College profile
Claremont McKenna College
CA · Private nonprofit · Large suburb · 5,799 applicants 2023
A parent's read
- Almost everyone who starts here finishes. 91% graduate within six years — the standard federal measure. Nationally about a third of students who start a bachelor's never finish one, and an unfinished degree is the most expensive outcome in this decision: the debt stays, the credential doesn't.
- The campus itself adds earnings power. Opportunity Insights tracks it: only about 4% of students arrive from the bottom income fifth, but those who do reach the top fifth by their 30s at a 68% rate — a strong sign the outcomes here are the campus, not just the intake.
- The 9× payoff headline requires aid. Without aid this runs ~$86,500/yr. There's no income cutoff for need-based aid — whether you qualify depends on the gap between a school's price and your family's finances, so at a price like this even six-figure incomes often show need. Families who receive aid average ~$28,849/yr — against that, ten years of median earnings run ~9× the cost. Run the college's own net-price calculator before anchoring on the multiple.
- Ask the submit question deliberately. This college is test-optional — but at many such colleges, applicants who submit strong scores are admitted at meaningfully higher rates. “Optional” is a strategy decision, not a pass.
Composed from this page's data — every claim is backed by a number in the sections below.
Parent/student verdict
Highly selectiveHighly selective reach for nearly every applicant.
Best for
- Strong academic profiles — students here cluster in the top test and GPA tiers (bands above)
- Students focused on Social Sciences (the school's signature program)
- Families wanting a small liberal-arts experience
- A long-term payoff that holds even at full price — ten years at the $104,736 median runs about $701K ahead of four years at the ~$86,500/yr sticker (aid recipients average ~$28,849/yr)
The reality
- You'd be near the bottom of their admitted class if: SAT below 1450, or ACT below 33, or unweighted GPA below ~3.80 (test bands are the school's own; the GPA floor is our estimate, not a published figure)
- With selective universities, build a balanced college list of Reaches, Targets, and Safeties ⓘ
- High cost — full price is ~$86,500/yr without aid, and aid-receiving families still average ~$28,849/yr — verify the major's earnings track record before committing
Verdict is composed from this college's structured data (admit rate, SAT bands, net price with aid and at full price, Carnegie classification, scholarship grids) using transparent rule thresholds — not a chat-bot's opinion.
What are your child's odds here?
Enter their numbers once — this and every college page shows their verdict, and the UC campus cards on California school pages light up with it too. Free, no email.
Weighted is the higher GPA, with honors/AP credit in it — pick whichever your school reports. PSAT scores work in the SAT box.
Institutional snapshot
What kind of college is this?
29% of enrolled first-years submitted an SAT score, 16% an ACT — these ranges describe students who submitted, not the whole class.
Source: federal IPEDS Admissions 2023 for scores + admit rate; federal College Scorecard (20260606 vintage) for earnings + outcomes. SAT/ACT bands are the 25th–75th percentile of enrolled submitters.
Outcomes & cost
What graduates actually earn, finish, and owe.
Federal College Scorecard data. Earnings are median annual income measured years after entering. Debt is for federal-aid borrowers only (cash-pay students aren't counted).
The real cost
What Claremont McKenna College actually costs
Which side your family lands on isn't set by any national income line — it's set by Claremont McKenna College's own aid decision: the gap between its price and your family's finances.
Your odds + estimated cost across your whole college list, side by side.
The payoffTen years of typical graduate pay minus four years of cost — how many dollars ahead a typical graduate runs by year ten. Check both the full-price and with-aid versions to see which applies to you; median pay reflects who a college admits and what they study as much as the college itself., both ways
+$701K ahead at full price +$932K with aidSource: College Scorecard (average net price among Title IV first-time, full-time undergraduates who received aid) and each college's published cost of attendance. We don't show the federal net-price-by-income brackets: their categories were fixed in 2008 and never adjusted, and none of the averages is your family's own number — the full story. Payoff = (10-yr median earnings × 10) − (4 years of cost), in dollars — how far ahead a typical graduate runs by year ten; medians travel with the students a college admits and the majors they choose as much as with the college itself. Full price is the published cost of attendance; earnings are 10 years after enrollment, all majors combined.
What students study here
Most popular majors at Claremont McKenna College
Top 5 fields of study by bachelor's degrees awarded (most recent IPEDS Completions). Use this to see what Claremont McKenna College actually graduates — not just what it markets.
What those majors earn here
Median earnings 4 years after entry, by major — Claremont McKenna College's own graduates, not national averages.
| Major (CIP) | 4-yr earnings |
|---|---|
| Economics. | $146,524 |
| International Relations and National Security Studies. | $96,520 |
| Political Science and Government. | $73,826 |
Sources: IPEDS Completions (C2023_a; bachelor's-level first majors, 2-digit CIP family — share is of the top 5 only) · College Scorecard program-level outcomes (PP-FOS). Full college-vs-major comparison: /college-outcomes →
Student body & economic mobility
Who attends here — and what the campus adds.
