I think Pomona received around 8,091 applicants for last year’s entering class and they received 8,100 for the 2020 class. Given the overall trend of applicants adding more schools to their application pool and Forbes ranking Pomona #1, I anticipated at least a 5% increase. I feel Pomona is special place to grow as a person and student and has fantastic academic offerings. I know my feeling on judging application stats is a more superficial view of judging the quality of Pomona but I hoped they would be more popular with high school seniors as judged by the number of applications submitted to the College.
I don’t understand why the application numbers were flat either. Early Decision application numbers were up 26%, which means that Regular Decision application numbers were slightly down.
Three things I can think of: 1) I’m purely speculating, but perhaps the school is becoming so competitive to gain admission to that some may have the mindset of why bother applying. 2) The Forbes ranking came in quite late for the Class of 2020. It was the summer before applications are due, which doesn’t completely allow for ample to visit. 3) If you look at some other LAC’s (Bowdoin comes to mind), the application numbers have been flat for a few years.
I think applicants to Pomona are like applicants to other Highly selective LAC -self selecting. I also think the prompts for the supplementals were not easy and would require an applicant really wanting to put time into the application and not just a last minute “throw in”.
I also didn’t understand the 9 percent admit rate. did that include both ED and RD admits . I heard ED admit rate was over 19 percent , so was the RD admit rate even lower than 9 percent ???
Feeling very fortunate S was admitted. also admitted to middlbury, Bowdoin and wash univ. and awaiting others. It will be a hard decision for him. All great schools.
Good point about the prompts. The critical inquiry one has been used for years, but the other one used to be something more open ended like “what does freedom mean to you?” It’ll be interesting to see if the prompts are changed. They were criticized when they were announced. http://tsl.news/opinions/5222/
Congratulations @momof2eagles what great choices to have.
Also the 9% admit rate must be the overall rate: 743 out of 8104, which includes ED. If you back out the ED apps (171 out of 914) then RD would be 572 admitted out of 7190, which is an 8% RD admit rate. These numbers change somewhat by the time the CDS is reported, which will included persons admitted from the wait list.
I have heard more parents being concerned about the practicality of a liberal arts education, especially considering the high cost of college and the industry focus on STEM majors. Perhaps this contributed to the plateauing of applicants. The Forty Colleges That Change Lives consortium has also experienced not just plateauing, but declining enrollment perhaps due to this same concern about LAC practicality.
I appreciate the challenging application essays; they provoke students to reflect and delve deeply into an area of their choice. Students should dedicate a few weeks or months to refining their essays. It is a great process to consider their purpose, imagine their possibilities and to focus on a particular area of interest.
Does it really matter? Pomona was a great place when it accepted 40% of its applicants in the days before the Common App. It’s a great place now that it accepts 9%. It frankly isn’t surprising that numbers will plateau as there are only so many students who want to attend a small LAC on the west coast. That isn’t a reflection on the college in any way.
Exactly^.
Frankly, I think it’s wrong what UChicago, WashU, and other colleges do. They recruit unqualified applicants––ones they have no intention of accepting––just for the sake of driving down the acceptance rate. Shameful.
Does anyone else think the fact that most LACs offer ED (as opposed to EA/REA/SCEA) also makes application numbers flat? There’s only a select pool of applicants that will consider a LAC in the first place. Since many apply ED (and gain admission), they’re committed (and therefore cannot apply to any additional LACs). In contrast, at many larger research schools, the early process is non-binding, so students can apply to numerous similar schools.
Thanks for the great and insightful feedbacks. Here’s a quick summary of applications received at the other liberal arts colleges
Williams College: 2019 class - 6,883 applicants; 2020 - 6,982 (17% acceptance rate)
Amherst College: 2019 class - 8,549 applicants; 2020 - no stats yet but their # of ED applicants decreased from 2019
Swarthmore: 2019 class - 7,785 applicants; 2020 - 7,737
@booboojr As someone else has posted, those are all East Coast LACs. Not exactly comparable. Applicants also have strong regional preferences. While many are attracted to California, others are very attracted to the East Coast and New England. So Pomona’s applicant pool will always be somewhat different and smaller.
I posted those stats to add support to people’s responses that number of applications from 2015 to 2016 are flat among similar LAC’s (Pomona, Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore). Furthermore, even though the east coast LAC’s have been around longer, Pomona college received more applicants than Williams & Swarthmore!
I agree that the potential applicant pool for LAC’s is more limited than for larger research universities. I also will be curious to see whether they change the essay prompts. But @golfcashoahu also observed that there was a surge in ED’s applications, so there must have been fewer RD apps. Interesting.
@booboojr I still don’t understand why people get so excited about application numbers skyrocketing. It just means that more and more students are suffering the pain of rejection. The University of Chicago and Columbia have been engaged in huge campaigns to drive up their application numbers, sending mail shots over and over. They’ve succeeded. In the process, more and more students are experiencing the pain of rejection.
Response to #14
I don’t think expecting a 5% increase as I noted in my original post means a desire to see PMC application numbers skyrocketing. I also admit in that first post that it was a superficial interest to see Pomona being more popular with high school students and parents by getting more applications. At the same time, I also agree with you that some Universities are hyping up their marketing machine and convincing high school seniors to send in applications even though they may not be qualified to get in just to drive up the application numbers and lower the acceptance rate. I don’t see Pomona wanting to increase the student body and entering classes so I agree with you that getting more applicants to get the acceptance rate lower is not in the best interests of these applicants.
LACs are becoming less popular.
I really don’t think it matters. Go to the university you like. How many people apply really is pretty irrelevant.
LAC’s have always had a more limited appeal than bigger universities, but at least the top LAC’s have seen a growth in applications which may or may not be reaching a plateau. But I don’t see evidence that LAC’s are becoming LESS popular.
Agree with Klingon97. Does it matter? I guess it is like being accepted by an exclusive club. Part of the excitement of attending is because it is exclusive.