Application FAQs

Applying to college is a lot of work. At times you may completely forget to ask a question or question what you remember. Below are some FAQs and a few words of advice. If you have a question, the answer is probably below.

Please keep in mind that our office will close for winter break at 4 p.m. (PST) on Friday, December 20. We will open at 8 a.m. (PST) on January 2. During our winter break we will not be able to respond to our phone messages. Emails to admission@hmc.edu will be checked periodically throughout the break. Expect a delay in our response. We appreciate your patience.

Once we return, our office hours are Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. (PST).

January 5 is our application deadline

• Submit your Common Application or Coalition Application to us by this date (don’t forget to budget time for the additional HMC questions). Your application should be submitted by January 5, 2020, 11:59 pm of the time zone you are located in.
• Please do not panic about missing school documents. While your school knows of our deadlines, we understand if not all of your school documents are submitted by that deadline. We know that they have many requests to process and understand if their materials are submitted later. We DO NOT hold this against your file. Once we have processed the majority of materials we’ve received, we will then send out a missing items emails. Please pay attention to these emails.
• Do review our required materials.

Read your emails

• We will communicate primarily through the email you used in your Common Application or Coalition Application.
• Go through your junk mail and spam folders. At times, very important messages do end up there (i.e. when we announce that decisions are ready to view in the Hub).
• Please pay attention to requests for missing items, but do not panic or call your school to demand immediate action. Most requests can be handled within a few days.
• After our system registers that we have received your application (which will not be the same time you hit “submit” on the Common Application or Coalition Application website), you will receive a confirmation email from admission@hmc.edu. Instructions on how to access the HMC Applicant Hub will follow within two business days from helpdesk@hmc.edu.

Log into your HMC Applicant Hub

• You will receive your application decision in the Hub.
• For those applying for need-based financial aid, access the “Financial Aid @ HMC” link in the Hub.
• Use the Hub to check the status of required admission and financial aid materials.
• For issues regarding access to the HMC Applicant Hub, read these FAQs.

Harvey Mudd accepts self-reported test scores

• You can submit your test scores using the form on your HMC Applicant Hub.
• As a reminder we require the SAT or ACT, the SAT Math Level II subject test, and another SAT subject test of your choice.
• The SAT Essay and ACT Writing Test are not required. There is no preference between the SAT and ACT.
• Don’t worry, we superscore and concord your tests for you. This means we’ll mix and match the different components of each test (regardless of when you took it) and view this as your “best” score.
• The December test is the final acceptable test date.
• If English has not been your primary language of instruction for the past 4 years, please take and submit your TOEFL or IELTS score.
• Read the complete announcement on self-reported test scores.

With the growing number testing center issues and weather- and security-related score cancellations, we are concerned that our subject test requirement may be prohibiting students from applying to Harvey Mudd due to circumstances beyond their control. Therefore, if you are a student who has not been able to take the SAT subject tests but would still like to be considered for admission to Harvey Mudd, please send an email of explanation to admission@hmc.edu as a request. We will get back to you as soon as possible to let you know if it is still possible for you to be given full consideration in our admission process.

We honor fee waivers

• Request your fee waiver through the Common Application or Coalition App. Students must select an indicator of economic need in the Fee Waiver section.
• Students affected by recent natural disasters (i.e. hurricanes in the US, fires in California, etc) may also request a fee waiver.

We do not require arts supplements, resumes, abstracts, extra letters of recommendation, etc

• We do not accept music CDs, art portfolios, dance videos, etc. Our campus is filled with artists of all sorts and we love them. We value your contributions and talents in the arts and this can be highlighted in the activities section of your application. You may even choose to include a shortened link on your application. However, we cannot guarantee that we will view it as part of our review.
• We welcome research abstracts and other examples of your scientific and mathematical endeavors. You can upload this as part of your Common Application or Coalition Application.
• Don’t send a separate resume. It will not be uploaded into your file. Instead use your application. The activities and honors sections are a great place to showcase your commitments and accomplishments.
• We require three letters of recommendation; one from a school counselor, a math or science teacher, and a humanities, social science, or arts teacher. If you need to send another letter, our system allows for one additional recommendation (this can be academic or non-academic i.e. supervisor, coach, etc.). We do not recommend that you submit additional letters given our volume of applications.
• Remember more is not always better. In fact, it is rarely better.

No system is perfect and this includes ours

• If you’ve taken a college course, include this information in the application and share that a transcript is available. Then our system will add a college transcript onto your checklist in the HMC Applicant Hub. If this college course is included in your high school transcript, please send us an email to petition to waive this requirement. Otherwise, we expect a transcript. If you are not able to send a transcript, please email us to petition to waive this requirement.
• If you are neither a US citizen nor a US permanent resident, and/or attend high school outside of the US, our system adds the TOEFL or IELTS as a testing requirement. If English is the language of instruction for your high school and/or it is the primary language spoken in your home, you may email us to petition to waive this requirement.

We like you, we really do, but don’t call us, we’ll contact you

• This may seem antithetical to the wonderful HMC spirit of community, but we get a lot of paperwork and it takes us some time to get all of it processed and tagged in our system.
• A phone call or email in early January inquiring about the status or “completeness” of your application will get the response above and a prompt to check your HMC Application Hub.
• The Applicant Hub will list when we’ve processed a piece of your application. This may be the same date as when we received the material. At times it may be a day, or even a week after we’ve received it – particularly if it is sent through the mail. Don’t worry. As long as we have it we are good.
• Try to limit your email updates to changes to your address or email, class schedule changes, change in family circumstances, new national level honors or awards, delays in test results, etc.

Send us good vibes. We’re sending them to you with each application we read

• We mean this.
• You’ve put in a lot of work on your college applications and we’re going to commit the next few months to helping create the HMC Class of 2023.
• Early Decision II decisions will be available by February 15 and Regular Decision decisions will be available by April 1.
• Thank you for the trust you are putting in us and in Harvey Mudd.