<p>My daughter didn't investigate Smith. My D doesn't want to be anywhere as rural as Amherst area. Our first school tour was at Amherst College (mostly cause it was on our way home from a visit,) and while she liked all the LAC aspects, it just felt rural. She's looking for a more urban setting. BTW, I know the Claremonts don't give that exactly, but at least you can get to a city.</p>
<p>They have a consortium there at Smith too, but it's much more "get on the bus and go to Mt. Holyoke, Amherst, UMass, etc"</p>
<p>Congrats to your DD, that's great.</p>
<p>About merit at Scripps, even if you are not chosen for one of the named scholarships, my d got a significant amount of grant money. The consortium aspect of Scripps means you have the extracurricular resources of a 5,000 student university and the shared sports teams open up the small school experience. On my d's revisit to Bryn Mawr, she realized that she needed to be on a more integrated campus - Haverford and Swarthmore were too far away. Being from New England, Claremont seems positively urban.</p>
<p>Your daughter sounds very much like me in her interests, and I, personally am in love with Scripps. Scripps seems to have a curriculum that's heavily focused on liberal arts and culture, which I am drawn to. The campus is beautiful and it's part of the larger Claremont consortium. </p>
<p>I've looked into Pomona and CM, but I found what I've heard about CM somewhat off putting - their students are reputed more practical and if you major in something intellectual like philosophy/literature, you'd get many questions like "what are you doing to do with that?" heh. while it is a question i would consider when planning my future, I prefer an environment where the students aren't as pre-professional oriented. </p>
<p>I loved Pomona, but it is very competitive to get into and I already have too many reaches on my list. (I'm looking into Brown and Tufts too!)</p>
<p>I live right by these colleges, and I would say- 1. Pomona
2. CMC (personally, id say all this leadership stuff is bs)
3. Scripps (all women)</p>
<p>you can always cross-enroll or whatev its called
id say pomona</p>
<p>oops nvm this thread has long been dead</p>