Courtesy of:
Claremont Chamber of Commerce
205 Yale Ave.
Claremont, CA 91711
Tel. (909) 624 1681
The Claremont Colleges are a cloistered, Oxford-style group of six separate but
cooperative colleges nestled in the heart of the city of Claremont. The campuses
collectively encompass about 300 acres. Differing widely in architectural design, all have
spacious and attractive gardens and are within easy walking distance of each other. The
five undergraduate and one graduate institution--the first one founded in 1887--include:
Pomona College, arts and sciences; Scripps College, humanities and fine arts; Claremont
Men's College, public affairs; Harvey Mudd College, physical science, mathematics and
engineering; Pitzer, social and behavioral sciences; and Claremont Graduate School. Some
affiliated institutions are the Southern California School of Theology at Claremont and
the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Gardens
The Claremont Colleges are not just a local landmark but a valuable cultural and
academic resource to the city. The Colleges offer some 300 theatrical and musical
performances, art exhibits, and public seminars and lectures each year. Other resources
include a library system containing over 1,000,000 volumes and subscribing to more than
7,000 periodicals and serials; Mabel Shaw Bridges Auditorium, the largest college
auditorium in the West; Garrison Theater; the Seaver Computer Center, which maintains both
IBM 360/40 and PDP DEC 10 computers; and much more.
The colleges are a resource to professional and business leaders throughout the nation.
As an example, Harvey Mudd College, the engineering and science member of the Colleges,
conducts engineering clinic projects for business and industry ranging from the
development of software for a computer graphics system to the conceptual design for a
hearing aid with improved speech discrimination characteristics. Such international firms
as Beckman Instruments, IBM, General Atomic, Rockwell International, and NASA have
repeatedly sponsored and benefited from clinic projects.
Less visible but no less significant is the financial impact the Colleges have on the
community, including being the largest local employer of 1,400 regular faculty and staff
and 2,300 students. The colleges paid about $950,000 to Claremont businesses in l981 and
the purchasing power of undergraduate students is estimated to be in excess of $4,000,000
per year; much of which is spent in the community.
The Colleges are nationally renowned for academic excellence, and the first-rate
education offered by the Claremont Colleges is attested to by the marketplace and the
performance of the graduates. All five of the undergraduate colleges are ranked as
"selective" by the classification scheme of The Carnegie Foundation for the
Advancement of Teaching, which places each college in the top 110 of the nation's 3,190
colleges and universities.
