Scripps College

Date: Jun 13 2010
Major: Perfomance Arts (This Major's Salary over time)
Scripps is a truly wonderful college full of fiercely intelligent, passionate, involved, and driven students and equally impressive faculty and staff (save for a few members of the administration). The campus is ridiculously beautiful and the environment is stimulating and inspiring. I would not trade my experience here for the world.

I was a Dance major, and I had numerous opportunities every year to perform in both faculty and student work as well as choreograph my own work. I received a lot of support from both students and faculty when I decided to pursue a track within the major that no one had done before, and I really appreciated the noncompetitive environment. Students also have 24/7 access to the dance studio! I loved being able to focus on my dance studies and dance a lot while pursuing other interests like Religious Studies and Sociology. Though the long list of general education requirements can be annoying (and I really hated Core), being forced to take such a wide range of classes actually led me to discover a lot of interests I wouldn't have found otherwise. I never thought I'd be really interested in Neuropharmacology, but it turned out to be one of my most fascinating classes. Classes are challenging and demand effort and participation (you won't find many lecture classes at Scripps). All of the classes I took were very small (fewer than ten students for most of them), though this may vary depending on the department. Professors are approachable and always willing to help.

Because Scripps is small, people with more obscure or extremely specified interests may have difficulty finding the classes and resources they desire, but it is extremely easy to take classes at the other four colleges in the consortium (I ended up taking at least one class from every campus during my time at Scripps) and get credit for self-designed independent study. A group of my friends even created their own class for their third semester of Core. If you want to do something, there will be at least one person of authority at Scripps that will help you make it happen.

The party scene on the Scripps campus is pretty bad, though we do throw at least one good party a year. Most students go to the other four campuses for parties, and there are at least a couple social things happening every night of the week. It is easy to find something to do, and the other campuses are right across the street. The surrounding town of Claremont is cute and has some good little shops and places frozen yogurt, but almost everything is closed by 9 pm. LA and beaches are a bit of a drive, but easily doable if someone you know has a car. The mountains are really close if you like hiking or playing in the snow.

The sense of community in the dorms is unfortunately pretty horrible (though the buildings themselves are gorgeous), which I always thought was weird because everyone I know at Scripps is really nice and friendly. I had a great first year dorm experience (I got lucky and had great roommates, plus I'm pretty outgoing), but most people keep their doors closed and you won't find much socializing in the hallways or common rooms, so plan on looking outside dorm life to find friends.
Outside of the dorms, it is easy to connect with people and find your niche. There are plenty of clubs and activities to join. Everyone is really friendly and welcoming, and Scripps students just tend to be awesome in general!