Why is Pomona College so highly rated??

DRab
Tue, 06 Jun 2006 05:24:57 +0000

Aleph4, who was arguing that Pomona is not a great place to go as an undergrad? I could point out the obvious appeal to authority or potential bias of your advisor (for instance, that he looks very highly upon research, a seeming majo factor for him). Maybe he has a point, but do you think it’s the “be all end all” story? I would say that if Pomona is the best place for a student, certainly they should go there, if they get in. If a students wants attention in every single class without having to talk to the professor before or after classes or in office hours, then obviously Pomona is a better choice than UCLA or Berkeley (both of which have their smaller classes, Berkeley more than UCLA, but Pomona clearly has smaller large classes and smaller classes throughout the whole time). I bet many of the over 600 students going to get PhDs after going to Berkeley every year are okay with the research they did as undergrads, and that many Pomona students “escape” doing research (even in psych). Like Pomona, the top students at Berkeley and UCLA do really well for themselves. Perhaps the average Pomona student does better than the average Berkeley or UCLA student, but if that’s so, I would imagine it’s largely in part because they came in with better skills and more previous accomplishments, although it’s possible that Pomona significantly transformed them for the better. Do you really think Pomona is 10 times better than every for every student in every undergraduate situation?