Some first-term students noted the substantial technical focus of HMC's curriculum and its challenges: -- I definitely felt I expanded my perspective as a scientist, especially getting a taste of all the different fields through the required courses, but didn't feel I had any courses that really made me understand the cultural significance of doing any work in society. Most assignments were mundane in that they offered little relevance to the political, cultural, and economic world that surrounds us. Incorporating more relevance with what's going on around us would be much appreciated. -- Because of this [difficulty encountered in attempts to double-major in an HSA discipline], when asked if I think HMC has encouraged me as an interdisciplinary thinker, I would have to emphatically say no. Or, more succinctly, -- Still, pretty much all courses are science and math. After the third term, several students saw the core from a wider perspective: -- I noticed first semester that my professors from different classes seemed to be repeating each other on various points. It might be because I took E&M and E59 at the same time, but I can definitely see the connections between different fields much better now than I did in the past. -- The multitude of subjects, though they do not each independently teach us interdisciplinary thinking, definitely do so together. That happens indirectly. In my case however, I feel like the mode of thinking that Mudd tries to encourage has mostly been transmitted to me by the people I've talked to and the people I lived with this year and last year. My conversion definitely happened the first year, but I've only become confident with my thoughts this semester. -- Especially towards the end of the third semester, all these classes started coming together. Most notably Stems, E&M, & What Makes Things Tick. I tried as often as possible to make connections between different disciplines. Trying too hard might be read as a compliment: -- A clear effort was made to link concepts from various courses and subjects together, but sometimes, it seemed a bit too forced In the end, the plurality of opinions expressed an outright positive opinion of this facet of HMC's curriculum:
Some first-term students noted the substantial technical focus of HMC's curriculum and its challenges: -- I definitely felt I expanded my perspective as a scientist, especially getting a taste of all the different fields through the required courses, but didn't feel I had any courses that really made me understand the cultural significance of doing any work in society. Most assignments were mundane in that they offered little relevance to the political, cultural, and economic world that surrounds us. Incorporating more relevance with what's going on around us would be much appreciated. -- Because of this [difficulty encountered in attempts to double-major in an HSA discipline], when asked if I think HMC has encouraged me as an interdisciplinary thinker, I would have to emphatically say no. Or, more succinctly, -- Still, pretty much all courses are science and math. After the third term, several students saw the core from a wider perspective: -- I noticed first semester that my professors from different classes seemed to be repeating each other on various points. It might be because I took E&M and E59 at the same time, but I can definitely see the connections between different fields much better now than I did in the past. -- The multitude of subjects, though they do not each independently teach us interdisciplinary thinking, definitely do so together. That happens indirectly. In my case however, I feel like the mode of thinking that Mudd tries to encourage has mostly been transmitted to me by the people I've talked to and the people I lived with this year and last year. My conversion definitely happened the first year, but I've only become confident with my thoughts this semester. -- Especially towards the end of the third semester, all these classes started coming together. Most notably Stems, E&M, & What Makes Things Tick. I tried as often as possible to make connections between different disciplines. Trying too hard might be read as a compliment: -- A clear effort was made to link concepts from various courses and subjects together, but sometimes, it seemed a bit too forced In the end, the plurality of opinions expressed an outright positive opinion of this facet of HMC's curriculum: