<p>Hi,
I have been accepted to both Duke and Pomona, and I am currently trying to decide which school to attend. I am going to visit Duke this weekend, but i will not be able to visit Pomona. Any input on why one school is better than the other would be greatly appreciated!</p>
<p>Congratulations on your acceptances!!!</p>
<p>Pomona and Duke are both amazing schools. You really can’t say that one is definitively better. They have very different feels. It is unfortunate that you can’t visit Pomona. My best advice is to see how much you like Duke when you visit and, if you love it, then go with Duke, unless there is a big money difference. I personally would not be comfortable choosing a school I could not experience in person.</p>
<p>I faced this exact decision around this time last year, and managed to visit both campuses. Pomona and Duke are both wonderful schools. I could probably go on a 10-minute spiel on how great a learning environment each one is. I don’t know if it’s possible to say that one is absolutely superior to the other. They’re quite different, and it really depends on what you’re looking for. Do you know what you want to major in yet? </p>
<p>The atmosphere in both schools is really different. I’d say that you can definitely feel the difference in size. That was what stood out to me. Pomona just feels smaller; Duke feels huge, especially to an already-dazed pre-frosh. I mean, just the idea of having to commute from one point in campus to another. In Pomona, it seemed like everyone just walked or biked everywhere. </p>
<p>By virtue of its larger student population, I think the students at Duke are also more exposed to international students, though I’m not sure how this would weigh in your decision, seeing as you’re from Texas. When I visited Pomona, some students were shocked to hear that I was from Singapore, and the dean of admissions actually mentioned that they had two Singaporean applicants in that year’s batch (me and a friend) while giving his welcome speech. When I visited Duke, the Singaporean Students Association welcomed me at a booth.</p>
<p>I chose Duke in the end because I wanted a larger student body; I preferred the weather in Durham; and generally wanted to be on the east coast. The main reason I chose Duke, though, was because I decided I didn’t want to limit myself to a liberal arts degree so soon. I’m aware that you can major in subjects beyond the liberal arts at Pomona, but the focus is on the arts and languages, after all…whereas Duke has a much wider range of majors for me to choose from, being strong in both the arts and the sciences.</p>
<p>To cut a long story short, it’s really up to you and which school is a better fit. I know people who would be perfect for Pomona and also some who would hate studying there. It depends on what you’re looking for. Personally, unless your interests and aspirations are strongly geared toward the kind of environment that Pomona can provide (eg you absolutely must have a high prof:student ratio; you are hoping to major in Classics; etc) I would lean towards Duke. Go for the Blue Devil Day, and don’t feel pressured to compare it with Pomona straightaway. Instead, view the school objectively and identify aspects that appeal to you, as well as others that don’t. </p>
<p>I was dead set on Pomona until I visited Duke.</p>
<p>thank u soo much constantly! </p>
<p>I’m at duke right now on a pro-frosh visit, and soo far i really like it…but i wish i was able to visit Pomona too so that I can weigh my options more :(. I think I want to major in something like Creative Writing or Philosophy with a Pre-med track, and I know that both schools are good with things like that. Anyway, thanks soo much for your advice, and if u have any more feel free to message me!</p>
<p>my son is a Duke senior who initially thought he was going to a very fine New England LAC.<br>
He highly values the sense of play at Duke, East Campus is heaven for freshmen…cozy, he loved Focus…which was sort of like…a semester at Pomona…and he went abroad on another excellent program. He loves big sports and he attends a high percentage of the performance arts series Duke funds for the region…things he would have had much less exposure to at his wonderful LAC.<br>
Trade offs include some large entry courses which you will never have at a Pomona…so not all his classes were personal…but many were! I also like Duke’s size for dating and socializing so you are not “stuck” for four years on one social circle. My son has a social circle on one arts field, in one frat, in one foreign language dept and in two majors…and in a couple other arenas…I think this is a positive…the variety of social groups you can drift towards for aspects of your personality…not with the same people all the time.</p>
