Claremont McKenna College (CMC), located in Claremont, California, is a small liberal arts college known for their emphasis on leadership, economics, and government. They’re part of the Claremont Colleges consortium, which allows you to take courses at five other schools and offers the kind of resources you’d get at a big school, but with a small school feel. If you want to transfer to CMC, you know it’s competitive.
CMC’s first year acceptance rate is 11%, but last year they accepted only 8% of transfers. To put that more clearly, that’s only ~35 students. If you’re serious about CMC, you must do everything you can to stand out amongst the applicants. Let’s get into what you need to get done and how to make the best transfer app possible.
Requirements
Claremont McKenna defines a transfer student as “any student who has enrolled in a U.S. or international college or university after high school graduation or completion, regardless of courses taken or credits completed.” Those are pretty lax requirements! Especially when you consider their compatriots. They have a ton of info on their process here, but we’ll give you the highlights.
Here’s your checklist for everything CMC requires:
The Common App (or Coalition App)
Supplemental essays
Official college transcript
Official high school transcript
One academic evaluation/recommendation
College Report
And the optional things:
Test scores (but we say submit those!)
Interview (rare to offer to transfers!) or video response
Despite their very welcoming-to-transfers vibe, they have a very, very low transfer acceptance rate. Lower than their first-year rate. That means these optional things are not optional for you. You are competing for around 40 spots, and that’s not a lot of spots! Take advantage of every opportunity you have to give them new information about you, and definitely schedule an interview with them.
Keep Your Academics on Track
Top-notch grades aren’t just a nice-to-have—they’re a must-have. With an 8% acceptance rate staring you down, stellar academic performance is the bare minimum to keep your application alive. Grades are the first filter. If you don’t clear that bar, you’re going to have an extremely hard time. However, all As are a dime-a-dozen. In order to stand out, you need to take it up a notch.
What really sets you apart is the classes you choose. Taking all those easy-A elective courses might pad youor GPA, but admissions officers see right through that. CMC is looking for someone who challenges themselves and whose coursework aligns with the major they’re applying for. Your transcript needs to show intention! Now that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take prereqs (and you should, just in case), just make sure to throw a class or two in the mix that fits with your story.
And once again, beyond just grades and course selection,you need a niche. If you know your niche already (like 18th century European history), then you’re on track. If you don’t know your niche, think about the subjects you’ve loved most and dive deeper. This is your chance to show that you’ve gone beyond the basics and found a focus within your major.Admissions committees are looking for someone with a clear trajectory that screams, “I’ve thought about this, and I’m all in.” So, go all in!
Writing
Claremont McKenna has three supplemental questions:
Please provide a statement that addresses your reasons for transferring and the objectives you hope to achieve.
“Providing a statement that addresses your reasons for transferring and the objectives you hope to achieve? In a transfer app? Groundbreaking.” Kidding!! (kinda) If you’re applying to a few different schools, this prompt is going to look very similar. Because a bunch of them use it, with the exact same wording.
As you go to answer this one, you want to take care not to bash your current school. Don’t focus on the negatives of your current situation, but instead on what you’re excited to do at CMC. Talk about what CMC can offer you that your current school does not. Lean into the niche you’ve developed and show them what specific things you hope to take advantage of at CMC that fit super into your niche. You can use classes and professors here as your “evidence.”
You also have a slight dilemma here – you’ll also be answering a Why CMC question below, so make sure you’re touching on different things. If you mention the Claremont Consortium here, don’t mention it in the Why essay, e.g.
The next two questions are the same as their first-year applicant questions, and we have a detailed guide on how to answer these. But, there are a few things to keep in mind if you’re writing these as a transfer hopeful.
CMC’s mission is to prepare students for thoughtful and productive lives and responsible leadership in business, government, and the professions. With this mission in mind, please explain why you want to attend Claremont McKenna College.
A classic “Why” essay! Now, this is similar to why you want to transfer, so you need to make sure that you’re not repeating yourself. The key part of this prompt is their mission – thoughtful and productive lives in “the professions,” (why is this wording so funny??) which leads us to believe they will want you to connect to the larger opportunities CMC will give you. Think labs, the whole Claremont Consortium thing, study abroad, etc. You should talk about your long-term goals here and how CMC will help you meet them. Be specific!
A critical part of fulfilling our mission is living out the commitments of CMC’s Open Academy: Freedom of Expression, Viewpoint Diversity, and Constructive Dialogue. We want to learn more about your commitment to listening and learning from others with different viewpoints, perspectives, and life experiences from your own.
Describe a time when engaging with someone about a specific topic resulted in you changing your attitude, belief, or behavior, or you changed the belief or behavior of someone else. What was the change that occurred for you, and what facilitated that change? What did you learn from that experience, and how has it informed how you engage with others?
What a preamble! This is a disagreement question, and one we’ve been seeing a lot of in the last two cycles. It’s important to write this one like a story, and good stories have distinct beginnings, middles, and ends. They also resolve conflict.
The most important thing with this question is to not choose something incredibly divisive or controversial. We know some of you might see “freedom of expression” and “viewpoint diversity” and think this is the time to rally against indoctrination, but this is not the time nor the place. The conflict or disagreement should be lower stakes–think a generational or cultural difference with family, a dispute about how to tackle a problem among friends, etc. CMC is a very diverse school, so you should also keep that in mind as you pursue this question.
We also would not answer this one as a time you changed someone else’s mind. We prefer you to answer this in a way that shows your own growth or open-mindedness.
Now… wait
After submitting by Feb 15th (or sooner!), you will hear back by May 1st. Make sure you’ve sent in everything before the deadline, and sit back and wait for the results. Best of luck!
If you need help with your transfer applications, reach out to us today.