Scripps College Top Questions

Great professors,mentors, life coaches who will spend time with you and care about you. I have been to my professors' homes many times. Courses are challenging and do prepare you for the real and academc worlds. Students study a good deal but still manage to multitask and have fun on the weekends and evenings. Finals time is serious and high stress for most as is the mandatory senior thesis. Be ready to attend class and participate. Students are competitive with students from the other Claremont colleges but scrippies help scrippies! My department is close knit: like a mini family we plan great events. Fav class: international economics. Least favorite: calculus (liked the professor-not the material). Most interesting: race in the us economy, you are what you eat, and the artist book.

Professors, even if some of them may not be the greatest, are usually there for the students and want to make sure you've learned and are learning. I speak specifically for the Joint Science Department when I say that there are some really wonderful, good people who are faculty and want you to succeed in life and in your academics. Humanities classes can be a hit or miss, though I may think this because I'm a science major. Having the consortium is a definite help to increasing available options and courses that sound interesting, and getting to know different faculty. Degree requirements are a bit much, but for the most part they are easy to fill. Specific rules regarding the race and ethnic studies requirement though need to be changed, as well as the fact that taking piano lessons or choir does not fill a fine arts requirement is a bit ridiculous. The Core sequence is a love/hate course, and in reality depends on your instructor and the students in your class, as well as what you are used to or what you enjoy learning about.

The classes are very small and all of the professors know your name. I took a Spanish class with only nine students. My favorite class was calculus 2 because I had an amazing professor who truly cared about the students and loved what he was doing. Most professors at Scripps are extremely helpful and available. They all have office hours where you can ask questions or just visit with them. Some professors even host events outside of class. The classes are challenging, but they are not impossible. You will often hear students discussing lectures or any academic material outside of class. Also, there are quite a few general education requirements. However, I think most of these are helpful and the classes are geared toward getting a job. The only class I did not really enjoy was core because I did not think it was relevant to my major or any of my interests.

Most Scripps classes that I have taken have been very small and based on discussion. Homework almost always involves extensive readings and papers. It is easy to meet and get help from your professors, and I have many friends who still stay in contact with old professors just because they really like knowing them. However, I am not a huge office hours-goer and I still get along just fine in my classes. The three semester CORE program is mandatory and often groaned about but it does have its perks. My Core 2 and Core 3 classes were quirky and wonderful ("The Science and Poetry of Sleep" and "Human Dolls" [about the representation of the human form in art])and the Core 1 reading list includes some really important historical academic works. CORE is also great because the classes are Scripps-only. Most classes at Scripps, because of cross-registration, are co-ed. Co-ed is cool but personally I really like all-female classes. I think a lot of Scrippsies have found that this environment makes them less self-conscious and more comfortable participating in class, which is great when you are just starting college. And, if nothing else, CORE 1 provides a fail-proof ice breaker during the 1st semster of your first year. The amount of time that students study really varies based on their major and their personal priorities. I know some girls who are constantly studying and I know people who do significantly less studying than me. All somehow succeed academically to some degree so I think it really depends on the person and their specific academic situation. In general, I don't find students to be competitive or overly focused on grades. We have high standards for ourselves and like to do well, but we like to lead exciting lives outside of our classes too. Once again, I can't rep the consortium enough. I am a self-designed major (yes, Scripps does allow students to self-design majors. It's not extremely common but also not hard to do) within the Media Studies department and a Gender and Women's Studies minor. Both departments are 5-College, which means I can take classes for my major/minor at any of the schools. Even if you have a Scripps-centered major, you can still take plenty of classes at the other schools. In two years, I have already taken classes at four out of the five schools. So even if you have academic interests that are not found at Scripps, they are likely available to you within Claremont.