Pomona vs. Ivy/Stanford

west_coast_mom
Thu, 08 Apr 2010 13:51:41 +0000

In my opinion, the comment about the classes being easier at Pomona is not justified. In fact, it would be a difficult assumption to make unless one had attended both institutions. If you look at the stats of the admitted Stanford freshman class on CC, you will notice they are not (generally) as high as one would think–in fact there are plenty of admitted students with SATs around 2100.

However, if you are into name recognition, Pomona probably won’t do, especially from the east coast. Even on the west coast, many people confuse it with Cal Poly Pomona, a state school. However, my son found he was immediately “at home” at Pomona, and, after having visited Stanford and Pomona,didn’t get the right feeling from Stanford. He felt it was cold and competitive. I am sure the opposite could happen for many people. That is why there are so many choices!

For my son, he could care less about what people think about where he goes to school. Name recognition isn’t important to him.

Since you have the glorious option of being able choose, I would recommend you visit all and get the feel for the place. Good luck!