<p>Hey guys! So I'm deciding which school I should do my Ed on. Currently I have NYU stern, Wellesley and Claremont McKenna in mind. I do pay attention to overall ranking of the school. I don't really have a preference among the three, but i really like cmc's four year BA/MA program in Economics or Finance. Has anyone done this program yet? Is it worth it? I heard Wellesley has a strong economics program as well... But's it's a women's college and I'm not sure if i will like it. New York is probably not an environment I would want to spend my 4 years in college in, so yeah. As I said, I do pay attention to rankings, and cmc has a slightly lower ranking than Wellesley...
Somebody please help? Thanks :)</p>
<p>Posting this on CMC’s page, you’re probably going to get a bit of a biased response, but I do believe CMC’s econ is the strongest program among liberal arts colleges.</p>
<p>I do NOT recommend the BA/MA program though. CGU does not have very good job placement and not nearly the same reputation CMC has for undergraduate econ- if you’re looking for going into graduate school, my recommendation would be to go undergraduate at CMC and graduate wherever else you please. CMC’s placement into graduate school is on its own level. Also, note that the program is five years- not four.</p>
<p>[Drucker</a> School Named Business School with Lowest Employment « Forum | The Official Student Publication of Claremont McKenna College](<a href=“http://cmcforum.com/news/04232013-drucker-school-named-business-school-with-lowest-employment]Drucker”>http://cmcforum.com/news/04232013-drucker-school-named-business-school-with-lowest-employment)</p>
<p>Also, its just known that having a BA without any job experience is relatively useless.</p>
<p>And as for rankings… I don’t necessarily pay attention to those because they’re well… eh thats an entirely different thread haha but once you get into top 10/15 schools they tend to be on the same tier. However, if USNEWS were to create a rankings list for an econ degree in the liberal arts setting CMC would be far superior whereas you’re probably simply looking at USNEWS’ overall liberal arts school ranking which has a far different criteria.</p>
<p>Other subjective questions you should consider is the social life- I know Wellesley and CMC are far FAR different. Also, location? </p>
<p>Just my quick response. If you have more to ask, feel free to probe for questions I definitely have more to say! :)</p>
<p>Thanks for your response!
I’m an international student from China… So location doesn’t really matter that much to me. They are both FAR away from home for me! Plane ticket is a lot cheaper for me to go to West Coast than East Coast though.
I only like the BA/MA program because of the shortened time I spent in College/Grad School. If that program is not recommended… Well… I might have to reconsider my preference then.
Social life… I do know that there is a big difference haha. I’m not sure if I want to deal with only girls every single day… I don’t even have a lot of girl friends now lol
Are you a current student at CMC?</p>
<p>Nope. Admitted ED student. I’ve done a couple overnights and a lot of research in order to finally make the decision to go ED. I have one good friend who attends as well. </p>
<p>In terms of the girl/boy thing- Coming from an all boys high school where you have to reach out to other schools to have friends of the other gender, it does get fairly tiresome, and with the workload and I feel like that would begin to be very tough- I personally would shy away from a single gender school.</p>
<p>But both are respected schools, and you won’t go wrong with either one. The only thing is… one of these schools is consistently at the top of both Princeton Review’s lists: “These Students Love Their Colleges,” and “Happiest Students.”</p>
<p>I don’t know much about NYU, but I was in the same situation regarding Wellesley and CMC earlier in the year when I was choosing colleges. I was admitted to both Wellesley and CMC, and was torn between the two. I want a learning environment centered around small classes and a close-knit community rather than university lecture halls and greater anonymity, so I eliminated my university choices. But between Wellesley and CMC (I also want to major in economics), I had to ask myself what kind of environment I wanted to live in. </p>
<p>CMC has the west coast attitude of laid-back students, while Wellesley is more east coast competitive. CMC students are going to be just as smart as Wellesley students, but much more relaxed in general. Weather’s a big issue too. Wellesley has long and gloomy winters, but CMC has sunshine nearly year-round. Aesthetic beauty and east coast architecture is all over Wellesley, but CMC has modern architecture and a few run-down dorms. The Wellesley campus is more quiet than the CMC campus. There’s much more of a “Work hard, play hard” mentality at CMC, with a loose alcohol policy. CMC is criticized for the party culture and alcohol intake, but there’s also a substance-free dorm and students on campus who don’t drink too. If you’re looking for a typical college experience filled with college parties, CMC is the place. Wellesley offers transportation to other coed colleges in the area, such as MIT, but you won’t find as many parties on campus at Wellesley as opposed to CMC.</p>
