In December, I was admitted to Harvard. After that, I destroyed any other Ivy League applications I had, and only submitted my applications to a few liberal arts colleges. As it turns out, I am absolutely in love with one of them, and since being admitted to Harvard, I have heard many negative things about the undergraduate experience at Ivy League universities. On the other hand I recognize the benefits of having a brand name are immense, I’m extremely lucky to have been accepted, and for some individuals, they actually end up loving their experience at Harvard. I just hope I am one of them, and don’t end up regretting having not gone to school in a friendlier and less cutthroat environment, if doing so would not affect the outcome of my life after college. I won’t be visiting Harvard until the end of April, but I still can’t stop thinking about that one LAC I really liked… Would going to a LAC really hurt my future? Keep in mind, I have no idea what I want to do, and I come from a working class family. Would Harvard open more doors, simply because it’s Harvard? Would I regret going to the other school, and end up with nothing after graduation? I know for a fact I’ll probably learn much more at an LAC, just by nature of the classroom setting. I also think I’d have many more friends too. Can someone give me their two cents?
Oh yeah, and the school is Pomona College.
I feel a lot of pressure to choose Harvard by friends and family, but I don’t want the decision to feel that way. I want to choose Harvard because I love it, not simply because it’s Harvard. That is the beauty of EA as opposed to ED.
Thanks!
Go to accepted student visits at both schools and make up your mind (assuming you get into Pomona). Spend 24 hours on campus at each with an open mind. However… I honestly doubt you will have “more friends” or would “learn more” at Pomona (and I have a kid at one of the other Claremont colleges, so am familiar with it). You also should look at your FA packages and make sure you think through any differences there. There is nothing wrong with picking an LAC over Harvard, but do it with your eyes open AFTER making overnight accepted student visits to both.
No.
No. You have to open the doors.
You may have a better educational experience at Pomona.
The above post by intparent gives excellent advice.
The fame isn’t worth your happiness. Go with your gut. You got into Harvard, so you’re obviously smart.
Don’t make a stupid decision.
It is likely neither decision is "stupid’. But it is also likely that the OP is considering it with incomplete information. A 24 hour stay on campus is generally very revealing, and likely will make the decision much easier.
I feel like Harvard, versus an LAC, would give you more resources. Besides the luster of a Harvard degree, you can probably get better financial aid, more study abroad opportunities, and other such amenities from Harvard, or any Ivy for that matter. And Harvard is in an urban area, if location is factor for you.
And congratulations on such an amazing achievement 
There have been studies (or so I have read on other threads) that show that having been accepted to Harvard is more a predictor of success than actually going to Harvard. In other words, those who were accepted to Harvard but chose NOT to accept were every bit as successful as those who went.
Also, people that matter understand that many LACs provide excellent grounding.
Take a few moments to read “Colleges That Change Lives.” It is pretty short.
You could very possibly do just as well at either college. Don’t be too dazzled by the brand name; look under the hood.
You are asking general questions. Perhaps mapping out a possible 4-year adventure at each school would be illuminating- specific courses, specific year-abroad programs, specific professors for research. Dream a little and ask what each day will feel like and what, specifically, you will be doing each day. Now is your turn to interview them. What benefit will each school provide to you, personally, in terms of experience, growth, and outcome?
Good luck. Many students would love to have your choices.
@oxoxhawja3xoxo, this may sound bizarrely coincidental, but I considered Pomona over Harvard too!
Pomona blew me away when I visited in the fall. The whole place has this wonderful vibe. It wasn’t pretentious, the weather was amazing, the girls…I remember my dad said he couldn’t imagine anyone NOT wanting to go there.
I didn’t much enjoy my visit to Harvard, the pretentiousness, especially the way the admissions people presented the school to potential applicants. It seemed like they could care less. I also didn’t like the idea of going to a school that felt like a tourist trap. Still, I will likely chose Harvard.
It pains me to admit that I have trouble overlooking the prestige factor. I guess I’m superficial in that way. I also think my hard-charging personality might be better suited for Cambridge. I’m intrigued by the opportunity to compete against top students. I’m very competitive and I like being pushed. For this reason, I fear I might be too type A for Pomona and that people there might consider me somewhat of a douche.
You are likely a more grounded, down-to-earth person, less impressed with superficial considerations. It seems almost certain (though I haven’t spent a night at either school) that Pomona would be a more pleasant place to spend four years. Academically, it also seems like it would be more supportive and nurturing than Harvard. The people I know who study at Pomona are blissfully happy. This is not the case with my few acquaintances at Harvard.
