I have to wonder if Dan, the author of the article, will come to regret writing it in future years. Stuff like that stays on the internet forever. I just imagine him going to alumni gatherings and people saying: “Oh, yeah, you’re that guy . . …”
You guys are reading too much into my posts, versus the information I posted.
I was set on CMC, really. Then a unrelated academic organization offered me a large scholarship to Berkeley (specifically), which made finances actually cheaper for B due to other costs not related to tuition. I appreciate you guys reading all of my posts so in depth, but I only posted this for information for other prospective applicants. I hope my clarifications provide legitimacy to my post.
Please stop with these ad hominem inquisitions (I mean this in a nice way). I am just posting this for other applicants. That’s it. Nothing about me.
berkyard the problem here is that your post was not the truth. To say you chose UCB because it was cheaper is fine and a rational reason. But your post said something quite different that you now admit was not accurate. Far from helping other applicants you are misleading them with your original post. It would be far better to just say your post wasn’t the complete story and move on.
FWIW, I transferred away from CMC out of the same sentiments as Dan’s. CMC has a very strong monoculture, I find it disingenuous to deny that. Some people love it; I found it intolerable after a year.
@SAY let me repeat. absolutely ALL of my posts are truthful, I’m not sure what you are saying. I only said CMC was a essentially a full ride before, not that it was the best financial option, if you read correctly. Not ONCE did I say it was the BEST option financially. None of my posts are incorrect, although you could make a false assumption based on them (if you wanted to).
Again, this doesn’t matter. Just focus on the article.
@lonelyheartsclub I’m glad you found another place that fits you (hopefully)!
The article is just…I don’t even know how to say it. But here are things that he said which are hard to believe, provably untrue, or really ironic that he claims he is “getting real” when it’s not even remotely covered up in the first place:
- Pitzer, Scripps, CMC, and Mudd all work together on creating a really great music program. Yes, it is housed at Scripps, but it's a decently even spread (a bit Scripps heavy) in terms of what students use it and this is no different than saying that our science classes are generally run by CMC, but are for the benefit and heavily used by the three colleges (Pitzer, CMC, Scripps) that use the same science center. So yes, it is perfectly legitimate for CMC to say they have musical students. I have seen many an amazing CMC musician at the recitals.
- He clearly has never tried to access the rehearsal rooms, or has only tried to do so at 2 am. Yes, to have 24/7 access to the rehearsal rooms you must be a student taking a music course. But they are open to all students during normal working hours. Starting off with something easily proven to be a lie isn't particularly a good start.
- Again, the consortium...Yes, dance is housed at Scripps or Pomona and theater is housed at Pomona. But .... so what? If you were at a UC and you had a class across campus, you'd be walking probably 4X as far to get to that class than you would from CMC to Pomona. And Scripps dance is on the border of CMC and Scripps. There are CMC dance majors and theater majors and every other sort of "creative disciplines". And those teachers know how to work with CMC students and often are academic advisers for CMCers. I'm not sure what point he was trying to make. That he was too lazy to walk an extra minute for dance or maybe 5 extra minutes for theater? The consortium works because we all have what we do best, and everyone has equal access and can fairly easily major "off campus".
- Really? I find this one funny...the SAT scandal is probably the one thing he could really use against CMC and yet he doesn't... /
- "Appearance over reality"... um...Other than the SAT scandal (which was really bad, although they weren't the only college), not sure what this is in reference to since he doesn't explain it much, so I can't really say much here.
- What's with the Motley picture? That's Scripps....
Now for where he pretends he is getting “real”…Most of these are things that aren’t even attempted to keep hidden…
- Dude...every little admission thing I went to when I was considering CMC, they talked about their alcohol policy of "as long as you don't break glass". It is literally something many students there consider a "selling point" of their college. So this guy is so not "getting real". He's just stating what student - from admissions even! - have said again, and again, and again. That being said, Stark dorm is substance free, so many of the non-drinkers congregate there. I've been to a few non-alcoholic events there, like a Disney movie night. You don't have to look too far to find alternative programming.
