Claremont McKenna College supplemental essays
Claremont McKenna College asks for two supplemental essays in 2026-27. Common App. Personal statement required (250-650 words).
That is two supplements plus the Common App personal statement: three pieces of writing in all. Early Decision closes November 1, 2026, Early Decision II closes January 10, 2027 and Regular Decision closes January 10, 2027. The prompts carry this limit: 150-250 words. Every Claremont McKenna College prompt is printed on this page in full, with its word limit and who has to answer it, checked against the college’s own admissions page.
Deadlines
| Round | Date |
|---|---|
| Early Decision | November 1, 2026 |
| Early Decision II | January 10, 2027 |
| Regular Decision | January 10, 2027 |
Checked against www.cmc.edu/admission/first-year-application-instructions. Confirm on the college’s own page before you submit.
The essays, 2026-27
Required · 150-250 words
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.
Supplemental essay 1 of 2. CMC's own page states NO word limit; the 150-250 range is corroborated by two independent publishers that agree (College Essay Guy 2026/2027 and CollegeVine 2025-2026).
Get a free read on this essayPaste your draft, see the verdict before you pay.No draft yet? Pick a topic for this promptRequired · 150-250 words
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?
Supplemental essay 2 of 2. On CMC's page this is one numbered item made of a framing paragraph plus the task; both parts reproduced, newline separated. The three named values are CMC's Open Academy commitments: Freedom of Expression, Viewpoint Diversity, and Constructive Dialogue. Word limit is third-party, from the same two publishers.
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Your Claremont McKenna College checklist
Two supplements, all required. The first deadline, Early Decision, is November 1, 2026.
- Common App personal statementRequired250-650 words
- Supplement 1Required150-250 words
- Supplement 2Required150-250 words
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Getting into Claremont McKenna College
Claremont McKenna College admits 9.6% of applicants. The middle 50% of enrolled students scored 1470-1560 on the SAT and 33-35 on the ACT.
About 1 in 10 applicants are admitted, at a college of 1,388 undergraduates.
| Enrolled students | 25th | Median | 75th |
|---|---|---|---|
| SAT total | 1470 | 1530 | 1560 |
| SAT reading and writing | 720 | 750 | 770 |
| SAT math | 750 | 780 | 790 |
| ACT composite | 33 | 34 | 35 |
What SAT score do you need for Claremont McKenna College?
A 1560 puts you in the top quarter of the students who enrolled, a 1530 at their midpoint, and a 1470 at the bottom quarter, meaning one in four enrolled students scored below it. The same three points on the ACT are 33, 34 and 35. A quarter of an enrolled class scoring under the 25th percentile is not a rounding error, so a score below the range is a reason to strengthen the rest of the application rather than a reason not to apply.
US Department of Education, College Scorecard (2026-09-17). Percentiles describe students who enrolled, not everyone admitted. SAT totals are the reading and math bands added together, which is how every source in this market reports them and is an approximation of about 10 to 20 points, because the two sections are correlated.
- What SAT score do you need for Claremont McKenna College?
- Claremont McKenna College sets no minimum. Among students who enrolled, the middle 50% scored 1470-1560 on the SAT: a 1470 sits at the 25th percentile, 1530 at the median and 1560 at the 75th. A score at or above 1560 is a clear strength in the application; below 1470 it is the part of the file the rest has to make up for. These are the figures Claremont McKenna College reports to the US Department of Education, released in the College Scorecard of 2026-09-17.
- What ACT score do you need for Claremont McKenna College?
- The middle 50% of enrolled students scored 33-35 on the ACT, with a composite of 34 at the median. There is no cutoff: a quarter of the enrolled class scored below 33. Reported by Claremont McKenna College to the US Department of Education, College Scorecard release of 2026-09-17.
- What GPA do you need for Claremont McKenna College?
- The honest answer is that the federal data behind this page does not contain one. Colleges report their admit rate and their enrolled students' test scores to the Department of Education; they do not report a GPA distribution, so any site quoting an exact average GPA for Claremont McKenna College is either reading that college's own Common Data Set or estimating. What the reported data does say is that Claremont McKenna College admits 9.6% of applicants, and the more selective a college is, the closer to the top of the class its admitted students sit and the more the strength of your course load counts alongside the number itself.
- How hard is it to get into Claremont McKenna College?
- Claremont McKenna College admits 9.6% of the people who apply, which is about 1 in 10 applicants. At that rate no set of numbers makes admission likely, a perfect one included, because the college turns away far more qualified applicants than it takes. Strong grades and scores get the application read; the essays, the recommendations and what you have actually done decide it from there.
What Claremont McKenna College costs after grant aid, by family income, from the same federal data.
Sort your whole college list into reaches, targets and likelies, or find colleges that fit your GPA and test scores. Both are free and neither needs an account.
Claremont McKenna College essay questions, answered
- Does Claremont McKenna College have supplemental essays?
- Yes. Claremont McKenna College asks for two supplemental essays in 2026-27. Every prompt is printed in full on this page. Word limits: 150-250 words.
- How many essays do you write for Claremont McKenna College in 2026-27?
- Two supplements, plus the Common App personal statement.
Schools with similar admit rates
Claremont McKenna College admits 9.6% of applicants. The colleges either side of it in our set by admit rate, most selective first, each with its own prompts and deadlines: Barnard College (8.8%), Amherst College (9.0%), New York University (9.2%), University of Southern California (9.8%), Emory University (10.7%), Middlebury College (10.8%).