How YOU can major in Engineering and Computer Science (among other major combinations)

As a note, this applies to any major combination you want (i.e. physics/Eng, Bio/Eng, Chem/Phys, etc).

As of recently, I am officially the first 4-subject major in the college's history!!! 🎉🎉🎉 I was able to do this by the image below. I am pursuing Joint Math & Physics and an IPS for Engineering and Computer Science. This IPS contains the entire Engineering Degree (all Eng. sciences, all Eng. electives, Eng. Clinic, EVERYTHING) as well as the CS department's standard "Joint" version of the CS major (i.e. the entire CS major except you get to skip a kernel and combine your clinic). Here's a screenshot from my portal to prove it:

Edit Spring 2024: I did it! I'm gonna graduate and, assuming I pass my classes this semester, I'll graduate with all my majors! Here's proof:

Based on the mudders I've met, I feel like many other people would want to pursue a major that combines Engineering and Computer Science. So, in case that person is YOU, here's a step-by-step guide on how to create your own major that combines Engineering and Computer Science (this is also applicable to really any major combination you want, e.g. Biology & Engineering for those BioEngineers out there?!?!)

Before I get into it, I have to say that literally every Engineering Prof I've ever talked to has given the advice of "don't combine engineering with anything else," and when you ask why, the response is usually "past people who have done it recommend against it" or "it's too hard / you don't have time in your schedule for it." Like B-to-the-ruh: Bruh. If you got time in your schedule, and you really want to do it (and not to mention, companies definitely love to see that), and you think you're capable of doing it, go for it! Of course these are just words of a person who hasn't done it yet (maybe I'll regret these words in the future?), so take them with salt.

STEP 1: Do you want an ABET-Accredited Degree or Not? Getting the Engineering Department's approval.

The biggest caveat when messing with the Engineering degree is a BIG one: accreditation. The Engineering Degree that Mudd offers is a little different than the other Degrees that it offers because the Engineering Degree has to adhere to much more specific and rigorous criteria than the other majors via ABET-accreditation (at least, this is what I was told by Prof. Lape). In other words, you can't just make your own Engineering degree willy-nilly and have it still be accredited. Accreditation is MANDATORY if you ever want to work as an Engineer, and if the college gives out non-accredited Engineering degrees, they can get in a lot of trouble.

So, if you plan on being an Engineer, you probably want you degree to be ABET-Accredited. But what does this mean? In order for your IPS to be ABET-Accredited, it needs to

1. Satisfy EVERY single element of the standard Mudd Engineering Degree

2. The word "Engineering" needs to stand by itself in the major name (i.e. You can't call your major "Joint Engineering & Computer Science" if you want it to be ABET-accredited).

3. Get the approval of the current chair of the Engineering Department.

The other option is if you don't care about ABET-accreditation and instead just want to combine some aspects of Engineering and another major into one major (e.g. If you wanted a degree called "Robotics" or "Computer Engineering" or "Software Engineering"). I'm not sure what extra steps there are for this process, but I imagine it is much less work that making your major adhere to ABET.

STEP 2: Research the IPS major policy of your other desired major(s) and get approval.

To showcase this, I'll give you an example via the CS major. This link (https://www.hmc.edu/cs/academic-policies/curriculum-policies/) leads to the Computer Science department's policies, and under the "Individual Program of Studies" header, you'll see that in order to incorporate Computer Science into an IPS, you need to do the following:

1. Needs approval from the CS chair.

2. You can't explicitly define the electives required for your major (for example, you can't say that CS144 is a requirement for your IPS, but you can say that a CS elective numbered over 100 is a requirement for your IPS. This is to prevent IPS-students from pushing out normal CS-majors from electives).

3. There has to be a capstone requirement.

Normally, getting approval for your non-Eng major will be much easier than for the Engineering major.

Step 3: Get Signatures and fill out the IPS form.

Once you have approval from both departments, you need to fill out an IPS form and get approval from all your advisors, the Associate Dean, and then the Registrar. Instead of explaining this one, I'll just attach my IPS form below. (As a note, I know that E72 is not listed on there, and I'm working on getting that fixed - E72 slipped through the cracks during this process. I took it like everyone else and passed!). Also in case you were wondering, the registrar never explicitly signed the form and just kinda updated my major on the portal, so that's why the registrar approval is not on there:

Bonifacio_IPS_Application_Final_9.20.2022 (2) (4).pdf

Download PDF • 1.05MB

You can just google mudd IPS form to get a blank one.

EXAMPLE

Below is an example of a valid Engineering & Computer Science Degree that worked for someone entering Mudd in 2020. You'll need to look up your own requirements for your year and make necessary changes:

Above all else:

The most important thing in this process is the approval of Harvey Mudd and all corresponding chairs and faculty. This article is no guarantee of anything and is not trying to disrespect anyone or any faculty at Mudd. I am just trying to help fellow mudders who might be interested in this program.

Update Spring 2024:

Make sure to get explicit approval from all necessary chairs for all the classes in your plan you are going to double-count! (such as Math55 or Clinic or something). The college gets suspicious when it sees double-counted classes, so make sure if you want to double-count a class, you get explicit approval for it!

If you're interested in doing this, email the department chairs for the majors you are interested in (Prof. Nancy Lape <lape@g.hmc.edu> for Eng and Prof. Jim Boerkoel <boerkoel@hmc.edu> for CS, and you can find the other chairs on the Mudd website). If they ask you "why do you want to do this," what my answer was, which worked, is that you are intellectually curious about these subjects and want to explore the intersection of them, and if you want a job for both of these subjects in the future, it would be beneficial for you to be able to showcase your interests by having both subjects in your major.

I'm finishing up my final semester, and I'm personally really happy I did this major combination. Even though the job market is abysmal right now, I was able to get some exciting job opportunities, and introducing myself as the "quad-major" definitely helped in that. Good luck! And make sure to double and triple check with all administrators involved with organizing your major to ensure that you're checking all the boxes.