An Insider's Guide to the Claremont Colleges

Nestled in a small college town 35 miles east of downtown Los Angeles, the five undergraduate Claremont Colleges (“the 5Cs”) and two graduate universities make up the Claremont Consortium. Unique among college consortia, the campuses of Pomona, Scripps, Claremont McKenna, Harvey Mudd, and Pitzer Colleges are adjacent to each other, located within one easily walkable square mile.

While Pomona was originally a stand-alone college, Southern California’s growing population in the early 20^th century forced Pomona’s founders to try a bold experiment, based on the Oxford/Cambridge models: create a collection of distinctive colleges that could accommodate more students and share important resources (like a central library and health services). For students, the Claremont Colleges offer the best of both a small-college environment (small classes taught by faculty, vibrant residential life, and easily accessible resources like career services and study abroad) and a mid-sized university (with 2,700 classes available for cross-registration across the consortium, dining hall privileges at any campus, and abundant 5C clubs and social life). And not to be underestimated: the Southern California location provides a cultural and natural environment that stands out among selective colleges.

Having worked in admissions at both Pomona and Scripps Colleges, I offer snapshots of each Claremont college, with informational nuggets that help situate the 5Cs in the broader college landscape. While each college is distinct, many students fall in love with the consortium itself and apply to more than one school. If you plan a visit to Claremont, you can attend official tours and/or information sessions and walk around all of the campuses to pick up the vibes. These private colleges range in acceptance rates (2022) from 29.54% (Scripps) to 6.64% (Pomona) (Harvey Mudd is 9.99%, Claremont McKenna is 11.24%, and Pitzer is 18.31%). The majority of students on each campus come from outside of California (between 73% at Pomona and 57% at Scripps).

Fun Fact: Claremont has two, Division III varsity teams: the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CMS) Stags (men’s) and Athenas (women’s) and the Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens. Club teams like rugby (men’s and women’s), ultimate, basketball and tennis are 5-college, as are intramurals like inner-tube water polo and bowling.

Pomona College

Pomona typically ranks as one of the top liberal arts colleges in the country, known for its high level of diversity (over half the student body is comprised of domestic students of color), commitment to need-blind admissions, and enviable proximity to Los Angeles. Students love the collaborative culture, which kicks off with the sponsor program, which “pods” small groups of students together as first-years, with mentors who live with them in “big brother/big sister” roles. Ninety-four percent of students live on campus all four years, a testament to Pomona’s strong sense of community. Founded as “a college of the New England type” in 1887, Pomona has a deep and well-rounded curriculum, producing both Nobel prize winners like Jennifer Doudna ’85 for Chemistry (2020) and Hollywood heavy hitters like Deadpool producer Aditya Sood ’97. While the other four colleges have more distinct niches, Pomona remains the most academically and socially comprehensive.

Student body: 1,700
Top Majors: computer science, economics, math, politics, media studies, neuroscience
Add Pomona if your list includes: Brown, Stanford, Swarthmore, UCLA, Yale
Only at Pomona: Ski-Beach Day in March, when students ski in the local San Gabriel Mountains in the morning, then hop on a bus to hit the beach and catch the sun setting over the Pacific Ocean.

Scripps College

As a women’s college, Scripps focuses on women’s leadership and empowerment but also offers students opportunities for co-ed academic and social life through its membership in the Claremont Consortium—some might say this is the best of both worlds for women-identified students. Scripps confers a higher percentage of STEM degrees than any other women’s college in the country, and its campus is recognized as one of the most beautiful. The signature Core Curriculum provides a common academic experience through three consecutive, interdisciplinary courses; uniquely, these courses are open only to Scripps students. The second of Claremont’s undergraduate colleges was founded in 1926 by Ellen Browning Scripps, a newspaper publisher and suffragist. Its mission, inscribed on the college gates, has not changed: “to develop in its students the ability to think clearly and independently, and the ability to live confidently, courageously, and hopefully.”

Student body: 1,082
Top Majors: politics, psychology, biology, environmental analysis, English, media studies
Add Scripps if your list includes: Barnard, NYU, Occidental, Skidmore, UCLA
Only at Scripps: Afternoon tea is served in Seal Court every week, a chance to enjoy community, learn about a campus resource or program, and, of course, enjoy some treats.

