Uni in the USA: A British Guide to American Universities and Colleges > All New: Colleges and Universities Added in 2009 > Scripps (new review!)
Claremont, California
Undergratuates: 880
Graduates: 21
How many Scipps students does it take to change a light bulb?
16 – ten to set up an artistic team to select the most beautiful light bulb to match the campus, five to publicise the fact that girls can change bulbs just as well as boys, and one to screw it in.
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Scripps sits totally undiscovered in sunny California, like a hidden pearl waiting for the diver willing to take the plunge. An all-female liberal arts college founded on the highest principles of independent thinking and educational fulfillment, this is a tiny school with some of the luckiest students in the country. As part of the renowned Claremont Consortium, furthermore, the educational experience is truly matchless.
The Campus
Rated by the Princeton Review as one of the top ten most beautiful campuses in a country full of beautiful campuses, Scripps is small and dazzling. Located in the distant Los Angeles suburb of Claremont, Scripps is at the centre of the seven Claremont Colleges, with the other undergraduate colleges of Harvey-Mudd to the north, Pitzer to the east, and McKenna and Pomona to the south. The whole “consortium” is a unique structure of university, designed in such a way as to permit a small-college liberal arts education, as well as access to all the facilities and benefits of the famous educational behemoths.
The campus somehow manages to feel simultaneously laid-back and electrified, with airy lawns and handsome buildings filled with bustling and stimulated students. Everything is close together, even with the big leafy spaces between them.
Facilities at Scripps itself are not out-of-the-ordinary, with a few decent libraries, a superb new gym, and a cool little student-run coffeehouse (“The Motley”). But with its proximity to the other four colleges as well as the shared facilities, Scripps has easy access to everything it could need.
The on-campus dorms, in which all the students live, are spectacular. Students gush about the paradise they enjoy, describing their sublime surrounding as “just ridiculous” or “like a resort”. “I know I won’t live anywhere as nice as here again” said several girls just before graduating. As another put it, “I live in the dorms with the worst reputation, and I still have a fireplace and a piano and a fountain outside my window.”
The Scripps Woman
Sophisticated, easy-going, pleasant and with a lot to say, the girls at Scripps wear the mark of their education in every gesture and every perfectly articulated syllable. Taught to cultivate their interests and ideas, and challenge what they learn, students rapidly develop well-rounded personalities and a fierce intelligence. Mostly from wealthy West Coast backgrounds, there is not much socio-economic, racial or even geographical diversity at Scripps, nor any real international community to speak of.
Despite this, the college invests a lot of effort in making sure everyone is well looked-after and fully integrated into the often-cliquey Scripps society. At such a small school, it is relatively easy to prevent anyone from “slipping through the cracks” and there are whole teams of students charged with helping those who may be suffering culture shock or are finding it difficult to get involved. Some may find the caring Scripps blanket over-protective, but generally students are grateful for it, with some mentioning the “nurturing community” as their favourite aspect of the school.
The classic Scripps stereotypes are essentially the same as those for any woman’s college – the raging feminists, the wealthy country girls and perhaps a handful of hippies. Though students admit that Scripps girls are “more gender-conscious than the average person”, they deny being as feminist as some might make out, describing themselves instead as open-minded.
Attending such a small college means a certain lack of anonymity, which carries both advantages and disadvantages. On the one hand, you can get to know almost everyone in your school, and thus live in a tighter, friendlier community, but on the other hand, well, you have to know almost everyone in your school. This can be indusive to unhelpful gossip and cliques (some have called it “suffocatingly small”), though the negative effects are somewhat dissipated by the ease of socialising with the other neighbouring colleges.
Hitting the Books
Without doubt, the most common answer to “what’s your favourite thing about Scripps” is the teaching faculty. Professors here are challenging, helpful and always available. With a teacher:student ratio of 1:11, students feel very much “not a number” among faceless lectures. Close personal relationships are formed with the professors, who encourage students to visit them in their free time, both for work and often just socialising.
The work ethic among students is described as a “decent mix” between hard work and relaxing time. The small classes mean that you can’t skip the lessons or the reading assignments without the teacher knowing, and this fosters a responsible learning system. Students take work very seriously, and some complain that people can get fanatical about it. The solid, sensible work ethic means that free time is appreciated and used well.
The Humanities Department is normally pointed out as the college’s top one, but sciences are also strong, and there is no particularly weak area. The beauty of the consortium education is that students can take up to two-thirds of their classes at other colleges, massively expanding the range of subjects and quality of courses available.
Social Life
Scripps itself has harsher drinking rules than its sister schools and tries to keep itself quiet and clean, but it does organise a massive amount of activities and events for the students. This is much needed to make up for the lack of anything to do in the nearby district – Claremont Village is pleasant and peaceful, with a few nice restaurants but not much more in the way of social venues, and Los Angeles proper is too far away to make frequent visits worthwhile, especially for the carless majority.
Still, Scripps has a fun social scene. Even though students are perhaps more of the “hanging out with friends” variety instead of extreme party-goers, most people do regularly go to the exciting parties (expect plenty of free drinks!), generally on the weekend, and generally on the campus of one of the other colleges.
The bubble effect is rarely a cause for complaint among students, who are mostly divided into those who choose to do very little and those who do everything they possibly can. With a “ridiculous range” of student organisations (but no Greek life), and a great mix of extra-curriculars based both in Scripps and the other colleges, the options are huge, encompassing exciting artistic groups, competitive sports teams and quirky clubs.
Getting In
Scripps admits only a few hundred applicants each year. Being one of these lucky individuals requires an excellent application, and normally an interview either in person or by phone. Those who are successful are normally of a high enough caliber to have received places at other excellent institutions, so for those who request it the college can put you in contact with Scripps students who are more than willing to explain the school’s pros and cons in enough detail to make your decision easier. Scripps is expensive and poorly endowed, meaning little in the way of financial aid, and nothing for international students. Some scholarships are available though, typically awarding 50%-off tuition to the best applicants.