<p>With all the focus on leadership at CMC, I am wondering if students find it competetive with one another. Everything we read about CMC refers to leadership in some way. Since not everyone on campus can be in leadership postitions, how would you say this plays out as far as interactions among students, and expectations from faculty? We hear that the Claremont Colleges in general are quite collegial, which makes them very attractive, but we were wondering if that is indeed the environment at CMC. Any comments would be appreciated.</p>
<p>As a current student at CMC, I can say that it is not a super-competative place at all. Everybody here is willing to help one another out, which is one of the things i love most about CMC. Despite its small size, CMC has a very large amount of leadership opportunities and it is very easy to get involved.</p>
<p>CMC is a school that values and emphasizes leadership. For example, the Kravis Leadership Institute researches and studies what makes good leaders, brings speakers to campus who discuss their views on leadership, and gives stipends to students who take an active role in serving their communities over the summer.</p>
<p>So, yes leadership is a part of CMC. But not everyone at the school is a leader. I think a school full of nothing but people trying to lead each other would be terrible. In my experience, the school is really more about real world application of ideas than "leadership." People do tend to be ambitious and perhaps competitive with themselves, but overall the school is pretty laid back. There isn't much cut-throat competition. Remember it's a liberal arts college, so most classes are small and discussion based-- there aren't really any massive classes on a curve where you're fighting against everyone else to get a good grade.</p>
<p>I hope that was helpful.</p>
<p>But most of the people that applied would have had to have been leaders at their high school to have a chance of getting in, right?</p>
<p>Not necessarily. As I've always understood it, CMC values students who possess the *qualities of leadership<a href="rather%20than%20simply%20the%20experience">/i</a>. It just so happens that many of these students are also students who have lots of actual leadership experience. But bear in mind that "leadership experience" is a broad category, and sure, you might be president of your class or school, but you might also be captain of a club sports team, or you might have founded a community program, or you're an Eagle Scout. The 'qualities of leadership' can be demonstrated through service work, an interview, essays, recommendations, or particular initiative in ECs or academics, to name just a few places. Leadership is indeed an important quality for CMC applicants, but (a) it's not the be-all-end-all, and (b) it's more widely defined than it might sound.</p>
<p>(My point, ultimately, is that yes...many applicants will have been leaders--in the obvious sense--at their high schools, but if you haven't been, you shouldn't necessarily let the fact discourage you from applying.)</p>