Beyond doing the official tours at Harvey Mudd, CMC, Scripps and Pomona, what should we do to get a real sense of student life at the 5C’s? Primary focus on Harvey Mudd but want to get a feel for the other schools too.
We’ll have the day this Sunday before tours on Monday. Spots to eat that are popular with students? Walk on campus? Campus events that are open to the public? Other gems that are key to the student experience at the Claremont Colleges?
I cannot say if this restaurant is popular with students, but great Spanish Tapas and very reasonable prices. Definitely worth trying while in town.
Viva Madrid https://www.vivamadrid.com/
As you drive into Claremont, you will see that it is part of the greater LA metro area. But, I would predict that on a Sunday, the area will be relatively quiet, both in Claremont Village, and on the campuses. You can easily walk through the campuses from the southern end closest to Claremont Village to the north where HMC is.
Try keep expectations at bay, because the architecture and dorms often give the worst first impressions to visitors of Harvey Mudd. The dorms that most visitors first see are the “inner dorms”. They have the same basic U-shape with the rooms opening up to the courtyard that reminded me a bit like a motel.
However, to get a sense of student life at Mudd, you will want to see the dorms. Student social life generally centers around the dorms, which are student-run, so each dorm has developed unique personalities, customs and activities. When a Mudd student meets another, even from a different era, one of the first questions will likely be “Which dorm did you live in?”. When you take the official tour, the guides will likely talk about the collaborative nature of the academic environment and that starts with friends and classmates in the dorm.
Does your student buy into the HMC mission statement about educating scientists and engineers broadly educated in all areas and including the humanities and arts?
Best wishes for a good visit, I would be curious to hear your reactions.
We visited Pomona and HMC when my kid was doing college tours (we also visited USC at the same time). My wife has friends in the HMC administration, so we got something of a private tour through their dorms and work spaces.
My kid loved them both, and, while the HMC dorms do look something like motels to me from the outside, my kid actually liked them. She really liked how they were set up, how they were run, and the general “vibe” that she got from the students there (we visited during their school year, so there were students living there). The housing did not have a “dorm” feeling, but feels a lot more like student rentals (for better or worse).
My general feeling of HMC was that it had all the benefits of a small LAC, but with the workspaces and opportunities of a well-equipped engineering school. It did not make my daughter’s list, because it is an engineering and physical sciences school, which is not her direction.
We did not visit the Pomona dorms much, but they seemed pretty decent, but more typical college dorms, and the rest of the campus is beautiful. The area is lush, green, and, at least climate-wise, the best of Southern California, minus the beach. There seem to be a lot of nice stores and coffee shops, though we didn’t get to or that as much as we would have liked.
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