So, as others have posted, we are incredibly fortunate to have this choice to make. In some ways, I feel choosing Pomona is a more courageous decision. I agree with the other posters that if you’re on the fence, it would be wise to spend some time at each school. The way I’m hedging the bet in my mind (assuming I get accepted to Pomona), is to figure that if I hate Harvard, I might have a good chance to transfer to Pomona (assuming I do well academically at Harvard). I wish you the best of luck with this wonderful dilemma.
I never considered Harvard during the application process. The allure of being the best wasn’t enough for me to be passionate about it. In particular, I greatly valued the liberal arts and professor accessibility, features which aren’t as defining about Harvard as about Pomona.
My best friend goes there, and we share stories about our experiences. They’re pretty similar for the most part, which has made me appreciate Harvard more as an undergraduate institution than I used to. Our classes are much more rigorous here than at the high school we went to. We always laugh about the sheer impossibility of being able to do all of the incredibly captivating opportunities and events that happen at both of our campuses, though his campus brings more well-known people. And the student body is exceptionally diverse and inspiring at both places.
There are a couple of noticeable differences. Here are two of the ones I’ve noticed the most.
Based on our comparisons of the student bodies, I feel that Pomona is a much more laid-back and friendly school than Harvard is. Let me try to use an example. I have a couple of Harvard/Yale/Princeton friends on Facebook. They actively share their extracurricular accomplishments, experiences, acceptances, and similar stories of success, and I’m awed because they are incredible things. My Pomona friends seldom share these sort of things publicly and present an aura of living in the present, taking life one step at a time. It’s not true that Pomona students lack similar accomplishments- they just seem a lot more quiet about it. This creates a remarkable difference in the school atmosphere. In one school, you’ll be forced to compare yourself to your peers simply because there’s a great acceptance for that meritocratic culture. It’ll inspire you and push you towards a vision of success, but it’ll also magnify feelings of insecurity and difference. In the other, you’ll have a friendlier and more inclusive student body, but it’s easy to slip into a narrative of nurture and ease. A particularly jarring moment for me was when I asked my Pomona friends what their plans for the summer was, and everyone was doing an internship except me. It hadn’t even struck me that my friends were spending hours preparing for these sort of things.
Classes are small at both schools, but academics seem more intimate and nurturing at Pomona. Professors here go out of their way to help the students, and the experiences I’ve shared with my friend at Harvard are those which he’s amazed by, because he hasn’t found that same depth of care at Harvard. Because we are the core of the school, we are the top priority for professors. We are what gets their research driven and their teaching evaluated, so there’s a real sense of mutuality. At Harvard, I’m sure undergrads are valued, but different interests can also come into play, such as graduate students and research expectations. It’s not just access to office hours at Pomona, which you’ll also get at Harvard. It’s deep and life-changing conversations with some of the most inspiring and brilliant people you’d ever meet in your life. It’s small things, such as a three hour individualized tutoring session or an invitation to their homes for a casual dinner. I’m not sure how much you can rely this, but here are some student surveys from a peer website about academics, based on 21 responses at Pomona and 32 at Harvard:
-Professors are approachable and helpful- 9.4/10 vs 7.4/10
-Professors care about their students’ successes- 9.5/10 vs 7.7/10
-Professors put effort into teaching- 9.3/10 vs 7.3/10
I turned down Stanford (a peer school of Harvard) for Pomona for these reasons. Even residential universities like Yale and Princeton may have slightly better professor accessibility and intimacy, but nowhere near that of a liberal arts college like Pomona. Not everyone needs or desires that type of culture. That’s why it’s a beautiful thing to have so many different types of undergraduate institutions 
Think about what you value in an institution because it is being in a right environment that will make you reach your fullest potential. Successful people have come from every sort of place.
(Also, just a comment on visiting- my friend at Harvard was also accepted to Pomona but had an awful experience. He was in the most substance using hall and had a very uncharacteristic view of the college, in my opinion. I had an awful experience from Columbia when I visited which made me consider it less seriously than I would today. It’s easy to latch onto negative experiences and use them to characterize these very complex institutions. )
Here are some other perspectives to look into-
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/l-jay-lemons/the-gold-standard-the-powerful-impact-of-residential_b_4633443.html
https://reasonandreflection.■■■■■■■■■■■■■/2014/01/26/choosing-the-right-college-or-university-for-your-student/
http://www.collegedata.com/cs/content/content_magarticle_tmpl.jhtml?articleId=30075
There are many wide sweeping generalities in this thread that are just not accurate at all.
