Claremont McKenna College

The sleaziness permeating CMC hasn't changed much. Case in point: Dr. Alan Heslop, head of the Rose Institute at the college, was convicted in Federal Court in 2014 for conspiring to bilk a Native American tribe out of several hundred thousand dollars. By all accounts, this disgraced professor is still active at the college. His profile from the Rose Institute is to be seen, with, naturally, nary a mention of his wrongdoings. A fine example of nobler thinking and the humanities at work.

Alumnus Male -- Class 2000

Back in the mid-1980s, I spent three semesters at CMC, and it was very disappointing in a number of ways. My classmates were bright--there is no disputing that--but the college catered primarily to a loutish, self-satisfied, right-wing, white Southern California suburbanites with little imagination, taste or personality. Like at so many schools, sadly, getting plastered was the primary recreational activity. On more than one occasion, alcohol poisoning necessitated calling the paramedics. The crude conservatism (or, more accurately, right-wing politics) notwithstanding, drug use was pretty rampant too. Not long after I transferred out, several of my dealing dormmates were actually arrested in a police raid. The faculty and academics were quite good--I have to say that classes could be genuinely stimulating at times--but on the whole, the experience was ruined by the abysmal quality of life. The campus was, and is, hideous (although recently there has been a large spate of new construction, granted). Strictly speaking, this ought not to matter, but I always had the feeling that the extreme utilitarian ugliness somehow rubbed off onto the students' personalities. Or perhaps it was just a symbiosis. From what I gather, in recent years the college has supposedly grown more sophisticated and diverse; I cannot speak to that, but I wouldn't necessarily take the administration's word for it, either. CMC was very smug and wealthy back then, and nothing that has happened over the past couple of decades would seem to militate in the opposite direction. A substantial portion of the student body consisted of embittered Stanford rejects. For the amount of money the college charges, one ought to be able to find something far more stimulating...for example, go to Germany, learn German for a year, then attend a German university. The total travel and insurance expense would still far below what you'd have to shell out at CMC, and your horizons would be much more greatly expanded.

Alumnus Male -- Class 2000

Recent alumni of this school- I've taken a quick glance at some of the other review and just wanted to give a candid and honest evaluation of CMC as an institution and whether it is worth your money.

I'll cut to the chase- don't come here. I could write an essay on this, but I'll first state that CMC is currently undergoing an identity crisis- by all accounts CMC is not a liberal arts college- with the visible encroachment of the Robert Day School the academic environment has become blatantly preprofessional while the social scene is more akin to a barbaric fraternity than anything remotely championing the "liberal arts". Meanwhile, CMC, unfortunately, lacks the size to actually attract the top employers (banks, large corporations,etc.). In other words, even those that have a legitimate need to find a job immediately after college at the expensive of an intellectual experience still won't find what they want here- go to UCLA or USC.

Furthermore, the social scene leaves much to be desired- we're in Claremont/Pomona, not Santa Monica- there's nothing to do here! Of course, if you're a student who intentionally wants to avoid non-upper-class college kids and remain in a virtual bubble, maybe you might like the social scene here. Then again, that sort of kid is less likely to be considering CMC because of actual interest and more likely to be doing so because it was the best school you got into.

The last thing I'll say is that Claremont has laughable lame recognition outside of the West Coast, let alone internationally. If you intend on working anywhere outside of LA, be prepared to see eyebrows raised when you tell them where you went to school, and to be laughed at when you tell them how much your tuition was.I could go on and on and on.

4th Year Female -- Class 2015