we will be in California over spring break and are hoping to visit a few schools such as Pitzer, Pomona, Redlands Loyola Marymount and Oxy. The week we are planning, the Claremont schools are on spring break. I am considering shifting the trip a bit so we can tour those on a regular in-session day. For those familiar with Claremont, how important is this? The shift is not ideal for us schedule wise, but I am leaning toward doing it so S can get a real feel for the 5Cs. Do you agree that this is worth doing? Do most students travel at that time so the campus would be dead? Thanks.
I’m generally a big fan of visiting colleges when they are in session so you can get a sense of the “hustle and bustle” with the students around, however the 5Cs are generally pretty quiet (kinda dead) all the time (and I say that as a huge 5C fan). Pomona maybe the quietest, with CMC on the other end of the spectrum - particularly around the mid-quad dorms. But while I’m not sure that you’re going to get too much of a different “feel” during spring break, what you will miss is the opportunity to sit in on classes (although I believe Pitzer only offers that opportunity to seniors), which was one of the things that sold the 5Cs to one of my kids.
As the parent of a 5C college grad, I do think you’d get a better feeling for it with students there. But… my kid visited her 5C (actually visited 2 of them) on an August day when it was over 100 degrees, and it REALLY was quiet. That didn’t keep my kid from applying, and she went back for an accepted student visit to get a better feeling for the school. They closed the deal with her on that 2nd visit.
Thanks for the comments! I think we will tour there on the Monday before we fly out. And maybe spend Sunday evening checking out the campuses we won’t officially tour. Also, I was hoping to fly out of Ontario that day but the flights are few…how far/long a drive to LAX or Orange county on a Monday afternoon? Tour would end at 1 pm.
The drive to LAX was pretty ugly, we did our best to avoid it at all times. Maybe someone more local can tell you the specifics for that time. We did find that if we were flying out of Ontario (which we almost always did), we needed to fly out earlier in the day. It sounds from your user name like you are in MN, that is also where we lived during the college search and D’s first 2 years of college. We pretty much always flew in and out of Ontario via Southwest. One benefit of SW is no change fees and no bag fees, which is great for a college student going back and forth. (But I know that doesn’t help your current attempt to visit and fly back to MN on the same day).
Parent of a current Pitzer student. Agree with posts above about touring and airport info. If you can tour when kids are there it would really would give your child a better feel for it, have a meal in the dining hall, etc. Spring break there will be some kids around, it won’t be completely dead but it will be extremely quiet. Certainly not as quiet as when we went there with my oldest child during a holiday break and he wouldn’t even consider going back again. Mistake made and learned!
Seems like I have to deal with LAX/LGB/SNA/ONT 4-5 times a month, and will only go with LAX if I need a long direct or late flight. ONT and SNA are both good for connecting flights, but with rare exception ONT is cheaper (although like @intparent says, EB flights tend to leave very early). ONT is right in between Claremont and Redlands, but LMU is right next to LAX so you can have some fun figuring your best route between the colleges. One thing to be very aware of is that there is a very strong weekday traffic current running between LA and the IE (Redlands/ONT and kinda Claremont). It runs west in the AM and east in the PM and it can more than double the length of your drive. Definitely play with the “Depart at” feature on Google Maps. And, I endorse your idea of spending the Sunday evening before your official 5C tours walking around both the colleges and the village to get a full sense of how unique the consortium really is.
Maybe someone more local can tell you the specifics for that time. We did find that if we were flying out of Ontario (which we almost always did), we needed to fly out earlier in the day. It sounds from your user name like you are in MN, that is also where we lived during the college search and D’s first 2 years of college. We pretty much always flew in and out of Ontario via Southwest. One benefit of SW is no change fees and no bag fees, which is great for a college student going back and forth. (But I know that doesn’t help your current attempt to visit and fly back to MN on the same day).