<p>you got em, ask em and ill try to answer em. im a current student at CMC, working with admissions. im a freshman and hope to be a PPE major</p>
<p>what is claremont ranked nationally?</p>
<p>In the most recent US News rankings (however unreliable, they're generally taken as the standard), CMC tied for 11th (along with Grinnell, Wesleyan, and Vassar).</p>
<p>Hey crouton
Do I stand a chance? Should I definatly do ed?
Stats:
I am a white female at a semi-competitive public high school
Location: CA
GPA: 4.2
ACT: Taking it on Oct 27, studying hard for it
SAT 1: 1820 ( Just retook it- studied profusely over the summer for it :) )
SAT II’s: Math 2: 590 Literature: 610 (both I am retaking) US History: 640 APs: US-3, Will take AP Stats, AP Human Geography, AP Human Gov
College Course- Will start International Relations at community college in Dec
Classes Senior year: AP Human Geo, Ap Human Gov, Economics, AP Statistics, Jazz Choir, The Novel, Fashion/Text (fulfilling requirement)
Intended major: International Relations
ECs:
M.U.N VP (awards)
Associated Student Body President (1 year)
Student Government (3 years)
Student Senior Class Secretary (1)
Active member of NHS, CSF
2 week job shaddow of state senator
Been in audition choirs since 3rd grade, and high school competed in international competitions in Wales and Czech Republic and ranked in the top ten in both
Active member in drama/ plays
Student Ambassador: Traveled to France, Austria, Switzerland, Italy
Awards: Silver awards in History and English, Certificate of excellence, Certificate of service, Runner-up to prestigious Del Bryant Award (a top honor at my school)
Graduation speaker
Volunteer at local cities children's choir
SOLID teacher recs and hopefully unique, solid essays
Thorough Counselor Rec Letter</p>
<p>What do you think? Id greatly appreciate any imput or suggestions</p>
<p>your gpa looks good but your other stats may be too weak for cmc's selectivity. being a white female will not help, in fact it may even hurt your chance. however, i think you have good chances at scripps and pitzer (and oxy). if you want an equally good school but slightly less selective than cmc, try reed.</p>
<p>pingchu - student 615 is right. in the recent us news rankings cmc ranked 11th in the nation among LACs. This, to me at least, is more impressive than other schools ranked with us at 11 becuase the school has only been around for 60 years, and seeing as how a huge part of the USNWR rankings is peer review, a school that has been around for such a relatively short time and is already so well regarded is very impressive. </p>
<p>However, there are other rankings. Princeton review does a bunch of them that rank different aspects of student life. The Princeton Review lists Claremont McKenna among the nation's top twenty schools for the "Best Quality of Life," "Happiest Students," and "Most Politically Active Students." In addition, the Princeton Review ranks Claremont McKenna in the top twenty for having a "School that runs like butter," "Professors who make themselves accessible," "Best Campus Food," "Dorms like Palaces" and "Students Happy with Financial Aid." We were also 7th in Most beer, i believe</p>
<p>We are also tied with one other school for lowest admission rate for LACs (16%)</p>
<p>Quality-adjusted publications ranks CMC's econ dept as the best among any LAC, adn we just got a 200 mil donation to improve it. </p>
<p>In 2002 the Atlantic Monthly ranked CMC 22nd overall (including all colleges, so national universities+LACs) judged by admission rate, class rank, and SAT scores. Since then all of these have improved dramatically at CMC. </p>
<p>The Wall Street Journal has listed it as the eighth best liberal arts feeder school into elite graduate universities for law, business and medicine </p>
<p>CMCbaby - Let me bottom line it. If CMC is your dream school, that is, if if you got in everywhere you applied there is no question in your mind that you would attend CMC, then apply ED no matter your chances. That being said, applying ED can increase your chances as CMC likes kids who show a lot of interest (cant show much more interest than saying that its your number 1, right?). That being said, two of the bigger parts of the admissions decision are SATS/ECs. For you, your SATs are about 300 points under the median for CMC, but your ECs are quite good. If you raised your SATs a bit i would say that you stand a fairly good chance. If it stands at an 1800, i would have to say that your chances are substantially decreased. That being said, you should apply ED if it is your dream college, hope for the best, and write a *****in essay. A lot of kids have written their way into CMC.</p>
<p>cmc is one of the best lacs in the country no question about that but maybe some credits should be given to pomona. without pomona there'll be no cmc. in fact, all schools in the claremont consortium have been benefiting from pomona's reputation which dated back over 100 years so to say that cmc is a new school may not be entirely correct. a great deal of strenghts cmc has come from contributions of other colleges within the consortium. can you honest say that cmc would be as selective if it were to be a 'stand alone' school like vassar or wesleyan?</p>
<p>Although I'm a big Pomona supporter, I think that CMC is an incredible school on its own merits. I think Pomona actually benefits as much from CMC as vice versa, and all of the 5-C's benefit from the proximity and cross-registration opportunities of the Claremont Consortium.</p>