Claremont McKenna College

Known as a great place to study economics and government, CMC’s motto is “Civilization prospers with commerce.” Its practical and leadership-focused mission makes it the most pre-professional of the 5Cs as well as the one with the most robust athletic culture. With 11 research institutes on campus (from the Gould Center for Humanistic Studies to the Lowe Institute of Political Economy), 75% of students conduct undergraduate research with faculty. Semester-long programs in Silicon Valley and Washington, D.C. offer immersive experiential learning (internships included) and professional development. Originally Claremont Men’s College, at its inception in 1946 CMC’s student population was largely soldiers returning from WWII battlefields. Aiming to prepare future leaders for both the private and public sectors through its liberal arts curriculum, the College began admitting women in 1976, adopting the name Claremont McKenna College in recognition of founding benefactor and trustee Donald McKenna.

Student body: 1,383
Top Majors: economics; government; international relations; psychology; philosophy, politics & economics (PPE); math
Add Claremont McKenna if your list includes: Dartmouth, Duke, Georgetown, Northwestern, USC
Only at Claremont McKenna: The Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum (“the Ath”) offers students and faculty dinner and a distinguished speaker (think Billie Jean King, Jared Diamond, Nate Silver, Cornel West) four nights of the week, with student questions prioritized during Q & A, and students seated at the head table with the speaker.

Harvey Mudd College

Often high on the list of colleges with the highest ROI (return on investment) for its graduates, Harvey Mudd is a small but mighty STEM-focused liberal arts college. (The median starting salary for the Class of 2022: $117,500.) Its Common Core curriculum, taken in the first three semesters, is notoriously challenging, and students have the option to pursue just six STEM majors (plus four joint major options). With nearly a third of course requirements in non-STEM areas, though, Mudd has legit liberal arts credentials. Given the math, science, and engineering focus, it is no surprise that Mudders have a vibrant Makerspace and are known for elaborate pranks and moonshots (like winning an online voting competition for a free, on-campus Taylor Swift concert). Opened in 1957 in the midst of the Space Age, Mudd seeks to educate engineers, scientists, and mathematicians who have a clear understanding of the impact of their work on society.

Student body: 906
Top Majors: chemistry, mathematics, physics, computer science, biology, engineering
Add Harvey Mudd if your list includes: Caltech, MIT, Olin College of Engineering, Purdue, Stanford
Only at Harvey Mudd: Students buff their résumés by completing Clinic, a yearlong investigation of a research problem conducted on behalf of a real-world client, with past Clinic sponsors like Los Alamos National Laboratory, Warner Bros, and Microsoft Corporation.

Pitzer College

Pitzer applicants are asked to connect with the College’s five core values—Social Responsibility, Intercultural Understanding, Interdisciplinary Learning, Student Engagement and Environmental Sustainability— through a supplemental essay and Pitzer proudly flies its progressive flag. Students chart their own academic course (including the option of self-designed majors) and are encouraged to work on community projects or engage in academic fieldwork/experiential learning in areas such as immigration, homelessness, or sustainability. Through the Institute for Global/Local Action & Study (IGLAS), Pitzer offers multiple “Inside Out” classes for students to study with incarcerated individuals. Students also have a voice in decisions affecting the College since every committee (from faculty hiring to building design) must have at least one Pitzer student as a full voting member. Although Pitzer began as a women’s college in 1964, by 1970 it was a coed institution focused on behavioral, environmental, and social sciences.

Student body: 1,168
Top Majors: psychology, sociology, political studies, media studies, environmental analysis, art
Add Pitzer if your list includes: Reed College, Sarah Lawrence, UC Santa Cruz, University of Vermont, Wesleyan
Only at Pitzer: Opened in 2012 and equipped with outdoor classrooms, meeting spaces, and an art studio, Pitzer’s Robert Redford Conservancy for Southern California Sustainability is a 12-acre natural space near campus that aims to increase socio-ecological justice and sustainability in the surrounding communities and beyond.

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Dr. Tina Brooks

Senior Private Counselor at Top Tier Admissions

Tina joins Top Tier Admissions after five years serving as Associate Dean of Admissions at Pomona College. Her career in higher education has included extensive experience as both a faculty member and admissions professional. Tina worked as Assistant Director of Admission and Transfer Coordinator at Scripps College before joining Pomona College, where she oversaw all communications and directed transfer admissions, in addition to her role evaluating first-year applicants in the admissions office. As a professional writer and editor, she has published in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Fodor’s guide to Los Angeles, and many college alumni magazines. Having served as a mentor for Scholar Match, a scholarship evaluator for the Davidson Institute for Talent Development, and an interviewer for the Gates Scholarship and the Posse Foundation, Tina loves working directly with students on their writing, academic and outcomes goals. She holds a B.A. in English with Honors from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Ph.D. in English from the University of California, Berkeley.

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