<p>The student reporters for the Claremont Port Side are getting high praise for their coverage of the admissions office scandal. It's very rare that a student article gets picked up by major media outlets like the New York Times and USA Today and FWIW, I've felt from the beginning that the student perspective was a tad more balanced than some of the CC posts I've read:
Claremont</a> McKenna College Student Reporters Drawing National Accolades - FishbowlLA</p>
<p>I agree - students’ perspectives are always interesting.</p>
<p>[Why</a> I’m Still Proud of My College Forum | The Official Student Publication of Claremont McKenna College](<a href=“http://cmcforum.com/opinion/02012012-why-im-still-proud-of-my-college]Why”>http://cmcforum.com/opinion/02012012-why-im-still-proud-of-my-college)</p>
<p>BTW, for those people not familiar with Claremont McKenna, take a look at the picture in the link I provided in my previous post. Not many colleges in the country have surroundings that look like that or weather where you get to enjoy it year-round.</p>
<p>We ought to see far enough into a hypocrite to see even his sincerity.</p>
<p>G. K. Chesterton</p>
<p>Just to be fair, I did read the entirety of the Portside article as well as the many comments about that article from current Claremont McKenna students: [Letter</a> to the Editor: “The Great Lie of Claremont McKenna College”|Claremont Port Side](<a href=“Bringing a Positive Change to Your Community”>Bringing a Positive Change to Your Community). After that experience, I would say that if any prospective students want to get a realistic idea of the actual college culture at CMC, that is a good place to start. There are both critical and positive comments, and collectively, they provide quite a few insights into student life there. I will be sure to have my junior son read this as well before he considers applying. This is an important point that applies not just to CMC: reading college newspapers and blogs on line really gives a prospective student insight into the student culture. This is inside information that is to not be found in the college’s admissions department publications, or on the official college tour. When I took my son who is now a freshman at an LAC on tours of 27 colleges across the country, we would always pick up the latest editions of the campus newspaper and go directly to the letters column and the student-written editorials. He was able to cross off a few colleges from his list by doing that.</p>
<p>That works when one actually reads a … true campus newspaper.</p>
<p>Xiggi is correct, the Claremont Portside is not the CMC campus newspaper. </p>
<p>I did find the article cited by Morganhil quite interesting and, in some ways, I understand some of the issues this student is having. Unfortunately, he chose a school which was a bad fit for him. I think it is safe to say that anyone who is looking for a school with a strong and varied curriculum in visual arts, dance, music or film would be better off applying to other schools, unless he/she is willing to take some of these courses at the other schools in the consortium. I sense he chose the wrong school to attend and now would like CMC to change its focus and curriculum to meet his needs. </p>
<p>This reminds us why it is important to select a school because of fit and not because of rankings or prestige. BTW, you do not need to read the campus newspaper to know that CMC was not a good fit for this student.</p>
<p>I agree with you, Parent57. Choosing a school because of rankings is so short-sighted and this is why I strongly recommend campus visits, on-campus interviews, auditing classes, studying the course catalog, eating lunch at the college, using the library and picking up any student publications that you might see around campus. And then, study the college’s website very thoroughly.</p>
<p>I advised my older son to treat it almost like an anthropologist studying a new culture. The college where he did apply Early Decision was one that he visited four times, having gone on three campus tours, having an on-campus interview and attending a class in the major he thought he would choose. It turned out that it was a perfect match for him. We are from California and his school is in New England, and it was even more important that he knew exactly what he was getting into as an ED1 applicant. One of his hallmates from SoCal had not done due diligence and she dropped out in the middle of her first semester and will take a gap year while she figures out where to go. </p>
<p>While it is costly to spend this amount of time visiting and researching college choices, given the parental financial investment and more importantly, the fit between the student and school, it is time and money well spent. All of these elite colleges have a huge vested interest in using the latest marketing techniques to try to attract as many of the top 50,000 college seniors in the nation to apply to their school and to select it if admitted. Selecting the right college is a much tougher choice than selecting the right house or the right car and aside from the relatively small number of parents who spend time to partner with their kids to do the research, many families are at risk for making a bad choice.</p>
<p>Yes, the more research you are willing to do the better, but I am also struck by how many high school students seem to end up liking and doing well at schools that were not their first choices and for which they had some trepidation about attending.</p>
<p>Xiggi,</p>
<p>For someone who attended a school of drunk jocks where their only goal in life is to become one of those Wall Street testosterone-driven one-percenters, I find it surprising you can quote an early 20th century English writer. :-)</p>
<p>Oh, P57, you might have forgotten that decent quotations help kindle the great appetite for good debates at CMC. </p>
<p>The great G. K. Chesterton has been most helpful in settling a few 5C “differences” with this line: “People generally quarrel because they cannot argue.”</p>
<p>Of course, a few sharp tongues might point out that there are a few GKC words that serve CMC just as well:</p>
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</p>
<p>All in all, it is easier to identify and label CMCers than to define them. :)</p>
