In the past few months here at Harvey Mudd, I have come to a conclusion. The number of students majoring in science, math, or engineering is directionally proportional to number of different types of transportation. On an average day, I will see at least 6 types of transportation on my way to and from class. There are plenty of the “normal” modes of transportation, such as walking, biking, skateboarding, longboarding, etc. Here at Mudd though, we get a good percentage of people who indulge in more unique ways of getting from point A to point B. Most days, I will see unicycles, freeline skates, rollerblades, tandem longboarding, trick bikes, scooters, swivel boards, tricycles, and, If I’m lucky, a tandem bike.
Now for some facts about Mudd: A student cannot major in anything besides math, science, and engineering without pursuing an off-campus major at one of the other 4 Claremont Colleges. Of the students that attend, less than 10% choose to major off campus on average, some of which have chosen to major in a second subject in addition to their Harvey Mudd major.
Now, because I go to a science/math/engineering school, I’ll do the math. I’ll approximate the number of math, science, and engineering majors as 90% of the school’s 750 students (675 students), and the number of types of transportation as the length of the list above (12 types excluding walking). The ratio of math, science, and engineering majors to types of transportation is (approximately)…
56:1
That’s a new wheeled gadget for every fifty-six students in attendance. At the University of Colorado, a school with a student body of 30,000, that would be 536 methods of transportation not including walking or driving.
QED.