<p>One of the criticisms a Wellesley student told me about her school was that she felt at times that the school was a girls’ boarding school rather than a college. She felt the administration was too strict and didn’t offer Wellesley girls enough freedom. I’ve met other Wellesley students who echoed the same concern, but I’m sure there are some who disagree. A criticism a CMC student told me about his school was that he thought the entire school was too focused on pre-professionalism and the school didn’t offer enough academic exploration. Economics and government are stressed highly at CMC, and most students are looking into careers that make a lot of money. Wellesley students will definitely be more academically varied and have a broader range of academic interests than at CMC. But also keep in mind that CMC students always have friends at the other colleges in the consortium (Pitzer, Pomona, Harvey Mudd) who aren’t focused on econ and gov. </p>
<p>Both Wellesley and CMC have close-knit environments, but Wellesley can be isolating at times. While CMC is literally next door to the other colleges and students can branch out to other colleges’ clubs and parties whenever they want to, this is more inconvenient for Wellesley students. People at Wellesley still have opportunities to make friends with students at other schools, but it’s definitely more difficult.</p>
<p>Another note: If you know now that you don’t want to party in college EVER, CMC may not be the place for you. But if you’ve always wanted to go to a few college parties and don’t mind a loose alcohol policy, CMC’s social scene is great.</p>
<p>Don’t worry about rankings - at a school at such a high caliber as CMC and Wellesley, it’s more about what social/academic scene you’d feel more comfortable in versus how highly is your school ranked.</p>
<p>Lotus 4050:
Thank you so much! That is such a long reply haha.
Eh, I guess I’m not a party person cuz i haven’t been to many. But who knows, maybe I will like the parties at CMC! Also, I’m not very good at dealing with relationships with girls (~drama~), so I guess I’ll be better off attending a co-ed college.
About the rankings, it’s actually not me who cares about it… It’s my parents. As I mentioned, I’m a Chinese kid, so you can imagine the typical asian parents’ reaction to rankings lol. You know, people will be asking my parents about my college… People in China don’t know about CMC like AT ALL. I didn’t know it until my college counsellor recommended it to me!
Also, I guess I don’t really have a preference for academic environment… However I do plan on getting a job (preferably higher paid lol) after I get my BA in Economics because I will take MBA courses and job experience is necessary.
I will be doing campus visits on both colleges in June. Hopefully I will find out which college I like better!
Thanks again for you reply! By the way, which school did you choose?</p>
<p>Yesidoruntrack:
Do you mind inboxing me your SAT score and GPA? Kinda want to see what my chances are to get in CMC by applying ED. 
Thanks in advance!</p>
<p>Yesidoruntrack:
Sorry for not being able to reply in private messages… I’m a new user here.</p>
<p>It’s okay! I only see it as a reference haha. I don’t have a lot of ECs so I really do have to work on the standardized tests a bit more. Also my school goes with a 6.0 scale and it works in a weird way… so people don’t really get a GPA higher than 6 (as appose to people who get 4.0+ easily on a 4.0 scale)</p>
<p>The single sex female schools have taken a big fall in popularity over the past 30 years. Wellesley is no doubt a very good school but it’s selectivity has suffered for this reason.</p>
<p>Hey softcalcator,</p>
<p>Everyone who’s posted on here has offered really good advice so far, so I don’t have much to add. I do want to make a correction to something yesidoruntrack said, though.</p>
<p>The BA Econ/MA Finance program is a four-year program and is completed at CMC. Both degrees you receive are from CMC, so you get the benefit of the CMC name behind your undergraduate and graduate degrees. Although the school does offer some accelerated programs with CGU, that’s not one of them.</p>
<p>Good luck with everything!</p>
<p>OSUBuckeyes:
Thanks for your advice! I thought that I need several years of work experience before applying to Grad School (MBA) though, so I may just forgo the plan of taking the BA/MA program.
Are you a current student at CMC?</p>
<p>SAY:
I really don’t know how I feel about single-sex schools… Any advice/experience to share?</p>
<p>Sorry no. I’m a parent. I just know my daughters and friends would never consider a same sex school. Times have changed but for others I’m sure it works out well.</p>
<p>Yep, I’m a current student at CMC (despite the username). Feel free to ask me in here or send me a private message if you have any questions!</p>
<p>Single sex schools are fine, as long as there are other schools nearby. At Scripps, you can walk right onto Pitzer, CMC, Harvey Mudd, or Pomona in a minute (all of which are coed.)</p>
<p>I agree but that doesn’t apply to Wellesley, Smith, or Bryn Mawr. The other issue is the very heavy LGBT presence on these campuses. Now someone is sure to object to this point which I mean in a completely non-judgmental way but there is also a reason why very few non-African Americans attend the traditional black colleges. I think most students are looking for all around balance in the student body.</p>