<p>My son's top school choice is CMC which is considerably more expensive than honors programs at two state universities that he is looking at. He cannot go to CMC without accumulating significant debt. I have spoken to some parents of students who have gone to other Liberal Arts colleges who felt that the Liberal Arts experience for their students at a small school became dull after a while and that their students would have done just as well at a state school. Can you tell me what you find amazing and life changing at CMC to help me justify this expense. May 1 is almost here!</p>
<p>Well, first of all, CMC is different from other liberal arts colleges in that it is part of a consortium, which gives your son the chance to interact with a lot more people and even take classes at the other schools, which makes it a lot less likely to get “dull.” But the main reason I personally chose to go to CMC is because the opportunities there are unparalleled by any other college I looked at. There are incredible study abroad programs and the option to spend a semester interning in Washington, D.C. and exchange programs with some prestigious east-coast liberal arts colleges like Colby, Haverford i think, and a few others. CMC also has incredible career placement services- when I visited the first student I met on campus had already secured a job in Merryl Lynch’s London office after graduation this May. CMC trains its students incredibly well for life and the professions, and students have an incredibly high success rate for getting into grad schools. At the info session I was at last week they said something like 90% of students who applied got into their first choice law schools, and they had 100% matriculation rate for kids that wanted to go into medical school last year, which is truly incredible. CMC has the academic benefits of a small liberal arts school (personal attention, small classes) with the research opportunities and social benefits of a medium sized university. And with its amazing extracurricular activities (lots of school spirit, debate team ranked 2nd nationally, 60% of students work on campus, 1/3 of student participate in Varsity athletics, etc) and incredible opportunities for study in other places, CMC is second to none in quality of life and opportunity it offers to its students.</p>
<p>according to the Princeton Review, CMC ranks:</p>
<h1>2, Best career/job placement services</h1>
<h1>4, Happiest Students</h1>
<h1>5, Best Quality of Life</h1>
<h1>5, School Runs like Butter</h1>
<h1>10, Students Happy with Financial Aid</h1>
<h1>11, Most Accessible Professors</h1>
<h1>11, Most Politically Active Students</h1>
<h1>11, Dorms like Palaces</h1>
<h1>15, Best Classroom Experience</h1>
<h1>15, Best Food <– IT IS SOOO GOOD</h1>
<h1>18, Lost of Race/Class Interaction</h1>
<p>note #4- happiest students. I personally think that says it all.</p>
<p>Cer: Everything that you said were the impressions that we had when we attended the CMC day. You really did a great job summarizing it! Are you an incoming freshman or are you already at the school? I’m asking because I’m trying to get a feel for if students who are already at the school still feel as strongly about it once they are there.</p>
<p>I am an incoming freshman, and I am really really excited because every single person that I know personally or know of who is already at Claremont McKenna absolutely LOVES it</p>
<p>Cer: Thank you for that! We don’t know anyone who goes to CMC at all. Most of the people in our area have not even heard of it. Pretty much all that we know came from the literature and from our CMC day visit. It is clear that all schools put their best foot forward in these situation. My son loved it when he visited so we are trying to make it happen. We’ll have a decision by Friday but it is great to have the reassurance from people who are already there even in this case when it is second hand.</p>
<p>As a current freshman, I would argue that I love CMC more now than I did when I came during orientation. The people that you’ll meet and the level of intellectual discourse on campus is unparalleled and it’s an incredible place to go to school. Feel free to PM if you have any specific questions!</p>