One of my favorite aspects of the academics at Scripps is the ability to cross-register at the other schools. Although the Claremont Colleges are a fully functioning consortium, they all create their course offering lists as if they’re all isolated. Basically, if you attended one of the schools, you could easily take all of your graduation and major/minor requirements at your home campus, but the consortium gives you the opportunity to go off campus if you wish. While each school has their own rules as to how often you can cross-register, Scripps is incredibly lenient in how you can use the consortium and the academic opportunities it provides.
For Scripps specifically, there is no limit, rule, or requirement as to how many classes you can or cannot take at the other colleges. Each major department can have their own limits designated for their major and minor students that students can read up on and be aware of at any time by checking this website (https://www.scrippscollege.edu/departments/). Regardless of what those potential limitations are, there will always be the freedom to cross-register for major requirements as long as Scripps is not the only school with that same or comparable department. An example of this is the Italian department, a major that only exists at Scripps, whose major requirements can only be taken at Scripps. English classes, however, can be taken at all the 5Cs since each school offers English classes. A Scripps student would still major at the Scripps’s English department but will have a detailed freedom to take classes elsewhere.
If a student has an off campus major, that school’s department will determine how often their majors can take classes at the other schools. Students can see what those off campus major requirements and limitations are by checking each department’s website at any time or by talking to their major advisor. There is no 5C standard for how lenient or strict a school can or cannot be, so it is determined by each school and major department.
When we actually sign up for classes, our registration portal makes cross-registration incredibly convenient. The schools share an academic portal and have the same class registration schedule so it’s easy to see and sign up for off campus classes without having a disadvantage to other students. Registration takes place over about a week, giving each grade about 1-2 days to sign up for their classes. The seniors get the first days, followed by juniors, then sophomores, then first years. We can filter out what classes we want to see based on the department they’re based in, class meeting time, who teaches the class, or what school it’s located at. Some people like to plan out when they take classes at a specific campus and some just choose their top classes without considering where the classes are located. Because the 5Cs are relatively pretty small compared to larger institutions, it only takes about 10-15 minutes to get across the consortium, which makes traveling from one class to the other a lot easier.
A real benefit from the schools pretending that cross-registration doesn’t exist when they come up with their course catalog is that it provides a multitude of options for popular courses. Say you want to take Calculus III your first semester at Scripps. Because you have the worst time to register for classes compared to the other grades, it might seem daunting to get into such a popular and well-known class like Calc III. But because each school offers Calc III, there could be ten sections of the class that meet at different times or at different schools. You might hope that you can take Calc III at Scripps on Monday/Wednesday from 1:15-2:30 but that section could fill up fast before you have the chance to add it to your schedule. Although you didn’t get your top choice, you found that Calc III is also being offered at the same time at Harvey Mudd, or before that time at Pitzer. It’s not exactly what you had hoped for, but you’re in Calc III and you’ll be able to take the class during your first semester at Scripps like you planned. If Scripps was not a part of the consortium and that Calc III class fills up before your registration time, you’d be flat out of luck, but because of the consortium, you don’t have to have the same concerns as other first-years at other schools when they register.
Although the general practice of planning out your schedule and signing up for classes can be stressful and require some time and energy to organize, I’m really grateful for the number of opportunities that the 5Cs provide to make registration as easy and seamless as possible. I might not get my top choice classes every single time, but I have enough freedom and course offerings to take the classes that I want when I need to.