<p>My daughter is a feminist and free spirit. She is a talented performer and loves learning but doesn't see herself as a "scholar." She got into most of her schools, but was wait listed at Pitzer, her first choice. She was accepted to Scripps, but we don't know if that will feel like the best fit for her. I don't know if being close to Pitzer will make it harder for her to find herself at Scripps, or if being part of the CMC - which is one of the things she liked about Pitzer - will be satisfying even though she isn't at the school of her choice. Thoughts? </p>
<p>My D1 graduated from CMC last year. Her most important “club” activity was a feminist group and her co-head was a Scrippsy. The club was feminist oriented. I would think a feminist free spirit would fit in perfectly with Scripps. The campuses are all adjacent and share facilities (libraries, dining halls, gymnasiums) so there is ample opportunity to meet friends from all schools. My D’s friends were mainly from CMC but also from Scripps and Pomona. Have you visited? Maybe your daughter can ask for a referral to speak with a current Scripps student to get an insider view. Good luck deciding. My D applied to 3 of the consortium colleges - she really wanted to be on that campus :)</p>
<p>Sounds like she’ll be a good fit at Scripps. Bluntly put, most of Scripps’s RD admits were aiming for another Claremont. There will be plenty of Pitzer types there. Your home campus is just your base of operations there, anyway. She’ll have many of the same opportunities at any campus.</p>
<p>My S2 is graduating CMC this year. One thing that struck me about the CMC schools is the high degree of mixing that occurs, both socially and especially academically. The schools have both remarkably distinctive identities, as your post notes, but also mix a lot. He took his language course at Scripps and he wound up taking so much computer science at Mudd that he switched his major. My point is that ultimately I think she will be so close to Pitzer types, and the borders between them so low, that I don’t think it ultimately will matter. Also, for the little it is worth from parent visit perspectives, I thought the Scripps students I met were uniformly decent, smart people.</p>
<p>If it’s any consolation, the dorms at Scripps beat those at Pitzer by a mile…</p>
<p>Scripps is definitely a good place for a free spirit feminist! There is a pretty strong vibe along those lines there. I think by “being part of the CMC” you mean part of the Claremont Consortium (not CMC – which is generally considered the most conservative of the five colleges in the consortium). Have your D go to accepted student days at Scripps to see what she thinks – she should know after 24 hours on campus whether she is happy with the vibe or not. I am going to guess she will be, though, if she liked Pitzer.</p>
<p>Thank you for the helpful replies. We are visiting Scripps for admitted student day. I don’t know if there will be much of an opportunity for her to spend time on the other campuses to get a sense of the interaction. We have the name of a Pitzer student - maybe it’s worth having her meeting up with him and hearing what he says about connecting with kids from the other schools. We are excited for the trip! It will be between Scripps and Brandeis. Does anyone know about the theater opportunities at the CC (thanks for correction)?</p>
<p>I knew a CMC grad who told me she hung out and took many (she actually said most but I don’t know if that was meant literally) of her classes at Pitzer.</p>
<p>I think Scripps is a great school–would prefer it to Pitzer, though not an option for my guys. </p>
<p>There is one theater program for all of the consortium, which is one more opportunity for your daughter to meet and mingle with students from the other four schools. These integrated programs, like theater, art and science, really put schools in the Claremont consortium ahead of a school like Brandies, imo. It brings a wonderful kind of diversity to the bigger campus, making it seem like a medium-sized university in many ways.</p>
<p>My D2 is a freshman Mudder who spends a lot of time at the Scripps coffee shop, and has a couple of friends at Scripps. She says there are quite a few students from Pitzer and Scripps in her computer science classes, and I know one of her extracurricular activities has students from all 5Cs. And she can eat in any of their cafeterias whenever she wants to, and she and her friends often head off to a different cafeteria for dinner a couple of times a week. Also, the two girls I know who go to Scripps are really down to earth and easy to like. It doesn’t have the same vibe as some other women’s colleges we have visited (and I am not knocking other women’s colleges, both of my daughters were admitted to and gave Mount Holyoke very serious consideration). But Scripps strikes me as more relaxed – maybe it is just that California vibe. 
I hope your daughter can visit with an open mind and try to enjoy Scripps and the whole 5C consortium for what it is, and not just pine for Pitzer.</p>
<p>My daughter is a junior at Scripps and attends most of her classes now at Pitzer or Pomona, due to her major. She is on an athletic team for CMS (Claremont, Harvey Mudd and Scripps) and they compete with Pomona and Pitzer, which combine for a separate athletic team. Her two best friends attend Claremont. She lived at Pitzer over the summer. Other than the 3 Scripps core classes, every class she’s taken had students from multiple of the CC and all students are graded the same. The science program (Keck) is a joint program between Scripps, Claremont and Pitzer. My point is that the students of all five schools at the 5Cs have similar opportunities. The atmosphere is different though, as each school has its own strengths. Scripps is less of a party school (and quieter) than Pitzer, but the campus is in between Pitzer, HM and CMC, and all 5C students are invited to the parties. The campus has a more traditional feel, but the educational experience at Scripps has been very liberal. I’m a kid of the 70’s and have loved watching my daughter’s feminism flourish in an all woman school; it’s exceeded my expectations in many ways.</p>
<p>I attended CMC in the mid 90’s and I took classes at 4 of the 5 colleges (for some reason I never ended up at Scripps, but I was a Biology-Math major so many of my close friends at Jt Science were Scripps students). I know Pitzer has gotten much more selective in the past few years, but when I was there it was by far the lowest ranked and least rigorous of the five colleges. I enjoyed the one class I took there (a science, technology and society course), but it was definitely not a challenging course. I had several friends at Pitzer, but they tended to be less academic than the Scripps students I knew. I’m not as familiar with the rankings these days (I get on CC every once in a while because I helped a friend’s daughter apply last year), but I would guess Scripps is still higher ranked than Pitzer. The dorms are great at Scripps, campus is beautiful and I remember the food being particularly good (we often ate up there). My husband graduated from Harvey Mudd (we ran XC/Track together for CMS) and Scripps and Mudd students spent a lot of time together.</p>
<p>My daughter’s first choice ED was Pomona, she was not accepted. We encouraged her to apply to Scripps where she was accepted with nice merit aid. She unfortunately has preconceived ideas about the girls at Scripps, she thinks they will be cliques, gossip and too much fashion. She is a very earthy type and is worried she won’t fit at Scripps. She will be an Environmental Studies/Bio major. We are going for admitted students weekend. But are there stereotypes for the Scripps girls? Will she fit?</p>
<p>My daughter attends Pomona and I have two nieces who graduated from Scripps. It is a great school and my nieces are very down to earth, just really nice people. I don’t think your daughter should worry, she will find a group of friends who will be close knit and she will feel at home.</p>
<p>Isweng, your daughter and my daughter sound similar, and we will be at admitted students day too. Maybe it’s from all these posts, but I’m feeling pretty hopeful that my daughter will have positive experience. Let’s hope they both do!</p>