Couple Questions - Social Life/5Cs/GE

<p>This question is mainly inteded for people that currently go to Pomona but everyone's input is appreciated.
I got accepted to Pomona RD and was offered a $7,500 scolarship. I'm trying to see if it's worth the extra 11k a year compared to UCLA or Berkeley (crossing my fingers that i'll get in)</p>

<p>How is the social life at Pomona? Does being in a suburb ever get boring? Would you say the college provides enough activities?
What's the deal with the "beer line" and the alcohol fund? How abotu for fresmen? It seems to me they tend to be very leniant.
How is the interaction between the 5Cs? Do you meet a lot of people outside of Pomona?
How about the GE's? Are they ever a pain in the ass or is there enough of a choice of courses that it tends to keep itself interesting? Also, how inteactive are the classes? I am wondering this becuase I know sometime I feel like just listening in a class not necesarily talking all the time.</p>

<p>Hopefully this will help me make the right decision
Thank you!</p>

<p>aleph4, S is graduating this year from UCLA and D will be attending Pomona in the fall (ED1). Had S not been in a small program (design), he could have fallen between the cracks and gotten lost in the morass at UCLA. From what he has reported over the years and from what our niece (Pomona '98) reports, the students at Pomona are more focused and there's a tighter bond among them. S had a difficult time creating that kind of bond at UCLA.</p>

<p>I can't speak to your questions directly, but I'm sure someone else can. Congratulations on your acceptance(s) and good luck!</p>

<p>Classes are discussion based but per my S very interesting and engaging. pomona has a large endowment so there are tons to do always on campus. My S has gone on the ski/beach day, camped on the beach with 8 friends(school payed for transportation and camping gear). There is death by chocolate day during study week and a day during study week where they fil the quad with snow. This year it was 75 and everyone was studying outside. Theytook study breaks to have snowball fights and build snowmen. There are parties between all 5 schools. There are not alcohol funds for freshman but some students do of course drink. Hard liquor is discouraged strongly and many students don't drink as well. The school stresses responsible/safe drinking is my feeling as they don't come down hard on beer.Life does not revolve around that though. There are $2 movies on campus. The best part is the community spirit at Pomona, students there are #1 for happy students and it is very true.Little Mother is right about the bond between students. My S does more in LA then the town of Claremont, but Claremont Village is going to add movie theatres, jazz clubs, restraunts and should offer a lot more. That saying it is not the kind of school where you could sleep in the back of a lecture hall. My S has 6 students in his Spanish class. He can not blend in to the woodwork.</p>

<p>Let me add that in his non-major classes at UCLA (for GEs), S has felt that the teaching quality was not all that great. Plus, some of those classes (lower levels, primarily) had very high enrollments that prohibited any interaction between student and teacher. Even in sections with TAs, he found little interaction of note. So, yes, you could sleep or passively sit in some classes without having to feel the pressure to participate, but in any class regardless of size at any good institution, you should feel comfortable being an active listener and speaking only when so motivated.</p>

<p>Thanks for the responses. I'm going to head down to pomona on the 10th and see it all myself.</p>

<p>anyone else have commentary on this? alumni/current students?</p>

<p>Aleph, how did you get a $7000 scholarship? Do you mean for financial aid, because I'm pretty sure Pomona does not give merit scholarships. I'm sort of in the same position you are in, except w/o the money incentive from Pomona and WITH a money incentive from UCLA ($5000/yr). I haven't decided either, but from what I've learned about Pomona from visiting/CC/etc, it seems that...</p>

<p>-Claremont gets boring pretty fast, but there's enough to do on campus and in LA that you're never actually bored.
-There are as much interaction between the 5Cs as you choose. You can eat in any of the other colleges' cafeterias and the colleges share many resources like library, theater, etc. And there are a lot of 5-C clubs and activities, too.
-There's enough variety in the GE courses to keep you interested. For instance, you have to do some sort of writing thing. But you could fullfill it w/ a class on Shakespeare or something on modern urban development.
-Classes and professor interaction will no doubt be better at Pomona than the UCs. I heard that POmona professors get to eat in the cafeterias for free if they dine with a student, so that's an incentive for lots of outside of class interaction.</p>

