For a lot of students, going to an Ivy League university spells a lot of opportunity for them after graduation. This has some truth to this notion but there is one small college in California who graduates outearn graduates that come from Harvard or Stanford.
Harvey Mudd College is a small private liberal arts college in Claremont, California with only 800 students. According to Forbes, STEM graduates from this college boasts of an annual salary of $106,200, which is second to MIT.
Perhaps, the small population works to the advantage of the students because the student-teacher ratio is much better than other leading colleges and universities.However, this is not the main reason why Harvey Mudd graduates are very much in demand and command a high salary in the market. Everything is credited to the balanced curriculum the institution has that balances STEM and the arts, which must be unique for a liberal arts college.
Jim Boerkel, a computer science professor at HMC, said that when students arrive at HMC, they are required to take at least one computer science course. Unlike other computer science introduction course, however, this one is much broader and touches artificial intelligence, software development, and logic among other things.
Aside from that, the school also created a basic and advanced intro class so that every student will have a chance to join class discussions.
To ensure that the students receive a balanced education, HMC also demands that students should take just as many courses in the humanities along with the introductory courses in STEM.
The administration describes their curriculum as some sort of a boot camp for STEM, critical thinking, and writing, which give students a more solid foundation in science and technology while developing their critical thinking skills.
HMC's curriculum is so effective that other colleges that are focused on STEM have taken notice. In fact, the California Institute of Technology has invited some of the STEM professors of HMC to provide training to its professors.
