Having toured Stanford, UCLA, Dartmouth and Pomona with our daughter, and (like Corinthian) just returned from the Pomona admitted students day, here are my (very personal and possibly off-the-mark) impressions:
- Stanford: stunning campus, stellar reputation, incredible job opportunities afterwards, but increasingly oriented toward computer science and the tech industry rather than the liberal arts.
- UCLA: nice campus, great reputation, but huge and won't provide much hand-holding; plus the UC system isn't in great financial shape right now.
- Dartmouth: also a nice campus and a great reputation, but seems intense and rather testosterone driven (strong sports orientation). I preferred Brown among the Northeast schools we visited.
- Pomona: the Goldilocks school, in my opinion, with a near-perfect mix of outstanding teachers, small classes, excellent and growing reputation, lovely small campus (but with easy access to the other excellent Claremont schools), and near-perfect weather. Among the four schools, my impression is that Pomona has the most "heart."
The Pomona president made an interesting comment in his welcome talk, which is that you can always go to a large university for grad school (which the vast majority of Pomona grads end up doing), but why not get a real hands-on education as an undergrad?
As for getting the most value out of the Pomona admitted students day, I’d simply recommend attending all of the events, taking as many of the tours and talking to as many of the departments as you have time for (and visiting the organic farm), and just hang out with the other admitted students to get a feel for who your future cohort will be.