Claremont McKenna College is one of seven members of the prestigious Claremont Colleges consortium located in the Greater Los Angeles area. With such a lofty title to uphold, it comes as no surprise that Claremont McKenna is one of the more selective liberal arts colleges in the United States. Prospective members of the Class of 2030 may have some questions about the academic requirements needed to secure admission. 

For the Claremont McKenna College Class of 2028, an impressive 75% of students graduated in the top tenth of their high school’s graduating class. But are grades everything in this admissions process, or is there more wiggle room than one might think?. Put another way, what kind of GPA does a student need when applying to Claremont McKenna College? Let’s take a close look at the data over the past three admissions cycles.

Claremont McKenna College Admissions Rate

Let’s review GPA requirements by first taking a pit stop to look at the acceptance rate. For applicants to Claremont McKenna College’s Class of 2028, 9.59% earned admission. The year prior, for the Class of 2027, this number was 11.2%. For the Class of 2026, 10.35% of students were allowed to join this academically distinguished community. With 9 out of 10 applicants routinely getting rejected, the stakes are pretty high for this upcoming cycle.

What is a Good GPA for Getting into Claremont McKenna?

The following is the class rank breakdown of Claremont McKenna’s Class of 2028 members, as reported in Claremont McKenna’s 2024-25 Common Data Set. Unfortunately, Claremont McKenna hasn’t reported any GPA data for recently admitted cohorts (they attribute this to the lack of standardization of GPA scales at schools across the country and point out that many CMC applicants apply from international schools where GPA is not computed), so the class rank data below is the closest to gauging the GPA requirements for admission in Claremont McKenna’s competitive admissions process.

Assessment	Percent
Percent in top tenth of high school graduating class	75%
Percent in top quarter of high school graduating class	91%
Percent in top half of high school graduating class	100%
Percent in bottom half of high school graduating class	0%
Percent of total first-time, first-year (freshman) students who submitted high school class rank:	16.62%

GPA Percentage of Claremont McKenna College’s Class of 2027

The following is the class rank breakdown of the members of Claremont McKenna College’s Class of 2027:

Assessment	Percent
Percent in top tenth of high school graduating class	71%
Percent in top quarter of high school graduating class	100%
Percent of total first-time, first-year (freshman) students who submitted high school class rank:	9.7%

GPA Percentage of Claremont McKenna College’s Class of 2026

The following is the class rank breakdown of the members of Claremont McKenna College’s Class of 2026:

Assessment	Percent
Percent in top tenth of high school graduating class	68%
Percent in top quarter of high school graduating class	89%
Percent in top half of high school graduating class	100%
Percent of total first-time, first-year (freshman) students who submitted high school class rank:	16%

Further Context on GPAs of Claremont McKenna Students

While we await the official data for the Class of 2029, we would go out on a limb and say that most of the students who get into CMC have great grades. However, this data should be taken with a grain of salt as, year-to-year, only a tiny proportion of the incoming class has reported GPA data, thus skewing the statistics. In any event, it bears repeating that successful CMC applicants have taken the most rigorous coursework possible and have excelled in this coursework.

However, Claremont McKenna has been known to reject applicants with perfect grades, so we decline to answer parents who share their child’s GPA during complimentary consultations with Ivy Coach with the belief that this paints a definitive picture of their child’s chances of getting into Claremont McKenna. Without context, including the high school attended, the rigor of the student’s coursework, their extracurricular activities, essays, letters of recommendation, etc., a GPA does not indicate admissions odds in a vacuum.

There are plenty of other criteria weighed by CMC admissions officers, who know the cardinal rule of college admissions is that students with perfect grades are not immune from being incredibly dull and uninteresting!

Can You Get into Claremont McKenna with a Low GPA?

Let’s back up for a second. It might not seem likely, but it is indeed possible to earn admission to Claremont McKenna College with a less-than-stellar GPA. It’s important to remember that many students accepted without exceptional grades have statuses that merit special consideration. Claremont McKenna is willing to disregard poor grades for a recruited athlete or a student with parents who are major donors (a fact that might seem unfair, but is true nonetheless).

How Ivy Coach Can Gauge Your Child’s Chances at Claremont McKenna College

If you want to optimize your child’s odds of getting into Claremont McKenna College, it’s imperative that you sign up for Ivy Coach’s Strategy Session as soon as possible. You’ll come away with an understanding of how your child can optimize their case for admission to Claremont McKenna College. To learn more about Ivy Coach’s Strategy Session, fill out our complimentary consultation form, and we’ll contact you.