<p>And that $200 million CMC donation should not be taken lightly - it's the largest donation to any LAC ever, and one of the top 10 to any school ever. It should help CMC further strengthen its visibility in business and finance. Great school. A sleeper IMO.</p>
<p>Collegeprep, to answer your question quite directly, no. I don't think that CMC would be as selective/respected if it were to stand alone. But SarahsDad is right: it works two ways. I don't think that Pomona would be nearly as strong if it were to stand alone, either (the difference is that I think Pomona would have a much easier time transitioning to 'standing alone' than any of the other Claremonts would, which makes sense given that it's the only one that ever has actually needed to exist by itself). </p>
<p>To say that CMC-alone would be as strong as CMC-in-the-consortium would be ridiculous, but to say that it's not a respectable institution in its own right would also be quite misleading.</p>
<p>I would disagree with suggesting Reed as an alternative to CMC. Both schools are truly phenomenal liberal arts colleges, but the cultures at the two schools couldn't be more different.</p>
<p>^ Agreed. Ditto the suggestions of Pitzer and, to a lesser extent, Scripps (obviously a lot is shared between the various Claremont schools, including significant portions of each's applicant pool, but they're certainly not interchangable).</p>
<p>collegeprep - i certainly do not think that cmc would be as good as it is without pomona, but as others have said, pomona wouldnt be as good as cmc. in fact, cmc wouldnt be as good without pitzer/scripps/mudd as well - its not just all about pomona. </p>
<p>yes, cmc would probably not be ranked as high without being in the consortium. but how is that a logical argument? were talking about the schools as they are now and not as they would be in different circumstances. if vassar or wesleyan didnt have their hundreds of years of history/endowment, would they be as highly regarded? the answer is no, but the question is irrelevant. the point is that cmc has existed for a shorter amount of time than any school of the same caliber, and the fact is that if cmc is already so highly regarded at so young an age there is, theoretically, a lot of growth to be seen. </p>
<p>so give credit to the consortium, sure. but that is just as much a part of the school as any other schools history/endowment/trustees etc. im sure more people have heard of mckenna through pomona, but mckenna is certainly viewed as a different college - one with a young past and a bright future (and 200 million dollars more)</p>
<p>Is there more drinking at CMC than at Pomona? How is the social scene/overall atmosphere different?</p>
<p>Hey Crouton how much would you recommend playing up political involvement? As well, any paticular strategies or traits we should try to get across in the short answer sections on this year's supplement?</p>
<p>Good question cleverlycreated I was wondering the same</p>
<p>I should preface this with the fact that I was neither a CMC nor a Pomona student, so this observation comes from drinking and non-drinking friends on both of those campuses as well as from my own off-campus social experiences.</p>
<p>I imagine that Pomona and CMC have similar amounts of drinking, but I would say that there is less non-drinking at CMC, if that makes any sense. You'll find heavy drinkers, social drinkers, and non-drinkers on both campuses. I don't know anyone who has felt pressured to drink (or excluded for not drinking) on either campus. That said, Pomona seems to make a more concerted effort to provide (appealing!) sub-free social events (which, it's worth noting, are open to interested CMC students). The CMC non-drinkers I've known have generally felt less satisfied with their on-campus social scene than the Pomona non-drinkers I've known. And for those who prefer to partake, well, they don't run into much trouble on either campus (although the social scenes are still quite different).</p>
<p>In my personal experiences and observations, the campuses are comparably "wet," but alcohol plays a more central role (which is not necessarily to claim that it plays the central role) in the social atmosphere at CMC. It's frequently argued on these boards that that's a good thing because it keeps CMC's drinking scene safer, more inclusive, and so forth. To each his own.</p>
<p>skyhawk - i would say that CMC has more drinking than most any campus -we were rated number 7 in the nation for most beer... CMC kids drink a lot, but if you dont youre not singled out/pressured into it... 2 of my better friends right now dont drink </p>
<p>cleverly/ajay - get across your passions. my strategies were to pick a couple of things i loved and figure out how to demonstrate them through some leadership position in some club/activity. play up something about you, make yourself seem special. </p>
<p>and to anyone wondering about CMC, as most of you are who are reading these boards, i highly recommend this site. some of the stuff is a bit outdated but the information is quality. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.cmcstudents.com/classic/guide/%5B/url%5D">http://www.cmcstudents.com/classic/guide/</a></p>
<p>cannot recommend that highly enough</p>
<p>great site</p>
<p>thanks crouton</p>
<p>CMC is one of my top choices right now, but I'm a little worried about how I may fit in. If I PM-ed you and told you a little about myself, would you mind telling me how well I would fit in?</p>
<p>yea, go for it</p>