Claremont McKenna College

Claremont McKenna College, one of the nation’s top liberal arts colleges, prepares students to make a difference. The College educates students for thoughtful and productive lives and roles of responsible leadership through its strong, real-world mission. Admission to the College is need-blind and emphasizes the demonstration of leadership accomplishments.The College attracts a student body that is broadly diverse and accomplished beyond the classroom.

Claremont McKenna College is a highly selective, independent, coeducational, residential, undergraduate liberal arts college. Its mission, within the mutually supportive framework of The Claremont Colleges, is to educate its students for thoughtful and productive lives and responsible leadership in business, government, and the professions, and to support faculty and student scholarship that contribute to intellectual vitality and the understanding of public policy issues.

The College pursues this mission by providing a liberal arts education that emphasizes economics and political science, a professoriate that is dedicated to effective undergraduate teaching, a close student-teacher relationship that fosters critical inquiry, an active residential and intellectual environment that promotes responsible citizenship, and a program of research institutes and scholarly support that makes possible a faculty of teacher-scholars.

At Claremont McKenna College, our students are dreamers and doers — high achievers who understand that learning informs impact and that impact in turn inspires learning. We give them the tools they need for critical decision-making; the experiences they crave for intellectual and interpersonal development; and the community they seek for motivation, inspiration, and lifelong fulfillment.

The research institutes and centers at Claremont McKenna College have one common goal: to provide CMC students with graduate-level research opportunities in conjunction with the College's distinguished faculty. In so doing, CMC students—as undergraduates—are afforded opportunities unparalleled at liberal arts colleges around the world.

Located on a scenic, tree-lined residential campus 30 miles east of Los Angeles, Claremont McKenna is a member of The Claremont Colleges, a seven-college consortium modeled after Oxford University. CMC students choose from more than 2,200 classes and participate in co-curricular activities with 7,000 other students at Harvey Mudd College, Pitzer College, Pomona College, and Scripps College, as well as the Claremont Graduate University and Keck Graduate Institute. Students have the best of both worlds: the intimacy of a small residential college with small classes and a student-faculty ratio of nine to one, and the shared resources of a larger research university.

Renowned for expertise in economics and government, Claremont McKenna features accomplished scholars who are committed teachers in the humanities, sciences, and social sciences. The school is distinguished by eleven world-class research institutes. Exceptionally high numbers of undergraduate students conduct research with professors and get to know them as colleagues.

The College emphasizes the integration of leadership and innovation experience within institutes, student enterprises, on-campus fellowships, and sponsored off-campus internships.

More than 90% of students complete internships and nearly half study off-campus during their four years. The College's Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum brings world-class leaders, thinkers, artists, and visionaries to speak publicly, engage in small group discussions, and dine with students. Consistently one of the top NCAA Division III programs in the nation, the Claremont-Mudd-Scrippsathletic department is housed in the state-of-the-art Roberts Pavilion fitness and event center.

CMC’s Student Opportunity Center provides all students with advising, mentoring and networking support that is tailored to each student’s professional goals. Many Claremont McKenna graduates go on to receive prestigious post-graduate fellowships and degrees in business, law, medicine, and many other fields. CMC alumni thrive in a wide range of careers including consulting, education, financial services, government and public policy, media and entertainment, medicine, nonprofit leadership, science, and technology. Claremont McKenna excels nationally in post-graduate job placement and satisfaction, salaries, and career success.

In September 1946, 86 students and seven faculty members opened a new “undergraduate school for men” in Claremont, California. Classes began even before a name was chosen; the school was incorporated as Claremont Men’s College in the spring of 1947. CMC was the third Claremont College, following Pomona College and Scripps College.

Many of the first students, as well as the College’s president George Benson, were returning World War II GIs. The new college’s purpose was clear: to prepare future leaders of private and public enterprise through a distinctive liberal arts curriculum. Rather than train students for particular jobs in government and industry, CMC sought to produce graduates able to apply lessons from not only business and government courses, but the study of history, philosophy, literature, the arts, and sciences as well.

Current CMC initiatives include the Student Imperative, which has raised more than $100 million to support financial aid, to provide focused research and internship experiences, and to cultivate thoughtful and responsible leadership through residential and student life experiences. CMC has invested substantially in the sciences, computer science, and data science recognizing the growing importance of those disciplines to CMC’s emphasis on private and public sector leadership as well as to all of the College’s academic disciplines.