Plus, SoCal is ridiculously hot. I mean, there’s Stanford weather, and then there’s Pomona weather…
It is ridiculously hot in the summer… (I remember our visit to the 5Cs in August…). But it is VERY pleasant in the winter. And you probably won’t be on campus most summers. Sept and May can be hot. But you wouldn’t be sorry in January.
I go to Pomona and it’s hot for maybe 5 weeks of the school year. The high is 70 degrees today. And the air quality has not once in my four years felt noticeable. We’ve never had a day during the school year where we were recommended to stay inside because of awful air quality. We have people from the most rural places (with pristine air quality) and they adjust just fine. I’m not going to say that it’s better than other places, but it literally has 0 impact on the experience.
My husband went to CMC in the 80’s and our D is a freshman at Pomona. The difference in air quality between then and now is huge. She has not experienced any problems or concerns with air quality. September was definitely hot but she’s in a dorm with air conditioning plus being from the Southwest she’s used to heat from May-Sept.
https://twitter.com/pomonacollege/status/685155592864829440
https://twitter.com/lirvine27/status/707251929513009152
A professor really is leaving for one obviously lesser school.
@coase Did you notice that the article is from the April Fools edition? To the point, my DS really likes the weather at Swat. Having grown up in the Phoenix area, he’s used to awful weather at the other end of the spectrum.
Swat and Pomona are both fantastic schools and are clearly academic equals. In this case, it really should come down to a choice of whether the OP’s kid wants a West Coast/SoCal environment or a Northeast LAC environment. That’s a personal, subjective decision. My point in posting the twitter pics was just to dispel the argument that the 5C’s exist in an awful smog belt. The OP’s kid has some great choices.
@PhxRising: Just take the first letter of the words I wrote:
S ultimately chose Pomona after admit days/overnights at both . Both Swarthmore and Pomona are great schools and I think he couldn’t go wrong at either school. Truth be told I feel a little sad he can’t experience both schools but ultimately had to make the decision. I really think it came down to “just a feeling” and thinking the consortium would be more part of his 4 yr experience at Pomona not only for classes but clubs/activities than at Swarthmore. He truly wanted to go to a small LAC but also wanted to have the experience of a mid-size school as well.
Congrats to your son, @momof2eagles ! He had a choice between 2 great schools!
@momof3sons thanks for all your wisdom and advice. Your 3 sons academic and social experiences at college sounded amazing. I hope the same for both my sons. I hope they both seize the many opportunities they are given.