<p>kio888- You’re a pretty good example of why I chose to spend 4 years here with compassionate, intelligent students (and a sprinkling of ditzy ones, because hey- nowhere is perfect), instead of at a school with you. Your perception is clearly biased. I mean, if you’re only finding “ditzy, easily affected, spoilt daddies girls” to interact with on a campus, that just as likely says something profound about you and yours as it does Scripps. My perception is also clearly biased, because I attend here. But from my perspective, other 5-C students who “deign” to cultivate friendships with Scripps students, take classes here, or spend a significant time with our community don’t have the same negative attitude that you claim is pervasive. </p>
<p>If a prospective student has questions about the other 4-C’s attitudes towards Scripps, they can go ask in the other 4-C threads, or we can give them a Scripps perspective here. There is no reason you need to bring it here, addressed to someone who has fallen in love with the school, has decided that it’s the right place for them, and is truly excited about the institution and community that you apparently hold in disregard. Taking your own observations or beliefs and posing them as the “general perception” is still disrespectful. Of course you don’t explicitly say that you yourself think those things are true, but if you disagreed and thought that Scripps students are smart, self- and socially-aware students, I don’t believe you would’ve posted these things. If you’re a 5-C grad yourself you’re probably smart enough to know that if you find a school that you love, where you can learn and thrive, misinformed stereotypes are not a good reason “to go ANYWHERE else.” </p>
<p>If you’re going to respond to chance threads based on stereotypes, as opposed to experience and admissions stats, please do it elsewhere.</p>
<p>@Eternal Icicle - thanks for that. He did the same at the Pitzer board. Scripps and Pitzer are my daughter’s top two choices. When I showed this posts to my daughter, she laughed and said “well, the stereotype of Pomona student is arrogance”</p>
<p>I’m not talking about “beliefs” I’m talking about observations from a perspective that you simply don’t have. If admitting to the reality of the situation upsets you too badly then feel free not to, however it is wrong for you to deny others the ability to avoid your mistakes. </p>
<p>I do think misinformed stereotypes are important because what I’ve learned since graduating and looking at who has succeeded- in terms of between the 5C’s and my friends at other schools- is that reputations and stereotypes DO matter a great deal, despite what we might hope for. Whether we like it or not we are associated with the stereotypes of our institutions for better or for worse.</p>
<p>That said, these observations are my experience and they are based on admissions stats. Scripps and Pitzer are easy to get into leading to these less than positive reputations.</p>
<p>Chipping in from my clearly biased and unintelligent perspective as a Scripps grad. I almost never, in my four years at Scripps, personally encountered attitudes like kio888’s. Never, with one small exception. And I shared plenty of classes and other events with Pomona, CMC, and Mudd students. Some of them actually deigned to take classes at poor inferior Scripps, strangely enough. The one place I did encounter a superior attitude was a student in one of my Scripps Italian classes. This was quite rare, and another Pomona student criticized the student who made the original remark. (I say this to counter the stereotype that all Pomona students are arrogant and snobbish. Totally untrue for the vast majority, IMO.)</p>
<p>I want to reassure prospective students not only at Scripps, but also at the other Claremont colleges, that the kind of more-prestigious-than-thou games which are so apparent on CC are not a significant part of the actual environment at the 5Cs. Sometimes student publications at CMC and Pomona do engage in this kind of prestige-concerned naval-gazing, but nobody pays much attention to them from my experience. Scripps students tend to be far too occupied with academics and everything else offered by the consortium to pay attention to this nonsense. I believe most other 5C students, across the board, are the same way.</p>
<p>I took classes at all five colleges, and I’d stack the difficulty and quality of Scripps classes against any of them, as well as the overall difficulty of a Scripps degree. (Well, at least against the non-HMC schools. They’re pretty much in a different league in terms of what they offer.)</p>
<p>As for how Scripps is perceived in the larger world, kio888’s characterization does not match my experience. I started a PhD program (top 10 in my field) immediately after graduating Scripps. Nobody in the academic world has failed to be impressed by my alma mater. I hold a very prestigious fellowship, which I obtained on the strength of my undergraduate record. (Oh, and the professors who wrote my recommendations for the fellowship? Two Scripps profs and a Pitzer prof. I know, how could anyone possibly take me seriously with those recommendations? ::eyeroll:: ) </p>
<p>In much of the non-academic world, most people haven’t really heard of any of the 5Cs, Pomona included. Most actual 5C students know this well, and find that the benefits of the education outweigh this drawback.</p>
