Pomona College
This wasn’t a normal visit as my daughter is already an admitted student. But we dropped her off for orientation this weekend and it was everybody’s first time to Claremont/Pomona. In a perfect world, we would have loved to have visited Claremont much earlier but the odds of admission didn’t seem to justify the 8-hour drive, and she got in off the waitlist in May (which didn’t afford time for a pre-decision visit). But she wasn’t worried and neither was I. Nor should we have been: Pomona is fantastic!
Campus: To my mind, it felt like a smaller, prettier Stanford. The campus is mostly Spanish architecture, more attractive than grandiose, and features many, many quaint courtyards, fountains, nooks, and crannies. There are a few well-designed modern buildings. The campus definitely felt bigger than its 5C cohorts and, even by itself, feels like a good-sized LAC. But combined with the other 5Cs, it really did feel like a mid-sized university. The cafeteria food was solidly above average but perhaps not quite as good as Bowdoin. On the other hand, there are so many dining options, including Frary, which features a massive Orozco mural. My daughter’s dorm is a double without AC. The room itself felt spacious and had a lot of storage. I’d say it’s a nice and slightly above-average dorm room, but nothing special. The new Studio Art Building is as large and impressive as any we saw previously (including Williams and Dartmouth).
The Benton Art Museum is a beautiful building that’s literally across the street from my daughter’s dorm. I thought the building itself was more impressive than the art museums I saw at other colleges. On the other hand, as a relatively new museum (built in 2020), it leaned heavily into modern and contemporary art and featured way fewer recognizable works than college museums like Williams or Smith. Last, on the subject of art, we visited the James Turrell (an alumnus) Skyspace for the sunset show, which was pretty cool.
Vibes: The drop off, family presentations, and everything else was extremely well run. When we arrived outside my daughter’s dorm in our car, there were more than a dozen Pomona students who collectively cheered, hooted, and hollered for us as well pulled up. They then moved all my daughter’s stuff out of our car and into her dorm room. Everyone I saw and met associated with Pomona was extremely friendly. One might expect some showy good cheer for orientation, but it felt genuine. I noted that one of the Pomona students and a cafeteria work knew each other by name and had a nice conversation about their respective summers. Pomona has a reputation for diversity, and I can say that it felt well-earned. Everybody seemed well represented in everyway—students, parents, professors, administrators, etc. In short, very good vibes.
Claremont: This was the biggest surprise. The Claremont Village is fantastic and my favorite college town of all our visits, including Northampton, Brunswick, Williamstown, Amherst, Hanover, Swarthmore, Saratoga Springs, and Westwood. It has a large number of restaurants, coffee shops, art galleries, stores, etc. and is only a couple minutes from campus. On Friday night, we passed by three different live concerts (bluegrass, surf rock, and someone doing covers of the Bengals and Go-Go’s). There’s also a Trader Joe’s, Target, mall, and megaplex cinema within a mile or so of campus. If I’m honest, I reckon Claremont’s charms are more likely to be appreciated by parents with disposable income than college students. To me, it felt like one of the older, attractive, and affluent Bay Area towns–e.g., Los Gatos or Saratoga. Still, there are definitely things for college students like still cheap eats, 4 or 5 thrift shops (which excited my daughter), and places for coffee, tea, or boba. If there was any smog, we didn’t notice it. The San Gabriel mountains were a pleasant backdrop and were crystal clear. It was, however, pretty hot (low 90’s). That excited and pleased my kid, but I was cooking anytime we were in the sun.
Scripps: We only wandered a little on Scripps’s campus without an official tour, but it is an incredibly cute and charming campus. It’s also predominantly Spanish in design, but it had more ivy and flowers. I continue to believe that Scripps is a hidden gem.
Mudd, Pitzer, and CMC: My visit was limited to an early morning jog in which I spent only a few minutes on each campus. I reckon the vast majority of people would conclude that Scripps and Pomona have the nicest campuses. The others have some nice-looking buildings intermingled with 50’s and 60’s brutalist buildings that reflect these schools’ provenance. There was a large building being erected on CMC’s campus.
Side Attractions: We visited the Huntington Library on the way home, which is worth a visit. It’s a combination of several themed gardens, a couple art museums, and a library that features original letters and manuscripts (e.g., an illuminated manuscript of the Canterbury Tales from circa 1400).