Pitzer College
Pitzer College is a private liberal arts college in Claremont, California. It was founded in 1963 as a women's college in the Claremont Colleges consortium and became coeducational in 1970.
Pitzer enrolls approximately 1000 students. Pitzer offers 41 majors and 22 minors, many of them cross-disciplinary. The college has a curricular emphasis on the social sciences, behavioral sciences, international programs, and media studies. Pitzer is known for its social justice culture and experimental pedagogical approach.
Pitzer competes in the NCAA Division III's Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference in a joint athletic program with Pomona College as the Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens. Notable alumni include federal officials, authors, and various figures in the entertainment industry. Pitzer is a top producer of Fulbright US Student Program awardees.
History
Pitzer was made the sixth institution of the Claremont Colleges when it was founded in 1963 as a women's college by Russell K. Pitzer, a California citrus magnate, philanthropist, and Pomona College alumnus. In April 1963, John W. Atherton, the dean of faculty and a professor of English at Claremont Men's College was hired as Pitzer's first president, and over the next seventeen months he recruited students, faculty, and trustees and constructed Scott and Sanborn Halls just in time for the fall 1964 semester. During the college's first year, students and faculty created the curriculum and the school's system of governance. The college graduated its first class of students in 1965 and became co-educational in the fall of 1970. The first academic term in the fall of 1964 began with eleven professors and 153 students from sixteen states and five countries. Pitzer's sixth president, Melvin L. Oliver, was the first African American to lead any of the five Claremont Colleges.Presidents
- John W. Atherton
- Robert H. Atwell
- Frank L. Ellsworth
- Marilyn Chapin Massey
- Laura Skandera Trombley
- Thomas Poon
- Melvin L. Oliver
- Jill A. Klein
- Strom C. Thacker
Campus
The Pitzer College campus occupies the northeast corner of the Claremont Colleges property, which contains seven institutions of higher education coordinated through the Claremont University Consortium. The Claremont Colleges comprise Pomona College, Claremont Graduate University, Scripps College, Claremont McKenna College, Harvey Mudd College, Pitzer College, and Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Life Sciences. At present, the campus is split approximately in half by Pitzer Road. Harvey Mudd College is adjacent to Pitzer's north, Scripps to the west, and Claremont McKenna to the south.
Contemporary architecture characterizes the majority of Pitzer's buildings, several of which were designed by Gwathmey-Siegel following major donations from Eli Broad, a board member emeritus and former chair of the Pitzer College Board of Trustees. A notable exception is the Grove House, a California bungalow built in 1902 for a local citrus grower during the height of the Arts and Crafts movement. The building, a popular campus hangout to this day, was purchased for $1.00 and moved to Pitzer in 1977 under the direction of professor emeritus Barry Sanders. The Grove House is home to a cafe, the Women's Center, the Hinshaw Gallery and the EcoCenter.
Most landscaping on the campus follows principles of xeriscaping. Several varieties of citrus and other fruit are grown throughout campus and an organic community garden, dedicated grove and chicken coop are located north of Mead Hall. The 10-acre John R. Rodman Arboretum, an attempt to save surviving native chaparral vegetation from demolition, was founded in 1984. It contains 16 themed gardens with drought-tolerant, native landscaping.
The campus also includes auditoriums, sports courts, and science buildings.
Located directly northwest of the main campus, the Robert J. Bernard Biological Field Station, a resource of The Claremont Colleges, is an nature preserve consisting of coastal sage scrub.
The Outback Preserve, located in the northeast section of campus, occupies just over three acres of the John Rodman Arboretum. The preserve is home to one of the rarest ecosystems in the world: Alluvial Sage Scrub. Undergoing ecological restoration as part of the Outback Restoration Project, the preserve is a living-learning laboratory. The project seeks to restore the Outback Preserve to a more intact alluvial sage scrub ecosystem, removing invasive plants and ensuring the success of native species. Each semester there are a small number of courses utilizing the Outback Preserve. Courses are open to all students at the Claremont Colleges.
Pitzer owns and operates a field station on secondary growth rainforest, the Firestone Center for Restoration Ecology. The facility is located approximately two kilometers east of Playa Dominical, Costa Rica. The property borders the Hacienda Barú nature reserve. The center is home to programs in Pitzer's science, language and international studies curricula.
Rankings
The U.S. News & World Report College and University rankings 2025 edition ranks Pitzer College as tied for the 36th best national liberal arts college overall, and tied for 54th in "Top Performers on Social Mobility" out of 211 evaluated liberal arts colleges. In 2015, Pitzer was recognized nationally as the 8th most selective liberal arts college; 20th most selective among all college and universities; 44th in best freshmen retention rate; and 55th for highest proportion of classes with fewer than 20 students.In Forbes 2019 college rankings, Pitzer was named 54th best among the 650 top-ranked colleges, universities and service academies in the U.S. In addition, Pitzer was named the 44th best private college, the 22nd best liberal arts college, and the 11th best college in the West.
Academics
As a member of the Claremont College Consortium, Pitzer students have access to nearly all facilities available to students enrolled at the other colleges, in addition to all facilities administered by the Claremont College Consortium. Any student attending Pitzer can enroll in classes at the other four colleges, and can complete an off-campus major if the major is not offered by Pitzer.Pitzer offers 41 majors and 22 minors, many of them cross-disciplinary, and each student is assigned a faculty advisor upon their arrival on campus. The college expects students to take an active part in planning their course of study and has few distribution requirements. The most popular majors, based on 2021 graduates were:
- Research and Experimental Psychology
- Environmental Science
- Organizational Behavior Studies
- Political Science and Government, General
- Economics
The college operates 58 study abroad programs, including 41 international exchanges and 6 domestic exchanges. Pitzer College also operates its own study abroad programs in Brazil, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Italy, Nepal, Tanzania/South Africa/Zimbabwe, and Vietnam.
Pitzer has ranked as a top producer of Fulbright US Student Program awardees for 13 consecutive years thus far and is one of the nine baccalaureate institutes who have been top producers of Fulbright US students every year for at least the past decade. From 2010 to 2015, The Chronicle of Higher Education listed Pitzer first in Fulbright Fellowships among all undergraduate institutions nationwide. In 11 of the 12 years from 2003 until 2015, Pitzer alumni received more Fulbright Fellowships per capita than alumni from any other college or university in the nation.
Admission
| 2023 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | |
| Applicants | 4,415 | 4,358 | 3,753 | 4,142 | 4,149 | - |
| Admits | 605 | 581 | 608 | 569 | 559 | - |
| Admit rate | 13.7% | 13.3% | 16.2% | 13.7% | 13.5% | - |
| Enrolled | 276 | 273 | 262 | 268 | 267 | - |
| Yield rate | 45.6% | 47.0% | 43.1% | 47.1% | 47.8% | - |
| SAT range | 1350–1460 | 1340–1490 | 1310–1490 | 1300–1450 | 1250–1440 | - |
| ACT range | 30–33 | 30–33 | 29–32 | 29–32 | 29–32 | - |
Nearly two decades after becoming the first college on the West Coast to adopt an SAT-optional admission policy, Pitzer College switched to a test-free admission policy for at least three years, beginning with the admission cycle for fall 2022. Admission to Pitzer College is rated as "most selective" by U.S. News & World Report. For the Class of 2027, Pitzer College accepted 15.9% of applicants with an average high school GPA of 4.07. Of the 32% of enrolled freshmen submitting SAT scores, the middle 50% range was 1370–1460 for the composite score, 668–730 for evidence-based reading and writing, and 680–750 for math, while of the 28% of enrolled freshmen submitting ACT results, the middle 50% range for the composite score was 30–33.