THE CLAREMONT COLLEGES: A COLLEGIATE CONSORTIUM OF CALIFORNIA’S FINEST, PRIVATE, SELECTIVE LIBERAL ARTS COLLEGES

The Claremont Colleges is a consortium of highly ranked, highly selective private colleges and universities located in the suburban neighbourhoods east of Los Angeles, California, that includes five liberal arts colleges and two graduate research universities. The consortium is unusual in that the member institutions are effectively co-located with one another on adjoining campuses and are much more closely integrated than is the case with comparable consortia, indeed, the consortium is modelled on the federal collegiate university model common to ancient European universities, particularly the universities of Oxford and Cambridge in England.

ABOUT

The cities of Claremont and Pomona are famed for their tree-lined avenues and mission-era architecture, presenting a picturesque and quintessential slice of Southern California. Their relative proximity to the city of Los Angeles has made the area an attractive choice for well-to-do families seeking out homes in the foothills of the San Gabriel mountains. Indeed, well into the 1920s, Pomona and Claremont were considered amongst the most desirable neighbourhoods in California, with some of the highest household income levels in the entire country. Pomona, a lush garden landscape that had garnered the nickname “Queen of the Citrus Belt”, was idealised as the perfect example of successful upwardly mobile middle-class America in marketing circles for decades.

The Congregationalist community that had settled in the area established Pomona College in 1887, seeking to emulate the model of the liberal arts colleges common to New England and the Mid-Atlantic states on the Eastern seaboard. From the outset, the founders intended to create a West Coast equivalent to such revered institutions as those that became the Ivy League or the so-called “Little Ivies” that make up the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC), the Pennsylvania Consortium for the Liberal Arts (PCLA), the New York Six Liberal Arts Consortium (NY6), the Five Colleges of Ohio (OH5) and various similar consortia. Indeed, some of the more famous of those eastern colleges and universities were established by Congregationalists including the likes of Harvard University, Yale University, Dartmouth College, Middlebury College, Bowdoin College, Smith College, Mount Holyoke College and Wellesley College amongst others.

Nonetheless, from the college was founded as a non-sectarian institution welcoming all faiths on a co-educational basis. The college was initially located in Pomona before moving to the site of an incomplete hotel project in neighbouring Claremont. The college was noteworthy for admitting ethnic minority students in its early years from black and Asian backgrounds despite its burgeoning reputation as an institution associated with the privileged White Anglo-Saxon Protestants that dominated the American upper classes. Despite being perceived by some as a bastion of privilege, over the course of the college’s history, the school has repeatedly taken steps to ensure that were engineered to foster inclusivity and diversity garnering a reputation as a progressive and liberal institution.

With a focus on academic rigour and a strong sense of school spirit, tradition and culture Pomona College quickly established a reputation as a leading college and has maintained that reputation for much of its history. Today, the college is regularly celebrated as the single most selective college in the United States and is one of only a handful that has featured in the top 10 of the most reputable national liberal arts colleges in North America (alongside luminaries such as Amherst College, Swarthmore College, Wellesley College and Williams College).

In the early years, Pomona College experienced significant financial difficulties. This was exacerbated by the collapse of the local economy owing to a real estate bubble bursting as speculators drove prices artificially high betting on a population boom expected with the arrival of the railroad. Pomona College had invested in this speculative market, having planned to develop a campus at a different location to Claremont. Faced with these experiences and eager to lock in a future prosperity model that allowed access to greater resources and funds, Pomona was forced to consider whether to grow into a large research university, as their peers in the Ivy League had done, alongside closer peer schools like Stanford University, or to remain a small, intimate, liberal arts college. The trustees decided to support a proposal from the college’s fourth President, James A. Blaisdell, and develop an alternative model, loosely based on the collegiate approach of European universities like the Université de Paris, the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge, the University of London and Durham University. This collegiate model or federal model had been embraced to some extent by other North American institutions, such as the University of Toronto. Harvard University and Yale University also had brief dalliances with the concept establishing a system of residential colleges, albeit that these have largely become fully absorbed into the university and operate primarily as dormitory and student housing facilities.