Harvard is like a LAC in many regards. The undergraduate population is about 6600 students. Class sizes in all but the intro classes are reasonably small. All Freshman housing is in Harvard Yard, with the exception of 3 Freshman houses that are just outside Harvard Yard. There is a dedicated Freshman dining hall. The effort and resources that are put into nurturing Freshman academically and socially are amazing. Professors are very accessible.
Yes there are students who come from affluence at Harvard but 60 plus percent of the students there receive needs based aid. There are students there from all walks of life and there is a great diversity of students there.
I hate pretentiousness and arrogance and am especially sensitive to it and our family has not had that sense or experience with our daughter being a Freshman at Harvard.
The opportunities that are available to Harvard students are beyond belief, the presentations that are given on a daily and weekly basis by people who are incredibly well known in their fields are beyond any thing I could have imagined.
I also don’t believe the academic environment to be cut throat. There is very little discussion about past academic accomplishments and our daughter has found her Freshman peers to be supportive of each other.
Prior to our daughter having been accepted and having attended I had the very same concerns and many of the same beliefs. I am very pleased to say that we have been so pleasantly surprised with our experience of how Harvard actually is.
Congratulations to you! Ultimately you should attend where you are most comfortable and where you believe you will get the best education that puts you on the path of building the future you wish to have.
Our daughter was deciding between Middlebury College and Harvard, both regular decision admits. She couldn’t have gone wrong by attending either of these schools. I initially preferred Middlebury but we have been so impressed by her Freshman experience at Harvard. I am glad she is there.
Best Wishes to you!
Pomona and Harvard, both great schools - no wrong answer. For what it’s worth, when my daughter was accepted to H, it seemed everyone had a cautionary tale of cutthroat competition, unbridled arrogance and aloof professors. But the majority of those with strong opinions had never set foot on campus, much less attended. She took a risk and enrolled, figuring that if it was intolerable she could always transfer.
Pleased to say she thoroughly enjoyed her 4 years. The issues that she was warned about were either greatly overblown or nonexistent.
OP, when you say, “I know for a fact I’ll probably learn much more at an LAC, just by nature of the classroom setting.” Not sure if that’s accurate. Depending on your concentration, if you choose to do research for a senior thesis you will probably be amazed at the resources made available to you, both in terms of facilities and people.
I will say, even though Harvard has all these tremendous resources, it will be up to you to pursue them. I have heard (see, now I’m spouting a stereotype based on no firsthand experience) that the smaller, more intimate nature of many LACs means more ‘hand-holding’ - professors making sure you stay on task. At Harvard, you may have to be a little more proactive in seeking out assistance - although I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing considering that’s the way the post-college world functions.
I would talk to people who have gone to both Pomona and Harvard and get their takes. Pomona should be willing to put you in touch with alumni who have gone to Harvard for grad school. There should be plenty of them.
I went a US News top-10 LAC and then Harvard for grad school, and I would definitely choose Harvard because (1) the name alone results in job interviews due to the school being so well-known and (2) the alumni network is huge and worldwide; if you will need contacts in your career, Harvard will result in lots of helpful ones no matter where you end up. A small LAC just can’t match those, although Pomona is certainly a top school.
I also loved my Harvard experience. I took an undergrad class while at Harvard, in the same field as my undergrad major, and I thought that the undergraduate teaching quality was fine (with a very small class and very caring professor), and the students were sharp.
However, my LAC was certainly more “user-friendly” than Harvard.
Finally, remember that college is just 4 years (or 3, if you spend a year abroad). It’ll be over quickly. The name on your resume will stick with you for life.
Everyone gives great advice - a 24 hour visit would be very helpful.
Also, I do not think that anyone has mentioned travel - you said that you come from a working class background - your family is most likely far from one of the schools - will your family be able to afford those very expensive flights around the holidays? How would it feel for you to have to spend Thanksgiving at the college you choose (most likely with a friend at their home.)
You are very fortunate to have these choices - while you may feel pressure from your family to attend Harvard, could it possibly be because of an unexpressed worry about those types of expenses? I was the first person in my family to attend college - I came from a working class family as well. While I received a large scholarship, I found out years later about some of the financial issues my parents had while I was in college which were not discussed with me at the time. Harvard is one of the most generous with financial aid - is Pomona? Have you looked at the cost of flights to the airport closest to Pomona? How will you get to campus? It is very easy to get to the airport from Harvard. Red Line T (subway) to South Station - then, the Silver Line bus directly to the airport. Pomona wins, hands down, though, about the weather.
