Claremont Colleges

The Claremont Colleges are an American consortium of five undergraduate and two graduate schools of higher education located in Claremont, California, a city 35 miles (56 km) east of downtown Los Angeles. Unlike most other collegiate consortia, such as the Five Colleges Consortium in Massachusetts and the Tri-College Consortium in Pennsylvania, the Claremont College campuses are adjoining and within walking distance of one another (refer the map). Put together, the campuses cover roughly 1 square mile (2.6 km2).

Known colloquially to students as the 7Cs—or the 5Cs, when referring only to the undergraduate institutions—the Claremont Colleges were founded in 1925 when the all-graduate Claremont University College (now Claremont Graduate University) was established in addition to the older all-undergraduate Pomona College. The purpose of the consortium is to provide the specialization, flexibility and personal attention commonly found in a small college, with the resources of a large university. Their compartmentalized collegiate university design was inspired by Oxford University and Cambridge University. With more than 6,300 students, about 700 faculty, and approximately 1600 staff and support personnel, the colleges offer more than 2000 courses to students. The Claremont Colleges are a unique consortium that the Fiske Guide called "a collection of intellectual resources unmatched in America."