Pomona College would establish a number of other colleges and institutes to complement its activities and mission, recognising that, operating as a collective consortium, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Acting in consortium, they would effectively mirror the capabilities of a larger collegiate university without eroding the small liberal arts college concept which really was their core competence and defining characteristic. Instead, they would seek to incubate other colleges of the same ethos and stature that could operate in harmony without competing against one another in such a way to undermine the other. This was a radical new concept and one that, largely, remain without imitation. The Claremont Colleges consortium was incepted in 1925.

Claremont Graduate University was opened that same year offering advanced level degrees and research programmes to graduate students seeking a similar experience to that offered by Pomona to undergraduates. Claremont Graduate University embraces an unusual academic model called “Transdisciplinarity”. Students are required to augment and supplement their chosen field of study with courses and research that incorporates other disciplines and subjects, borrowing heavily from and extending upon the idea of a broad liberal arts curriculum. As a full research university, Claremont Graduate University is comprised of various schools and institutes.

Subsequently, Scripps College was founded in 1926 as a primarily undergraduate women’s college to be the coordinate corresponding college to Pomona College. Scripps College was established on a campus immediately north of Pomona’s and very quickly established itself as a comparably excellent academic powerhouse. Today, and for much of the school’s history, Scripps is celebrated as the most selective, most successful and most prestigious women’s college on the west coast.

Following the great wars and the enactment of the G.I. Bill, American colleges and universities were being asked to find ways to accommodate a significant influx of veterans who had been given access to education through this seminal piece of legislation. Many colleges were quick to identify the impact that this would have on existing resources, admissions standards, academic standards and the wider student body with acceptance procedures and tuition fees having to deviate in order to meet these provisions. Under The Claremont Colleges consortium would again present a novel approach to respond to these developments.

In 1946, Claremont McKenna College was opened as a men’s college with a specific focus on commerce, economics, public affairs and international affairs, a curriculum which would not directly compete with the core strengths of the existing colleges. The Claremont McKenna College campus was immediately adjacent to Pomona and Scripps. The college would ultimately embrace the trend towards co-educational education welcoming women from 1976.

Harvey Mudd College followed in 1955, being established as a school of engineering, science and technology along the lines of the great Institutes of Technology and Polytechnics such as the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University), The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, Stevens Institute of Technology, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Case Institute of Technology (now Case Western Reserve University), Lehigh University, Worcester Polytechnic Institute and, in more recent years, the Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering.

In 1963, a further undergraduate focussed, liberal arts college was founded following the successful blueprint set out by the Four College Consortium in Massachusetts (now the Five College Consortium). In 1958, the Four College Consortium (which included Amherst College, Mount Holyoke College, Smith College and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst) presented a white paper entitled ‘The New College Plan’ which suggested the establishment of a new college which would embrace alternative methods of educational delivery, cutting-edge techniques and experimental approaches with a progressive pedagogy. The Claremont Colleges opened Pitzer College as a manifestation of this concept. The Four College Consortium opened their own version in 1970 with Hampshire College becoming the fifth member of the consortium (thereafter the Five College Consortium).

The final college within The Claremont Colleges consortium was established in 1997 as a medical and life sciences specialist graduate school. Keck Graduate Institute was instituted by the consortium at the behest of the President of Harvey Mudd College who perceived an applied research university that would translate ideas and concepts into real world applications. The school would embrace best practices in incubating and nurturing businesses and projects inspired by proprietary research from within The Claremont Colleges network. It is the only college in the consortium that is not located immediately beside the others but is only a short distance away.

The five undergraduate focussed colleges (Pomona College, Scripps College, Claremont McKenna College, Harvey Mudd College and Pitzer College) are collectively referred to as the “5Cs”. With the addition of the two graduate focussed research universities (Claremont Graduate University and Keck Graduate Institute), The Claremont Colleges are also known as the “7Cs”. The Claremont School of Theology in Los Angeles was once co-located with The Claremont Colleges and had a formal affiliation with the consortium but is not a member.

The presence of the various Claremont Colleges, along with various public colleges and universities has given the city of Claremont the nickname “the City of Trees and PhDs”, a moniker that the various Claremont institutions of adopted in marketing materials. The presence of some of the nation’s leading college-preparatory schools high schools and elementary schools, such as The Webb Schools and Foothill Country Day School, further elevates this reputation.

