Colleges Near Los Angeles

LA's single most distinctive feature is the Claremont Colleges: five separately admitting, individually selective schools (Pomona, Claremont McKenna, Harvey Mudd, Pitzer, Scripps) that share a campus, library, and dining halls as one consortium, all clustered in the same few blocks 30 miles east of downtown. Caltech (3% admit) and UCLA (9%) anchor the selective end citywide, USC and UC Irvine sit just behind them, and a large Cal State system (Long Beach, Fullerton, LA, Northridge, Pomona) plus a cluster of faith-affiliated private schools (Pepperdine, Biola, Azusa Pacific, Vanguard) fill out one of the widest, most spread-out college landscapes of any metro here.