Oxy vs Claremont

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hi everyone, I’m helping DD choose between applying early to Occidental College (Oxy) and the McKenna Schools, and I’d love some guidance from anyone familiar with either school. We’re trying to understand the real differences in terms of academic focus, campus culture, and long-term opportunities. From what I gather, Claremont leans more toward government, economics, and leadership, while Oxy seems to have a strong liberal arts foundation with an emphasis on social justice and community engagement—but I’m not entirely sure how that plays out day to day. My child is interested in policy, environmental science, and maybe integrated sciences, so I want to make sure we're thinking about the right environment and support systems. Any insights on the vibe, student support, internships, or how competitive the atmospheres are would be really appreciated.

There is far more money to be made by choosing a major focused on social justice.

[Anonymous]

There is a non-stop from BWI to Ontario now.

The Southwest nonstop either has been or is about to be cancelled. Which is unfortunate and the ridership had been increasing.

[Anonymous]

DD is a Diplomacy/World Affairs major at Oxy and having a great experience!

Caring teachers, small classes and she did the UN Kahane internship that Oxy runs where you live in NYC for a semester and get an internship at the UN. Great experience, and she has also been taking advantage of being in LA to do interviews and attend events. 10/10 recommend.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Eh, I preferred Oxy. I thought the kids seemed warm, kind and down to earth! But if your DD is not into social justice and leans more conservative, cmc is definitely the better place. Just be careful with the wider 5Cs as pomona-pitzer are as left wing as Oxy!

You can be very liberal and not into social justice. They’re not really related.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just realized this thread is 3-ish months old.

OP - did you apply ED to either Oxy or any of the Claremont consortium schools yet? Or are you still considering for ED2?

Fwiw, I liked Oxy. I slightly preferred the 5C consortium because you can access 5C's 6-8K students rather than Oxy's 2K students, but both had gorgeous campuses.

Oxy is more central to DTLA. Claremont is in between LA and IE. But the campus is vibrant.

I do hope OP looked at Pitzer as well as Oxy and CMC.

ended up applying ED to CMC and getting accepted! Our tour to oxy really showed that the school was cliquish, struggling a bit, and had way less resources. The area was okay, but DC much preferred mount baldy and the Claremont village. There was a much bigger emphasis on social justice at oxy that DC couldn’t relate to.

congrats and very smart play to apply as an integrated sciences major, cmc needs that desperately! too many athlete/econ majors so integrated sciences would make her stand out. pls report back on how that major worked out for her, since it's still new/experimental phase although the building itself is lovely.

Our kid is working with an amazing biophysicist in the department and is using the supercomputer to do impactful research. Already presented at 4 conferences and has 2 papers as a junior. The school throws a ton of money at research, it just doesn’t tell all its students that the only thing in the world to do is a PhD like other liberal arts colleges (looking at you Pomona).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DD is a Diplomacy/World Affairs major at Oxy and having a great experience!

Caring teachers, small classes and she did the UN Kahane internship that Oxy runs where you live in NYC for a semester and get an internship at the UN. Great experience, and she has also been taking advantage of being in LA to do interviews and attend events. 10/10 recommend.

this is the major my DS is interested in at oxy!!

[Anonymous]

Is there overlap between Claremont and oxy? I can see maybe pitzer and oxy, but student quality is night and day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is there overlap between Claremont and oxy? I can see maybe pitzer and oxy, but student quality is night and day.

None

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi everyone, I’m helping DD choose between applying early to Occidental College (Oxy) and the McKenna Schools, and I’d love some guidance from anyone familiar with either school. We’re trying to understand the real differences in terms of academic focus, campus culture, and long-term opportunities. From what I gather, Claremont leans more toward government, economics, and leadership, while Oxy seems to have a strong liberal arts foundation with an emphasis on social justice and community engagement—but I’m not entirely sure how that plays out day to day. My child is interested in policy, environmental science, and maybe integrated sciences, so I want to make sure we're thinking about the right environment and support systems. Any insights on the vibe, student support, internships, or how competitive the atmospheres are would be really appreciated.

There is far more money to be made by choosing a major focused on social justice.

No. Those jobs tend to be at the lower end of the pay scale. AVERAGE $57,000 - $110,000. Prison guards and social workers make very little.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD is a Diplomacy/World Affairs major at Oxy and having a great experience!

Caring teachers, small classes and she did the UN Kahane internship that Oxy runs where you live in NYC for a semester and get an internship at the UN. Great experience, and she has also been taking advantage of being in LA to do interviews and attend events. 10/10 recommend.

this is the major my DS is interested in at oxy!!

It’s a cute niche major Oxy came up with in 1955 and is generally recognized as a strong major (often grouped under politics/international relations), but it is not specifically ranked in top-tier national "international relations" lists. My friends who majored in political science did better finding related jobs than did my Oxy DWA friends. The major was viewed as more of a gut. If you really want a career in international relations you would be better off in a USNWR-ranked International Relations major top school, like Stanford. Oxy isn’t on that list.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is there overlap between Claremont and oxy? I can see maybe pitzer and oxy, but student quality is night and day.

Which Claremont? There are 5Cs. Or do you mean just Claremont Mckenna College? That is smaller group of 1200 in 5Cs. Claremont McKenna is more risk adverse, pre-professional, student council leader-types who want to go into consulting and are smart/extroverted. Oxy is more like Pitzer for sure or Scripps. Less focused on stats and status/prestige, took lots of rigor but didn't sweat if they got an A- or occasional B+. Both groups do a lot of sports at D3 level. I would guess Claremont McKenna is pre-law, pre-consulting whereas Oxy is a broader mix with lots of people interested in working in the entertainment/music industries and public policy/diplomacy/internatonal/civic stuff. Oxy has a very strong UN internship but it's competitive to get into.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just realized this thread is 3-ish months old.

OP - did you apply ED to either Oxy or any of the Claremont consortium schools yet? Or are you still considering for ED2?

Fwiw, I liked Oxy. I slightly preferred the 5C consortium because you can access 5C's 6-8K students rather than Oxy's 2K students, but both had gorgeous campuses.

Oxy is more central to DTLA. Claremont is in between LA and IE. But the campus is vibrant.

I do hope OP looked at Pitzer as well as Oxy and CMC.

ended up applying ED to CMC and getting accepted! Our tour to oxy really showed that the school was cliquish, struggling a bit, and had way less resources. The area was okay, but DC much preferred mount baldy and the Claremont village. There was a much bigger emphasis on social justice at oxy that DC couldn’t relate to.

Congrats!! I have a DC at CMC and is very happy there

[Anonymous]

I would be most concerned with why 15% of last fall's entering class at Oxy didn't show and why Oxy couldn't fill its class with waitlist. https://theoccidentalnews.com/news/2025/11/05/college-adjusts-spending-and-admissions-tactics-in-the-wake-of-enrollment-decline/2916071

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would be most concerned with why 15% of last fall's entering class at Oxy didn't show and why Oxy couldn't fill its class with waitlist. https://theoccidentalnews.com/news/2025/11/05/college-adjusts-spending-and-admissions-tactics-in-the-wake-of-enrollment-decline/2916071

Interesting article that says Oxy is now giving a guaranteed $15,000 scholarship to students accepted ED

[Anonymous]

Our tours at the 5Cs were much more impressive than at Oxy. Tour guides were friendlier, more talk about social life, more excitement about the school and majors, more enthusiasm in general. Occidental is beautiful but the tour focused on their location in LA and nothing about the school itself. The 5Cs are farther away from LA but the town of Claremont feels more integrated with those schools than the neighborhoods around Oxy do.