The Claremont Colleges are all regarded as amongst the most prestigious and most sought-after tertiary educational institutions in the United States, attracting applicants from the most academically capable students from around the world. Pomona College is regularly rated as the nation’s most selective school with the other Claremont Colleges typically featuring highly in those same respective rankings. Claremont Graduate University, as the only full research university within the consortium, is ranked as “R2: Doctoral University – High Research Activity” under the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education scheme. Their idyllic location, on a sprawling, tree-lined campus framed by the backdrop of the San Gabriel mountains with classic mission architecture and modern design-led buildings capturing the very best of California has made The Claremont Colleges a very attractive destination for students.

As a consortium, the member schools’ benefit from an overarching strategic and administrative team, pooled resourcing, joint purchasing power and various other synergies and cost mitigation initiatives. The Consortium operates similarly to other such college consortia, managing joint library and research services, common funding applications and joint admissions and graduate recruitment fairs. The secretariat overseas The Claremont Colleges Services (TCCS) organisation which provides education and facilities management services to the seven member schools.

Students at the 5Cs are also able to cross-register for classes subject to certain conditions and criteria. To a lesser degree, students at the 5Cs may also be eligible to register for or participate in studies at the two graduate universities, though this applies more to courses at Claremont Graduate University. Prospective students must, however, apply to their preferred Claremont institution and should not apply to benefit from cross-registration opportunities or a chance to transfer to a different college within the consortium. Students are also able to avail of intra-consortium sporting, social events and co-curricular programmes. Students also can avail of and access facilities across the seven campuses.

As the seven member schools are relatively small, athletics programmes tend to be delivered jointly with Pomona and Pitzer students participating in the same joint sports teams and Claremont McKenna, Harvey Mudd and Scripps also having a joint programme. The colleges all offer National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) Division III sports programmes with the Pomona/Pitzer teams (the “Sagehens”) and the Claremont McKenna/Harvey Mudd/Scripps (AKA “Claremont Mudd Scripps” / “CMS”) teams (the “Stags” and the “Athenas”) competing in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) alongside other prestigious private schools such as Caltech, Occidental College and Whittier College. The Claremont Colleges teams have a successful record dominating the SCIAC, having regularly been crowned as overall champions.

All seven colleges and universities are accredited with the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) through the WASC Senior College and University Commission (WSCUC). Additionally, they are all members of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU). As the consortium operates a combined library system, all seven member schools are also members of the Oberlin Group of College Libraries, advancing standards amongst the nation’s most selective liberal arts colleges with the greatest undergraduate, research output. So too are all the undergraduate colleges of the 5Cs members of The Annapolis Group of Liberal Arts Colleges and the Consortium of Liberal Arts Colleges (CLAC), two further selective associations of the top-ranked private liberal arts colleges that consider one another to be peer institutions. Claremont McKenna College, Pitzer College and Scripps College are also members of the Small College Consortium (SCC). Claremont McKenna College and Pomona College were both members of the prestigious Selective Liberal Arts Consortium (SLAC) and, alongside Scripps College (a member of the Women’s College Coalition (WCC)), are members of the 568 Presidents Group and the Questbridge funding consortium. These three colleges are also the only Claremont Colleges participating in the The Centro – Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies (ICCS), a consortium of colleges operating a study abroad programme. Pomona College and Scripps College are also both members of the Alliance to Advance Liberal Arts Colleges (AALAC) and the Consortium on Financing Higher Education (COFHE). Pomona College is also a member of The Council of Independent Colleges (CIC). The Keck Graduate Institute is a member of the Association of Independent Technological Universities (AITU), a network of the nation’s top-ranked polytechnics and institutes of technology. Keck Graduate Institute is also the originator of the Keck Geology Consortium (KGC) a nationwide association of geology programmes from the leading colleges and universities, which also includes Pomona College. Pitzer is also a member of the Project Pericles consortium promoting civic engagement amongst member colleges (known as “Pericleans”).

For those interested in finding out more about The Claremont Colleges consortium, you might like to get in touch with the secretariat using the contact details set out below. Alternatively, feel free to speak with your preferred member institution.

Our community of readers includes many prospective and current students and their families, and various other interested parties who would welcome insights and stories from current or former alums or faculty. If you have any such experiences that you would like to share with us we are grateful for your comments. We are especially keen to hear about how The Claremont Colleges consortium arrangement impacted your time at one of the member colleges or helped you make the decision to attend one of the participating institutions.