Opportunity Insights data. It measures two things at once: how many lower-income students a college enrols, and how many of them reach the top earnings quintile later. A high rate says the college does both — it does not establish that the campus caused the earnings, because the students it admits differ from the students it doesn't. Read it as a signal about access and destination, not as proof of value added.
Full leaderboards: /college-mobility →
AI program signal
AI + computing education at Claremont McKenna College
Full multi-lens comparison: /ai-colleges →
Alternatives to Claremont McKenna College
Matched not just by selectivity, but by strategic goal — what a family actually decides on.
Or compare any college side-by-side
Deciding on Claremont McKenna College?
Get the full picture in one free report — your child's Reach / Competitive / Match / Likely odds and your real net price, for Claremont McKenna College and every other college on your list.
Get your child's odds at Claremont McKenna College →Score-odds calculator · Improve the score first · Find merit aid
Feeder high schools
Which high schools send graduates to Claremont McKenna College?
Enrolled — from the schools' matriculation lists
65 high schools publish a numbered matriculation list — where their graduates actually enrolled, counted, in the school's own School Profile — and name Claremont McKenna College on it. Between them they printed 143 enrolled graduates. Ranked by graduates per class year enrolling at Claremont McKenna College, from each school's own published list: the number that school printed, divided by the class years its list covers. The published total and the school's own years label are shown beside every school, so a one-year list and a five-year list can sit on the same page. A list whose class years we cannot read is not divided by a guess — it is listed below with its total instead.
and 55 more
Admitted — from the schools' acceptance lists
5 high schools publish a numbered list of college acceptances — where their graduates were admitted, not where they enrolled — and name Claremont McKenna College on it. Between them they printed 16 admissions. Ranked by admissions per class year to Claremont McKenna College, from each school's own published acceptances list: the number that school printed, divided by the class years its list covers. Admits are counted at each college a student was admitted to, the same way the UC Reach Score counts a student admitted to three UC campuses three times — so this is a count of admissions, not of students. The published total and the school's own years label are shown beside every school, and a list whose class years we cannot read is listed below with its total rather than divided by a guess.
All 69 feeder schools, ranked →
Counted from each school's own published document, linked on that school's page. A high school that is not here does not publish a numbered list we could read — that is all absence means, and it says nothing about its graduates. Where a school publishes both, the two lists are shown separately: an acceptances list is not a list of enrollments, and the two are never added together.
For Parents
Get alerts when Claremont McKenna College's numbers change
New admit rates, costs, and outcomes — a few alerts a year, no spam. Your email also saves your list across devices.
Objective, government-grade data — no school pays us for placement.
At a glance
JSON · Using this page with an AI assistantClaremont McKenna College is a private nonprofit four-year college in CA. It admitted 11% of applicants (5,799 applied, 2023). Test policy: Test-optional.
Middle 50% of enrolled first-years who submitted that test: SAT 1450–1560, ACT 33–35. 29% of enrolled first-years submitted an SAT score, 16% an ACT — these ranges describe students who submitted, not the whole class.
Cost: about $28,849 a year on average with aid, $86,500 a year at full price.
Median earnings ten years after entry: $104,736 a year. Payoff, meaning ten years of that pay minus four years of cost: $931,964 ahead with aid, $701,360 ahead at full price.
Highest median earnings four years after the degree, by program: Economics ($146,524); International Relations and National Security Studies ($96,520); Political Science and Government ($73,826).
Economic mobility (Opportunity Insights): 4% of students came from families in the bottom fifth of income, and 68% of those reached the top fifth as adults.
High schools that publish a numbered matriculation list and name Claremont McKenna College: 65, 143 enrolled students between them — ranked by graduates per class year, most often The International School of San Francisco (3.0 per class year, 3 over 1 class year, Class of 2026); Punahou School (2.5 per class year, 10 over 4 class years, the past four years (2022 – 2025)); Lakeside School (2.2 per class year, 11 over 5 class years, 2021-2025). Each figure is the number that school printed divided by the class years its own list covers; the totals and years are shown. These are the schools that publish such a list, not every school that sends students; full list: https://highschoolreach.com/leaderboards/feeder-schools/claremont-mckenna-college.
High schools that publish a numbered list of college acceptances naming Claremont McKenna College: 5, 16 admissions between them — ranked by admissions per class year, most often Archbishop Mitty High School (4.0 per class year, 4 over 1 class year, Class of 2025); Laguna Blanca School (1.0 per class year, 5 over 5 class years, Classes of 2022-2026); The Altamont School (0.6 per class year, 3 over 5 class years, Classes of 2021-2025). Admits are counted at each college, so this counts admissions, not students. These are a different set of documents from the matriculation lists above and the two are never added together; full list: https://highschoolreach.com/leaderboards/feeder-schools/claremont-mckenna-college.
Machine-readable version of this page: https://highschoolreach.com/colleges/claremont-mckenna-college.json