Harvey Mudd College is a highly selective, private college of science, engineering and mathematics, located in Claremont, California. It is one of the institutions of the Claremont Colleges. The school is informally known as Harvey Mudd as well as Mudd. Students at Mudd are known as Mudders. The college is one of the most selective in the nation; the median entering SAT score is about 770 (out of 800) in mathematics, and 1470 (out of 1600) overall. A third of the student body are National Merit Scholars, and about 40 percent of graduates go onto graduate programs--- the highest of any college or university in the nation.

Harvey Mudd College has a unique mission which, to paraphrase, is: to educate scientists, engineers, and mathematicians well-versed in the social sciences and humanities so that they have an understanding of the impact of their work on society. The college offers four-year degrees in chemistry, mathematics, physics, computer science, biology, and engineering, as well as interdisciplinary degrees in mathematical biology, and a joint major in either computer science and mathematics or biology and chemistry. Students may also elect to complete an Independent Program of Study (IPS) made up of courses of their own choosing. Usually between two and five students graduate with an IPS degree each year. Finally, students may choose an off-campus major offered by any of the other Claremont Colleges, provided they also complete a minor in one of the technical fields in which Mudd offers majors.

Because of its mission statement, Harvey Mudd places an unusually strong emphasis on general science education outside one's major, with a full one-third of courses in this area, known as the "common core." Students are required to take another one-third of their courses in the humanities, keeping with the school's tradition of science with a conscience. The other one-third is composed of courses in the student's major. The integration of research and education is an important component of the educational experience at Harvey Mudd; by the time they graduate, every student has had some kind of research experience, in the form of a senior thesis or a Clinic Program experience. The undergraduate focus of HMC means that, unlike many other science and engineering insitutions, undergraduates at HMC get unique access to research positions over the summer and during the school year.

A unique aspect of an HMC education is the Clinic Program, in which teams of students work for a year on a project supplied by a company, make regular reports to the company and, at the end of the year, deliver a product. There are Clinic projects in engineering, computer science, mathematics, physics and other majors. This kind of real-world experience gives students a first-hand look at a particular industry, and gives the company a team of four bright and hard-working students, many of whom they often recruit for jobs after graduation.

The college is named after Harvey Seeley Mudd, who was one of the initial investors in the Cyprus Mines Corporation. Although involved in the planning of the new institution, Mudd died before it opened. Harvey Mudd College was funded by Mudd's friends and family, and named in his honor.

Harvey Mudd College is contiguous to the other Claremont Colleges, and students at these colleges may take classes at any of them, though classes in the student's major are normally taken at their own college.

Athletics teams from Claremont McKenna College, Harvey Mudd College and Scripps College compete as one team. Male athletic teams are called the Stags, and women's teams are called the Athenas. The teams participate in the NCAA's Division III and in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.