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Hey! I just finished my junior year and I'm trying to figure out where to apply to college this fall. What do you think my chances are here? Any other college recommendations? Thanks!

Entering senior at a top 10 public high school in California
GPA: 3.55 UW/ 3.67 W (upward trend)
SATII Writing: 800
SATII Literature: 690
I'm taking the SATI in October after I do test prep this summer
By the end of senior year, I will have taken 8 APs and 1 honors class (AP Music Theory, AP Psych, AP Euro, AP US History, Hon. English, AP English, AP Gov/Econ, AP Stat, AP Calc AB)

-Member of Junior Statesmen of America
-Mock Trial- 2 years
-Vice President of Philosophy Club
-Staff writer on school newspaper
-Member of Amnesty International- 3 yrs
-Member of History Club
-Member of the school district's Diversity Committee, which works to combat such issues as homophobia in the school environment
-I'm starting a book club and a Democratic club next year, both of which I'll obviously be president of
-Member/Volunteer at Feminist Majority Foundation
-Volunteer/Organizer for John Kerry for President/ Kerry Campaign Writers Bureau/ Students for Kerry (about 15 hours a week)
-Participated in National Youth Leadership Forum for Law in Washington DC this spring
-Won the underclassman award at my school 2 years in a row, once for English, once for Precalculus (each teacher picks one student from years frosh-junior to give an award to for academic excellence)
- I'm in the Gifted and Talented Education Program (GATE) at my school
-Took classes at UC Berkeley every summer I've been in high school (got straight A's in them)
-Taking classes at local community college as well
-During budget cuts, I led a letter-writing campaign among the students to protect the teachers and programs that had been put in jeopardy
-Wrote a novel (unpublished) and 2 plays, one of which was performed at UC Berkeley
-I don't know if this will factor in at all in assessing my grades, but my mom has been unemployed for a year, on top of which there was a death in the family, the combination of which made for a stressful junior year to say the least. :-( However, my grades have definitely rebounded significantly.
-I'm a very strong writer and will be able to get good recommendations.

If someone could let me know what you think my chances are, that would be great!!

By Crzycatdc (Crzycatdc) on Tuesday, June 15, 2004 - 01:50 pm: Edit

You are a shoe in. My resume is not nearly as good as yours and I got in. CMC was actually my safety. Your interests fit well with the school so I wouldn't worry. And you're a leader which is CMC's big thing.

I would let them know in your essay all about what's happened over the years. High school was a very rough time for me also...my dad died, etc...and I let them know that...the admissions office takes all of these things to heart. I know the admissions officers...they're all great people and love getting to know their applicants. I would recommend visiting and getting to know them and the campus.

But on another note...I may be a little biased, but I think you would thrive much more at a slightly bigger school with a more active and engaging student body.

Leaders like you are put on a pedastal at CMC so you'll get your ego rubbed a lot (trust me, I know), but to be honest, you'll have few people who are as passionate as you seem to be.

But, like I said, I'm a little biased: I'm transfering from CMC.

Let me know if u want to know anything else.

By Leftyleftist (Leftyleftist) on Tuesday, June 15, 2004 - 02:38 pm: Edit

You really think I could get in even though my GPA isn't so hot? That's so cool!!

I'm so sorry to hear that your dad died. That's so horrible...

I don't know... I guess I'm just not sure how competitive I'm going to look considering that numbers-wise, I'm below the caliber of most of the applicants, and my strengths are the more subjective factors- writing, leadership, ECs, recs. Do you think that Scripps might have a more active student body? It's a little too small for my taste (most of the other LACs I've been looking at are around 2000-2200 students), but my cousin went to Scripps and liked it.

Just out of curiosity, what college are you transfering to?

Thanks so much for the positive feedback!! You've certainly helped alleviate some of the applying-for-college tensions I've been consumed with lately.

By Crzycatdc (Crzycatdc) on Wednesday, June 16, 2004 - 12:30 am: Edit

I finished high school with only a 3.0. Granted, I had a lot of stuff going on, but I let them know how passionate I was about school and that every grade I got was a grade I worked hard to get.

TRUST ME...you are a very competitive applicant. I'm not you so I don't know what your experience will really be, but you should have more faith in yourself and show your passion in your applications. I really think that's the thing that helped me the most when applying to schools...and I got into all 12 schools I've applied to (regular and transfer), including Cornell, Columbia, Northwestern, and UVA (which is where I will be going)...all very competitive schools.

CMC is definitely looking for people who care about what they do. The students all have the scores, but few have the passion and dedication that students at liberal arts college usually posess...this is mainly because CMC has only recently begun to really advertise itself as a liberal arts school. It has been a big government and politics school for a long time.