<p>What was that small exception? You probably just didn’t notice it other times. It is there. In all seriousness if anything you probably encountered it less than people felt it as we try not to rub it in your faces. </p>
<p>I agree. It is all very much under the table and the hierarchy is understood, if unspoken. Numbers don’t lie. That said, it’s a joke that Scripps students are too busy with academics to engage in this debate. After a few drinks I had a number of your classmates, unprompted, trying to convince me that Scripps was better than Pomona because the girls are prettier. Good company you keep.</p>
<p>I took two courses at Scripps. They were both laughable as were the academic standards of the scripps girls in them. In a group project I actually redid the entire thing the night before because the parts done by the scripps girls were such that I would have been embarrassed to have my name attached to them.</p>
<p>As I said, the school is well regarded in academia. That said, if one wants to do anything not related to academia a scripps degree is worth as much as the recycling value of the paper it’s printed on. Additionally, you can go to far more well regarded schools in academia if you have the numbers. </p>
<p>Students find that the benefits outweigh the drawback of non-recognition while in academia. Try breaking out into the real world (or not simply becoming a homemaker). The 5C’s, Scripps and Pitzer especially, put you at a significant disadvantage.</p>
<p>This is why there is more than one school. Go with your heart. Scripps is an amazing school with some of the brightest students around. Ranked higher this year than Mt. Holyoke and Barnard. Kio888 is clearly very angry, but I bet it has little to do with Scripps. No school is for everyone but beware taking the advice of someone who has some kind of axe to grind. I suggest we move on.</p>
<p>When students compare the 5C’s one will be the best and there will be a hierarchy. I am simply describing that hierarchy to give potential students a real world perspective. This is like saying that Eastern Europe is less well off than Western Europe. The people in Eastern Europe (you) may not be happy with it, but it is reality. This is harder to quantify, granted, but it is still very much the obvious reality. If you are happy with being in the bottom 40% then go to Scripps.</p>
<p>I’d rather hang out with drunken Scrippsies talking about how pretty we are than someone who treats U.S. News as his/her Bible and thinks the only people worth talking to have a particular SAT score. Clearly mileage varies on this one. How fortunate that students have so many options on where to go to college, and options on who to spend time with once you’re there. I assure anyone interested in Pomona (which I believe is kio’s school) that he/she is not representative of the school, by a long shot. I know that if I were a prospective student, I would not be particularly favorable about Pomona were kio my only point of reference.</p>
<p>The only time I’ve personally encountered superior attitudes in real life was from a Pomona student in my Italian class, as I mentioned before. This student, in practicing the grammatical form of “_______ is more ______ than _______” attempted to say, “Pomona is better than Scripps.” (I say attempted because the pronunciation was even worse than mine–and that’s saying something. Ah, well, we can’t all, even elite Pomona students, be great at everything. This was a pretty rude thing to say in a Scripps class, though, in my opinion. Fortunately, like I’ve said, this student’s attitudes and manners are not representative of Pomona students on whole.)</p>
<p>I can’t speak to getting jobs outside of the academic world with only a liberal arts B.A. I agree that for that route, it probably is best to go to a flagship state university or one of a small handful of private universities–that is, if name recognition is your main criteria. I attend one of these big-name large universities as a grad student, and I can say that the quality of undergraduate education is nothing compared to Scripps and the other 5Cs. Again, this is just my opinion. I’m always happy to answer prospective students’ and parents’ questions about Scripps.</p>
<p>I never said that USNWR was my bible or that I don’t talk to people of lesser intelligence. I have a number of friends at Scripps and Pitzer as I said here and in other posts, the object of my posts is simply to inform potential students of Scripps (negative) reputation as the people who post here are only cheerleaders who minimize the school’s faults and neglect its weaknesses. </p>
<p>That Pomona student is an ass and an embarrassment. To say something like that for no reason is pointless and unexcusable. Here I am saying what I am simply to inform prospective students which is definitely fair.</p>
<p>It’s not only having a small LAC degree that handicaps you- specifically anything worse than CMC (or HMC for engineering-centric professions) is a serious handicap including Scripps.</p>
<p>Hi. I’m sorry to butt into the little debate here, but I’m just wondering how the campus life is at scripps. I’m really really interested in this school and feel like it’s perfect, however, I unfortunately have not had the chance to visit the campus. From what I’ve seen in videos online, it’s gorgeous! Does anyone have any inside perspective on how student life outside of the classroom is?