<p>That said, Pomona sounds like a blessed and wonderful institution.</p>
<p>congrats on your fine options.</p>
<p>I just want to mention that “constantly” for some reason has a skewed view of Pomona’s academic strengths. You definitely don’t have to major in Classics to get a world-class education! Pomona is also known for its strong programs in science, math, and more.</p>
<p>Instead of worrying about the education factor, I would think more about fit…Southern frattiness versus west coast laid-back-ness is a pretty big difference. To each his/her own :)</p>
<p>Southern frattiness may exist at Duke, but unless you can personally attest that it infiltrates the entire culture there, I wouldn’t intimate that it does. </p>
<p>Actually, when I visited, I found Duke to have a really laid-back vibe. Of course, I’d assume that Pomona does as well (and I’m sure that Pomona’s version of laid-back is different than Duke’s), but I’m not going make a definitive statement on the matter given that I’ve never visited Pomona.</p>
<p>However, I do agree that since the academic caliber of these schools is so similar your choice comes down to fit. Since you can’t visit Pomona, use every resource possible (i.e. talk to friends of friends that have gone there, see if you can get in touch with alumni, etc.) to make the most informed decision you can.</p>
<p>Good Luck :)</p>
<p>Shibbolethette, I apologise if I provided a skewed perspective of Pomona as a “liberal arts only” college. I know that’s not the case. Trust me, I was this close to doing Neuroscience at Pomona. My point was more that imo, Pomona’s Classics program is superior to Duke’s, and so if smiley44 wished to pursue a course that Pomona already exceeds Duke in, the choice would be obvious. Likewise, Pomona has a strong pre-med faculty, but if smiley wished to major in pre-med, Duke would likely be a better choice.</p>
<p>bginger, an interesting point on the “laid-back” style of both schools. When I visited Pomona, my original impression was that it was really laid-back… but once I started talking to students and professors, I realised that they were actually a very driven body of students who took their work very seriously. When I visited Duke, my first impression was that it was really stiff and academic. Only after I met some students there did I get the feeling that it’s still a very warm, friendly place that has room for lots besides studying. I wouldn’t say either is better than the other, but they are very different.</p>
<p>
…you’re kidding, right? The two aren’t even in the same league. Pomona has one of the better Classics programs among LACs, to be sure, but only Bryn Mawr and (to a lesser extent) Holy Cross can compete with university Classics programs.</p>
<p>This is not like comparing biology programs. Classics departments even at major universities like Berkeley tend to have small undergraduate courses. The ancient language offerings at LACs pale in comparison.</p>
<p>thanks for all the info on Classics programs, but I’m probably not going to major in that. I’m thinking of doing Creative Writing with a pre-med track. But I was looking on Pomona’s web site and didn’t see anything like a creative writing major…maybe they’ll let me design my own?</p>
<p>IBclass06: I wouldn’t say that Pomona’s Classics program pales in comparison to Duke’s at all. At the bare minimum, it’s a rival. My point is being completely misconstrued, so let me rephrase. There is no reason to say that Duke is definitively superior to Pomona in every area. They are entirely different schools. Whether these differences (size, sports, offered majors) are plusses or minuses in your book is entirely up to you and what you’re looking for in a college. If you’re still confused, just substitute “Classics” in my original post with “Media Studies”, or any other program that’s offered at Pomona but not at Duke, and my original meaning will remain.</p>
<p>smiley44, I don’t think either school offers Creative Writing as a separate major. Duke does have a Distinction Program in Creative Writing, as part of an English major, and I think Pomona makes creative writing classes compulsory for all English majors (I could be wrong about this). Having said that, both will let you design your own major.
[Arts</a> & Sciences and Trinity College - Duke University : Undergraduates : Program II](<a href=“http://www.aas.duke.edu/program2]Arts”>http://www.aas.duke.edu/program2)
[Department</a> of English at Duke University](<a href=“http://english.duke.edu/ugrads/cwritprog.php]Department”>http://english.duke.edu/ugrads/cwritprog.php)</p>