Claremont McKenna College Celebrates More Than 75 Years of its Mission to Prepare Students for Responsible Leadership by Ringing NYSE Closing Bell

NEW YORK— Claremont McKenna College (CMC), one of the nation’s top liberal arts colleges, rang the New York Stock Exchange closing bell on August 17, 2023 in celebration of more than 75 years of preparing students for thoughtful and productive lives and responsible leadership in business, government, and the professions.

With the bell-ringing at the iconic New York location, Claremont McKenna celebrated the thousands of CMC alumni who have led major enterprises, driven innovation, and made significant leadership contributions to the world.

“We celebrate today and are so honored to ring the bell; yet, we do not rest on the accomplishments of our first 75 years,” observed Hiram E. Chodosh, President of Claremont McKenna. “Over 70 percent of our 14,000 alumni hold executive or senior positions within their companies. Their success reflects our singular approach to strong returns on value, as we continue to lead in the expansion of student opportunity and success.”

Claremont McKenna College has been recognized by Forbes as a leading liberal arts college for value, having one of the highest returns on investment in its selective peer group of colleges, while continuing to invest in the resources students need to succeed. Claremont McKenna has doubled the size of its campus footprint and is developing the new Roberts Campus, which will include a series of pedestrian malls, a “sports bowl” with eight athletic and practice fields, a new aquatics center, academic and administrative buildings, and recreational areas, among other notable additions. The campus expansion is underway in parallel with the construction of the Robert Day Sciences Center which is the future home of the Kravis Department of Integrated Sciences, a revolutionary approach to undergraduate science education that integrates all science disciplines, computer and data science, hands-on research, problem-based learning, and policy, business, and ethics in one program. The 135,000-square-foot building is designed by world-renowned architecture firm BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group.

As part of these exciting efforts, Claremont McKenna has identified three priorities for its continued commitments to preparing students for responsible leadership, conducting important academic research, and expanding transformative student opportunities.

• Honoring Our Leadership Mission by endowing for future generations Claremont McKenna’s distinctive model of undergraduate education, including small class sizes and deep relationships with faculty; research opportunities through 11 graduate-level centers and institutes; and signature programming, leadership development, and skill building through the Open Academy, Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum, and the CARE Center, which cultivate our nationally recognized commitments to freedom of expression, viewpoint diversity, and constructive dialogue.
• Preparing Future Leaders Through Integrated Sciences by raising the technical and scientific fluency of all students to tackle the socio-scientific grand challenges of the day. This approach is buoyed by interdisciplinary connections with the social sciences and humanities while steeped in computational approaches that ensure an ability for all graduates to lead within a modern economy. The Robert Day Sciences Center will house the new Kravis Department of Integrated Sciences, which will expand the College’s capacity to plan, develop, and lead a new interdisciplinary approach to science education among liberal arts colleges. The department will be organized around three foci: Health, Brain, and Planet.
• Expanding Transformative Student Opportunities by recruiting the top emerging scholar-leaders regardless of financial need and removing barriers to the full, four-year Claremont McKenna experience, including kick-off funding for high-need students; a first-year and sophomore summer experience for every student on financial aid; removal of home equity from the financial aid calculation; and travel and emergency funding. Our Top 10-ranked Soll Center for Student Opportunity offers students individualized career coaching and connects them to a range of resources as part of the CMC Career Readiness Effect. This includes industry meet-ups and job shadows with potential employers and a highly-engaged alumni network; sponsored trips to industry hubs such as Silicon Valley and New York City; and 10 Scholar Communities that offer financial support and access to campus-wide opportunities and programs in science, global affairs, leadership, public policy, and beyond.

As a result of its collective efforts, Claremont McKenna was recently recognized as a leading liberal arts college for value, according to data from DegreeChoices and published in Forbes. The study, based on analysis of data from the U.S. Department of Education’s College Scorecard and the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), found that Claremont McKenna graduates are able to pay back their education in only 1.5 years. The ranking also factors in how much alumni earn compared to all alumni in the same state, 10 years after enrollment.

As part of a seven-year analysis by the Soll Center for Student Opportunity, 97 percent of new Claremont McKenna graduates have also consistently reported defined plans six months after commencement. For 2022 graduates, the median starting salary they reported was $87,000.

“CMC has provided me with so many incredible opportunities and resources at all levels of my college experience,” said Zara Vakath, a junior at Claremont McKenna, who took part in the bell-ringing celebration. “As an economics and literature major, I plan to pursue a career in investing. I am fortunate that I’ve had access to personalized academic support and a strong alumni network, both of which have prepared me for my future.”

The bell-ringing archive can be viewed on the NYSE website.