What influenced you to apply to Harvey Mudd College? What about the HMC curriculum and community appeals to you? Please limit your response to 500 words.
Harvey Mudd is my dream school, given its distinguished technical, social, and international aspects.
Due to my international background, I developed a strong passion for STEM and human rights. While exploring these two seemingly distinct fields, I have sought to merge them through developing standards of morality and ethics for engineers. HMC lives up to its reputation as the best undergraduate engineering program, known for its breadth, technical excellence, and for encouraging students to study multiple engineering disciplines.
The HMC philosophy encourages students to engage in their interests and take action through unique hands-on learning programs. I’m particularly fascinated by the opportunity for experiential learning offered by the Clinic Program. It would allow me to design ethical products in an intensive real-world and global engineering setting. The rigorous curriculum, in addition to top-tier professors like Professor Darryl Wright, who specializes in ethical issues in engineering, will nurture my passion in building an ethical code for engineers through courses such as “E4 Introduction to Engineering Design and Manufacturing.” In short, one of HMC’s most appealing aspects to me is its approach to technology, which, as my interviewer Misa Kabashima explained, “is to assist technological advancement while valuing humanitarian principles”—an approach that enables me to explore the important intersection between engineering and ethics.
Coming from a “liberal arts” high school, I have experienced the benefits of a holistic education. As a result, I concur with HMC in rejecting the quaint notion that STEM fields are anathema to the liberal arts. The HMC interdisciplinary approach educates engineers, computer programmers, and mathematicians to become well-versed in all of those areas. They simultaneously incorporate the humanities and social sciences to ensure that HMC students develop a comprehensive understanding across academic disciplines. This approach fits my personality more than hyper-specialization, because it would allow me to explore a wider variety of topics, integrating insights and lessons from other fields. Clubs like EPAIC would allow me to continue my interests in social activism through activities that foster a welcoming environment for underrepresented students.
As an international nomad, I place a strong value on the communal aspect of a college. The tight-knit, collaborative, and global community at HMC felt like home during my visit. In many ways, HMC reminds me of my second home, Thacher, because of its cooperative “leave no man behind” philosophy as well as its environment of trust and integrity nurtured by an entirely student-governed Honor Code system. Similarly, the diverse traditions ranging from “pond-dunking” to “Foster’s Run” demonstrate the strength of the HMC community. Having had the Rotisserie Chicken at the Hoch-Shanan Dining Hall, I am anxiously awaiting further delicacies.
Finally, HMC provides Mudders with a spectacular study abroad program. This resonates with my international background, as I appreciate that HMC values undergraduate engineers studying abroad and expanding their perspectives. The C.V Starr-Middlebury College School program, for example, would allow me to explore Poitiers, France and expand my cultural horizons.
I am ready to shape my future as a Mudder.