(soft music)
- Hi, I'm Varun Singh.
I'm a freshman at Harvey Mudd College.
I'm from Tampa, Florida and I'm thinking of studying
either engineering or computer science.
I'm also involved in the orchestra here.
(soft music)
So my typical day is I'll wake up around 6:40 a.m.
and go for a short run and then I'll take a shower
and eat breakfast either in my room
or at the dining hall.
And then I'll go to class at 8:00 a.m.
I have 8:00 a.m.'s twice a week
and 9:00 a.m.'s three times a week
and I'll have class until 11:00 a.m.
After that I usually do a little bit of studying
before heading to lunch and then in the afternoon
sometimes I have a lab or classes
or I just do some homework until the evening time
when I go for dinner.
And after that I either have orchestra
or I go hang out with friends.
(soft music)
- So Harvey Mudd is in the consortium, right,
of five colleges.
What does that mean exactly?
- So it's five independent colleges,
but they're all working together
to provide one student experience.
And so, I can take classes
at any of the other five colleges.
- So what kind of classes would you take
at the other colleges?
- So Harvey Mudd is the kind of like STEM school
out of them, and so all the others offer
a really wide variety of humanity classes.
So we'll take humanities, social sciences, arts.
I'm taking orchestra over at Scripps College
which is like right over there.
- Gotcha. - And so all of them
are within one square mile,
so it's very small and everyone is working together.
We have friends across campuses.
So it's really a lot of fun and it provides...
Every school can focus on their specific needs
and their specific kind of curriculum.
And then through that we get a well-balanced environment.
- Right.
So what makes Harvey Mudd distinct?
You mentioned it's kind of
the STEM school of the bunch. - Yes.
- Can you tell me more about that?
- We only have STEM majors here.
You have the option of taking off campus major
if you want at any of the colleges.
You can take any of the majors.
But really here we just have...
Our main programs are engineering,
biology, chemistry, physics,
and computer science and math.
And so those are our majors.
And so all of our school resources
are mostly dedicated towards those fields.
- So when you were applying to Harvey Mudd,
was it very much a STEM focused application process?
- No, so Harvey Mudd tries to...
They really are big about including
the humanities, social sciences, and art in the...
We call them HSAs.
So a third of our curriculum is in fact HSA courses.
So that was one big factor of coming here,
'cause I'd taken a lot of humanities courses
in high school and really liked it.
There's just so much to learn.
And so a third of your courses are in that
and a third of your courses are in your major
and then a third of your courses
are gonna be in what's known as core,
which is just mandatory track for all people.
You take at least one course in every field
that we have here.
So one engineering,
one biology, several math, and so on.
- Very cool, but you're also required
to explore the humanities
as a part of being at Harvey Mudd.
- Yes, and so we have what's known
as breadth and depth requirements.
So breath is you have to at least
have five different areas
that you take courses in five different areas of the HSAs,
and then depth is when you declare your concentration.
And so that's going to be four classes in one area.
So my concentration is going to be music,
so I'm taking orchestra
and then I'm going to take a couple music theory
classes or music history,
and that'll fulfill my concentration requirements.
(soft music)
- So overall, what's the academic culture like
at Harvey Mudd?
- So it's definitely very, very intense.
So there have been late nights
where I'm up working on problems sets
or on an essay that's due the next day.
And a lot of upperclassmen...
There's a lot of academic pressure.
Just to be able to pass a class
with a B is a lot of work,
and we're always taking several classes.
So a typical class load here is four to five classes.
And freshman, we're taking six classes a semester.
And so there's a lot of homework constantly given.
There's a lot of time spent in class.
And there's huge pressure just to be able
to get through all of the academic work
that's assigned and learn the material.
- So what are the majors that you're considering right now?
- So I'm
currently
mostly considering either engineering or computer science.
So Harvey Mudd has a broad engineering curriculum,
so in which you're not taking like mechanical engineering
or electrical engineering or something.
You're just getting a degree in engineering
and within that if you want you can take more courses
in electrical engineering or you can take more courses
in like transportation engineering or something.
- You don't have to choose.
- No, you don't have to choose,
which is something that I like
'cause I'm very bad at choosing.
(soft music)
- So you're part of the orchestra here.
- Yes.
- Tell me a little bit about it.
Who is it made up of?
What do you guys play?
- So I'm part of the Claremont Concert Orchestra.
So it's not just Harvey Mudd.
It's going to be Harvey Mudd, Scripps,
Claremont McKenna, and Pitzer.
So we all have this thing called Joint Music Program,
and so we have our own orchestra
with winds and percussion and brass.
And so
it's...
We meet every Monday, Wednesday
from 7:30 to nine for rehearsal.
And in concert weeks we'll have extended rehearsals
and dress rehearsals to prepare.
So we have two concerts a semester.
And then I'm also part of this American Gamelan ensemble,
which is basically and Indonesian music ensemble
with tradition instruments from Indonesia.
So that meets on Fridays for two hours.
And so I do that in addition to my violin work,
and it's a lot of fun.
- So you're playing with different groups
three times a week
and then also on your own basically everyday.
- Yeah, yeah, but it's a lot of fun.
It's very, very relaxing, provides that work-life balance
that you're always trying to achieve.
(soft music)
- So where are we now?
- So this is the Libra Complex.
So it connects all the academic buildings underground,
and so this is going to be where
we have a couple lecture halls in here
and mainly a bunch of labs and student MakerSpaces.
So it's
underground web, sometimes people get lost in it.
I've definitely gotten lost in here
trying to find my class.
But about once a month what's really fun is
we have these things called ITR games,
which does not stand for
ineligible to re-register
'cause that's not allowed.
But we basically around midnight or so
we come here for a few hours.
We're just running around here screaming,
tagging each other, playing games.
It's a lot of fun.
(soft music)
- [Host] Overall, what's been the most surprising thing
about Harvey Mudd?
- Quality of people here.
Like the students are absolutely amazing.
And so...
Like that's...
Anyone who comes here would say
the number one thing is gonna be how close the students are,
and just how helpful everyone is.
So anytime anyone has a question,
people will help others
before they work on their own problem,
which is really nice.
- What advice would you have
for maybe a younger version of yourself
or somebody who's thinking about applying to Harvey Mudd?
And yeah, what advice would you give to them?
- So I would say you definitely have to be strong
in the STEM subjects, not all of them obviously,
but pick whatever your favorite one is.
But also show a lot of interest in the humanities,
the social sciences, the arts.
Branch out, have that interest 'cause really Harvey Mudd
is trying to educate how to get those kind of soft skills
as well, like people skills,
in addition to technical skills,
and how to understand the context of your work in society.
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- [Man] Excellent. (grunts softly)
(grunts softly)
(men laugh)
(grunts softly)
- [Man] Stand on it.
- [Woman] No, sit on it.
- [Man] Can he sit in it?
I don't know if he can sit in it.
- [Woman] I know, be funny that's why.
- [Man] Maybe just do slow-mo.
Slow-mo, slow-mo.
Here, I got this.
(gentle music)