What is it about Claremont McKenna and Pomona that you liked? Those schools don’t have to be off your list right now, either. They can be your reach schools.
If you answer some questions, it would help all the posters to provide better suggestions:
What is your budget per year?
If your budget is less than $90k/year, will your family qualify for any financial aid? (For instance, run the Net Price Calculator (NPC) at Pomona. Is the Expected Family Contribution (EFC) within budget? If not, then you’d probably want to eliminate all colleges that don’t fall within your budget by their sticker price or by offering merit aid.
What kind of vibe/atmosphere do you want at school?
What size of school are you looking for?
What size of classes do you prefer?
How do you feel about lots of intercollegiate sports enthusiasm?
How do you feel about Greek life?
How do you feel about climate?
What states/regions would you like to be in (or avoid)?
How do you feel about urban/suburban/rural schools?
Are there any particular interests you’d like to pursue in college?
Knowing more about what you want (and your family can pay for) is a key part of the college search.
Looking at OP’s previous thread , this is some information, but as OP in the thread was thinking about big state schools and small liberal colleges and a lot in-between, I think that an update from OP about his current interests is important.
ETA: I’m going to reiterate one of my recommendations from that thread:
It also had more students go on to earn a doctorate in economics than Claremont McKenna between 2000-2018 (source). This is not to say that Occidental is better than Claremont McKenna, but it may assuage any concerns you have about “rankings” and that an education from Occidental is an inferior one, as it most definitely is not. It does, however, have a higher likelihood of granting you acceptance than the Claremont schools on your list.
@AustenNut gave you some hints about the things that can help you define the schools that will best fit your preferences. With those in hand, we can help you discover a list of reaches, matches/targets, and safeties (though as an international student it might be difficult to find true safeties…) that are tailored to you.
Hi. I have a kiddo starting at Pomona - without straight A’s (and no hook) Schools are looking for a variety of things. When you apply let your personality and strengths really show, and get the best letters of rec that you can.
That said, Pomona is selective and so you need other options, but as many have said - if you like the LAC vibe that you find at Pomona, there are literally hundreds of great LAC’s to consider. Mine loved Macalaster and Oberlin as well. We did not visit Occidental, but have also heard great things. We also used Colleges that Change Lives for some great safety options!!
You have many, many great options with your stats and interests!
Pomona and CMC economics have different emphases. Pomona has a more liberal arts / research focus, while CMC has a more pre-professional business-adjacent focus. This can be seen in the course offerings at each school. What attracts you to both of them?
I really like the focus they have on not allowing you to specialize in your field but also combine it with a wider variety of other majors which many other colleges don’t offer. Specifically, they have Philosophy, Politics and Economics as a major, but they also have Political Science and Economics in their own right with a deeper focus on Econometrics. So its the exposure they give to different types Economic and Social science concepts that really draws me to them.
Vassar - if you’re a male - you have an advantage.
But again, there’s lots of LACs - and it’s great to lean high - but there’s great ones in the mid level and lower too and many allow you to tailor a major or even double or triple major.
You’re seemingly more focused on the name than the education and I think it’s great - take your shots.
They are a double major: political science and theater. They have leadership and work/internship experience, and I think likely excellent letters of rec. They took the most rigorous courses offered including about 9-10 AP courses with mostly 5’s, some 4’s and one 2 (physics). Overall they are a very strong student and that came through - they had overall good results. My older child also did not have straight A’s, and was offered full tuition merit at Vanderbilt. In our experience schools do look at your entire application. You do not have to be perfect, but overall strong with qualities that “fit” for that schools priorities - just sometimes tricky to figure out what those are - so just find schools that seem to fit you and present your best self. There are many, many great programs!!
Both of them tailored their applications to their priority schools and applied to fewer schools (3 reaches each, plus 2 matches and safeties), so that they could really put time into the schools they wanted the most.
We did not permit ED, because we needed to compare financial offers.
So since their major had nothing to do with Physics, it was more or less understandable that the emphasis would be upon their more important subjects right? So is it possible that they might not hold my Computer Science grade against me completely or am I being overconfident?
I agree. I’ve been looking at potential safeties and I’ve started to consider larger schools for them such as Purdue or University of Washington at Seattle which have acceptance rates over 50%. But not many LACs are like this.
hmmm - look harder. There’s a boat load of solid LACs with 50% + acceptance rates.
A Wooster, Kalamazoo, Furman, Willamette, Sewanee.
That’s just five off the top of my head. Not telling you that you shouldn’t go bigger - but when you say not many LACs have a 50% acceptance rate, I’m sure there’s tens of really good ones in fact.
Don’t look just at a school’s overall admissions rate, particularly for state schools when you’re from out-of-state, as the admissions rate between in-state and out-of-state can vary significantly.
Capacity-constrained majors are selective and have extra requirements, which. may include an additional application process. Completing the minimum admission requirements does not guarantee entry. You can apply to most of these majors once you are a UW student. However, for majors in the Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering and the College of Engineering, the main pathway is direct freshman admission. Current UW students may apply to them after enrollment, but space is extremely limited. (source)
Find schools that you like because they fit you well, not just because they have a certain ranking and admissions rate.
Try Vassar, Macalester, Davidson, Fordham - very different vibes so join their mailing list to see which one might work.
Seconding Connecticut Coll and Trinity CT.
You said you took three ALevels in 11th grade, was that a typo ? Or are you in 12th grade, if so what are you doing?
I agree Kelley should be a safety with A-Level As in Econ and Math.
UMD PPE would be a potential match.
Look into Penn State Smeal (or Econ with high math option), Miami Ohio Farmer, UMD Smith or UVermont.