<p>"Why doesn't Barnard have a large endowment? Don't they receive money from Columbia?
Barnard's endowment is $171 million. While this may sound like a large sum of money, IT IS ONLY A FRACTION OF OUR PEER INSTITUTIONS. Wellesley's endowment is over $1 billion. Columbia's endowment is over $5.9 billion. Barnard receives absolutely no funding from Columbia."</p>
<p>born, Congratulations, these are both wonderful colleges. My son has close friends who attend(ed) both, and as different as they are in some respects, I think there is a fair amount of overlap, especially academically.</p>
<p>Have you actually visited Pomona, done an overnight? I haven't been there myself, though I've spent a fair amount of time in Southern California, so I may be off the mark here, but I think the primary downside to Pomona would be that although having a car isn't strictly necessary, it's somewhat difficult to negotiate without one. </p>
<p>Other than that, which may or may not be an issue for you, I'd say that you need to evaluate your personal comfort zone with traveling outside of an area where you are culturally and geographically comfortable. SoCal is very, very different from Manhattan. I certainly don't mean that one is better than the other, just that they are very different.</p>
<p>I don't know you, and I don't know your aspirations, so you could pretty much take my opinion and file it under "delete" but reading between the lines I'd guess that you're tempted to take a leap into a whole new part of the country and a whole new environment. If that is the case, you couldn't do better than Pomona.</p>
<p>"Barnard receives absolutely no funding from Columbia."</p>
<p>Doesn't have to, since Barnard students take classes at Columbia.</p>
<p>"Isn't that the argument used by the graduates of the Harvard Extension school?"</p>
<p>Tell that to a Columbia student who wants to take classes in dance, theater, urban studies, or education.</p>
<p>Look, this is no dis on Pomona. It's a great school, associated with a bunch of great schools. If a student likes the vibe of So.Cal and an LAC, I can't see how Pomona can be beat. If a student likes the vibe of NYC, wants to be part of a great research university, but reap some of the benefits of an LAC, I can't see how Barnard can be matched either.</p>
<p>thank you all for your help! i've been doing a lot of thinking and am currently leaning towards pomona, but i'm visiting barnard tomorrow so who knows what will happen. this advice was all really useful though :)</p>
<p>Be reminded what Mini wrote above – personal FIT is much, much more important that rankings and prestige. OP may end up staying, but college is about so much more than rankings!</p>