Scripps College

Private · Selective · CA

Photo: Sdkb (CC BY-SA 4.0)

School data & stats

TypePrivate

LocationCA · West

SettingSuburban

Undergrads1,113

Student:faculty10:1

Outcomes

4-yr grad rate60.7%

6-yr grad rate82.5%

Drop-out rate6.2%

Study abroad—

Cost

In-state tuition$66k

Out-of-state tuition$66k

Application fee—

Community

Racial diversity46%

Gender diversity99.9%

International4.3%

Identity—

Overview

Scripps is the women's college of the Claremont Colleges consortium in Southern California, founded in 1926 through a gift from newspaper heiress Ellen Browning Scripps with an explicit mission of educating women as serious, independent thinkers. It combines that single-sex mission with the resources of five adjacent campuses, and its Mediterranean-style architecture, courtyards, and gardens are historic landmarks that shape the school's identity as much as its academics do.

Academics

Scripps is known for interdisciplinary humanities and a landmark Core Curriculum built around shared, sequenced coursework in the first two years rather than an open menu of distribution requirements. Students cross-register freely at the other Claremont Colleges -- Pomona, Claremont McKenna, Harvey Mudd, and Pitzer -- gaining access to coed classes and majors like engineering and economics that Scripps doesn't offer on its own campus, letting students effectively design a program that combines single-sex community with five-college breadth.

Campus & student life

The campus itself, with its courtyards, fountains, and gardens around Balch Hall and the Williamson Gallery, is frequently cited as one of the most beautiful in the country, and it anchors a close residential community where the student-run Motley Coffeehouse is a genuine social hub. Students split their social and academic lives between Scripps's own women's-college culture and the broader coed Claremont Colleges ecosystem, so daily life is far more mixed-gender in practice than the single-sex label alone suggests.

Getting in

Applications are read holistically with attention to intellectual seriousness and fit with a women's-college mission and the Core Curriculum specifically. Essays carry real weight, since Scripps looks for students who actively want the particular combination of single-sex community and consortium access rather than landing there as a fallback for a coed Claremont school.

After graduation

Graduates go on to graduate school and careers across the humanities, sciences, and professions at rates typical of top liberal-arts colleges, aided by the wider Claremont Colleges network and career-services infrastructure that Scripps shares with its consortium partners. Scripps alumnae are especially well represented in fields like law, museum and arts administration, and academia.

Worth knowing

The Core Curriculum is a defining, somewhat unusual feature -- a shared interdisciplinary sequence rather than a menu of electives -- and it's a real point of intellectual identity for students who choose Scripps over its four consortium neighbors. Cross-registration means a Scripps student's daily experience can be far more coed and varied than 'women's college' alone suggests, worth understanding before assuming it functions like a traditional single-sex school.

scrippscollege.edu ↗

Admissions

Acceptance rate38.3%

Enrolled mid-50%SAT 1440–1540 · ACT 31–34

Test policyoptional

Rec letters3

Deadlines (2026–27 cycle)

Early decisionNov 15

Regular decisionJan 8

Verified from the school’s admissions page ↗

Applying (2026-27 cycle)

Apply through Common App or QuestBridge.

Early decision IIJan 8

Financial aid formsJan 31

Early Decision I is binding and due November 15; Early Decision II is also binding and shares the January 8 deadline with Regular Decision.

Interviews: Interviews are optional -- a chance to discuss your interests and goals and learn more about Scripps -- and can be scheduled by registering through the admission office.

Verified from the school’s admissions pages ↗