Hi! My name is Scarlette. I am a junior majoring in economics and an admission embassador. One of the biggest advantages of attending Scripps College is that it is a part of the Claremont Consortium, which has enabled me to take courses at any of the other campuses (Pomona College, Harvey Mudd, Pitzer, Claremont McKenna). When I toured Scripps as a senior in high school, I was unsure about how going to college would work. Do I register for classes at Scripps first and then get access to the other schools’ course catalogs? Or do we have to ask permission to take classes off campus?
The registration portal lists all the courses offered by the five Claremont Colleges. With the help and approval of an academic advisor, you select the classes you want to take for the upcoming semester. For most classes, you have an equal opportunity of getting a spot in the class as any other five 5C students, regardless of the campus the course is offered. Some classes, especially those in really popular majors, can be more challenging to get as an off-campus student, but submitting course perms, (basically a brief message to the professor explaining why you want to take the class) can be an effective way of getting around that.
At Scripps, there is no limit on the number of classes you can take on the other campuses, so it really allows you to take classes in a broader range of topics, especially those within your major. Departments at Scripps do encourage students to take their major introductory courses at Scripps to help students make connections with Scripps professors in their major.
The term off-campus may give the impression that the class you do not take at Scripps will be out of the way; luckily, though, the five undergraduate colleges sit within one square mile. Most of my ‘commutes’ are around 5-7 minutes. My longest-ever walk was to a Pomona class, which ended up being 10-12 minutes.
I have really enjoyed taking classes at the different colleges. One semester I took classes on four out of the five campuses. It definitely helped me to get my daily 10,000 steps in.
Hopefully, this short blog post helped answer some of your questions about cross-campus registration and the Claremont Colleges. If you have more questions about this topic or anything else, feel free to reach out (I love receiving emails!).
My email is: [email protected] !!