Thank you :)</p>
<p>Campus life itself is quite nice I think. The grounds are beautiful and the buildings are relatively well kept, although I’m not such a fan of the relatively high number of roommates you might have in your earlier years (although some people might enjoy that). The majority of the girls are nice and easy to talk to and Scripps has a very active presence in clubs and organisations. You have easy access to HMC, CMC, and Pitzer and Pomona is a bit of a trek although it’s common for Scripps girls to come down. I had a girlfriend one year who walked from my dorm at the bottom of Pomona’s South Campus to her classes at Scripps daily- a huge trip in 5C terms but nothing in real world terms (maybe 6-7 blocks).</p>
<p>Case and point though (for my earlier point)- College Confidential doesn’t even list Scripps or Pitzer on the “top liberal arts colleges” page. That’s not due to my bias- it’s on account of the objective fact that Scripps and Pitzer are not nearly as strong academically as the other schools.</p>
<p>@star_dr- Campus life at Scripps is the quietest of the 5-Cs. While you’ll be welcome at most events on the other campuses, Scripps only hosts a couple parties each year, and other events tend to be along the lines of movie nights, concerts at the Motley or on the lawn, or dorm-centered events like Spa Nights. On the weekends most Scripps students venture to the other campuses for dance parties of all kinds (among other things). A complaint I hear a lot is that Scripps doesn’t have the same kind of tight dorm community that, say, Harvey Mudd would have.</p>
<p>Perhaps kio888 should do a little research before assuming the role of ‘Scripps expert’. Scripps does, in fact, have a neuroscience major. I can’t address the quality of the program, but hope a current Scripps student or parent can chime in and answer the poster’s question.</p>
<p>Well as a Harvey Mudd graduate I can say that I had several very intelligent friends who went to Scripps. It’s true that it isn’t as strong academically in some fields as the other 5Cs, but the great thing is that nearly all classes at the 5Cs are easily accessible to anyone in the Consortium. I only took one music class at Scripps, but the professor was definitely great and the class was quite good. I’m not quite sure what sort of vendetta kio888 has against Scripps, but I never encountered the attitude he has from anyone I met. There’s certainly a stereotype for each of the 5Cs, but all the people I knew simply laughed at them. The Scripps students I knew even mocked themselves over the stereotypes sometimes. From his posts kio888 seemed to be selectively choosing which Scripps students to hang out with based on characteristics other than intelligence, so I’m not surprised at what he’s found. That said, the stereotype of Pomona students is arrogance, but during my time I never met one like kio888, though I admittedly didn’t know all that many Pomona students. </p>
<p>“When students compare 5Cs, one will be the best and there will be a hierarchy.” Tell me, what is this hierarchy you speak of? I’m guessing you’ll place Pomona at the top because Harvey Mudd is more of a specialty school, among other personal biases, but I would argue that that makes a ‘hierarchy’ pointless, useless, and self-serving. Pomona, HMC, and CMC all have different specialties and cater to different kinds of students so directly comparing them has no value. Pitzer and Scripps have overlapping academic areas that are perhaps not quite as strong, but they have their own particular feel and environment that many students like. The Consortium as a whole is recognized for its strong colleges and integrated experiences, all of the colleges contribute to a great experience for someone at any of the 5Cs.</p>
<p>Ah, almost forgot, an econ major friend of mine from Scripps got a job at Goldman Sachs right after graduating. I bet she’s glad she didn’t recycle her degree.</p>
<p>Kio888 joined CC quite recently, and immediately started posting on all the Claremont boards. I am not sure what he is going on about. It is pretty bizarre, and it seems that when people disagree with him, he just gets fired up by it.</p>
<p>People might want to stop egging him on. His posts are so extreme, I am beginning to see him as a ■■■■■. Don’t feed the ■■■■■■.</p>
<p>1) involved mom you are right and I was wrong. I was under the impression that the Scripps program had been closed as a friend of mine from Scripps took the major at Pomona. My apologies.
Suin
2) I suppose we had very different experiences with Scripps students. Regardless, that doesn’t affect my point that if you look at it by the numbers the Scripps degree is a relatively inferior credential.
3) In terms of an “overall hierarchy of the 5Cs” yes I would put Pomona at the top, however I generally wouldn’t compare HMC to PO, CMC, SC, PI as a result of it being a speciality school. In that sense I would put HMC outside of the hierarchy.
4) Maybe your scripps prof was good as it was a music (read: less academic) class
5) The consortium is NOT recognized for its strong colleges- it is recognized exclusively in my experience of people impressed by it for PO, CMC, or HMC.
6) It is likely your friend from Scripps had some sort of connection or, like I said in another post, got lucky. Exceptions and lucky breaks (assuming it was her own doing) do not constitute grounds to argue that the school has a good reputation. Objectively looking at the situation suggests otherwise.</p>
<p>anotherparent
7) Yes, I posted in response to some parent posting about CMC being better than PO because her rants made me laugh and then I decided to put some more objective information (including my rather critical opinion of Pomona’s reputation in the real world) up here as all of you boosters who gloss over these schools’ shortcomings are misleading prospective students, and quite frankly I would have preferred to have this information before applying. I probably would have made the same choice in hindsight but I would at least have liked the opportunity to make an informed decision.</p>
. Do any of you guys know how good their neuroscience program is?</p>