"Who is this kid?":

My name is Michael Ho and I’m a sophomore engineering major with a humanities concentration of art. In addition to finishing up the core curriculum, I’m taking classes in continuum mechanics (solids and fluids), digital design and computer architecture (implementing a microprocessor), design representation and realization (making a tool tray, screwdriver, and hammer), and experimental engineering (launching a rocket and collecting data). Outside of class, I’m involved with the campus through The Muddraker, where I create the layout for Harvey Mudd’s newspaper, DOS Activities, where I plan goofy activities every week, API-SPAM, where I act as a mentor towards Asian/Pacific Islander freshmen, and the admissions office, where I lead tours and blog for all you wonderful prospective students. Finally, aside from all the crazy extracurricular activities, I enjoy live music, photography, sitting at my computer for long periods of time, and going out to eat.

Yay! So that's me.

"What are you babbling about?":

This blog will be chronicling my day-to-day adventures at good ol' Harvey Mudd College (often referred to as HMC or Mudd or life-suck (just kidding about that last one - maybe)). Yes, I know that last sentence had nested parentheses. Whatevs. You can do it in math so it clearly can't be wrong.

Anyways, this'll be a place for you to get some insight on what it's really like to be at Mudd. Hopefully this blog (and the others) will give you a sense of what goes on at this really strange place. From the dorms to the classrooms, from weekdays to weekends, I'll try to give you a taste of the entire Harvey Mudd experience.

"Why should I care about you and your silly posts?":

Geeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeezzz. What's with the attitude?

You should care because, if it all works out according to plan, this blog will give you more information about Mudd than any tour, any brochure, any information booklet, any college counselor, or any online college resource site (wait... am I in this category?). This is due to the fact that other resources always fall short of completely describing what it feels like to be an HMC student (a Mudder, as we say it). For example, as a tour guide I know that tours can never be perfect. There are an endless number of student resources, activities, research projects, fun facts about the school, etc. so you simply can't fit it all into one hour. The blog will give me chance to tell you about the tidbits that sometimes slip through the cracks.

But really, all that stuff is superficial. Could you really determine whether you'd be happy or not by knowing the ratio of physics graduates moving on to doctorate studies or industry? If you said yes, I don't believe you and I'll just continue with my point :)

It's really important that Harvey Mudd is a good fit for you and vice versa. If you don't know what you're getting into, you might be very unhappy at Mudd because HMC is definitely not for everyone. This especially includes non-academic aspects of Mudd. For example, you might ask if you would find common ground with other Mudders or if you would feel alienated from the rest of the community. Clearly not an easy question to answer with an informational booklet.

Luckily, you have totally awesome people (us bloggers ^.^) who can help you out in this respect. By chronicling our thoughts, experiences, whatever, you should be able to figure out if you'd love it here or hate it here (or somewhere in between).

If we're not being helpful then PUUHHHLEAAAZZE ask us some questions. I'll try to answer anything you throw at me, even questions which are deliberately made impossible to answer.

Btw, I <3 xkcd (as do many of the people at Mudd):

Okay, I am very tired and need some sleep. Unfortunately, I need to do some research on companies and make copies of my resume for the career fair tomorrow. Arghhhhhasdjf;akjf;jah

Peace out.