Harvey Mudd, Why Its a Good fit for Me, Rocketry and More

Short Answer Response

Please answer the following (500 word limit)

What influenced you to apply to Harvey Mudd College? What about the HMC curriculum and community appeals to you?

When I discovered Sean Plott, a Harvey Mudd alumnus, broadcasting Starcraft 2 tournaments online, he made me laugh and explained his love of Harvey Mudd. The experiences he shared over the last four years allowed me to learn much more about the world of college and my academic future. The school honor code according to Sean is, "you're not going to cheat, so please don't cheat." One example of the honor code is when the teachers administer take home exams for finals. The trust they place in the student body seems amazing and I want to go to an institution that trusts its students with their learning. When my teachers trust me I feel safe and am able to learn more successfully.

I decided that the best fit for me personally would be a smaller school. My dad went to UC Berkeley and the school was so enormous that no one noticed how much he was struggling. It took him 11 years to finish his degree. Harvey Mudd is an environment where people would notice a student having trouble. Learning concepts with professors during office hours is how I would learn best. When I visited larger schools such as USC or UC Berkeley I noticed that office hours with professors were harder to come by, just because of the sheer number of students in each class. This is a huge reason why Harvey Mudd is a good fit for me. On top of Harvey Mudd being a smaller community, it has an engineering degree that allows me to try out each discipline within the breadth of engineering.

At a rocket launch in Black Rock, Nevada I met up with the rocket club from Harvey Mudd. I admired the students passion for one of my favorite hobbies. I liked how Greg Lyzenga, the club adviser, taught the students not just theory but also experimentation. The project they were working on was a minimum diameter rocket using a motor that had shredded or caused many unsuccessful flights before. They expressed great confidence in their rockets ability to succeed and get data without difficulty. Then when they launched their rocket, halfway through the burn the rocket went unstable. The way they dealt with such a loss was also admirable. They were happy to gather data from the crash and then formulated a report from that data on why it went unstable. They posted a report online for others to see and learn from their experience. This attitude gave me greater reason to come to Harvey Mudd, to learn with people who can overcome obstacles and deal with failure openly.

Bryan, I have just a few pieces of advice that I hope will help you better the content of your essay. See the listing below :


- ... made me laugh as he explained...


- The statement becomes more effective and delivers a stronger impact when that sentence is deleted. It is important not to lecture the admissions officer about the school policies he is already familiar with.


- Can you mention some specific university programs for struggling students that you know you will benefit from should you begin to struggle in class? This will show your familiarity with the school programs.

Thanks for the help I will add those changes now. I had one more question about if i should focus on one topic or if I should keep it chronological as it is right now. I ask because I think if i focused on one topic i could make it flow better, but I like providing multiple reasons with examples.

Bryan, when answering an essay like this one, expect to cover more than one topic. The reason behind that is that you need to present the academic, social, and personal reasons that you have for choosing a particular university. I applaud you for being able to actually do it all quite effectively without going over the 500 word limit. Coming in only over 400 is quite an accomplishment on your part that you should be proud of.

If you choose to concentrate on only one topic for the essay, you may come in under the word count, but then you will also not be able to fully explain your reasons for joining the university. There is no one single reason that a student chooses a particular school. There are always a number of combined reasons for the decision and it will always help the admission officer consider you for suggestion to the admissions committee if he feels that you have a shot at getting their nod of approval as a student. So don't limit yourself to just one topic. Discuss all 3 important areas in order to give yourself a better shot at gaining acceptance into the school.

Thank you so much for all of your help I really appreciate you taking the time to read my essay and give helpful feedback. This has been very helpful to get an outside source to peer review that is not a friend or family member since it allows me to see a new perspective on my essay.