Pitzer College is a tiny (1,000 students total) private liberal arts college in Claremont, California. They’re part of the Claremont Colleges, which is a consortium of five undergrad (and two graduate) schools – Pomona, Scripps, Claremont McKenna, Harvey Mudd, and Pitzer – that share a gorgeous campus. This innovative approach allows students to attend classes at any school, participate in cross-college sports teams and clubs, and get a liberal arts education on an Oxford-inspired campus. Each school has its own personality and focus, and Pitzer is famous for social sciences, behavioral sciences, international studies, and media studies, as well as a hearty social justice culture. Last cycle, Pitzer had a 17.3% acceptance rate.
Pitzer was the first school on the West Coast to go test-optional (two decades ago!) they decided to become test free for three years in 2022. They don’t want your tests! They reject them entirely!! Pitzer has one mandatory and one new “optional” supplement, so let’s talk about it.
The first, mandatory question gives you two options. One is a community essay, one is a why essay. Pshhh, easy.
At Pitzer, five core values distinguish our approach to education: social responsibility, intercultural understanding, interdisciplinary learning, student engagement and environmental sustainability. As agents of change, our students utilize these values to create solutions to our world’s challenges. Please answer only ONE of the following prompts (650 words):
Reflecting on your involvement throughout high school or within the community, how have you engaged with one of Pitzer’s core values?
Pitzer has just listed their five core values for you, so take a nice long look at ‘em and think about a time you engaged in your community in a way that is reflective of said values. You may keenly notice that four of the five values exist in the realm of social justice, so you might want to zero in on something there. Duh, you grumble to yourself. Look, we’re trying to help and sass doesn’t write essays!
They are giving you 650 words, the length of your Common App essay. That’s a lot of space. That means what will work best here is a story. One with a solid beginning, middle, and end and lots and lots of details. Maybe you started an environmental club at school and brought in teachers from other classes to talk about how the environment intersects with history, math, english, etc. Perhaps you and your friends staged a walk-out at school over discriminatory dress codes that unfairly targeted students of color. Tell the story of the moment, the planning, the aftermath, whatever – but bring us into the scene. Use details to make the reader feel like they’re really there.
Describe what you are looking for from your college experience and why Pitzer would be a good fit for you.
A why essay is super simple and is made up of a few key elements. With 650 words, you have a looooot of space to expand on everything you love about Pitzer. Spoiler: for the sake of this essay, what you’re looking for from your college experience is going to college at Pitzer, so don’t talk about wanting to go to football games or fratting it up on a Friday night. If that’s what you want, maybe like, don’t apply here?
Start with an origin story, or why you are studying what you want to study. And yes, you need to choose a major, at least for the sake of the essay. If you want to study psychology, maybe you witnessed a mental health professional help your family, or you became fascinated with the intersections of psychology and social justice after learning about Jane Elliott’s Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes exercise. You will end your origin story by declaring your major.
Once you’ve done that, go peruse Pitzer’s course catalog and find two or three (this is 650 words after all) upper-level classes that fit into your stated major and interest. Talk about how these classes fit into your goals, your interests, and what about them is interesting to you. You could even talk about how these classes interact with each other!! Or pick a class outside of your stated interest and talk about how it will bolster your education. They did say interdisciplinary learning is a core value!
After classes, you’ll pick two-ish professors that are researching things aligned with your interests. Pitch yourself as their research assistant. Talk about how you want to work with them to better understand a certain subject, or how their expertise will allow you to learn a whole new side of your whole *thing*.
Now you’ll talk about some extracurricular activities you want to pursue at Pitzer. These can be academic or they can be more fun things. Pitzer is asking about the whole college experience! What you choose shouldn’t just be random, though. Draw a line from what you have already done in high school and carry it through. You can audition for an improv troupe and not tell them in the application, unless you did improv in high school, then go for it.
Wrap it up with a nice few sentences about the campus, some traditions, some cool coffee shop where all the hip kids hang out in Claremont, etc. You catch our drift.
As of Fall 2023 Pitzer will offer a new optional 250 word essay that applicants are able to answer via the Common Application. It is not required but can give students additional space to write in their application. Please see the new prompt below:
As a mission driven institution, we value and celebrate the synergy created by our differences and similarities. We welcome you to write about distinctive aspects of your background, identity, or personal interests that you would bring to Pitzer, and how you plan to engage in our community. (250 words or less)
It looks like the thing we predicted in our Affirmative Action Supreme Court decision blog post has happened! We are psychic. We think that the way most colleges will react to the decision will be maliciously complying with the loophole that allows schools to take race and identity into consideration if it’s written about in an essay. Pitzer has added an optional essay in order to let students expand on their identity if needed. This is also very on-brand for the social justice contingent of the Claremont Colleges.
We don’t super advise writing this essay if you’re like cis and white and able-bodied and straight, but otherwise, we think a story highlighting a part (or an intersection) of your identity is the best way to go for this one. 250 words isn’t a lot, so it won’t need to be as jam-packed as the community essay up top, but you should still zero in on a moment in time.
And that’s the Pitzer supplement! Make sure to read through your essays a few times, edit for grammar and clarity, and maybe have a friend, family member, or teacher read through it and give you the all-clear.
Need help with your Pitzer application, Common App essay, or any other college app? Reach out to us!