Also, I really like the comment above to look closely at different syllabi. Imagine two or three different majors that you might end up with. Also think about a minor. Search for the four year syllabus for each of those majors/minors at each school and compare them. There might be requirements that you are really not interested in, or for that matter, you may find that there are some really interesting minors that you have not even imagined yet.
I just looked up studying Sociology at each school, just because I wondered how the schools would allocate resources/have expectations for this major; I found Harvard’s outline of the degree easier to follow
http://handbook.fas.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k104674&pageid=icb.page673529&pageContentId=icb.pagecontent1470465&state=maximize&viewParam_amp;amp;amp;name=Sociology&viewParam_amp;amp;amp;view=view.do
Pomona looks good as well, but I prefer the way that Harvard organized their information. I found it easier to follow. You might prefer Pomona’s presentation;
http://www.pomona.edu/academics/departments/sociology/courses-requirements/
Resources for this major seem to vary a great deal between the schools, however it may just be that Harvard is better at packaging their information:
Harvard: http://sociology.fas.harvard.edu/pages/resources
Pomona: http://www.pomona.edu/academics/departments/sociology/resources/
Just my more than 2 cents. I’ve been there (working class family) - there is a lot to think about.
@oxoxhawja3xoxo: Do you need financial aid?
The reason I’m asking is that a LAC may not be able to offer you the same amount of financial aid as you would receive from Harvard. My son, for example, was admitted to Pomona, Williams and Middlebury, but it would have cost our family more than $10K per year for him to attend those schools rather than HYP. Bottom line: this whole discussion may be moot if you need financial aid and you must choose the school that provides the best aid.
Seriously, this is Harvard. It is absolutely one of the best placed to get an education in the world. When you take a class, and look to your left or right, likely who is there was the best and brightest their school has produced in a while (unless of course they were a sport or special recruit of some sort). Not to say that Pomona students cannot be just as bright, but you will be swimming with the big fish.
Reasons to not go are, finances (but Harvard has incredible grants for financially needy), hating the weather (3 weeks that they are having so much snow, classes got cancelled, vs pretty much the same weather all year in So Cal), having a program or person that you must study with in another institution, or a fear that you will no longer be the “star” and will drown in that new big ocean.
There is a reason that Harvard (and all the top tier schools) are what they are. Opportunities that are there and doors that open. It is not for the timid. If you use all that they offer, it is a life changer.
Pomona can be a life changer also. DS’s friend last year chose Williams over Princeton and is very happy there.
It’s a tough call, OP, but my recommendation is to go with your gut.
@rubberfall, once again, your evaluation is very simplistic. Just because Harvard offers a great education does not mean that other schools don’t, and for SOME students another school may be a better fit. As someone said above, students who are accepted to Harvard are likely to be very successful regardless of where they actually attend college. I do agree that Harvard has deeper resources and probably will offer better FA. But the OP should evaluation his/her FA packages, and spend some time on both campuses, then make the decision that works best for them. Even Harvard is not “one size fits all”.
There are hundreds of educators that would disagree with you, including many of the professors and administrators of Harvard who received their undergraduate degrees elsewhere, including:
Drew Faust, Harvard College President, who graduated from Bryn Mawr
Rakesh Khurana, Harvard College Dean, who graduated from Cornell
Michael Sandell, Harvard Professor, who graduated from Brandeis
Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Harvard Professor, who graduated from Yale
Tim Murphy, Harvard Football Coach, who graduated from Springfield College
Harvard has arguably the best “brand name,” but that doesn’t mean it’s the best place for everyone!
And yet, they now teach at Harvard. Hmmmm. (only saying this tongue in cheek, given that the faculty in most of the elite institutions do come from other schools than the ones they teach at)
(also football coach in the mix, really - I suppose it is fair since the football coach is usually the highest paid member of the faculty in pretty much any school)
One of the best. Not the ONLY.
I only assume that the OP applied to Harvard for a good reason.
It may not be the best for everyone. It is a high pressure, high stakes, hopefully high rewards school.
Some may not thrive with that kind of pressure and competition. It does push you to be the best you can be.
I’ve posted this on another thread, but I think it bears repeating.
Harvard can be a splendiferous experience for some students, but hell for others. My daughter, who just graduated from Harvard Phi Beta Kappa this past December would say that it was hell for her and many of her friends. I’m not sure PBK graduates of LAC’s feel the same way.