I believe I’m finishing up with my college list but I’m split between Pitzer and Oxy for my reach application. They’re both very similar in a lot of aspects so it’s been hard for me to make up my mind, so I want some second opinions on which I’d have a better chance at. As for my intentions I want to go into non profit work during and after college.
My stats are as follows:
3.6 unweighted gpa at a rigorous CTE based school/ A- average
about a 1/3 split between normal, college level CTE and honors, AP and college courses
ECs include football, FBLA, well over 100 hours in community service a year since freshman year (along with a nonprofit I’m trying to start but finding grants has been tough) and student choir which I have been given awards in
I haven’t taken either test yet and won’t be able to submit either to Pitzer no matter what but I should be within the 30’s on the ACT and high 1300’s to 1400’s on the SAT
I know Occidental is a fair sized reach but Pitzer’s been an oddball chance-wise bc if you look at their admissions graphs their accepted students are pretty scattered and the 3.9 average gpa they report is the weighted gpa I’ve found out so I just want to see some other perspectives on the matter.
More so a chances question, they both have a lot of common ground on ideals/values and have a similar campus culture of how students and faculty interact with one another and with the outside world so I believe they’d both be a good fit in their own respects.
I think Pitzer is definitely a “fit” school. They’re looking for people who are going to change the world through different ways like activism or their own projects. I was accepted to both Pitzer and Oxy and I don’t really think GPA matters. Your GPA looks fine to me for Pitzer (and only Pitzer, since their selection criteria is so much more different and lax on GPA).
As long as you state your passions for impacting your community through your goals w/ your non-profit in your supplement essays you should be competitive, but it is still a far reach nonetheless. Oxy is a great option too, and I don’t have too much to say about that!
I’m trying to keep my total applications at or below 5 in order to make sure my essays and letters are as good as possible so I’ll be applying ED2 to one of those two. If my test scores are really good I might apply to both though.
What is your budget? Have you run the net price calculators on both, and they look affordable? Definitely don’t apply ED unless they will be affordable, per the NPC. NPCs may not be accurate if your parents are divorced, own a business and/or own real estate beyond a primary home…are any of those the case for you?
GPA matters a lot to Pitzer, in fact Academic GPA is rated as “very important” (the highest level) on their common data set. Do you have a source for your statements above? Common Data Sets - Institutional Research & Assessment
Relative to other highly selective liberal arts colleges, GPA at Pitzer does not carry as much of a weight. 33% of students at Pitzer had a high school GPA of BELOW 3.7, so OP can pass that requirement with their 3.6.
They absolutely prioritize the essays and supplementals much more. If you look beyond the numbers and actually looked into the mission and the values of the college, you can notice their priorities and what kind of students they are looking for instead of giving out generic information based on numbers. Numbers don’t even tell a fraction of the story.
OP seems like a good fit for Pitzer and has a chance even with a 3.6 GPA in my opinion. But since their acceptance rate is so low it’s up to luck.
If you are comfortable with a small, self-contained school, your odds at Oxy are better than at Pitzer. They have a lot in common, as you say, but Pitzer places you within the larger undergraduate population of the entire Claremont Consortium, and gives you access to the wider course offerings and consortium-wide EC’s that come with that. How important is that to you? Are there specific programs that you’re looking at within each school? (For example, the CASA Pitzer program is great for students interested in partnering with community nonprofits.)
And, what’s your risk tolerance in terms of not getting in? Are your match and safety schools desirable and affordable? If you’re looking at financial challenges and higher odds of a full-need-met admit are important to you, then follow the numbers and go with Oxy. If it’s more of a “one of these would be nice but I can afford a good public U that I’m sure I’ll get into and that would be fine too” scenario, then aim for what you most prefer and hope for the best.
Since they’re similar in terms of what they’re looking for, I don’t think it would be terribly difficult to do both applications well - you could re-use most of the same writing. But even if you apply to both, you’ll need to pick one for EDII, so the question still applies.
