Reply to Surprised at Claremont Mckenna

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]DC has shown interest in Claremont Mckenna, which I 100% wrote off as a mediocre LAC. Then reading through their Roberts Campus and massive alum donation campaign, I am shocked this tiny place hasn't shot to the top of students' lists. They're doubling campus footprint, investing hundreds of thousands to improve research opportunities and internship opportunities, and building a fancy new science department. What is the catch?[/quote]

Claremont McKenna has always been regarded as one of the top SLACs. It's just in California and the DCUM (emphasis on "DC" area) don't discuss such schools much. [/quote]
Is it? I feel like the LAC quality drops fast after Bowdoin and Middlebury. Would never send my kids to Hamilton or Colby or...Claremont Mckenna. Sure, they're ranked well, but there's no advantage to paying for it over UMD.[/quote]
Eh, you might consider consulting something more objective than your feelings on the matter. If your kid wants to go to law school or business school or get a high-paying job in finance, CMC is extremely strong:
#3 for MBA placement: https://www.collegetransitions.com/dataverse/top-feeders-business-school
#12 for Wall Street/IB placement: https://www.collegetransitions.com/dataverse/top-feeders-business-school 
#17 for law school placement: https://www.collegetransitions.com/dataverse/top-feeders-law-school
[/quote]
Okay, doesn't necessitate dropping $360k so that my daughter can go to the 17th best school at something. All of this is achievable easily with a state school.[/quote]

I don’t see any comparably ranked “cheap state schools” on any of those three lists. The state schools are, as you would expect, Berkeley Michigan UCLA etc which are not easy to get into and are not cheap OOS.[/quote]
UVA does just fine for me. Excellent quality in fact.[/quote]

Did for us as well. and Claremont McKenna is now $91,414 a year. No thank you!  Both of my kids went in-state Va and have done very well according to their respective gifts.[/quote]
DC chose it over Uchicago, so far serving him well, almost making as much as me (ahem $400k) 2 years out of college. Guess the "$360k" was worth it.[/quote]
Jumping in here to ask about CMC. Would it fit a kid who really wants California? UCLA is top choice at the moment. Liked USC as well. Price is not relevant. Undecided for major, somewhere between international things and poli sci on the one hand and engineering on the other. Aside from the obvious issue with engineering, I'm wondering if he should add a school like CMC to the list. Is the 5 college consortium enough to make it feel like a bigger school than it is? Is the area vibe similar to west LA or substantially different?[/quote]

It's not a perfect match. Does your kid want California or Westwood? Claremont is a nice bubble from California that allows a lot of opportunity to go to Baldy, Joshua Tree, Disneyland,and any hiking needs for your son. The surrounding area of the Inland Empire isn't amazing, but students tend to drive the opposite way. The colleges' have a great outing program, so you can spend a lot of the semester on the beach. But none of this is Westwood, which really isn't even LA-it's a very small uber wealthy part of LA that is very isolated, hilly and idyllic. Most of LA is trashy but great fun.

It will be a lot easier to test out what he wants at CMC than at UCLA, where he'll have to do a long school transfer process. You can take engineering at Harvey Mudd relatively easily in the fall of sophomore year as long as you take the intro physics classes as a freshman. Then, you qualify for most of the other engineering courses. The consortium is amazing and does feel like a bigger school, but it's not going to be 30,000 undergrads big. DC met a lot of people who wanted to go to massive state schools, and they all ended up loving their CMC experience. The government major is amazing, and he'll get way better career/academic opportunities at CMC for sure.[/quote]

Spend a lot of semester on the beach?  Only by spending a lot of hours on the highway.

A kiid looking at UCLA and USC likely would not like the 5C consortium — much smaller even combined, none of the benefits of having the city directly out your door and not very good d3 sports.  It’s for kids who want a slac.[/quote]
It is pretty easy to take the time off on fridays and just sleep in the car. No different than UCLA/USC kids who like the outdoors, they also drive a lot. Driving is a natural part of living in LA, and you either learn to get over it or hate California.[/quote]

That isn’t true.  There is plenty of outdoorsy stuff to do in hills and Malibu, maybe 15 minute drive for kids in LA. And about an hour closer to the beach, which makes every trip two hours shorter.  Claremont does have a monopoly in the strip malls of the Inland Empire.[/quote]

There is, but it's not gonna be 15 minutes. 15 minutes can't get you off the main street that cuts through UCLA. Traffic is unbearable in LA, who would've thought. Venice BLVD is a personal enemy, especially through Culver City. This gives the energy of someone who isn't from the area but has visited. I live in LA, and you just learn to live on. My UCLA friends never get 15 minute drives unless its to the in n out half a mile away at like 8 pm. Westwood is incredibly congested from Santa Monica traffic and, you know, millions of people moving around the city.

Anyway, none of this is that big of a problem. I have friends who spend weekends in Malibu, Santa Barbara, etc. It's normal to drive a lot in LA.[/quote]

Um, pp and I lived in Westwood Village for several years actually.  No real reason to go to Culver City or Venice Blvd to get to anywhere “outdoorsy” or the beach.  I stand by my original post.[/quote]
If you really lived there, you would've realized it takes almost an hour now to get to Venice. Venice is close, but it's nowhere as close as you are saying it is. And yes, college students go to Culver city and leave west LA lmao. [/quote]

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