@amtc I was mainly focusing on the last part of your sentence where you say “there is such cross-programming that, other than your diploma and living arrangements, you’ll not even know which school you are attending.” I think each school prides itself on having its own focus and mission, and attracting a slightly different group of students. And while a lot of this is stereotyping, I think each student body has its own opinion about what they’re like and what the other students at the 5C’s are like. (This is part of the whole “CMC mold” discussion that was involved in the protests and resignation of Dean Spellman. The “CMC mold” was a reference to the stereotype of the typical CMC student.)
Also it sounds like your D could easily take Ceramics and Creative Writing at Scripps and Pomona because those classes weren’t offered at Pitzer. The ease of taking classes across the consortium does, I think, depend on many factors including what you want to take, where it’s offered, how popular it is, and what your registration priority is. For example, my Pomona freshman daughter wants to take a Spanish class in the Spring at CMC. She had to submit a “perm” request and is still waiting to hear back. She also wants to take a CMC Government class as her 5th class. But Pomona freshman aren’t allowed to register for 5 classes until Spring and then only after grades come out from the Fall (which just happened yesterday) and they can show they academically qualify. So now she’s waiting for the course portal to reopen to request the 5th class,and she’ll have to perm into it and hope there’s room and the prof says yes. (Both of the non-Pomona classes she’s requesting are at CMC which seems to require “perms” more often from non-CMC students than the other schools do.)
The consortium and cross-registration is definitely one of the great strengths of the 5 Claremont colleges, but each school also prides itself on its own character and mission. So Pitzer is looking for students who will appreciate what makes Pitzer unique, not students who really had their hearts set on going to one of the other schools. @amtc I think we are sort of splitting hairs here and agree that the OP should consider Pitzer. I wonder what he/she decided. @longerism give us an update! Where did you apply?