<p>Hello, I just made my account today, so please bear with me.</p>
<p>I applied through the QuestBridge process and was matched to Pomona College today. I know it’s a great honor, but I’m honestly somewhat bummed. Pomona was the last school I ranked and not the one I wanted to be matched to. As a prospective researcher, a liberal arts college like Pomona doesn’t seem to provide opportunities for research like a leading university would.</p>
<p>Now, before you question why I ranked Pomona, it was through an advice of a teacher who said that I should look into the supportive atmosphere. I liked how Pomona looked on paper but with each passing minute I’m feeling immense “buyer’s remorse”.</p>
<p>My top choices were the University of Chicago, Columbia, and Yale. I would still like to apply RD if possible, but the email states that I must withdraw all of my applications. Would it be possible to talk to Pomona and ask them if I could back away from the binding policy? If so, what would be the best way to ask?</p>
<p>I would seriously look at what Pomona has to offer before turning your nose up at it. As an undergrad, Pomona will give you far more access to research right from Day 1 than those other schools ever would. I’m sure there’s a way to back out, there always is, even if it does have consequences, but take a serious look at what Pomona can provide.</p>
<p>Can you explain what you mean? Don’t the other schools have more research opportunities available to their students due to the amount of cutting edge research that they produce?</p>
<p>You are coming from a position of ignorance. Look into it more before you decide. Top liberal arts colleges like Pomona have a reputation of undergraduate research and a high rate of admissions to grad schools. You will be well prepared there. The Pomona president’s daughter chose Carleton College over Harvard. btw. Also, while ‘cutting edge’ sounds very attractive, those are just words, any research is by definition cutting edge because it is something that hasn’t been done before. As an undergraduate, any research is valuable.</p>
<p>It is unrealistic to think that you have an RD chance if you were passed over through college match. So realistically you are looking a a new set of colleges. Are there now colleges that you would prefer to Pomona that you know you can get in? and that meet full need?</p>
<p>But the more important issue is what is the effect of breaking your contract to attend. I’m sure Pomona will be happy to let someone go who doesn’t want to attend; they have too many applicants that they can’t seat. You will ruin the reputation of your high school for future Pomona applicants. You will be a black mark of the reputation of Questbridge. I’m not sure if you will become an ‘untouchable’ for purposes of future admissions if it is known that you broke a binding contract for non financial reasons. I think you’d better speak to your high school counselor.</p>
<p>OP, Pomona is one the top liberal arts colleges in the nation! Please consider what it has to offer you carefully before contacting them about reneging on your commitment. I say this not to make you feel guilty, but to keep you from making a decision you may one day come to regret. </p>
<p>Maybe these links will help as you weigh the decision:</p>
<p>In reality, your odds of being involved in research are much higher at Pomona than at the schools you listed. At Pomona, the professors will involve YOU in their research. At schools like Yale, they involve Grad students.
It’s truly amazing you got into Pomona and if you want to get into research, it’s probably in the top 10 schools you should have considered (students at Harvard or Yale don’t necessarily get into research. About a third gets into investment banking - you know, wall street poker playing. A school like Pomona actually has a higher ratio of producing researchers than Yale.)
Look at the links above and look for an article called “where PHDs got their start”.
Really, the question you should be asking yourself is: do you want to be near great research, or do you want to be involved in great research? Because if you want to be involved in research, Pomona is a really smart choice.</p>
<p>This info, stolen from a Grinnell post of 2012 might help you, if reserach is your concern. Not only is Pomona on this list, but note how many other LAC’s are too. This is likely given in the links above and may be broken down by discipline.</p>
<p>Without further ado, here are the top 50 schools where graduates ultimately received a PhD in science or engineering:</p>
<p>Cal Tech
Harvey Mudd College
MIT
Reed College
Swarthmore College
Carleton College
University of Chicago
Grinnell College
Rice University
Princeton University
Harvard University
Bryn Mawr College
Haverford College
Pomona College
New Mexico Institute of Mining & Technology
Williams College
Yale Univeristy
Oberlin College
Stanford University
Johns Hopkins University
Kalamazoo College
Cornell University
Case Western Reserve</p>
<p>If you go to Pomona College, you don’t just have access to the resources of Pomona College. You also have a lot of access to the other Claremont Colleges right next to it.</p>
<p>As you can see, the expert chorus of CC has chimed in with all their wisdom. you should really listen to it. </p>
<p>I don’t have any first hand knowledge of Pomona since D’s test scores never got to the level where she would be seriously considered, so we never visited, but I will relay this story from our tour of Haverford, which is very similar. When you first tour Haverford’s new science building they make a point of showing you their NMR machine, which costs something like $1 million. They said that as a freshman, 1st semester, you can get access to that machine. That’s not likely to happen at larger schools - either freshmen have to prove themselves worthy, or grad students are using it all the time.</p>
<p>Later, it occurred to me why Haverford allows freshmen to access the machine. It has to do with the level of maturity and responsibility the average freshman has at Haverford, which is much higher than your average freshman at a larger school. They can actually be trusted not to destroy the thing. That’s the sort of thing all of the top LACs do, they only admit students with the maturity and intellectual curiosity that allows the school to trust them with high powered research equipment. That, and no grad students hogging the thing.</p>
<p>Seriously consider going to Pomona. If you really, really hate it, it shouldn’t be difficult to transfer to a larger school with Pomona on your resume, though I’m not sure what transferring would do to your Questbridge status. But not going would ruin it anyway, so you wouldn’t have lost anything.</p>
<p>OP, Pomona is an amazing school! Your “buyer’s remorse” is very misplaced, IMO. You will have wonderful research opportunities in an incredibly supportive school backed by a consortium of 4 other schools all together in one close-knit area. </p>
<p>Grab this opportunity and don’t look back!!!</p>
<p>Another parent agreeing that Pomona is an incredible opportunity. We know a current student, and they absolutely love it. The availability of cross-registration at the other phenomenal consortium schools is a bonus, and access to LA music, art etc. scene makes it quite unusual – few LACs are in urban areas or have ready access to cities. You are likely to find the experience there has far more in common with the urban university experience at Chicago, Columbia, Yale than you expect. </p>
<p>Congratulations on this tremendous success.</p>
<p>I would be proud if my child gained admittance to Pomona and I would be furious if s/he turned it down. It’s a great college with incredible opportunities, especially research for undergrads. A Pomona student is much more likely to work on research projects in a meaningful role than at Yale, Columbia our even Chicago. Usually graduate students get the research opportunities at those schools and undergrads are shut out.</p>
<p>Congrats on your admittance!
P.S. I would also take the California weather over Chicago or the Northeast.</p>
<p>Pomona is a great school in terms of research and graduates going on to obtain a PhD. I would definitely attend if I were in your position. You have no financial reason to turn it down (full rides are pretty sweet that way!). If you wanted to apply to one the the other schools RD, you may or may not have good luck with that (they probably would have picked you through Questbridge). I’m not saying that you absolutely would not get in, but why turn down a sure thing to maybe get a chance to attend a different school?</p>
<p>OP has not been back. But if he breaks his contract, he’d better check with the Questbridge people first. There may be repercussions with applying RD through QB, I’m not sure how it works. I can’t imagine that he can apply RD to the matched schools that passed him over when he turned down a match school that took him. Or they may allow it, he needs to check.</p>
<p>Have to admit, I was a little…not worried, really…more questioning, about the prospects for research for my Bio major son at his small, liberal artsy NESCAC school. But the first week of school he started to look for a work-study job, reached out to a prof in the dept and low and behold by mid Sept he was getting paid $11/hour to do pretty interesting lab work. Who knew?</p>