<p>I'm applying to Claremont Mckenna, Pitzer and I'm thinking of applying to Pomona. All three schools being part of The Claremont Colleges cooperative, do you think applying to three schools in the same organization would hurt or help my chances at any of them?</p>
<p>The short answer is that it makes no difference. The three schools don't communicate applicant info to each other. The long answer is that Pitzer appears to be very sensitive to being a backup school for the other two. If you apply there, be sure to explain exactly why you are attracted to Pitzer.</p>
<p>Those 3 schools are all vey different from one another- Pomona is the classic LAC, Claremont specializes in government/ business and Pitzer is small and is for women only. Take a close look at the course offerings of each college before you apply to any of them.</p>
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Pitzer is small and is for women only.
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Actually, Scripps is the one that is for women only. Pitzer is co-educational.</p>
<p>It will neither hurt nor help you. It's very common for applicants to be looking at more than one Claremont school.</p>
<p>That said, menloparkmom raises a true point, which is that the three are <em>very</em> different schools (specifically, CMC/Pomona have some shared qualities but Pomona tends to participate less in the overall consortium, and Pitzer stands out as very different from the first two). Bear in mind that if you attend one Claremont school, you'll be constantly around the other two, so I would encourage you to make sure you like each school on its own merit and not just as a backdoor into the consortium.</p>
<p>Also, keep in mind that students at one Claremont consortium college can only take a classes at another consortium college if it is not offered at their "home" college.</p>
<p>menloparkmom -- Not totally true. You can take an off-campus course because it's not offered on your home college (that particular semester or in general), because of a schedule conflict, because of a teaching difference (i.e. psych at Pitzer and psych at Scripps are taught very differently, media studies at Pitzer and media studies at Pomona are taught very differently...you might want to go to a different campus for what you're looking for, even in the same class), or for a variety of other reasons. As long as you're not over the "limit" for off-campus classes, you can take one at another college just because you feel like it (provided you can get your advisor to okay your plan). Also, the colleges' departments are usually cooperative to SOME degree and so try not to offer too many repeated courses (except in intro levels) or, if they do, then to offer them at different times specifically so that people can choose which one works best for them. In my experience, the rules for cross-registration are nowhere near as stringent as they often come across on this board and elsewhere, but I'm speaking as someone who has used cross-registration to her FULL advantage without ever "abusing the privilege," so to speak.</p>
<p>That said, yes...it is important to remember that the majority of your classes (unless you pursue an off-campus degree) will <em>probably</em> (at least for all planning purposes) be taken on your home college. But that's not particularly relevant to this topic unless the OP is in fact planning to "backdoor" into another college, which isn't necessarily the case.</p>
<p>I too would reiterate Tarhunt's point, as well. So if you're interested in Pitzer, make sure you really sell them on it</p>