what is the consortium experience like?

<p>I've posted this on the Pitzer forum, but have gotten no replies, so also just posted on the search and selection thread and will also try here!</p>

<p>Given that Pomona is so selective, I am wondering what it would be like for my daughter if she attended Pitzer but majored in theater through Pomona's program. I just can't get a sense of what life at the consortium is like, how much of daily life is spent interacting with the other schools and how much your life is defined by the particular school you are enrolled in. </p>

<p>FWIW, she probably will apply to Pomona, but we won't be banking on an acceptance and want to explore the other options in Claremont.</p>

<p>D made many friends at Pitzer through Pomona’s dance program. She also took classes at Pitzer that weren’t offered at Pomona. The consortium was one of the major reasons why Pomona was her #1 choice, and she benefited a great deal from it.</p>

<p>The consortium makes the 5C’s what it is. I’m actually a Pomona student who is living at Pitzer this year. All the schools completely mesh socially, athletically, and often academically. Each campus just has it’s own like “niche” in character that suits some people better than others.</p>

<p>I’m going to talk about this from a Pomona student’s perspective - it should be noted that as the most self-sufficient (we have more departments and students than the other schools) Pomona is probably the most isolated from the other schools.</p>

<p>That said, the other colleges have played a large role in both my education and social life here at the 5C’s. My time and experience of Pomona would be a lot worse if there wasn’t the extra resources (I’ve taken at least one class at every school - a raretiy for Pomona students) and the social scene (Its nice to know that if you don’t like the 3 events here, you can go to one of the 5 other ones at the other schools).</p>

<p>If you only hang out with Pomona kids, only take classes here, and don’t go to events off of the campus, then the other schools will not play a large role in your life - but what I just said is hard to do. The other schools have so much to offer that they really are a big part of day-to-day life.</p>

<p>Besides, I love eating at CMC and Scripps - they have some of the best food on campus.</p>

<p>I just got a better statistic about cross enrollment: recently 94% of students cross enroll, and they take an average of 4 non-Pomona classes.</p>

<p>I didn’t know that - I’m impressed.</p>

<p>What is the requirement for the classes that you have to take specifically at Pomona and not the other Cs</p>

<p>they recently changed it, but i think its something like you can take 1 class each semester outside pomona freshman year (but there are exceptions) and half of your classes outside of pomona sophomore year and up… However all in all 60% of your classes must be from pomona.</p>

<p>I want to point out that the exceptions list is pretty large. Languages not offered at Pomona, and even entire fields like mathematics, are exempt from cross-enrollment restrictions.</p>