<p>I keep hearing that Pomona is very uninterested in sports, but I don't understand what this means. </p>
<p>Does it mean no one cheers on the teams?</p>
<p>or </p>
<p>Few participate in sports?</p>
<p>What about club/intermural sports?
Are there fees for intermural crew/rowing? I know one of the New England schools charges fees (Amherst I think)</p>
<p>I'm from the Mid-Atlantic region & cannot comprehend how anyone in SoCal isn't interested in sports and/or outdoor physical activity.</p>
<p>My kid loves particpating in sports but is not a great athlete. He'd be fine to not be a varsity athlete and doing club. He would not be okay with no activity.</p>
<p>i too have heard that many small LAC have comments regarding thrown around like “they are not into sports” or there is 'nobody at games", or “nobody cares about kids on the athletic teams in our school”…</p>
<p>After researching, what I have found is that the smaller, very intellectual liberal arts schools that do indeed offer sports programs do have active body’s of students that come out and support their teams, but because these small liberal art schools have much smaller enrollment numbers, they are not always noticed the way you would notice a stadium full at lets say a game at Penn State.</p>
<p>My son has visited a couple of schools now(Small LAC’s) and he did overnight visits and so far they all had very active supporters go out to the games.(He attended 3 volleyball games, and two soccer games).</p>
<p>He noticed that because these schools are small that the actual friends of the competitors were the ones who usually came out to support their friends, which he found to be very charming and close-knit. It’s because of these small, intimate environments that are very supportive that my son is applying predominately to small LAC’s. He could care less if he sits in a stadium full with thousands upon thousands of spectators.</p>
<p>My son and I visited the school a few week ago. I didn’t see a lot of people who came to watch the game/soccer but it doesn’t bother him to apply Pomona at all because he likes to play soccer at college level if he accepted. Playing sport is part of his list of options he like to do at college. Pomona has a wonderful soccer season so far and Coach is nice also. During three days visit we had a couple friendly conversation and showed us his soccer program and players. He is very nice coach so far we visited.</p>
<p>My D (not a student there - yet said the football game was pretty well-attended when she visited, and that a lot of the kids on varsity teams seem to hang around together. The fall sport athletes all go on the same orientation trip, so they probably bond around that.</p>
<p>As far as non-varsity sports, I think there’s a fair amount of physical activity. 2 pools and a sand volleyball court, intramurals, club teams - seems like kids are outdoors a lot. Sorry I know nothing about crew at Pomona.</p>
<p>There is a phys ed requirement. It can be fulfilled by taking a class, being on a school team, or playing on a club team. Pomona wants students to be physically active and healthy. </p>
<p>Playing on a club team can be great. Some club sports have members from all the 5 colleges and it is a good way to meet students from another college that have a similar interest.</p>
<p>“The Physical Education Requirement
Students are expected to pass one physical education activity course during their first year at the College from the offerings at Pomona College or through the joint Physical Education Program of Claremont McKenna College. Participation on an intercollegiate athletic team is counted as participation in a physical education activity course. In keeping with the high value the College places on health and wellness, students are encouraged to enroll in physical activities throughout their four years. Students may apply up to eight physical activity and/or other cumulative courses totaling no more than two courses total from all cumulative courses taken to the 32 courses required for graduation.”</p>
<p>My d is involved in fall sports, loves her team, is very busy with training, etc. She is also having fun with other teams - when I finally got hold of her the phone the other night - a rare event -she was running off to a water polo match to cheer the team on. I know she has also been to football games, etc. Academics have been challenging and wonderful- she is happy, engaged, and very busy. As for orientation trips, even if you are doing a fall sport, you can take advantage of any of the trips with your coach’s ok. Pomona seems to be a very happy place.</p>
<p>I’ll give you my rundown as a Pomona student. In my freshmen sponsor group (a group of ~14 students who live together) we have a person on football, basketball, 2 on tennis, cross country, track, 2 on water polo, and equestrian team. One person tried out for soccer and decided to stop because the team was more competative then he wanted. Another rock climbs frequently. So basically, yes, a lot of people play varsity sports. At Pomona, it seems to me that about 40% of people are on a varsity sport. Most people not on varsity sports will definately participate in intramurals. Although we have all of the conventional intramurals, inter tube water polo seems particularly popular. Also, our outdoor club (On the Loose) is the largest organization on campus and has trips most weekends. In short, there is a lot of activity here (much more than I think you find at a D1 school).</p>
<p>But, if you are looking to be a professional fan who lives life based on the success of the football or basketball team, you will be alone. As said before, sports are well attended, but it is mostly friends supporting friends. With only 1500 students, even if 1/3 of the students attend a game it is not going to look like your conventional image of a college football or basketball game. Also, people don’t get depressed here when the teams lose. I know that at schools like Notre Dame there is a deep campus-wide sadness when they lose. Here, if you lose, the whole school won’t through you a pitty party.</p>
<p>I’m sorry but I don’t know about crew here. Look on the website and contact whoever is in charge of it. But you should certainly apply to Pomona if you check it out and feel that you are up to the academic standards. Good luck.</p>
<p>I was an athlete at Pomona. Games aren’t going to be attended on the same level as they would for a sport at UCLA or USC. That’s just part of going to a small school. A lot of personal friend attend, and the stands get packed for rivalry games v. CMS or conference rivals.
