Rice v. Claremont McKenna

iiriii
Tue, 05 May 2015 23:27:45 +0000

Committed to Rice University, but just found out I was admitted from the waitlist at Claremont McKenna College! CMC was originally one of my top choices, but I’ve grown to love Rice, so you may see my dilemma here. Thank you in advance for any responses.

Also, I live in CA and don’t mind going somewhere else for college so CMC’s location alone doesn’t make or break it

Things I’m considering:

Econ major, potentially pursuing business (open to change. not very set)

Size (CMC = tiny but the counterargument is the 5c. Does the consortium actually make the school feel larger?)

Prestige (both are well known, from my knowledge)

Escaping the “college bubble” (Rice = Houston. CMC = doesn’t seem like incredibly much, but not lifeless either)

Quality of living (Rice = great food, huge dorms. CMC = didn’t get to experience! anyone want to share?)

Drinking culture: somewhere where it’s easy to not drink/do drugs (Rice = wet campus, but seems like there is no pressure. CMC = party culture and I’ve heard if you don’t drink then you can easily feel left out)

Diversity (Rice = pretty diverse racially, economically, politically, but most people from Texas. CMC = I’ve heard it’s a lot of white, affluent, conservative people, but becoming more politically diverse. I’d like to know what it actually feels like on campus, not just the stats)

Californians: when visiting the UCs, they felt very homogeneously Californian which isn’t a negative thing, but I liked meeting people from different states when I visited other schools. Does it feel like everyone from CMC is from CA?

Weather: love Rice enough to handle Texas weather, but CA weather is pretty appealing

Distance from home: I always thought I wanted to go out of state, but I live a couple hours away from CMC and could be nice (I know this one doesn’t help, sorry!)

School spirit (Rice = spirit in residential colleges. CMC = ?)

Student-professor relations (Rice = great, close, personal connections. CMC = ?)

With all that said, I think the most important thing for me is the people. I got a sense of it at Rice and unfortunately did not get to at CMC. What would you say is the general feel of the student bodies?