momo123

How much more selective is Pomona than other LACs like Amherst, Williams, CMC.
Also, how selective is it compared to top schools, Penn, Cornell, Duke, Northwestern.

d'smom

Pomona is a very selective school. I think they only admit around 15% or so. You should check, but it's very selective and a wonderful LAC in the west.

It's hard to compare to the larger research schools like Cornell, Duke and Northwestern. It's a college, not a University.

Little Mother

Pomona is on par with Amherst and Williams, as well as with the Ivies.

enkephalon

The schools you mention are among the best of the best. And there is no doubt Pomona College is a member of that elite group. In fact, it's admission rate of ~15% makes it one of the most selective schools in the country. By comparison, Cornell is at 19%, Penn 17%, Duke 17%, Northwestern 30%.

However, with so many perennially top achievers hoping to vault into the upper stratosphere of elite post-secondary education these days it becomes difficult, if not impossible, to fathom the decision-making parameters employed by the admissions offices at these schools. Increasingly, potentially life-changing "in-or-out" decisions on admission appear more like an arbitrary and unjust cosmic lottery to those unfortunate and naive enough to think that a lifetime of sterling grades will be merit enough to get them through the doors.

Instead, a weird and wholly unpredictable alchemy of grades, extracurriculars, income-level/financial need, minority/diversity status, place of origin, SAT/ACT results, artistic/sporting ability, essay proficiency, and perceived personality "fit" to the rest of the admitted student body wreaks havoc with the hopes and dreams of prospective students – not to mention their self worth.

A system based on merit? No.

Social engineering? Definitely.

Unfair? Truly.

Realistically, though, one can only fire off the applications and hope for the best, knowing that in the end it matters less where you go to college than what you make of yourself from the experience.

Returning to the question posed, as d'smom points out, Pomona is a top liberal arts college like Williams and Amherst. Since LACs are typically smaller (1300-2000 students total) they are able to offer a distinct brand of education that focusses on the undergraduate. Smaller classes taught by the best professors, more personal interaction with same. A wonderful, resource-rich academic incubator for horizon-widening and the development/refinement of critical thinking –*and a proven springboard into the finest grad schools in the world.

Unfortunately, that type of education is highly sought after, which means that each year many thousands must compete for entrance into a first-year class of only 350-400 students.

studentathlete33

As long as we're talking about who's on par with who, do you think that Pomona is equal to Bowdoin. Both are ranked 6th by US News...

enkephalon

Short answer: I think Bowdoin is an excellent school that compares favourably to Pomona. Intelligent and motivated students will thrive at both institutions.

However, if we wish to take the discussion into the realm of pondering the number of angels that can fit on the head of a pin, I think Bowdoin (and others in the NE region), while in the same ball park as Pomona, benefit from an unfortunate and long-established East Coast bias in the college rankings.

One on one, Pomona is more selective than Bowdoin (15% vs 19%); its admitted students have significantly higher ACT/SAT scores (5th place behind leaders Cal Tech, Harvard, Princeton, and MIT); it is a more successful feeder school to the best grad schools in the country (6.35% vs 3.96%); its $1.3 billion endowment is almost twice Bowdoin's ($688m), which means more money per student) and finally, as a member of the Claremont College Consortium, it offers the aggregate academic resources, physical plant and amenities of a small university to its students.

Add in year-round California sunshine and that's a pretty tough combination to beat.

mypsych97

my experience is that they are very selective; my daughter was not admitted there; she was not admitted to Carleton or Wash U in st louis;

studentathlete33

I would definetly agree that east coast institutions like Wall Street and Government offices in DC tend to favor east coast schools.

FauxNom

I agree with enkephalon's answer about Bowdoin - great school, but the numbers suggest that Pomona is significantly harder to get into and attracts and graduates higher achieving students. Anecdotally, I can say for sure that West Coast kids have a far easier time getting into Bowdoin than Pomona, but that could be reversed for the kids from the northeast.