I think your work with the Diversity Committee, Teh Feminist Majority, and Amnesty international will definitely stand out.

Also, you are passionate enough about what you do to have written a novel and a play...these are definitely big factors!

Oh...to warn you...CMC is a very conservative school and has only recently begun to grapple with its issues of sexism, racism, and homophobia. That's why students who have diversity leadership usually stand out. You will have a lot of opportunities to do groundbreaking things at this school. They could use someone as active and caring as you.

Is CMC your top choice? What made you consider CMC?

Scripps is more active. I have a few friends who go there and they really like it. While Scripps is small, a lot of students, male and female, take classes at Scripps and vice versa. Scripps has nice parties (just my opinion haha) and have REALLY nice dorms. I'm sorry I can't give more info regarding the student body and admissions. I'll try and find out some more stuff about it.

But Pomona is usually considered the most active and engaging student body. They rank above all the other schools, offer more majors, and have a much more diverse student body. While CMC is known as the school for conservatives...Pomona is known for its liberals....they're also the most self- righteous too...but I guess that comes with the territory...

I'll also try and find out more about Pomona's admissions...they're harder to get into than CMC though.

Oh...one more thing...I'm friends with the admissions interns (I was actually going to be one if I hadn't transfered) and the admissions officers so if you want to get in touch with them, let me know.

By Leftyleftist (Leftyleftist) on Wednesday, June 16, 2004 - 02:38 am: Edit

That's so impressive that you were able to gain admittance into such phenomenal schools! You must be very proud of yourself- that's quite an accomplishment! Did you have really high test scores, or do you think that you stood out mainly for your passion, leadership, etc?

I've heard about the right-leaning political nature of Claremont McKenna. Has it been your experience that it has been overbearingly conservative, or do you think that people are at least willing to hear out people who bring different perspectives? As my screen name would suggest, I'm pretty damn liberal- probably because I'm from Berkeley. However, if there's still room for dissent, I don't think that I'd be deterred by that too much, particularly considering that Scripps and Pomona are both more liberal and I could still take classes there, and because I already go to a fairly conservative high school, so I guess I'm used to it.

There are a few things that are really drawing me to the Claremont colleges, some of which are specific to CMC. I'm also looking at Haverford and Mount Holyoke, both of which are in consortiums, just like with the Claremont Consortium, and I'm really attracted to that- small school but with bigger resources and more students among the different schools. The Claremont colleges have excellent reputations, and although I don't want to stoop to looking too much at prestige and rankings, I want to be a professor, and name recognition will most assuredly make a difference with that. Like I said earlier, my cousin went to Scripps and liked it, which bodes well for the consortium, and I understand that Scripps, Pomona, and CMC all have great English and political science programs, and those are probably the areas I'm going to major in. Also, and probably most importantly, I've heard that CMC gives excellent financial aid, and that'll probably be the biggest determining factor in where I end up going to school (considering that I live alone with my single unemployed mom). So those are the biggest factors in my looking at CMC and the other claremont schools (aside from the fact that despite the fact that I'm much more of a northern california girl, I think I'd be better able to cope with so cal than with western Massachusetts weather). I will admit, though, that if I could actually get into Pomona with really good financial aid, and I don't know what the chances are of that happening, I would probably take it over CMC on the basis of political leaning (I don't know if that's petty, but it would probably be a better match in that sense). And in accordance with your description of Pomona liberals, I don't think that Berkeley would ever be accused of having a paucity of self-righteous liberals either!

That is so sweet of you to say that you'd be willing to get me in touch with an admission intern. That's so generous of you- I appreciate your kindness and willingness to give me advice and help me out with all of this chaos I'm going through at the present moment.

Thanks again for your wonderful support!!!

By Crzycatdc (Crzycatdc) on Wednesday, June 16, 2004 - 11:10 am: Edit

I didn't have really high test scores at all...they were about average as many students applying to competitive schools. I know that's a little vague, but I don't want to encourage or discourage any decision you might make based on my scores...you already seem stressed out enough. But I will say that I got the same as you on the Lit SAT II and you did better than me on the Writing SAT II.

I think my extracurrics helped me a lot. I've been through a lot in my life that would have deterred most people, but I've been dedicated to everything I do. But I have to admit it also helped that I was on a full academic/arts scholarship at a very well- known high school in DC. CMC is well- known in California, but most people in other parts of the country assume it's a community college so CMC is actively recruiting outside of California, especially on the East Coast...so I think that also helped me.

CMC's conservatism was a bit much for me just because it's coupled with a lot of apathy. And not only are students conservative, but Professors are too. But I also had more adjusting to do. The way Californians deal with isms and politics is very different from the east coast. The Southern california lifestyle is fun, but I'm used to more intense passion and caring I guess.

