Claremont McKenna

[Anonymous]

Does anyone have any personal knowledge of Claremont McKenna? I've seen the high rankings and a search of this forum shows that it is included in a few threads, but I don't see any discussion from anyone who knows anything beyond what you can get from USNews. Any Claremont McKenna parents or students out there?

[Anonymous]

I'm a CMC grad, as are 2 of my brother's and my SIL. All 4 of us were very happy there.

CMC has a strong gov/econ focus- so a lot of CMC grads end up in DC, and a lot stay in CA.

I guess you could probably get the above info from US news as well. What kind of information are you looking for?

[Anonymous]

Not direct experience but DC has been out there looking. All of the Claremont Colleges are excellent and each has its own focus and personality. CM tends to be the more conservative (thats relative, in context) of the five because the policy and economics focus attracts a lot of students who are business oriented and preprofessional. The consortium really functions as a larger university so there's something for everyone.

[Anonymous]

Thanks. How would you describe the social life? It seems that most live on campus and there is no Greek system. What do the students do on weekends? Do most have cars? There must be a lot of interaction among the 5 schools, but how about interaction with other Southern California schools?

[Anonymous]

There is enough going on with the five schools that I don't think students go elsewhere. The Claremont colleges are about 45 minutes from LA, so not particularly close to other schools.

[Anonymous]

The 5-C campuses are "wet," meaning that the school- sponsored parties have alcohol and camp sec checks IDs at the door and hands out wristbands. There's also the Village, i.e. the Village of Claremont that has bars and restaurants. As you surmise, there is a ton of cross-socializing between colleges and, as you get older, you start going to dorm parties on all 5 campuses (which are all adjacent). From a parental perspective, I would think it's one of the safest college set-ups you can have. Kids still get wasted, but camp sec is always around and there is very little drunk driving because there's no reason not to drink the free beer at the campus parties. I realize that sounds lame, but we really did have a fabulous time (Scrippsie here).

[Anonymous]

yes- the campus's are extremely wet.
There tends to be a big 5C party every weekend. There's plenty of other stuff going on too. I didn't have a car- and didn't miss it. It seemed to me that very few freshman had cars- but somewhere around 1/2 the class probably had cars by senior year. Especially freshman/sophomore year I rarely left campus.
The school is small enough that I think the dorms sort of sub for a greek life- without the pledging/ exclusivity thing.
The warm weather makes a difference- there are a lot of outside parties/ activities.

Virtually all students live on campus, socialization tends to revolve to some extent around dorms.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is enough going on with the five schools that I don't think students go elsewhere. The Claremont colleges are about 45 minutes from LA, so not particularly close to other schools.

Middle of nowhere campus. Which could be good to be away from the LA nightlife and stick around and really live and get to know fellow students.

[Anonymous]

A good friend really loved it (in the mid 80s). It's very small, everyone knows everyone, everyone pretty much keeps their interactions on-campus. Everyone's very smart and pretty open-minded. Lots of free thinkers. (At least then.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not direct experience but DC has been out there looking. All of the Claremont Colleges are excellent and each has its own focus and personality. CM tends to be the more conservative (thats relative, in context) of the five because the policy and economics focus attracts a lot of students who are business oriented and preprofessional. The consortium really functions as a larger university so there's something for everyone.

Pitzer definitely not even in the same realm as Pomona or Claremont-McKenna. Also, with due deference to the "Scrippsie" on board, I wouldn't put that school on the same level as Claremont-McKenna. My sister went to Scripps and was not happy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not direct experience but DC has been out there looking. All of the Claremont Colleges are excellent and each has its own focus and personality. CM tends to be the more conservative (thats relative, in context) of the five because the policy and economics focus attracts a lot of students who are business oriented and preprofessional. The consortium really functions as a larger university so there's something for everyone.

Pitzer definitely not even in the same realm as Pomona or Claremont-McKenna. Also, with due deference to the "Scrippsie" on board, I wouldn't put that school on the same level as Claremont-McKenna. My sister went to Scripps and was not happy.

It seems that each of the schools allow students to take up to 50% of their course load from other "Claremont Colleges," so wouldn't that even out differences among the colleges?

[Anonymous]

I just checked this out.
It has a 14.1% acceptance rate, so if you can qualify for that, give it a try.
The tuition and fees is $44,000. ouch

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

It seems that each of the schools allow students to take up to 50% of their course load from other "Claremont Colleges," so wouldn't that even out differences among the colleges?

not really. The quality of students admitted varies between the colleges. The rigor of the courses at each college similarly varies. I went to CMC, I took virtually all of my classes at CMC. I took a couple at Pomona. It was very unusual to have a Pitzer student enrolled in a CMC class. Similarly- I would have failed a math course at Harvey Mudd. It appeared to me that the Scripps students were the ones the most likely to take advantage of the ability to enroll in classes at another college. But Scripps students who took a lot of classes at CMC also sometimes transferred to CMC.

[Anonymous]

I think the reps of Pitzer (a relatively new school) and Scripps have risen in recent years. Pomona is your basic liberal arts school, which my DC found too generic. The others may or may not be a good fit for a particular student. Harvey Mudd is a fabulous STEM school, Pitzer is seriously funky/alternative -- vying to be the greenest campus in the US, Scripps is kind of a holdover form the old days of women's colleges but with access to the others. Its also one of the most beautiful campuses in the US. And CMC is more conservative and preprofessional.

I think they have something special going by having these five different schools together.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

It seems that each of the schools allow students to take up to 50% of their course load from other "Claremont Colleges," so wouldn't that even out differences among the colleges?

not really. The quality of students admitted varies between the colleges. The rigor of the courses at each college similarly varies. I went to CMC, I took virtually all of my classes at CMC. I took a couple at Pomona. It was very unusual to have a Pitzer student enrolled in a CMC class. Similarly- I would have failed a math course at Harvey Mudd. It appeared to me that the Scripps students were the ones the most likely to take advantage of the ability to enroll in classes at another college. But Scripps students who took a lot of classes at CMC also sometimes transferred to CMC.

I think this is correct. I got in to both Pomona, Scripps and Pitzer - I thought about enrolling through Scripps beause of the beauty of the dorms - and taking classes everywhere else but it really doesn't work out that way in the end. The colleges each have their own flavor. The "Scrippses" are looked down upon. Pitzer was no grades at the time I applied which would have spelled doom for anyone doing grad work (no record). A relative went to Scripps and hated it because of the full out lesbian activity in the dorms - she felt in the minority and unwanted being hetero. If you are looking at the Claremont colleges, you should attend the one with the best ranking that suits your interests. Here's the rankings:

Rankings[edit]

According to the American Liberal Arts College rankings released by U.S. News & World Report in fall 2012, the "5Cs" were ranked among the top 50 colleges in the United States: Pomona College (#4), Claremont McKenna College (#10), Harvey Mudd College (#12), Scripps College (#24), and Pitzer College (#43).[5] U.S. News & World Report also releases individual graduate program rankings for the Claremont Graduate University, with several of its programs ranking in the top tier of graduate programs nationwide.[6]