<p>So despite all of Pomona's pluses, why am I still unsure? Well, for me, it' s more like, is Pomona worth an extra $25,000 a year?</p>

<p>darkling - I got the 7,500 from financial aid.
I was actually pretty surprised to get it becuase my parent's income is a lot when you just look at the numbers. Of course you have to also realize I live in the bay area and I moved from Mexico only 8 years ago so we have had no time to save money at all. Right now we're only slightly saving money so college will be a hard hit.</p>

<p>Ugh... I hate thinking about that.
I'm gonna go down to the financial aid office with all my documents and see if there's anything I can do about it. Even an extra 1,000 would help.
It'd just be scary to leave college owing 20-40k.</p>

<p>Claremont IS a little boring but there is tons to do on campus. The thing about LA is that it's not like most cities.... everything is spread out and there is no walkable downtown area, nor is there decent public transportation. It is truly a sprawl. So being in Claremont is not so much worse than being in a lot of other places in the LA area, because there are always going to be things that you're far away from. My feeling about LA (no offense to those who love it/are from there) is that it was a very interesting place to go to college, but I wouldn't want to live there permanently. </p>

<p>Arizonamom is right that the school makes a good effort to have fun events, like snow day, ski and beach day, etc. </p>

<p>Yup, there is lots of student/professor interaction. Some professors will expect you to contribute to class discussions, but there are always people who are quieter during class, and I think most profs understand that some people just prefer to listen. Generally, though, you should be the type of person who prefers to have a class with 10 people sitting around a table rather than 500 in a lecture hall... if small classes really don't sound good to you, Pomona's probably not right for you.</p>

<p>You will absolutely meet people from the other Claremont colleges-- in fact, you couldn't avoid it if you tried. They will be in your classes, in clubs, attending some of the same events... </p>

<p>As for the GE requirements... there will probably be one or two that are a pain. But generally, there is enough choice in classes that you can find something you like. </p>

<p>Hope that helps.</p>

<p>Irene, '03</p>

<p>Thanks a lot.
Yeah 10 people sitting around a table sounds good to me :)
I think such a place overall helps with confidence with your own ideas anyway. </p>

<p>I still have questions about the parties/alcohol... it just seems kind of weird/interesting to me.</p>

<p>yea I was in the same spot you were in
$10k in FA from pomona and was deciding on whether it was worth the 10k more tha UCLA or Berkely. glad i came here though. i live 30 minutes away from pomona so im familiar with the so cal area so i love it here. i some times take friends from pomona back to my city to hang out cause my town has the best chinese food ever =D. but yea. I personally think that pomona is worth the money. I would have come here and paid the 40k but im thankful for my FA.</p>

<p>on a side note. out of all the colleges i got accepted to, pomona was the only college to offer me a single cent in FA scholarships. there was occidental...that offered me 1k in loans...</p>

<p>If finaid is what is holding you back and you have a better offer from elsewhere write a letter and send the other award along. My S last year had a better offer from CMC and Pomona worked with him. They were extremely helpful and approachable. You need to first make sure it is your first choice but if it is talk with them about the process.As long as the school is comparable.</p>

<p>Well I don't have another offer. Pomona is the only private school I applied to. I guess I could say, going to UC's would be waay cheaper and that's why getting more money would be the only way I could attend here. I'm just going to see what I can do.</p>

<p>I found a pretty useful book called Pomona College : Off the record
it has a lot of usefull info for anyone that cares</p>

<p>Humanities classes are pretty much all discussion based, but sciences tend have more lectures (although they're still pretty small classes and profs are very accessible). There are plenty of sponsored trips to LA if you want to go there, but most weekends you'll probably be partying with your friends (if thats your thing). Pomona really doesn't care if you drink or smoke pot, but they might get kind of upset if you do much else. In general though, Pomona's a pretty great place. I'm transfering next year because I've decided to do an engineering major, but I really don't have much of anything bad to say about Pomona. It's just not the best place for what I want to do with my life.</p>

<p>that sounds cool.</p>