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Classes at Pitzer average around 15 students, and are often reading, writing, and discussion-heavy. The student to faculty ratio is 10:1, meaning that through these small class sizes students have a lot of interaction with their classmates and professors.

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Academics

📚 Academics

Academics at Pitzer are rooted in a rigorous and interdisciplinary curriculum where students can choose from more than 40 majors and 20 minors. As a small liberal arts college, Pitzer has an average class size of 15 students, a student to faculty ratio of 10:1, and incredible academic flexibility.

Cross-registration

A great benefit of being a partof the Claremont College Consortium is that Pitzer students are able to cross register for classes at any of the 5Cs, and even major at the other colleges! Cross-registration is very common, as when registering for courses students have access to all classes at the 5Cs. On average, Pitzer students take 50% of their classes at Pitzer, 40% at the other colleges, and 10% at Keck. Cross-registration is a great benefit of the consortium, as there are so many courses offered and the ability to interact with so many different students and professors.

Breadth of Knowledge

At Pitzer, students are expected to fulfill the educational objectives by designing, in cooperation with their advisers, an individualized program of study which responds to the students’ own intellectual needs and interests. Through this flexible academic lens, Pitzer has "breadth of knowledge" requirements, rather than a rigid core curriculm. These requirements include two humanities/fine arts courses, two social science courses, a natural science course, a quantitative reasoning course, two intercultural understanding courses, and two social responsibility courses.

Intercultural Understanding in Academics

In order to meet the student learning outcomes (SLOs) for Intercultural Understanding and provide students with a well-rounded perspective on this educational objective, it is important that students demonstrate these SLOs regarding both global and local contexts. Students, working closely with their advisers, will select a set of courses and/or programs to demonstrate intercultural understanding from (A) a global or international perspective and (B) from a domestic (US) or local perspective.

Social Responsibility in Academics

Students satisfy the graduation guidelines for this educational objective by completing two courses: one in Social Justice Theory and one in Social Responsibility Praxis. The Social Justice Theory course will emphasize diverse theoretical frameworks, movements and histories of social justice. The Social Responsibility Praxis course emphasizes the manifestation of social responsibility through community engagement, theoretical analysis, and critical reflection, or “praxis.”

Field Groups

At Pitzer, academic disciplines are organized into field groups rather than departments. This means that our academics and professors are not siloed into separate buildings and classroom spaces, making all academic spaces shared and collaborative. This paves way to intentionally interdisciplinary curricula as well as opportunities for co-taught classes from professors across field groups.