Colleges Occidental College

Occidental College www.oxy.edu

Occidental College is a private institution that was founded in 1887. Occidental is situated on a picturesque 120-acre suburban campus just eight miles from downtown L.A. It has been featured in many motion pictures, including Clueless, Orange County, and Jurassic Park III. Freshmen must live on campus, and they are allowed to have cars. The campus is within an hour’s drive of major attractions like Venice Beach, Disneyland, and Sunset Strip in Hollywood. Occidental Students can choose from more than 100 clubs and organizations to get involved in on campus; they can also take classes at CalTech and Art Center College of Design, and can earn joint degrees at CalTech, Columbia University and the University of Southern California’s Keck Graduate Institute. One of the original campuses where Upward Bound got its start and home of one of the first West Coast chapters of Phi Beta Kappa, Oxy boasts a firmly rooted tradition of academic achievement and dedicated community service.

Academics

There are 40 majors offered on campus and nine minor-only programs, including Public Health, Linguistics, and Classical Studies. The average class size is 18 students and most students take four classes per semester. One-of-a-kind programs like the Kahane United Nations Program, Campaign Semester, and Lawyering for Social Justice, and our emphasis on research through the Undergraduate Research Center and senior comprehensives, Occidental lays the groundwork for a compelling intellectual adventure. And the academic rigor on campus is enhanced by internships and partnerships across L.A., Southern California, and beyond. The student-faculty ratio at Occidental is 9:1, and the school has 70% of its classes with fewer than 20 students. Popular majors include Economics, International Relations, and Biology.

Special Highlights

Media Arts & Culture. Occidental’s Media Arts & Culture (MAC) department integrates media theory and production, helping you to develop critical and creative skills for engaging in an increasingly participatory media culture. MAC is the only liberal arts film/media department in the country located in a major metropolitan area. Our proximity to the Los Angeles media and creative industries means you’ll be able to take advantage of internships and networking opportunities as you cultivate your own work in a close-knit and collaborative liberal arts environment. You’ll study and create a wide range of media forms; you’ll push media making beyond the screen into installation, public, and mobile spaces; and you’ll learn new tools for digital scholarship, from podcasts and video blogs to GIS applications and VR.

The Anderson Center for Environmental Studies. Anderson Center is an interdisciplinary group of research-driven faculty, staff, and students whose goals are studying Earth’s environment, solving environmental problems and developing the next generation of environmental scientists. Anderson features state-of-the-art instructional and laboratory facilities that allow Occidental scholars to gain the hands-on experience, technological literacy, and competencies with modern equipment required for success in graduate programs and future careers. The Anderson Center program offers a rigorous research atmosphere typically found only at large universities while preserving Oxy’s intimate liberal arts character. Working alongside faculty to collect and analyze data, our undergraduates directly contribute to research projects and even co-author articles for publication.

School Mission & Unique Qualities

The mission of Occidental College is to provide a gifted and diverse group of students with a total educational experience of the highest quality—one that prepares them for leadership in an increasingly complex, interdependent and pluralistic world. This mission is anchored by four cornerstones: excellence, equity, community and service. These building blocks, in one form or another, have long been the basis for the College’s commitment to providing responsible leaders and citizens for our democratic society. Oxy is a place for talented, hard-working, curious students to explore their passions. They benefit from our small classroom environment and demanding yet supportive faculty, who are as dedicated to teaching and mentorship as their research. Our distinctive interdisciplinary and global approach gives students the chance to explore new ideas and perspectives, and connect with the world.

Student Reviews…

“I adore the classes Occidental has to offer; I find the small classes engaging since they make me work harder and I am always able to rely on professors and other outside resources for support. Oxy students are very engaged with administration. Due to the school’s size, students are able to connect more easily than at a larger institution.”