Feelings of (Pomona) Inferiority?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Claremont McKenna College
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<p>This thread is not going to be very popular, but I have to voice some concerns and was looking for advice. </p>

<p> Background: </p>

<p>I am a high school senior who will be attending CMC next year. My entire life, I received generally excellent grades and exceptional SAT scores. I was rejected by Pomona but accepted to CMC and will likely major in economics or philosophy. </p>

<p> My concerns: </p>

<p>It seems to me that essentially everyone considers Pomona to be the flagship school of the Claremont Colleges. Whether this is true or not is irrelevant. I consider the education that one can receive at any of the 5Cs to be comparable to any school in the country. I can't help but feel, though, among the highly selective colleges that Pomona is considered to be on the same level as Amherst, Williams, and the Ivies while CMC falls short. </p>

<p>You can quote the recent statistics at me, but the fact of the matter is that the general consensus seems to be that Pomona is more prestigious than CMC. While this may not be true amongst the government and business fields, where CMC is well known, it does appear to be true amongst the academic and intellectual world. And even if this isn't true, it seems true to me. </p>

<p>These feelings of CMC inferiority have only been exacerbated by the recent SAT score scandal. I know that the rankings were unaffected, but this simply shouldn't have happened! You don't hear about Amherst or Williams fibbing their SAT scores. Whether it impacted our rank or not means nothing to me. I just cannot believe that the administration would allow for such a thing to happen. It reeks of inadequacy. </p>

<p>Don't get me wrong, I love CMC. However, I sometimes stay up at night wondering how different my life would be with the Pomona name and the stability that the school seems to have. Maybe it's simply buyer's remorse. </p>

<p>I also sometimes wonder what it says, if anything, about CMC that they would accept a Pomona reject. Was I simply not a good fit for Pomona and a better one for CMC? Given the fact that I was straight out rejected by Pomona and accepted by CMC, was it academic? If so, what does that say about CMC? Are they as discerning in their admissions process as Pomona? Could anybody with insights into the admission game for both schools give me an answer? </p>

<p> The question: </p>

<p>Can somebody please convince me that CMC is truly as good as Pomona? Is the prestige thing ever an issue on the Claremont Colleges? </p>

<p>I realize I sound like a spoiled brat here, but I can't help the way I feel.</p>

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<p>honestly, you’re the only one who can convince yourself that CMC is the better place for you to be. there’s no secret smoking gun that proves CMC’s infinite superiority. you’ve heard what there is to hear and you’re still feeling this way because you want to. why did you apply to CMC? what did you like about it? why did you choose to GO to CMC? think about those things. remember them. i applied ED and i felt similar pangs of worry as friends of mine got into stanford, ivies, etc. - you should see the freaked out text messages i sent to my best friend who’s going to brown - but when i was feeling like that, nothing someone told me about CMC or any other school was going to assuage the worry. i knew why i wanted to go to CMC, i knew that it was the perfect school for me because it had the best of everything i wanted in a college, and i was freaking out anyway because i knew that i was as smart or smarter than some of my friends going to supposedly “better” schools and i felt frustrated by that. you just need to realize that it doesn’t really matter. if there is a difference in prestige between CMC and pomona, it’s not because CMC is worse, it’s because it is a fundamentally different school. in SO many ways. i didn’t apply to pomona because i realized it had nothing to offer me that i cared about. and in terms of CMC admissions, yes, it is HUGELY about fit. i have friends going to pomona who i’m certain wouldn’t have gotten into CMC because, quite simply, they were entirely wrong for CMC - but entirely right for pomona. i also have a good friend going to an ivy next year who got rejected from CMC. so it’s not as simple as you’re wanting to make it. but again… you just need to wait it out. feel ****ty about this for a while and then get over it. because there’s not much anyone else can really do to convince you. that’s what i did, and i’m 100% over it and couldn’t be happier to be off to CMC.</p>

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<p>“Is the prestige thing ever an issue on the Claremont Colleges?”</p>

<p>For most CMCers, I don’t think it usually is because (at least in my experience) CMCers tend to be the sort of people not to care so much about it. It’s not that most CMCers don’t care about prestige and ranking and all that, it just isn’t a big deal - it’s not as important as the reality behind the image. Honestly, rankings and reputation really don’t tell you the whole story about a school. Sure, Ivies are highly regarded, they’ve got great professors and all that jazz, but I’d say you’d get a better education at a place like CMC just because you have the smaller classes, better access to professors, and much more attention/resources per student generally.</p>

<p>Personally, I turned down Pomona to go to CMC, so it’s probably a lot easier for me to feel confident in CMC’s awesomeness. And, frankly, I think I had good reasons to do so - CMC’s got a great econ department, its PPE program is phenomenal, and the campus environment in general just seemed a lot more friendly and supportive than Pomona. So that made CMC a great school for me - but someone more interested in, say, languages or literature might be better off at Pomona. It’s silly to try and compare them apples to apples because they’re really different schools. And above poster’s right about admissions and fit… I’ve heard of people being rejected from, say, Pitzer but accepted to CMC or Pomona because Pitzer just wasn’t a good fit for them, etc.</p>

<p>Ultimately, I think you’ll just have to experience CMC for yourself to realize why you don’t need to feel inferior about your college. Hopefully, you will find your own reasons that CMC is awesome (possibly the econ and philosophy departments, as they are both awesome, academically and otherwise). Even if everyone else doesn’t realize how awesome CMC is, there are plenty of people who do. And even when they don’t, CMC will still have (hopefully) made a positive impact on you as a person that will follow you for the rest of your life. I know CMC has been great for me. After the years I’ve spent here, I can say with certainty that I wouldn’t ever want to trade it for a “better name” or some other bull**** accolade like that. But that sort of attitude you can only reach by experience.</p>

<p>“You don’t hear about Amherst or Williams fibbing their SAT scores.”
Just because you don’t hear about it doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen. How many colleges and universities admit athletes in the spring semester so they don’t have to include their scores in the school’s averages? Stuff like that goes on all the time, at almost every school. If we consider CMC any more ethically tarnished than just about any other school that plays this sick game, we’re just being duped.</p>

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<p>Reflections from Kevin Burke '11 on why he transferred from the University of Pennsylvania to Claremont McKenna College. </p>

<p>[The</a> Transfer Experience: From the Ivy League to CMC, why it was right for me](<a href=“http://www.cmcnation.com/main/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=294:the-transfer-experience-from-the-ivy-league-to-cmc-why-it-was-right-for-me&catid=45:admission&Itemid=53]The”>http://www.cmcnation.com/main/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=294:the-transfer-experience-from-the-ivy-league-to-cmc-why-it-was-right-for-me&catid=45:admission&Itemid=53)</p>