Transfer: Brown vs. Pomona

ClaySoul
Wed, 21 May 2008 17:52:33 +0000

Several thoughts:

You are in an absolutey win-win situation. These are two fantastic choices, and actually were my 1st and 2nd choices.

You rather want it all, however. You’re going to have to rank your priorities. What’s more important, city, or weather? Clearly Pomona wins on weather, but Brown also wins on city. You can get into LA, but I don’t think Pomona students get off campus much from what I gathered. You can get to Boston (and with more ease and faster than to LA), but it doesn’t happen all that often. What you really need to do is compare Claremont and Providence. Claremont is a nice, pleasant town. Providence is a pretty happening little city, with, especially, a good music scene (at least way superior to Claremont!!) with places like Lupos and AS220.

I think you’d be splitting hairs comparing the philosophy departments. As for comp sci, both programs should be good but different. Both are very intense. Brown’s is intense on its own accord, and Pomona’s is intense because it actually goes through Harvey Mudd, and not solely through Pomona. So that’s a difference there. Brown has connections with Pixar and some other cool stuff.

Double majoring would be easy at both schools, I think. Find out how many credits are required for CS at each school, that will make a difference.

I think both sets of student bodies are equally intellectual and down to earth. Both genuine. People here are brilliant but don’t flaunt it.

Pomona is a very happy place, probably, honestly, in part because of the sun! But also because it is a very supportive place, through the administration. Brown is as well, but the difference is that you have to go set it up. You have to self-advocate here much more. And Brown is also very happy, for the record!

I don’t know about music lessons here, (i think you can take them for 1/2 credit) but I know they have them extra curricularly at Pomona.

You simply won’t be able to take Graphic Design at Pomona. Decide how important this is to you. I’m an art major and I take many classes at RISD or funky independent studies at affiliated studios (i took pottery at risd last spring and just did an independent study in furniture design at brown). If this is important to you, then, well, make it a priority in your choice. RISD is an invaluable resource.