I’m applying to major in psychology and going on a pre-veterinary track. I don’t know too much about the Claremont schools, but which school is strong in biological science and psychology?
What are students like at each school? Thanks!
Pomona College is worth investigating.
Harvey Mudd is an engineering school.
Claremont McKenna College focuses on government & economics.
Scripps is all female.
Pitzer is less selective than Pomona so it should be researched for course offerings & majors.
A student at one Claremont school is free to take classes at another Claremont school.
CMC, Pitzer and Scripps share a science department – Keck Science.
Pomona and HM each have their own science departments but students in any 5C college can still access those courses as well.
Each of the 5Cs ‘hold’ some seats/courses for their own students, but we asked about this a lot when visiting and all students said usually you can get what you want at another college. Exceptions I’ve heard about are economics at CMC can be hard for non-CMC students and CS at HM can be hard for non HM students.
My D was very interested in Scripps, and we heard, for example, they tend to take about a third of their classes outside of Scripps, or maybe more depending on their interests.
You should poke around the websites for the colleges to get a feel for what the courses they offer.
Pitzer’s standout programs are in social and behavioral sciences, so that’s the college for a prospective psychology major. Of course, the benefit of the Claremont schools is that you have the ability to enroll in classes at any of them.
All of the Claremont schools are very tough admits. Pitzer’s acceptance rate is 14%.
From my experience, the students at the Claremont schools are smart, academically oriented and accomplished.
Harvey Mudd is not just, or even majority, an “engineering school”. (My physics major D and her close friends, who are math and CS majors, really find that description annoying). It IS a STEM focused school, and it could be hard to pull the grades you need for pre-vet there.
Vet school is expensive, and it can be hard for vets to earn enough to pay offbig loans. Are the Claremont colleges affordable for you, Run the net price calculators on each college website to see.
My Boston D will be attending Scripps in the fall. This is an incredible consortium. While the 5 schools have different focus, you can cross register at any and even major at one school but graduate from your own school. If you can afford it, it is worth a visit We visited many schools and D (and I!) loved this consortium. Definitely a different vibe at each school, even though you will most probably end up taking classes at many of them. Pretty easy to figure it out with a visit or going on line.
Harvey Mudd’s engineering program is ranked #1 by US News for school’s whose highest degree is a bachelor’s or master’s. 30% are engineering majors; 22% Computer & Information Sciences & Services; 10% Math & statistics majors; 16% Physical Sciences & 12% Multidisciplinary studies.
In short, Harvey Mudd is not a target school for psychology majors.
Right. But that 70% not majoring in engineering aren’t engineers. To call it an engineering school is incomplete. Call it a STEM school, that is more accurate.
Visiting the Claremont Colleges I learned that Claremont McKenna (CMC) has a very strong Psychology Department. CMC has several Psychology Labs and Research Institutes, including the Applied Mind and Health Laboratory and the Center for Applied Psychological Research.
I live like 2 minutes away from the colleges and also use the main library at the colleges very frequently due to its close proximity so I am around the students a lot. They all seem very intellectual, sophisticated, and academically oriented. Every one I have spoken to have been really personable and mature. It’s definitely a very intellectual crowd.
Harvey Mudd’s engineering program is ranked #1 by US News for school’s whose highest degree is a bachelor’s or master’s. 30% are engineering majors; 22% Computer & Information Sciences & Services; 10% Math & statistics majors; 16% Physical Sciences & 12% Multidisciplinary studies.
In short, Harvey Mudd is not a target school for psychology majors.
@Publisher …an old high school buddy of mine was a Math major at Harvey Mudd…very STEM oriented of course. He actually went to graduate school (not at Mudd) in Cognitive Psychology as well.
A girl I know majored in bio at Scripps and went on to Vet school from there, so its possible. Don’t know how strong their psych dept is.
If you search around CC, you will find some discussions of each school’s personality or stereotype.
@Fisherman99: Interesting, but he was one out of thousands of Harvey Mudd grads. No one is suggesting that Harvey Mudd graduates are limited to certain fields, just that there are not many, or any, undergraduate psychology majors at Harvey Mudd. Career goals change.
“just that there are not many, or any, undergraduate psychology majors at Harvey Mudd. Career goals change.”
@Publisher …agreed. Known as a STEM school most definitely.
According to IPEDS, Mudd graduated exactly one non-STEM major and that was in economics.
https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/?q=mudd&s=all&id=115409#programs
Pomona is a liberal arts college and strong all around, pysch and bio are both popular majors.