I don’t think that Claremont McKenna College is a good example of the point you’re making for several reasons. First, CMC is a very small college, only 1300 students. As such, it is not going to have the breadth of offerings that a larger school will, which is almost every other college or university. Second, its mission is education in the social sciences. It is not trying to replicate what can be found at other Claremon5 colleges across the street. Third, CMC shares in the Keck Science Department with Pitzer and Scripps. It is an inter college enterprise, housed on the CMC campus and CMC students can take a Physics major there.
If you look at physics in Academics: Departments, Majors and Programs | Claremont McKenna College , it opens up to an integrated sciences major.
CMC is an example of my point that some small schools (that are not just arts schools) may not have that much to offer in physics.
Agree. If it were my kid, unless an extremely knowledgeable college counselor told me otherwise, I would submit that SAT score given the rest of the narrative.
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Just wanted to chime in here seconding Scripps. It’s a bit easier admit, but has full access to the 5C’s. My C27 loved the tour we did there. My S25 is currently at LMU and is loving it there. Be very careful with the net price calculator. They are not super generous with aid, so might not affordable, but academically it would be a target or easier. I’d be happy to answer any questions about LMU.
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This has changed in the past few years. CMC pulled out of the joint Keck Science department, which is now just Scripps+Pitzer, and created their own Kravis Department of Integrated Sciences. The resulting Integrated Science major, which “is currently structured around three global societal and scientific challenges: Health, Brain, and Planet,” does not seem like a fit for a student who wants a true physics major, much less physics-and-maybe-engineering. That said, off-campus majors based at other consortium schools are pretty common at the 5C’s (although Mudd engineering isn’t available to students at the other 4 schools other than as a 3:2)… I suspect that a CMC kid who discovered they truly wanted physics could access a physics major that way. But I agree that it wouldn’t make a lot of sense to choose CMC for these interests. It was never a place that drew a lot of physical-sciences kids but it seems even less accommodating of such interests now than before CMC pulled out of Keck. (Not that OP is even considering, but just to close that loop for anyone else reading.)
As for Pomona being within reach, I didn’t say the student shouldn’t apply, and I hope you guys are right that there’s a chance. If we’d had this conversation in June, I would’ve recommended applying to the POP fly-in, which would have helped to gauge Pomona’s interest in the student and vice versa, and would have put the student on Pomona’s radar. At this point, I feel like a comparable applicant who went through that process has a real advantage over the OP applying “cold.” There’s still a chance, but that process is how the school identifies a lot of the FGLI students that they ultimately admit. At any rate, I think we all agree that it’s a long shot, but nobody’s saying it isn’t worth taking that shot. I can see foregoing the engineering option for a school of Pomona’s caliber (as with Reed), whereas I feel less sure that it would make sense to choose a school like Oxy over someplace like USF or USD with an engineering option. (Trinity in San Antonio could really hit the sweet spot for this student IMO - strong physics & engineering, need-blind domestic admissions, full-need-met aid, lovely setting… but obviously TX isn’t on the table here… the CA private options that give enough aid but aren’t Stanford-level reachy are somewhat limited.)
OP, have you run the NPC for USC? It may not be generous enough but it doesn’t hurt to check.
p.s. Engineering-wise, it’s worth noting that non-Mudd students can take Mudd’s E4 Intro to Engineering Design class, followed by the Human-Centered Design classes offered by The Hive… so that could be an enhancement to a Pomona or Scripps physics major.
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No comment about California colleges, but I want to mention that if your cousin is interested in a physics major there are specific scholarships for women in physics.
AWIS has scholarship for female college sophomore and juniors majoring in physics or geophysics.
There’s another AWIS scholarship for first generation women majoring in a physical science in college.
See– Scholarships - AWIS
The American Physical Society also award scholarship to undergrad women majoring in physics. Women in Physics Group Grants | American Physical Society
Individual colleges and universities may also have special scholarships for women physics majors or first generation in college physics majors. Your cousin should ask the physics dept chairperson about them. (I know, for example, the University of New Mexico has one for first gen students.)
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This is such an insightful post! Thank you for your thorough explanation of all of these things. I love the 5Cs and in truth really hope my D26 ends up there, in part because it is closer than the other places she is seriously considering, and in part because I think it is an incredible setup. Pomona is not on her list though. Only Pitzer and Scripps sung to her of the five, and frankly I think she’s right that those two are the ones that are fits.
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