humanities, social sciences, and the arts. In keeping with HMC’s liberal-arts approach to STEM education, the Core engages students in thinking critically about consequential problems and complex issues, making connections across disciplinary boundaries, communicating and collaborating effectively, and understanding how their personal and professional actions impact the world around them.

The Core includes:

• One course each in computer science and engineering
• One course in biology and a laboratory
• Two semesters of mathematics
• One and a half semesters of physics and a laboratory
• One semester of chemistry and a laboratory
• A half-semester of college writing
• A course in critical inquiry offered by the Department of Humanities, Social Sciences, and the Arts
• A college course that investigates the impacts of our work on society

The Core is demanding, but Harvey Mudd fosters collaboration, not competition—students work in teams and learn together. The hands-on, project-based courses in the Core foster a love for collaboration, communication skills and leadership ability.

Harvey Mudd’s curriculum—the Common Core, requirements in the humanities, social sciences, and the arts, and the major—gives students a solid grounding in the sciences, expertise in a chosen field and an understanding of the relationship between technology and the people it serves.

Visit Core Curriculum learning outcomes.

The Harvey Mudd College Catalog has more information on the Common Core.