<p>I like a lot of things about Pitzer college, but I am a bit confused as to why their admissions rate is so low, yet their SAT ranges and GPA ranges are somewhat low and do not match this competitive-seeming admit rate. Can someone speak about the academic prestige of Pitzer? Someone once told me it is like a West-Coast "little ivy:" is this ture?</p>
<p>The Claremont consortium has a great reputation, but the admit stats of the various colleges within the consortium are somewhat different. Harvey Mudd is the engineering college and like engineering colleges within most universities it has stringent admission requirements with very high math SATs. Claremont McKenna is where the economics and math majors tend to go and also has higher SATs. Pomona and Pitzer attract history, psychology, art and sociology majors who sometimes have lower SATs, particularly in math. Scripps is the all-woman college and is a mixed bag.</p>
<p>“Pitzer” isn’t the West Coast’s “Little Ivy”. </p>
<p>The Claremont Colleges is a collection of liberal arts colleges that happen to provide a renowned education but Pitzer is the bottom, bottom university among them and really isn’t comparable in any way to the three super prestigious (Mudd, McKenna, and Pomona) colleges or Scripps. </p>
<p>The college is part of the frivolous “SAT optional” movement and in terms of selectivity, rank, and quality of education, Pitzer is notorious for being the one gaping hole amongst the Claremont Colleges that will let just anybody reach their foot into the Claremont door.</p>
<p>There really aren’t that many positive things to say about Pitzer. It’s like the UC Riverside or UC Merced of the Claremont Consortium.</p>
<p>I think Bates would be an acceptable East Coast equivalent; it’s hard to tease one Claremont College out from the others because, frankly, how many LACs could survive on a thirty-five acre campus all alone?</p>
<p>In my notes from a Pitzer visit last spring, I have that Pitzer received 3,810 applications and had a 25% acceptance rate with an average weighted GPA of 3.85. Their test optional policy applies to students who have a GPA over 3.5 or who are in the top 10% of their class. Students also have the option of using high AP/IB scores. Remove the top 10%/higher GPA/high AP scoring population from the SAT/ACT pool, and it’s not surprising that the average SAT is lower.</p>
<p>As the Pitzer adcoms love to mention, the school leads in per capita Fulbrights awarded. Pitzer students can clearly do quite well academically. But it’s certainly not a little ivy. Among the Claremonts, Pomona should get that designation.</p>
<p>Also consider that it’s part of a very friendly consortium. Many of the resources that Pomona has, you will get access to in some form. I know that they offer cross-college course enrollment. I’m not sure what the requirements/restraints are for that though.</p>
<p>Pitzer is certainly the most… laid back of the Consortium. There is always the option of taking more difficult classes at the other 5Cs however. I don’t know the exact limitations but I would assume that you can take a fair amount off-campus.</p>
<p>I do see where your question is coming from…</p>
<p>Mudd: 1495
Pomona: 1475
Claremont McKenna: 1400
Scripps: 1365
Pitzer: 1285</p>
<p>As I recall Pitzer was founded very late in comparison to the other four, to concentrate on either Psychology or Sociology… my memory is vague on that.</p>
<p>sentiment - you are being unfair to Pitzer. I’ve met many Pitzer students who turned down UCLA, UCB, Pomona and other excellent schools for the chance to attend Pitzer. My own daughter chose Pitzer over Berkeley. It’s not nearly as bad as you make it out to be.</p>
<p>When evaluating Pitzer, and its place among the Claremont 5 Cs, you first have to take out Mudd, which is pretty much a world of its own. The remaining four, Scripps, Pomona, CMC and Pitzer, are primarily different in their freshman profiles. Once in the Claremont Consortium, students of the four colleges tend to take classes all over. </p>
<p>Are Pomona classes harder than those at Pitzer? I doubt it. In any case, the Consortium is designed so that students can usually take courses at Pomona, CMC or Scripps as easily as Pitzer, and visa versa.</p>
<p>Certain humanities majors are not associated with any of the Claremont colleges, but are shared by all the colleges. By design, students with these majors attend classes all over. One reason is to provide students with more choices and more professors than would be available if they were restricted to one college.</p>
<p>As for science, Pitzer, CMC and Scripps have pooled their resources and send all of their students to a shared facility, Joint Science. Pomona and Mudd have their own science facilities.</p>
<p>As to SAT scores, here is the reality: students who do really well on the SAT are just students who do well on standardized tests. Does the SAT predict success at a Claremont college? I suggest that it gives some indication; but a student who scores Pitzer’s average of 1285 can easily do better at Claremont than one scoring Pomona’s 1475. The SAT optional movement recognizes that the SAT has some built-in biases that tend to shortchange certain types of otherwise smart, or even brilliant students.</p>
<p>This thread is really old, but I’m going to respond to it anyways since people may still stumble across it and I’m disappointed by some of the responses.</p>
<p>To address the OP’s question, Pitzer has risen to academic prominence relatively recently, so it’s low acceptance rate (which has fallen even further since 2010) isn’t yet reflective of its prestige. It’s certainly a very good school, but it isn’t well known outside of CA and is a tier or two below schools like SWAP.</p>
<p>That said, though, it doesn’t really make sense to compare them since Pitzer has such a different personality. Its focus is on social responsibility, and its admissions process reflects this; it won’t hesitate to reject a 4.0/2400 student if they don’t demonstrate fit. The other 4Cs place more of an emphasis on traditional academic success, so of course they’re going to have higher stats. That doesn’t make Pitzer a worse school, just one with different priorities.</p>
<p>No need to dredge up old threads. There is tons of current misinformation and rude opinions you can work on.</p>