But all in all CMC's conservatism is not really overbearing. You will debate and fight with people one minute and be going out to party with them that same night. A friend of mine from new york city is the one of the most conservative people I know, but she's fun to hang with and I always love discussing politics and hearing her views.

But you also have those people who will go overboard with their conservatism and say and do things that will be upsetting.

You will also have prejudice people that will do things...we saw a lot of this this past semester.

By Leftyleftist (Leftyleftist) on Wednesday, June 16, 2004 - 12:32 pm: Edit

That's very impressive that you received a full scholarship at that school. I've heard (but I don't know if it's true) that if you come from a very challenging, prestigious school, the admissions committee takes that into account and gives you a little bit of a break in evaluating GPA. If that's true, that would probably also apply to my school (top 10 in the state, 2nd best district in the state), which would be good.

I'm going to try not to base where I apply on my test scores, but to be realistic, I'm sort of figuring that I'll need to be at least in the low 1400s, and I'm taking test-prep this summer with Kaplan, so hopefully that'll help.

It's really unfortunate that such a terrific school like CMC has such a conservative environment. I'm glad that it's not too overbearing, but combined with the apathy that you mentioned, I'm not sure how well I'd be able to handle that coming from Berkeley, which is anything but apathetic or conservative.

Do you think that I'd be better off going to CMC for it's financial aid and then take classes at Pomona where I could find more progressivism, or do you think I should just look elsewhere (Haverford, Mt. Holyoke, etc.) instead?

By Crzycatdc (Crzycatdc) on Wednesday, June 16, 2004 - 08:27 pm: Edit

You have to weigh the good and the bad for all schools...

I've been saying bad things about CMC, but there are really good things:

CMC can be frustrating, but there are some outlets and fun things...

But CMC has some great things. They paid for us to see the Matrix Revolutions at 1am in the morning. Have you ever seen a movie with 500 drunk, high, and crazy college students? It was sooo much fun. They do things like that all the time.

We had "The Day of Awesomeness" which was just...Awesome! we had bands playing all day, snow cones, smirnoff, moon bounce, slip n slide, food, etc.

Bands and/or major speakers come to the school 4-5 days a week! If you haven't heard about the athenauem you should check out the school website...I love it! I've seen Michael Moore, The Roots, Taylor Mali, shook hands with Desmond Tutu, saw the Rock the Vote concert in LA, etc...

Also, they give you money to do whatever you want. My friend and his buddies got the school to pay for them to travel overseas during winter break. All they had to do was attend a couple of leadership conferences and they were given money and could do whatever they wanted.

The school also pays for all alcohol at parties. If that's your thing, it's also never hard to get alcohol. There are several stores neasr campus that don't card. And CMCers love to get drunk...and more than that..they love getting other people drunk! Visiting students, even those that don't usually drink, always end up drinking at CMC! We're known at the 5Cs for our drinking.

You also have four other colleges there and they all have great people. I love going to Pitzer and Pomona. I'm involved in organizations that are based at either school and I also take the classes in both of my majors at Pitzer and Pomona so I get to meet cool people.

But the CMC- Pomona fued is really fun. I have friends at Pomona, but rivals are always fun. I have great stories from sporting events. My friend got jumped when he tried to run the CMC flag around the Pomona half of the field during a football game! That was the best game I've ever been to! CMC and Pomona kept stealing the flag from each other. security had to be called in to keep people from fighting.

CMC is small, but the school spirit is big. Sporting events, especially basketball and football, are always filled.

financial aid is amazing. There isn't one person on campus that would complain.


I hesistate to point u in any direction because we are different people and you should make the choice that is best for you without outside influence.

One of my biggest reasons for leaving was my desire to be closer to home. I want to be able to take advantage of all breaks and holidays and not just a few. This wont be as much of a problem for you.

If money is a factor for you...as it was for me...go with the school that is giving you money and that has the best possible social and academic package. If a school gives you all but a few thousand (which I highly doubt CMC would do because my mom is partially disabled and is not working like your mom either...) than go with that school and take out a Stanford loan to pay the rest.

What I'm saying is, go with the school that has the best overall package, not just the money....you want to be happy and worry free on all front...not just when it comes to money.

By Gnatcire (Gnatcire) on Saturday, June 19, 2004 - 01:22 pm: Edit

Pomona and Scripps give really good financial aid as well. You could even get additional merit scholarships at Scripps if your SATs go well.

In my opinion, English will be much better at Pomona and Political Science will be much better at Claremont Mckenna. I also feel like the three schools are different enough from each other that you will be able to tell which one fits you better after visits to the schools.