To the guy who got accepted at Harvard. Wth? If i were you, i wouldnt even be considering pomona at this point. As much as i like pomona, DUDE, YOU JUST GOT INTO HARVARD. hello????
Stanford was my dream school. I visited more schools(including Pomona). And then I didn't apply to Stanford as it didn't measure up to Pomona among others(like Williams and Middlebury) for what I wanted.
Pomona is AWESOME. Stanford is a great school. I thought the choice was clear, and didn't even think the other one was worth applying to.
Transfer students at Pomona have come from HYP in the past, and probably wish they had chosen Pomona in the first place. It's more about fit than anything, and when you're in the right place, it makes life much better.
I went through a lot of introspection before I applied ED II, and for a while I was really conflicted because although I really loved Pomona, I didn't know how I would deal with a Princeton acceptance.
I thought carefully about why I would want to go to each place and realized that, being the one who would have to spend four years at my chosen institution, Pomona would be a better fit, even though the name wasn't as flashy.
It has been kind of annoying for people to be like, "Pomona? What?" when you know Princeton would be recognizable. But then again, this is my life. It is my experience.
I know someone who transferred out of Harvard. And when I told my Princeton interviewer that I was withdrawing my application so I could go to Pomona, she congratulated me heartily, then went kind of wistf ul and said she wished she had seriously considered Pomona instead of only applying to schools like Stanford and Princeton.
Last edited by chikadee; 04-03-2008 at 09:55 PM.
Reason: wist ful gets turned into wi****l ???? what?
If you are a big man on campus type, super outgoing, enjoy large classes with lots of action and love big name sports then Pomona will feel way too small. If you are a person who isn't sure exactly what they want to do yet and would benefit from one on one attention from a professor, then the choice is Pomona. This choice is really one about fit for ones personality. You have to visit them both. They are very different.
I spent four years at Harvard as a post-doc and have friends who teach there. They feel, despite it's reputation, it is NOT the best place for an undergraduate education. Harvard cares about it's professional schools and graduate students. The undergraduates are not high priority. I teach at the Claremont Colleges and Pomona is AMAZING. It focuses 100 percent on undergraduates. There are no TAs (from the Claremont Graduate University). the academics are extremely high and it was wonderful community. It's unfortunate that people are so hung up on "prestige". Pomona is about as great as it gets for a high quality undergraduate education. One of my student told me just yesterday she was in class with a young lady who transferred from Yale to Pomona. She said this girl was brilliant and a graduate of Andover. She said after being at Yale for one year, she wanted something smaller and more intimate. I know for many, turning down Harvard is unthinkable. But, people do it. One of my good friends daughter turned down Harvard to attend Stanford. At any rate, visit both if you can and please decide based on what you're really looking for in an undergraduate experience.
beccaco, congrats on your acceptances! I'm basically echoing what everybody else is saying - consider Pomona/Harvard very carefully and go to the school that fits you most and will be most conducive to your education - taking academics, internships, networks, your peers, the social environment and many many other factors into account. If you have any questions on Pomona, you can post here or PM me. Come to the admitted students weekend! =)
To the parents on the East Coast who get a quizzical look from others when they say Pomona -- well, we're in Los Angeles and we get some quizzical looks. The other night someone I assumed that I must mean Cal Poly Pomona which is a state university. I cannot understand why in Los Angeles the Claremont Schools are still such a hidden gem. Anyhow, having had a kid at UCLA and one at Yale, I know we'll have four years of "huh?" after the easy name recognition schools the last two kids had but that is hardly a consideration in making a decision. Son is deciding between Pomona and Northwestern, Wash U, UCLA and Berkeley and every day seems to point more to Pomona, in part, because after having a kid at school 3,000 miles away, we all (son included) love the idea of him being nearby and yet in a wonderful environment. He was also admitted and wooed by Claremont McKenna which in many ways is a great fit for him but I seriously doubt he would choose it over Pomona now. I think he will cross register for courses there if he wants to experience some of that. My one concern is that he is a pretty conservative kid and Pomona seems like a very liberal place -- it's important to us that there is tolerance both in and out of the classroom for all views, etc. Claremont McKenna seemed to be a more balanced population of students from what I could tell. Can anyone speak to that?
