Claremont McKenna College

Overview

Rankings

• #2 Highest-Paying Colleges for Psychology
• #2 Best Communications Colleges in California
• #3 Highest-Paying Colleges for Communications
• #3 Best Psychology Colleges in California
• #4 Best Colleges in California
• #4 Best Colleges in Far West
• #4 Best Colleges in Pacific Northwest
• #4 Best Bachelor's Programs in California

Academics & Admissions

Is It Hard to Get Into Claremont McKenna College? Acceptance Rate & Requirements

Based in Claremont, California, Claremont McKenna College turns away the vast majority of its applicants. The acceptance rate is 10%. Admitted students typically arrive with an average SAT score near 1,527. The graduation rate is roughly 93%.

Acceptance Rate

10%

Retention Rate

98%

SAT Average

1527

ACT Midpoint

34

SAT Range

1470–1560

ACT Range

33–35

Full-Time Faculty

90%

Faculty Salary (mo)

$16,701

Student–Faculty Ratio

8:1

Diversity Index

0.79

Applicants

5,709

Admitted

591

Inside the Admissions Office

School-reported Common Data Set · 2025-26

The acceptance rate tells you how hard Claremont McKenna College is to get into. Its Common Data Set tells you what happens once you are admitted: how many students say yes, how many arrived without test scores, and whether applying early tilts the odds. 51% of admitted students go on to enroll here, making it a school more than half of admitted students choose.

Yield Rate

51%

of admits enroll

Submitted SAT

34%

of enrolled freshmen

Submitted ACT

14%

of enrolled freshmen

Early Decision Admit Rate

22.1%

vs 9.4% overall

Cost & Financial Aid

How Much Does It Cost to Attend Claremont McKenna College? Tuition, Net Price & Aid

Published tuition at Claremont McKenna College is $67,980, but few families pay that. The number to watch is net price, what students actually pay each year after federal grants and institutional scholarships. Here it averages about $28,849. Students from families earning under $30,000 typically pay closer to $15,308 after need-based grants. The median graduate leaves with about $13,500 in federal student loans.

In-State Tuition

$67,980

Out-of-State

$67,980

Avg Net Price

$28,849

Median Debt

$13,500

Pell Grant Rate

18%

Federal Loan Rate

21%

Students Like You

Tell us a little about yourself to see what students like you have typically experienced at Claremont McKenna College — the net price for your income, your admission odds, and the outcomes that follow. These are patterns from federal data, not predictions.

Graduate Outcomes

Is Claremont McKenna College Worth It? Graduate Earnings & ROI

Ten years out, alumni of Claremont McKenna College earn a median of $104,736, well above the national average for bachelor's degree holders.

6 Years After Entry

$87,603

8 Years

$105,942

10 Years

$104,736

Debt-to-Earnings

0.13x

Loan Repayment (3yr)

91%

Earning > $25K

80%

Social Mobility

Data: Raj Chetty's Mobility Report Card · 30M+ anonymized tax records

Does Claremont McKenna College Drive Upward Mobility? Economic Mobility & Low-Income Outcomes

Claremont McKenna College is a genuine engine of upward mobility. Its mobility rate, the share of students who start in the bottom income quintile and climb to the top, is 2.96%, among the highest in the country. About 4.3% of students come from families in the bottom income quintile. Among bottom-quintile students who attend, roughly 68.3% go on to reach the top of the income ladder. The median family income of students sits near $142,000, a snapshot of the campus's socioeconomic mix.

Mobility Rate

2.96%

Bottom 20% → Top 20%

Success Rate

68.3%

If bottom 20% get in

From Bottom 20%

4.3%

Share of students

Parent Median Income

$192,928

today's $ (2015 cohort data)

Social Capital

Data: Opportunity Insights Social Capital Atlas

How Connected Is Claremont McKenna College? Social Capital & Cross-Class Networks

Social capital, the web of cross-class friendships that researchers link to long-run upward mobility, runs high at Claremont McKenna College. Its economic connectedness score is 1.90, where about 1.0 is the national norm. Its friending bias is low (-0.01), a sign that students from different economic backgrounds actually mix rather than self-segregate. Around 10% of students take part in civic and volunteering activity.

Economic Connectedness

1.90

Cross-class friendships

Friending Bias

-0.01

Lower = more inclusive

Volunteering Rate

9.6%

Support Ratio

1.00

Community support

Innovation & Knowledge Creation

Patents, inventors, and research influence · Opportunity Insights & Times Higher Education

Claremont McKenna College produces inventors at an above-average rate (top 18% nationally), with 31 patents tied to its graduates.

Inventor Rate

1.36%

Top 18% nationally

Patents Produced

31

Linked to graduates

Patent Citations

66

Downstream influence

Inventors From Low-Income

1.85%

Bottom-20% families

Institutional Finances

Data: NCES IPEDS

Federal Grants

$5,571,000

Investment Income

$-119,876,000

Top Programs

The fields Claremont McKenna College awards the most degrees in, by share of completions. Where federal field-of-study data exists, we show what graduates in that major earned early in their careers. Each links to its degree guide — or see what someone with your income, scores, and major would pay and earn here in the Students Like You simulator.

• Social Sciences 43% $104,269 early-career
• Biology & Biomedical 7%
• Business & Marketing 6% $118,908 early-career
• Psychology 6%
• Computer Science & IT 3%
• Communications 3%
• Engineering 3%
• Physical Sciences 2%

Early-career median earnings by major (typically 1–2 years after completion, bachelor's level where available), in today's dollars (CPI-adjusted). Source: U.S. Dept. of Education College Scorecard field of study. Distinct from the school-wide 10-year median; suppressed for small programs.