preppedparentRegistered UserPosts: 3,217Senior Member
Pitzer is not Pomona. Pomona has the loveliest campus and a cute and lively college town, and a train ride away from the city. My daughter does her internship every Friday in LA, and it is very manageable. In contrast Williams is in the styx. Very far from Boston. Snow country. It was okay but it was the size of her prep (boarding) school. Pomona has the 5Cs and it is the jewel in the crown.
@bresdo It sounds like you haven't been back to the colleges/Claremont in a while. I have heard of air-quality issue from alumni (usually Class of '00 or older), but it hasn't been of significance for at least a decade. I graduated two years back and there was never a smog/air quality warning, ever. Not even in summer, when smog tends to be heavier yet students are gone. There are plenty of topics on the matter with perspectives from parents/alums/visitors/students. It's a non-issue now.
Claremont itself has seen a lot of development as well. Now there's a train with daily service to Downtown Los Angeles bordering Pomona's campus, so no need to worry about traffic. The quaint, walkable village charm with the east coast feel, tree-lined streets, Victorian houses, and a mountain backdrop is still there. But the core downtown area has greatly expanded with businesses, restaurants, and amenities to an extent that Claremont is packed on weekends by out of town people looking for an escape. Very different from the grit and expanse usually associated with Southern California, but also not the dull snoozefest town that many LAC settings can be in. You should come visit again; I think you'll be surprised.
I took a Williams friend who lives inside Los Angeles and came home for spring break to an evening at Claremont. His words, not mine: "This is much nicer than what we have at Williamstown."
BTW, I submitted a request to review my FA decision on the Monday after decisions came out (my parent's income dropped by 13% since 2016) and I received the new FA Award letter on Saturday too!!!! I was very happy to get it and now know that I can truly afford college, without going into debt. Williams is amazing!!!!!
circuitriderRegistered UserPosts: 2,948Senior Member
Pitzer is not Pomona. Pomona has the loveliest campus and a cute and lively college town, and a train ride away from the city.
LOL. They are, for all intents and purposes, part of the same extended campus community. If it rains on Pitzer (rarely, I know) it's gonna rain on Pomona, too.
SAT: 1540 (Math 790, Reading 750) Subjects: Math II 800, Chem 720
ACT: 35 (Math 35, Reading 34, English 35, Science 35)
AP: Calc. BC 5/5, Chem 5, Bio 4; Physics I/II, Lit, Lang, and Stats to be taken
~4.2 weighted GPA, top of the class
Honors track, taking all offered AP courses at my school
ECs mostly performance (theatre, speech/debate, band) and community service
I was sort of surprised by the result, but I guess I just don't fit their class image. It's ok because I'm in at Princeton, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Carleton, Grinnell, and Macalester. Was also waitlisted by Swarthmore.
preppedparentRegistered UserPosts: 3,217Senior Member
^^Each 5 C has its own complexion and personality. CMC has infinity pools and modern architecture . Mudd has its own very engineery look. So again, although it may rain in the same location, Pitzer isn't Pomona
preppedparentRegistered UserPosts: 3,217Senior Member
I don't think Claremont is the armpit of LA. There are a lot of seedier and dirty places than sunny, beautiful Claremont. If anything it may be a little sleepy, because it is now well known as a quaint, little, pretty retirement community.
Anyway, we're wandering from conversation, and I'm sure sanjosedad's D will see for herself in real life what the two settings look like, so I'm going to stop talking about this particular point any further.
I was following this discussion on Claremont. We visited the 4Cs last year around mid April. We stayed there two days to cover 4 LAC colleges. We are from SF bay area. The weather was gorgeous, saw some students were attending a class in front of Pomona's History dept. bldg, on the green grass lawn under the shadow of the trees. Lot of kids from bay area attended and attend SoCal colleges, UCLA, USC, Claremont colleges, CalTech, Occidental. Didn't hear a single word of pollution or smog problem around the campus from any of the school. The outskirt of LA has grown so much since '80s. There are new shopping malls only 10 mins from Claremont colleges, lot of good and upscale restaurants being setup. The best part is it's only 15 mins drive from Ontario airport. Southwest has multiple flights to Ontario every day. For our D18, it's going to be so convenient. She will take Uber/Lyft from airport to campus and vice-versa. My son studied in east coast, upstate NY. It was very inconvenient for him to travel from bay area. We only visited the campus twice, to drop him off during freshman orientation and then graduation ceremony. Didn't have a chance to attend Family weekend or other programs. If she chooses Pomona, we look forward to attend those events for sure.
For those on the waitlist, I wanted to let you know that I have officially declined my offer, so hopefully, that will open up a spot. I also wanted to thank you all for all the great information on this thread.
Pressing the decline button was really difficult, and I felt really, really awful doing it. I love Williams and had a fantastic time getting to know the campus and the people during WOW.
For those interested, I was somehow accepted to Stanford and just paid my deposit. Since my family lives in the Central Valley I would only be 3.5 hours away at Stanford (they feel much better about that).
Congratulations, acceptances from Williams and Stanford is a extraordinary accomplishment. Stanford will be an amazing experience and its undergrad program has many of the attributes of the smaller college experience that you would have had at Williams.
Replies to: Williams College Class of 2022 Regular Decision
Claremont itself has seen a lot of development as well. Now there's a train with daily service to Downtown Los Angeles bordering Pomona's campus, so no need to worry about traffic. The quaint, walkable village charm with the east coast feel, tree-lined streets, Victorian houses, and a mountain backdrop is still there. But the core downtown area has greatly expanded with businesses, restaurants, and amenities to an extent that Claremont is packed on weekends by out of town people looking for an escape. Very different from the grit and expanse usually associated with Southern California, but also not the dull snoozefest town that many LAC settings can be in. You should come visit again; I think you'll be surprised.
I took a Williams friend who lives inside Los Angeles and came home for spring break to an evening at Claremont. His words, not mine: "This is much nicer than what we have at Williamstown."
BTW, I submitted a request to review my FA decision on the Monday after decisions came out (my parent's income dropped by 13% since 2016) and I received the new FA Award letter on Saturday too!!!! I was very happy to get it and now know that I can truly afford college, without going into debt. Williams is amazing!!!!!
LOL. They are, for all intents and purposes, part of the same extended campus community. If it rains on Pitzer (rarely, I know) it's gonna rain on Pomona, too.
SAT: 1540 (Math 790, Reading 750) Subjects: Math II 800, Chem 720
ACT: 35 (Math 35, Reading 34, English 35, Science 35)
AP: Calc. BC 5/5, Chem 5, Bio 4; Physics I/II, Lit, Lang, and Stats to be taken
~4.2 weighted GPA, top of the class
Honors track, taking all offered AP courses at my school
ECs mostly performance (theatre, speech/debate, band) and community service
I was sort of surprised by the result, but I guess I just don't fit their class image. It's ok because I'm in at Princeton, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Carleton, Grinnell, and Macalester. Was also waitlisted by Swarthmore.
Anyway, we're wandering from conversation, and I'm sure sanjosedad's D will see for herself in real life what the two settings look like, so I'm going to stop talking about this particular point any further.
Pressing the decline button was really difficult, and I felt really, really awful doing it. I love Williams and had a fantastic time getting to know the campus and the people during WOW.
For those interested, I was somehow accepted to Stanford and just paid my deposit. Since my family lives in the Central Valley I would only be 3.5 hours away at Stanford (they feel much better about that).
Good luck to all.