Claremont McKenna College (September 25, 2024)

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Claremont McKenna College

9.25.24 Campus Visit Report

Spencer Barr - Santa Barbara High



ADMISSIONS

  • https://www.cmc.edu/admission

  • +/- 10% acceptance rate

  • What makes a strong CMC applicant:

    • Learning for the sake of doing

    • Problem solvers. See challenges and want to try and solve them

    • Want strong diversity in a college

    • Lead through the system

  • Test Optional, but no permanent decision has been made for future


ACADEMIC

  • Strong research school

    • Not competing with grad students for research

    • 80% of students do research

  • Academics divided into 3rds

    • General Ed, Major, and then extra

  • 40 areas of academic interest

    • Can major off-campus

  • Most students take 50% or more at CMC

  • emphasis on critical thinking

  • Taking GE’s help students expand on their interests

  • Biggest class around 50 people

  • Most people are doing multiple majors or at least multiple minors


SOCIAL

  • Politically active campus, but not quite as much as Pitzer

  • CMC tends to be the most social student body

  • No Greek life 

  • Student government runs almost all things social on campus

  • Lots of intramural and club sports



CAMPUS

  • Career services very strong

    • Support students with internships, off site experiences

    • Networking trips

    • career coaches

    • Help with resumes and interviews, cover letters

    • Strong connection with alumni

  • Athenaeum

    • Speakers brought in weekly, only for CMC students.

  • Writing Lab

  • Quantum computing lab

  • Collins Dining Hall

    • Students can eat at any dining hall

    • 10pm at Collins transitions to midnight pick me up snacks like cereal, mozzarella sticks, etc.

  • variety of housing options

    • Random assignment of roommates, but complete roommate dating profile

    • Substance free dorms as optional

    • North quad dorm, suite style and no AC

    • no AC in some of the dorms

  • Wet campus in general

  • Keck Science Center, used by multiple schools

INFO ABOUT ALL CLAREMONT SCHOOLS

  • Based loosely on Oxford/Cambridge system

  • About 6 thousand total student population between 5 schools

  • Heavily academic institutions

  • Cross registration is the norm

  • 2,700 classes available to take in the consortium

  • Academic deans work together

  • Same academic calendar

  • Strong benefit of being with students who would not normally have selected a certain college

  • Core requirements for all colleges, but will be different across the campuses 

  • Lived and social interactions

  • Share about 300 clubs and orgs

  • Share musics, dance, and speaker series. 

  • Shared health services and athletics

  • Division 3 athletics

    • 6th street rivalry

    • Pomona/Pitzer vs CMC/Harvey Mudd/Scripps

  • Access to alumni resources across all 5 schools

  • All offer ED options

  • Use CSS profile

  • All consortium schools within 1 square mile

  • Scooby doo analogy: 

    • Pomona is Scooby, 

    • Harvey Mudd is Velma, 

    • CMC is Fred, 

    • Scripps is Daphne, 

    • Pitzer is Shaggy

  • Strong relationship with City of Claremont (known as the city of trees and degrees)

  • Library shared amongst all schools

  • Career services, same as other schools


 

 



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