Claremont Colleges

[Anonymous]

DD wants to look at several of them -- specifically Claremont McKenna and Scripps, and I'm interested in hearing anyone's take on them. Do they function like one big university? From what I've read, it sounds like the best of both worlds -- each college is small and has its own approach while all students take advantage of the full consortium. I'm interested in hearing from folks who have more knowledge.

[Anonymous]

I went to Pomona and it was as you describe. I cross-registered for classes at Scripps and Pitzer occasionally, and am still friends with folks from the other colleges. Really got to know professors, had small classes, but when campus felt small we had 6K+ kids across 5 colleges to socialize with. Great schools. Not a lot of name recognition on the East Coast....

[Anonymous]

I'm a CMC grad. I'm a big fan. I do think it is the best of both worlds. I really enjoyed the small feel of CMC, and knowing most of my classmates. That being said it was nice to have the option to take advantage of some of the 5-C things. My interests lined up very strongly with CMC (gov/econ double major) so I didn't take much for classes at the other colleges. That being said- it is easy to do and certainly many of my classmates did.

[Anonymous]

Another Pomona grad. Loved my experience. Took classes at cmc--their poli sci dept had more conservative profs so it was nice to balance against the more liberal Pomona profs. Amazing friends, tons of individual attention from profs, and tremendous resources. Simply can't say enough good things.

[Anonymous]

Pomona grad here as well. Really liked it (though SO pricey now!). I think I took two classes at other colleges, definitely had friends at Pitzer and Scripps. The campus is lovely.

[Anonymous]

Scrippsie here. I second what everyone above has said. I loved being on the quiet campus and being able to go off campus (10 steps away, they are adjacent) for parties and more liveliness. I'm sure things have changed since I graduated, but it was a great place. One thing I know has changed is that Scripps is more academically rigorous.

CMC/Scripps comparison - CMC tends to be more conservative and traditional, whereas Scripps really was a mixed bag where you could find a little bit of everything.

Go visit - if it's the right place then DD will fall in love instantly, like I think many of the grads posting here did. I had a little trouble making friends at the beginning of my first year, which is not unique to Claremont, but, despite being so small, I managed to meet new people and actually socialized in a few different circles over the course of the 4 years.

Oh, and the athletic programs are great for such small schools.

[Anonymous]

I went to scripps! Best years of my life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went to Pomona and it was as you describe. I cross-registered for classes at Scripps and Pitzer occasionally, and am still friends with folks from the other colleges. Really got to know professors, had small classes, but when campus felt small we had 6K+ kids across 5 colleges to socialize with. Great schools. Not a lot of name recognition on the East Coast....

Anyone who knows anything about colleges knows these schools. For some reason this area in particular is very big university oriented; many people (and people who you think would know) just don't know anything about LACs.

[Anonymous]

I went to an Ivy League university, and never heard of these colleges.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went to an Ivy League university, and never heard of these colleges.

I went to an Ivy University and serious considered Harvey Mudd.

[Anonymous]

Any graduate program or school knows these schools, particularly Pomona, which is absolutely academically equivalent to LACs like Amherst and Williams if you look at their STATS (and considerably harder to get into than some Ivys such as Cornell), and CMC is not too far behind, kids that are looking say at Wesleyan on the East Coast would likely be academically similar, and Scripps and Harvey Mudd also have excellent reputations. My son went to Pomona and had a fabulous experience. The 5 campuses are truly adjacent, so unlike the Amherst, UMass, Smith etc consortium, requiring 10 mile bus rides to get to some of the schools, this is truly an integrated system that makes it easy to socialize and take classes across institutional lines. From California really really hard to get into all of the schools, because better known out there, from the East Coast, a bit of an advantage to apply since they want geographic diversity, still hard to get in, but get a bit of an advantage being from DC not LA or SF.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went to an Ivy League university, and never heard of these colleges.

Yeah we have a friend from Penn (grew up in this area) who hadn't heard of Middlebury. Hard to believe but true. Underscores my point that people from this area just don't know LACs generally speaking. Even people who should know better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Any graduate program or school knows these schools, particularly Pomona, which is absolutely academically equivalent to LACs like Amherst and Williams if you look at their STATS (and considerably harder to get into than some Ivys such as Cornell), and CMC is not too far behind, kids that are looking say at Wesleyan on the East Coast would likely be academically similar, and Scripps and Harvey Mudd also have excellent reputations. My son went to Pomona and had a fabulous experience. The 5 campuses are truly adjacent, so unlike the Amherst, UMass, Smith etc consortium, requiring 10 mile bus rides to get to some of the schools, this is truly an integrated system that makes it easy to socialize and take classes across institutional lines. From California really really hard to get into all of the schools, because better known out there, from the East Coast, a bit of an advantage to apply since they want geographic diversity, still hard to get in, but get a bit of an advantage being from DC not LA or SF.

Agree. Daughter's friend got into Penn but not Pomona.

[Anonymous]

I'm a native Californian who came east for college, but Pomona was a top choice for many of my classmates in the highest 10% of our graduating class. Even back in the day it was on par with Amherst, Williams and Swarthmore. More recently, my 2 oldest kids, who graduated from high school in this area, had many friends who applied to Pomona and I know 3 kids who are there now and loving it. It's increasingly a popular choice for east coast kids who are very strong admissions candidates -- and are savvy enough to appreciate that Pomona offers an excellent education with the added bennie of beautiful weather 365 days a year and a location within an easy drive to beach or skiing.

As for the comment that people in this area tend to favor large research universities, I'm not sure that's true, but people on this forum definitely skew that way. My sense is that many posters are just not very knowledgeable about college admissions in general, so tend to be somewhat narrow-minded in their perceptions of what makes a school "good" or "worth it" -- hence the Ivy fixation (and I say this as the spouse of an Ivy grad and parent of 2 students currently attending another Ivy).

[Anonymous]

OP again. Thanks, it really does sound great. And right about now I can see the appeal of that southern California weather.