Either school seems like a good academic match for you, so maybe it will come down to fit. My S19 looked at both schools and we visited, so I can pass along our impressions. Although the schools may seem similar, my son liked Oxy a lot and didn’t like Pitzer at all. The things he did not like about Pitzer included the campus, which is very modern - it have to admit it looked kind of like a motel to me, although that was probably just because of the pool - the consortium, and the politics. With respect to the consortium, I can see from other posts that many people love it, but the more the tour guide talked about being able to compare menus and pick where to have breakfast, lunch and dinner every day, the more turned off my son was. He wanted to be in a single defined college environment on a single defined campus. With respect to the politics, when we were touring the library, the guide joked that you could guess which school in the consortium particular kids belonged to based on what they were doing - those kids over in the corner making protest posters, those were the Pitzer kids. My son really did not want to be in that kind of environment, so that was pretty much it for Pitzer. I understand that Oxy also has a reputation for liberal politics, but we did not pick that up when we visited. Oxy seemed well-balanced. The campus is gorgeous and compact, and the surrounding area was interesting, less suburban feeling than Claremont and much more accessible to/from LA. My son is an athlete, and he also liked the fact that the sports facilities are well-integrated with the campus - at Pitzer/Pomona, it is a long hike.
Edited to add: You mentioned you are limiting the number of schools you apply to so you can pay enough attention to the essays, etc. I hope you’ve looked at the essays for Oxy on the common app, At least as of three years ago, they had a number of short, but entertaining, essays, along the lines of “what song will you be playing when your roommate walks into the room for the first time?”
The consortium definitely has pros and cons. My daughter was sick to death, by the end of her first year, of hearing about the various college stereotypes. (As I suspected it would, this turned out to be more of a first-year preoccupation, and people largely got over it with time and maturity, but it was still tiresome. The poster-making comment is a good example of the juvenile generalizations that quickly cease to be amusing.) The variety of food choices is nice but making it a relentless talking point on tours is overkill. (They’ll need to find something new to harp on, for a while, because cross-access to dining halls will not be resuming for the time being as the campuses reopen.) But the resources of the consortium, and the variety of high-quality courses available to students through cross-registration, are genuinely great. My daughter’s thesis advisors/readers were profs from three different schools - Pomona, Scripps, and Pitzer; and all five schools contributed great mentors and classes to her overall experience.
Right, I just wanted to make the point that these schools are not necessarily as similar as they seem. With respect to competitiveness, when we were looking at Pitzer, it seemed there were some students applying on the theory that, as the “easiest” school in the consortium, it could provide access to the more competitive schools like Pomona for students who would not be admitted directly to those schools. As a result, the acceptance percentage dropped quite a bit around that time. Perhaps Pitzer has been able to address that problem by now so that it can suss out the “real” Pitzer applicants.
While I do like these schools a lot I’ll be A-OK if I don’t get in so my risk tolerance is pretty high! I’ve already gotten into Wingate through immediate action with scholarships, NC State is a strong safety and I have a fair chance at UNC. I’m starting to consider applying to both as that should keep my total applications below 5 with Pitzer as an ED2 application since their admissions statistics show more leniency with gpa than Oxy.
What data are you looking at that show Pitzer to be more lenient on GPA than Oxy? Per the 2020/21 common data sets, Pitzer’s average GPA of matriculants was 3.93, Oxy’s was 3.62. Granted, we don’t know exactly how they calculate those numbers…but, you can call their IR departments and ask. For students reporting test scores, Pitzer’s scores were also higher than Oxy’s.
That makes sense! (Although I share Mwfan’s skepticism about Pitzer’s “leniency” and think you should choose Pitzer only because you prefer it, not on the premise that the odds are better there.) Could be worth lobbing an RD app at Oxy as well; the RD deadline isn’t until January 10th, so you can table it until your other apps are done, to make sure you don’t get spread too thin.
Are you applying to UNC Asheville? It seems to have the most Pitzer/Oxy-ish vibe in the NC public system - the honors program there could end up being a better-fit safety than Wingate, and between the low sticker price and the merit you could get, the cost could end up lower as well. The honors program has a “making a difference in the world” focus and offers “great ideas grants” for student initiatives.
If you’re choosing an ED2, have you already settled on an ED1?