<p>I saw that over the last 6 years of so, Pitzer's acceptance rate dropped from a 70ish% to a 37%. Is Pitzer becoming better and more respected in the academic community? Are more people becoming aware of it? </p>
<p>I guess I'm just wondering what caused this radical change, apart from the growing college applicant pool.</p>
<p>I'd say both: Pitzer is becoming more well-known in the academic community, but it's had a truly amazing faculty for many, many years. There is also a growing emphasis on academic rigor on every level.</p>
<p>It's a young school. Give it some time.</p>
<p>Yeah Pitzer is by far one of the youngest competitive liberal arts colleges. (I can't actually think of a newer one of the top of my head.) But I would say that Pitzer's improvements are more rapid than the average LAC- this year the acceptance rate is 25%- putting it in a whole new bracket of competitiveness in just one year.</p>
<p>What changed it? In a word, Trombley. That's the president that took over a few years ago who basically worker harder and was more ambitious than any other past president. She got things done, she fundraised, she raised the profile of the school, etc.- the big gains made by Pitzer all happened since she started at Pitzer.</p>
<p>Regarding the upsurge in Pitzer's ranking, I have to agree that Trombley may be an important reason. However, one has to wonder why in the past Pitzer has not been ranked higher. Students have complete access to all of the Claremont Consortium resources, the option to take classes at the other four colleges, and come the fall of 2007, new dorms, compliments of a $20 million fund raising program.</p>
<p>The Consortium doesn't factor into the Claremont schools' rankings, which makes numbers a little deceptive across the five campuses.</p>