Top Ranked Programs
Claremont Mckenna College's program mix is rooted in Social Sciences, with Social Sciences accounting for 45% of graduates, followed by other STEM fields at 2% and Arts at 2%. The concentration in policy, economics, and government fields gives the institution a program-mix signature closer to a liberal-arts policy school than a broad-based private university. Economics is the program that combines the largest cohort scale with strong earnings, anchoring the institution's overall return profile. Across 23 programs serving roughly 447 students annually, 3 meet Azimuth's ranking threshold. The strongest national ranks cluster in policy-oriented and quantitative social-science fields. Azimuth ranks Economics #5 among nonprofit four-year institutions for median earnings four years after enrollment, with 129 graduates earning $146,524. Azimuth ranks International Relations and National Security Studies #2 among nonprofit four-year institutions for median earnings four years after enrollment, with 30 graduates earning $96,520. Azimuth ranks Political Science #52 among nonprofit four-year institutions for median earnings four years after enrollment, with 46 graduates earning $73,826. Many of Claremont Mckenna College's dominant programs — particularly Economics, Political Science, and Research Psychology — feed into grad-school-dependent pathways in law, public policy, and finance, where four-year earnings undercount lifetime trajectory because a meaningful share of graduates continue to professional or graduate school. Economics and Political Science lean more toward high-mobility direct-to-workforce pathways, where four-year earnings better reflect labor-market outcomes. The [supply and demand for college graduates](/analysis/supply-demand-map-college-degrees/) framework provides context for how these fields align with national wage trends, and the [program-ranking methodology](/analysis/college-program-rankings-how-to-actually-evaluate-programs/) explains how Azimuth evaluates programs across cohort size, earnings, and benchmark performance.