Claremont McKenna is a highly-respected humanities-focused liberal arts college in Claremont, California. The most popular majors are economics, government, psychology, and international relations, and students who want to pursue the sciences at CMC do so through the Kravis Department of Integrated Sciences through the Integrated Sciences major. This program is unique to CMC, and is crafted around addressing currently urgent issues, preparing students for strong careers across the science fields, including medicine. CMC programs are innovative, exciting, and in high demand. The acceptance rate is just under 10%.
The Kravis Department of Integrated Sciences is not the only amazing and innovative program at CMC. The award-winning Open Academy encourages free expression, the CARE Center builds community, and the Model UN team won the world championships four times in five years. The Academic Sequence program allows students to dig even deeper into a single major, or do work that bridges across majors.
Students can apply Early Decision I, Early Decision II, or Regular Decision. Regardless of which route you take the application is test-optional.
CMC being test-optional, means that you are not required to submit test scores through at least the next two application cycles. Unlike most test-optional schools, only a small number of recently admitted and enrolled first-year students have submitted scores. For the fall of 2024, only 39% of applicants submitted SAT or ACT scores. This means that CMC is a great option for humanities-minded students, or those who appreciate the CMC approach, that struggle with standardized testing. If you have an ACT above 33 or an SAT above 1500, awesome, submit it. If you don’t, leave them off and you won’t significantly hurt your chances of acceptance.
This post isn’t about test strategy, though. In this post, we are focusing on the most important qualitative piece of your application after the main college essay: the supplement.
We help outstanding students get into exceptional colleges. Learn more.
The CMC supplement isn’t exceptionally long and isn’t uncomfortably complicated, but it does require a fair amount of attention to detail. They have a few pieces that are additional, beyond the writing, that are important to break down as well.
RESUME
First, CMC invites you to submit a resume. We have a blog all about writing a strong college resume that you should definitely check out. Here we will just say two things. First, you must upload a resume. And that resume must be only one page. Yes, one page. Submitting a resume over one page is like shooting yourself in the foot. Don’t do it.
URL
Next is the URL option. This isn’t required, and you have to be careful. CMC says that “some applicants maintain an online presence that showcases their background, talents, or creativity. If you maintain such a site, please feel free to enter the URL here.”
This isn’t objectively terrible, but it is a bit of a set-up. Many students see this as an opportunity to add something else, but forget that this could serve more as a distraction from your application than a way of deepening into it.
You can use this in a good way. You can share the website for something you run or are especially proud of, but be careful. It’s better to leave this blank than to risk distracting the application readers.
THE ESSAYS
CMC has two short essays for the written part of the supplement. They are 150-250 words, which we consider to be a bit of a sweet spot. It is enough room to say something meaningful, but not so much that the writing feels like another college essay on your plate. That doesn’t mean that they don’t take careful consideration and planning, though. The CMC supplements require thoughtful drafting and strong edits, so start as soon as you’re done reading this.
CMC’s mission is to prepare students for thoughtful and productive lives and responsible leadership in business, government, and the professions. With this mission in mind, please explain why you want to attend Claremont McKenna College. (150-250 words)
This is a class “why us,” but with an additional ask. They don’t just want to know what you love about CMC, but also how you feel CMC will launch you into a “thoughtful and productive” life of leadership. Before you start writing, it’s time to do the research that will lay the groundwork for your supplemental essay.
Using the magic of the web, you need to find:
Name of your prospective major or program
A professor you hope to work with, and why
Two courses you hope to take, and why
Something about the academic program at CMC that you are excited about
Something about the activities or clubs at CMC that you are excited about
Once you have that research squared away, it’s time to write. Start by taking the detail of the academic program and mapping it onto your life. Where do you see this in your life already? If you are interested in multi-disciplinary learning, for example, come up with an experience where you have engaged with two or more subjects and they informed each other, deepening your expertise and interest. Perhaps an English teacher brought psychology into the classroom when assessing a reading, or maybe a science teacher used poetry as part of a unit. Whatever it is, write an intro that brings this experience to life in less than 100 words.
Then you need to move to what you love about CMC. Take the detail story you started with and use it as a way to transition into how you see that same type of passion or emphasis at CMC. Introduce your prospective major, the professor, and the classes. But leave yourself 50 words for a passionate close that allows for the stuff outside of the classroom, spotlighting that thing you found about the activities or clubs at CMC that you are excited about.
A critical part of fulfilling our mission is living out the commitments of CMC’s Open Academy: Freedom of Expression, Viewpoint Diversity, and Constructive Dialogue. We want to learn more about your commitment to listening and learning from others with different viewpoints, perspectives, and life experiences from your own.
Describe a time when engaging with someone about a specific topic resulted in you changing your attitude, belief, or behavior, or you changed the belief or behavior of someone else. What was the change that occurred for you, and what facilitated that change? What did you learn from that experience, and how has it informed how you engage with others? (150-250 words)
The second prompt, or at least the style of it, has become notorious this year. Prompts asking you to reflect on navigating disagreement have been around for a while, but it was always only a handful of schools. This year, a surge in schools have incorporated this type of prompt into their supplements. Honestly, we aren’t surprised.
College campuses have been pretty rocky places politically over the past year, and many administrators are simply looking to calm things down. They want passionate students who care deeply about community and society, but who also aren’t going to occupy buildings or lead obtrusive protests.
With all of that in mind, the way to answer this prompt is not through politics or division, but through community and coming together. Start by thinking of a place or time in your life when you engage with people who are different than you in some notable way, without it being about politics or disagreement. This could be a volunteer or service experience, a family experience, or a random conversation that had a big impact on you.
What is key that this isn’t the place to spotlight division, but to let unification shine. And, of course, your opinion needs to change in some way — or someone else’s does.
The CMC supplement isn’t easy, but we actually find it pretty fun. If that sounds crazy, we get it. But we actually do love working on these with students. If you need help, let us know.
Strong admissions outcomes require equally strong strategy. Learn more.