WashU [$32k] vs Pomona [$25k] vs UMich [$38k, honors] [pre-law]

If you love Pomona, go to Pomona. Both schools are outstanding, so you can’t make a mistake. That said, if you’re gut is pulling you to Pomona, you should go. It’s one of the best liberal arts colleges in the country, and their students attend top law schools. Congratulations!

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Hmmm - WUSTL is not more prestigious than Pomona - and frankly you could go to Cal Poly Pomona or Washington State vs. those two and have equal chance of getting into law school - which will look at your grades, LSAT, and more.

That’s why Harvard’s first year class is represented by 147 schools and the last 5 years of Yale by nearly 170. I’m talking U of name your state, Youngstown State, Canisisus.

These top schools do well of course because they have top students.

But take law out of the equation - because that can and will happen from any school if you deliver.

Where did you feel best? That and where you can afford - that’s what you choose.

Prestige isn’t relevant here but forgetting that - both are extremely prestigious.

I see a lot of OPs who chase “prestige” in the direction of schools that may be less selective or, say, have lower endowments per student. In other words, in an objective sense, they pursue “prestige” downward. I won’t argue that this is the case here. Nonetheless, I will advise you to be careful regarding an assumption that might prevent you from freely choosing the better school for you.

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Of course prestige is an inherently subjective term, and in fact audience dependent, but that is also why trying to compare generic prestige is usually a poor way to choose a college.

It’s not a direct comparison, since Pomona is a LAC while WashU is a private U, but I might actually consider Pomona a shade more prestigious than – or at least as prestigious as – WashU.

Pomona is considered by many to be a tier 1 LAC – the acronym WASP is used often, and Pomona is the P. (Williams, Amherst, Swat, Pomona). My personal tier 1 for LACs is expanded somewhat, as I’m not sure there is much, if any, difference in quality between Wes/Vas/Carl/Midd/Bow/Well (etc. – it gets silly) and WASP. Or SWAP – apropos.

WashU – in terms of prestige, not necessarily quality – is looking up at all of the Ivies, UChicago, Stanford, MIT, Hopkins, Duke, Northwestern. I think WashU’s prestige and quality peers are CMU, Emory, Georgetown, Notre Dame, Rice, and Vanderbilt.

But at this level of school, I don’t think prestige matters a whit. All of your choices are high-quality. Program quality, affordability, and other fit variables are what you should be concentrating on.

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WUSTL ? You mean that also ran that US News ranks #24? :slight_smile:

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Vanderbilt freaked out when they fell from like 13th to 19th. Calm down, Vandy, you’re fine. Your peers have not changed.

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