物理学术课程
The 物理 program at Harvey Mudd College offers a 物理 major with both depth and breadth in classical and modern 物理, 理论与实验, and foundations and applications. It does so through lecture-discussion courses, laboratories and joint student-faculty research. The program serves as a strong foundation for graduate work or employment in 物理 and other technical fields. The goal of the program is to produce exceptionally able graduates with a strong understanding of, 以及对, 物理, and with an unusually broad background in science, 数学, 技术, humanities and the social sciences, as provided by the HMC curriculum.
The 物理 Department underwent a very successful external review in February, 2004. The report of the team of three physicists from leading graduate and undergraduate institutions begins:
“The 物理 program at Harvey Mudd College is truly excellent and among the very best at undergraduate institutions across the country…”
Among non-PhD-granting institutions, none graduate as many 物理 majors as HMC (apart from military academies). A greater fraction of our graduates earn prestigious NSF graduate fellowships than almost any other school.
Besides moving on to excellent graduate programs and permanent jobs, our students win a variety of awards both within the College and at the national level. Some recent highlights include:
- 19 winners of prestigious National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowships since 1997
- Three winners of the American Physical Society’s Apker Award for the outstanding 物理 student in the country
- Three winners of Hertz Foundation Graduate Fellowships since 1998
- Two winners of Churchill Fellowships to spend a year of graduate study in England
门户开放政策
Professors make themselves very accessible to students in both core and upper division courses.
The department emphasizes small-group discussions, and spends half of the contact hours in core lecture courses in discussion sections of roughly 18 students with a professor. Unlike at places with graduate programs, at HMC 物理 the undergraduates come first! (第二，第三!)