<p>As someone who visited Cmc I can say that underage drinking definitely goes on. However that isn’t exactly unusual at college</p>
<p>Regarding underage drinking, I am not sure people are aware that over 100 US colleges are petitioning lawmakers to lower the drinking age to 18.</p>
<p>The former President of Middlebury College said the following in an interview with NPR:</p>
<p>"Mr. McCARDELL: And it would seem that way on the surface. But the data overwhelmingly show that the vast majority of young people, by the time they reach college age, have already had some exposure to alcohol. And we shouldn’t be surprised by that or necessarily dismayed by it because, in fact, it puts us in step with most of the rest of the world. Where we fall out of step is in our approach to that reality, whereas most of the rest of the world has set its drinking age at or below the age of majority.</p>
<p>Our country is one of only four countries in the world that has an age as high as 21. And so we face really two possible choices. If alcohol is a reality in the lives of 18, 19 and 20-year-olds, who are adults in the eyes of the law, we can either try to change that reality. The other option is to create the safest possible environment for that reality. And that, it seems to me, is what a lower drinking age would do."</p>
<p>I don’t want to get too personal, but I went to college in the early 1970’s and there was a lot more on campus than just alcohol. Most of us who went to school during that period turned out okay (I guess).</p>
<p>What I think is more interesting than what is necessarily being said is the fact that it is being said, and by a number of students. On that letter to the editor article on the Portside, the comments are quite polarized. I’m not anti-CMC or anything, and don’t take this the wrong way, but it says something about a college, or its graduates, that a number of its students are even writing such things. It is apparent that there is something at least a little bit off at CMC, whether it is a small minority of misplaced students (as parent57 and xiggi suggest), or the college environment itself.</p>
<p>I have a close friend who is a sophomore at CMC and majoring in neuroscience. When I visited him, he seemed to have found a (very) niche group of friends outside of the typical CMC student at CMC (in the sense of academic interests and amount of alcohol they consume) and with mutual friends at Pomona. I’ve seen the social division between students myself. There is an issue, and it needs to be addressed.</p>
<p>Just some thoughts on the matter.</p>
<p>Zrathustr, congratulations on your admission to Pomona. As I said in a number of posts, before applying to CMC one should visit the school and stay overnight. Also, it is incumbent on the applicant to see if CMC’s course offerings and academic programs are a good fit for him/her. If the so-called culture of the school is a problem, they have many other options. I believe the students who do this are generally glad they did. </p>
<p>Maybe I am crazy, but when I visit CMC I don’t see what some posters are describing. I know about the drinking (particularly the Thursday night parties), but I haven’t seen much discontent there. I have a feeling if you asked the entire student body if the culture of the school needs to change and put it to a vote, the results would be pretty conclusive. </p>
<p>BTW, some of those comments in the Portside article were students from the other schools at the consortium.</p>
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</p>
<p>Inasmuch as the definition of being a “bit off” might depend from one to the other, is it not expected that some students might feel out of place? Isn’t it why plenty of people do transfer in and … out. And does this not happen at about every school that allows transfer students? </p>
<p>We all know that the application process is far from perfect with students being rejected by admission officers and schools being rejected by the students. A world that feast on sub 20 admission rates and yields of 30 to 50 percent cannot be perfect. Accordingly, I do not think it should come as a surprise that the school is not a perfect match for … every enrolled student.</p>
<p>Fwiw, it is a FACT that CMC is a bit off. Actually, its student body is more than a bit off, as it is almost equally divided between liberals and conservatives. Schools with a few more conservative percentage points might inherit a label of extremist. This division is not solely along political affinities but reaches in divergent views of culture, morals, social equity, and plenty of others. In fact, it is this lack of homogeneity that might be the best attribute of CMC. </p>
<p>None of this means that CMC is perfect, let alone better than other schools. It has its own identity and is still developing it as its three scores of existence make it an academic puppy. However, most students who attend and have attended have expressed a profound satisfaction with their experience. </p>
<p>I am not sure where the expectation of perfection was born!</p>
<p>Thanks. I agree.</p>
<p>I would be interested to see how many students feel that way, though (how much of a majority/minority it is).</p>
<p>I should also add that when I visit the campus I walk around all the schools and talk to as many students as I can. The last time I was there, I struck up a conversation with a Pomona freshman who was very unhappy and was trying to transfer to another school. He complained the school had too many socially awkward and weird (his words) kids at the school. Although that was his experience, I doubt his description defines the school. Not everyone is going to have a good experience at college.</p>
<p>I had another thought I am going to share. Every so often I look at those threads where high school kids are suppose to select a school most like the one they are going to. I was thinking if you played that game with CMC, which schools would come to mind. I would suggest if a student had a good experience at Wesleyan, Swarthmore, Vassar or Sarah Lawrence, it is less likely than not they would do well at CMC; however, if he/she enjoyed Dartmouth, Williams, Davidson or Middlebury, the odds would be better that kid would also like CMC. </p>
<p>Again, it is all about “fit”. Understand the schools you are applying to and you will avoid some of the problems you are hearing about on this thread.</p>