<p>can someone elaborate a bit on the differences between these schools? the websites for all of them seem to emphasize a focus on 'interdisciplinary' learning but is that just a buzz word for all colleges?</p>
<p>These are quite different schools - in particular, CMU is very different from the other two. Vassar and Scripps are both small liberal arts colleges, while CMU is a mid-sized research university, strong in technical and art fields, with a heavily pre-professional emphasis. What kind of college are you interested in? It is possible, though seemingly unlikely, that one person would be strongly in interested in all 3. CMU does seem to be the odd one out in this case, but it does depend on your interests/potential field of study, etc…</p>