@circuitrider what you call a “mall approach”, the 5C’s call a system “reminiscent of the Oxford-Cambridge model.” http://www.claremont.edu/. Note that it says “reminiscent of”! No need to go catalog the ways it’s not actually the same as Oxford-Cambridge! It’s part of the history of Pomona that in the 1920’s Pomona decided not to pursue a path to expansion into a university, but rather to found a consortium. https://www.pomona.edu/about/brief-history-pomona-college. (It’s interesting to imagine how things might have been different if the choice had been instead to become a university.)
@Sue22 regarding mixed reports on cross-registration, I have read 1 or 2 reports on CC asome years ago about difficulty getting into Econ classes at CMC. My Pomona D is a junior economics major. The issue for her with CMC Econ classes is not that she couldn’t register for them, but that Pomona requires her to take her core 6 classes for the major at Pomona. The CMC econ sequence is structured differently so the core courses are not interchangeable. Pomona is also the one school that won’t let you do an off campus major. But for electives the system really has been seamless and cross-registration has worked fine for her.