- "General skepticism" about humanities... it's a liberal arts college... come on... Arts there's a slight point about since there's no arts req, but nothing's stopping you from taking classes in the arts. I work in the dance office at Scripps and can verify, yes, a significant number of CMC students are enrolled in those courses. And usually a few are majoring. And I've had CMCers in my voice (singing) classes too. Just because this one person didn't seek out opportunities to pursue art doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
- Again, he is stating the obvious, not getting real about "specific kind of student in our application process". While there is still much more diversity than he's making it out to be, this is the idea of the consortium. And other than some first-year courses that are purposely closed off, consortium classes tend to be well mixed. (One CMC class I was in was more Scripps than CMC!)
- Parties: Each college has its own sort of parties. Again, consortium. Also, CMC parties get a bad rap, but honestly (and this is coming from a non-drinker), they aren't as bad as most drinking parties...
- Athletics: Yeah, right. While many enjoy athletics, others find their niche through the clubs they join.
- Dude...they report statistics on that. This shouldn't have been a surprise. Although tbh, most of my CMC friends aren't white. That being said, they do a lot of work with low income students and have some of the best financial aid in the nation.
- Random drunk person: Um...what? That's just how a lot of drunk people act. And people in the real world get drunk too. I have no clue what we were supposed to get from that. My only thought when reading it was why didn't he call campus security? Claremont camp sec is awesome about helping the students.
Ending point…CMC is often ranked #1 or close to the top for students loving their school and general happiness. Yeah, it’s totally possible to have a crappy time. Living with a bad roommate, not being ready for the rigor, etc. But most of these points are either actually a selling point of CMC that they love to talk about instead of something to “get real”, or just not really true. I would not recommend this publication.
Also, as much as I love the Portside (I even wrote a few things for them), they do love to write articles that might get people angry (they literally say they are “rockin’ the boat”). It’s not surprising they would publish something like this. And they are generally Pomona students more so than CMC (I believe one recent editor in chief was from CMC and they do have representation of all colleges, but still more Pomona), which there’s a small rivalry between, so not too surprising they would be willing to run something like this.
Help plz explain to me what the “culture” is…my son is seriously looking at CMC and I am concerned about the fit…everyone is using euphemisms and I don’t know what they mean!
@Juno1956 this thread was started by someone who decided to pick Berkeley over CMC and states it was for financial reasons. Nevertheless, he for some reason felt compelled to start this thread linking to an article written in an “alternative” student on line publication. You can read the original linked article by copying the link in the original post and substituting a period for the word dot. Or just google “The Great Lie of Claremont McKenna College.” Scrippsie does an interesting point by point refutation of the linked article.
If your son is trying to decide whether CMC is a fit, a better starting place is probably some of the other threads on this forum, like: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/claremont-mckenna-college/1786384-party-scene-at-claremont-mckenna-college.html#latest or http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/claremont-mckenna-college/1795825-cmc-vibe-compared-to-pomona.html#latest. Or better yet have him visit in person, attend a class, stay overnight, etc.
to be fair, after researching further, I realized that this article is mostly not to be taken seriously.
CMC has a semi-drinking culture and a focus on economics/IR and finance/consulting jobs. That’s it – past that, it’s just like any top school.
Past that, the allegations in the article are just kind of blown up.
CMC is a great college, and don’t let this article faze you, any prospective applicants.
OP- The link posted on the original post does not work? Is there another way of reading the article?
I think the Claremont Portside might be gone? At least, I haven’t heard much about it and I used to write for it. And the website is entirely gone. But the archives are through another website so you can still access them here: https://issuu.com/claremontps
@Scrippsie, the letter can be found in archival form here: https://web.archive.org/web/20150906102318/http://www.claremontportside.com/letter-to-the-editor-the-great-lie-of-claremont-mckenna-college. Thank you for posting it, @berkvard; I decided not to apply to CMC after reading it and (as someone who attends Pomona next door) can now see that I was most definitely wise to heed your warning.