ex: just about every time we played CMS, we had maybe 600 (maybe more) people packing the place, standing room only. Small by Div. 1 standards, but still pretty energetic when that many people yell.</p>
<p>My son is a freshman at Pomona. He was looking for a small LAC where he could play soccer at the D3 level. He is loving it! The coach is wonderful, and the school really works like crazy to make sure the athletes are well taken care of. Plus, he had an instant group of pals the moment he hit campus. He is ecstatic about his choice…he would recommend Pomona highly (it was his first choice school).</p>
<p>In our experience:
The trainers are awesome…very experienced and attentive to fitness, injury, and rehab.
The coaching staff are in constant communication with faculty regarding schedules that conflict with testing, etc…ie. the kids are STUDENT-athletes. If the team misses dinner, the college packs up steaks, burger, and fixings for a team bar-b-q after hours. All games are within an hour’s drive, minimizing time spent on logistics. Plus, there is an awesome parent-maintained website that has about 100 photos from each game, scores and stats, and an occasional entertaining game summery. This is wonderful for parents (like us) who live far away.</p>
<p>The experience you stated I agree. We did campus visited this year and spent three days there, attended the game. Coach did explain to us and I can feel that team is well bonded.</p>
<p>One more question:</p>
<p>Can you talk more about what steps of your son recruiting process? like time frame of coach contacted and response, commitment, ED or RD. etc.</p>
<p>My son did not apply ED, but he did have his application in by Nov. 15th. That included an arts supplement (music resume and CD of him performing) and an athletics supplement (athletic resume and DVD of soccer highlights). These were all submitted via Common Ap. In addition, he did contact the coach directly and they chatted a few times over the winter. (Parents were not involved at all) </p>
<p>My son did not visit the campus until very very late (mid April, after we returned from Spring break). By then, he had a good idea of what the coach’s philosophy was…my son was lucky enough to have excellent coaches throughout his club and high school soccer career (no lunatics, no yellers), and was very picky about what kind of soccer program each prospective college had. Pomona was…perfect!</p>
<p>My son situation is very similar your son and will submit art and athletics supplement in RD.</p>
<p>I like to ask one more question?</p>
<p>Is your son got recruited or walk on the team?</p>
<p>The reason I am asking is to figure out how Pomona recruits players? My son got some responses from coaches after submitting his DVD but there is no response from Pomona at all even they had some discussions when we visited campus back on Oct.</p>
<p>My son went to some soccer/recruited camps in summer for D1/Ivy but never got any recruited response so we decided to focus on D3 teams. He is not a superstar but still a good/smart player who plays on a 5A school that has a over 5500 players pool(from 9th to 12th grade). Most starters are from academic teams which are very heavily pursued by D1 coaches. </p>
<p>So I am interested to know how your son got recruited or walk on a D3 team which will help my son to approach Pomona coach.</p>
<p>It sounds like you are more strategic than we were. We never went to any scouting tournaments, never did any ODP training, and never attended any soccer camps. My son was, however, All-State and All-Conference, and his club team won the sate championship 4 times (C1). </p>
<p>Pomona is a really tough school to get into, despite low name recognition. With a very competitive school like Pomona, job #1 is to get in. That may be why the coaches aren’t jumping up and down yet…</p>
<p>My son was not recruited, so I guess you could call him a walk on. There were no guarantees when he enrolled, which was fine with him (you always have to fight for your spot on the team, don’t you?). Good luck with you process!</p>
<p>Good point. It is very valuable info that you can fight your spot when you are in. I learned one of D3 schools for which he applied already told him “NO”. The simple reason there is no room for him if he is not recruited but welcomed him to play at club or IM. </p>
<p>If your son is an wake on the team, how about his playing time v. recruited players?</p>
<p>I did some study for team score box report. It seems that coach did put freshmen for starters as he told me so when we have a meeting with him. How about players from other college, are they recruited? I saw those freshmen playing and they did a very good job at the field.</p>
<p>Regarding playing time, our freshman son started and played in all games. I don’t think the coach cares what year his players are. It seems to me like he wants to create a cohesive, effective team, regardless of year. Whatever he is doing is working, Pomona won the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference this year for the first time in 29 years.</p>
<p>Congrats your D got her dream school and play the sport she likes. Thanks for your help also. Hopefully my son will be there also in RD. That is a long shot academically and athletically.</p>
<p>Thanks so much! Your son sounds like he has a great chance, and it’s really good that he’s already reached out to coaches. Best of luck to him in RD.</p>
said the football game was pretty well-attended when she visited, and that a lot of the kids on varsity teams seem to hang around together. The fall sport athletes all go on the same orientation trip, so they probably bond around that.</p>