Claremont McKenna College | Student Reviews | Best College

Student Profile

Yoshan

Class: Freshman
Major: History
Gender: F

High School: High School of Fashion Industries
Transfer Student: N

Big Picture

I absolutely love Claremont Mckenna. Coming from New York City, it's a big change as there isn't alot of diversity and the community's really small. However, I found the adjustment to be really easy. Everyone here is really friendly; I feel that CMC only admits people who will fit in with the rest of the student body, so everyone pretty much gets along here. I remember joining a Facebook group before I came to CMC called 99% of the people you'll meet in college. There were people like 'the person who answers every question in class', 'the druggie', the cool asian chick, the social loser, etc. When I came to CMC I never met any of those people because the whole student body is pretty much homogenous (but in a good way). The best thing about CMC is the community. Although CMC only has a little above 1000 students, the entire 5C community (scripps, harvey mudd, pitzer, pomona, and cmc) combined makes up for it. You can meet tons of different people at the other colleges which are around a 5 minute walk away. Weekend nights are the best because there are 5C parties where everyone congregates. In addition, you get to eat at other colleges, so I think there's around seven dining halls to choose from. Speaking of food, the food is amazing. I think were ranked number 10 as having the best college food. Each college dining hall has different types of food so if you want sushi go to Scripps College on Friday and if you want steak go to Harvey Mudd on Sunday. Having seven dining halls helps alot because you don't really get tired with the food. Plus CMC has tea time and snack which are amazing. For an hour in the afternoon the Ath serves pastry, rice krispies treats and drinks which is great because while you're changing classes you can just grab something to eat. And at night time, when you want to take a study break, you can just go to snack where the dining hall serves things like mozzarella sticks, spring rolls, and donuts. (seriously, its sooo easy to gain weight here). The dorms at CMC are amazing as well. Personally, I like North Quad the best because that's where most parties are, the rooms are the biggest, and you share the bathroom with one other room. NQ dorms feel like hotels because we have maid service that comes everyday to clean and our door opens up to outside, so we don't have to walk through a hallway. Each quad is said to have a personality of its own. North quad is for people who like to party, South Quad if for more studious people, and Mid Quad is somewhere in between.

Academic Life

Academics at CMC are great as well. Very rarely is class size above 20 people unless you're taking a science or reaaallly popular course that has a waiting list (any class that professor Valenza teaches). In all the classes I've taken, the teachers have encouraged discussion amongst students. My least favourite class was a required Freshman course called Questions of Civlization but that was only because the teacher was hard. She was the most intelligent woman I've ever met, and in class discussions, whenever you commented on something in class, she would challenge your comment. As someone who's not very good at forming logical arguments I was kind of intimidated. In general, CMC professors are very easy to talk to. Professor Valenza, a math teacher, even invites people over to his house for dinner and his wife baked the class cookies. Sometimes when I've gone to a professor's office for help I end up talking to them for way longer than I anticipated and about random topics not even related to class. One of the things I love about classes is that when the weather's nice, teachers sometimes hold class outside in the grass. I've never attended a school with so many smart people, lol. Its not uncommon to hear heated discussions out of class about politics or a country's economic policy. I don't think students here are overly competitive, they just work towards getting a good grade in the class, not to do better than everyone else. The best class I've taken has been my French class because the teacher's (Sylvie Young). She's really enthusiastic about the subject, and she always ends up singing songs in French which is really cute. Another really good class I've had is my Victorian Poetry and Essay class with Professor Juarretche. Although I found the readings a bit dense and boring at first, Juarretche would be so enthusiastic about them that I started to get into them too. Another thing I love about CMC is that you can take classes at any of the other claremont colleges, so theres a wide variety of options open. I really want to take a Human Sexuality course at Pomona, and there's a class on Fairy Tales at scripps.

Student Body

I explained about the diversity of the school in the stereotype section, so I'll just skip over that. Most students are politically aware on campus, and they get really into politics. Its not uncommon to see huge Ron Paul or Obama signs in student's windows. I would say that everyone interacts with everyone else because we all have stuff in common. I don't know anyone who feels out of place at CMC. Maybe if you were the kind of person who was anti-social, you might experience isolation. I would have to say that most students here are well off, but Claremont Mckenna gives great financial aid packages so you find people who have lower incomes as well. Money's not really an issue here because there's no opportunity to flaunt your wealth. You don't see people with flashy sports cars, and no one cares if you're wearing a $200 pair of jeans. Most students wear summer looking clothes to class because the weather's so nice. I dress up alot to go to class, but you don't find many students who do that. The norm here is pretty much flip-flops, a sweatshirt and jeans. However, at parties you'll see the majority of people dressed up, especially girls, and especially if its a themed party. Its not uncommon to see people walking around in bikinis on a nice day. People just lay down on the grass to tan. Its a bit weird though if you're talking to your professor in a bikini though, lol.