HELP. I'm ridiculously indecisive. (Rice v. Yale v. Harvard v. Pomona)

College Search & Selection
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<p>OP, the reason your friend may not have heard of Pomona is that Californians tend to be very public school oriented because the CU system and the CSU system are so big and well-known. Rest assured, grad schools and employers know and respect Pomona. And of course, they will know and respect Yale/Harvard etc – they know who goes to those schools and how hard it is to get in. But they’re not as awed by the Ivies because, well, with so many options in the West, and with Californians absolutely convinced they have the world’s greatest climate, they don’t idealize the Ivies as much as in the East.</p>

<p>That said, with everything you wrote, I still think Yale is the place for you. Don’t let something like fear of the cold keep you from strongly considering one of the best and most selective institutions in the country.</p>

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<p>Its a significant error to listen to anybody on these sites. You should have checked out these schools before you applied. What was the basis for your decision to pick these schools? Apparently its too late for this but the next best thing is to go and check them out.</p>

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<p>Harvard and Yale attract the best faculty and best students. They come out on top also in terms of their resources, the prestige, the connections, and the breadth and depth of their departments. Yes different things are better for different people, and other factors might come into play. But overall Harvard and Yale are at a different level than Rice and Pomona.</p>

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<p>There are plent of great facult that prefer to teach at LACs. It’s a very different job with much more prof/student interaction and less pressure to publish which many love. There are also lots who don’t want to raise families in places like New Haven.</p>

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<p>yes, there are some great faculty at LACs and some great students too. But overall there is a much higher percentage of faculty at the top of their fields at H&Y and the greatest concentration of the very brightest students too. R&P just don’t attract the best of the best to nearly the same degree.</p>

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<p>“But overall there is a much higher percentage of faculty at the top of their fields at H&Y and the greatest concentration of the very brightest students too.” </p>

<p>Good point, however it doesn’t include the effect of TA’s who can’t speak English.</p>

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<p>all of these schools are pretty much in the same ballpark academically. i fail to see how rice or pomona are “levels” below harvard or yale.</p>

<p>especially for computer science, harvard, yale, and rice are ‘ranked’ within 7 of each other.</p>

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<p>i think its between yale and harvard…and like a lot of people said above me, yale seems like the better fit.</p>

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<p>zfox001 and DocT: I’ve visited Yale and Pomona, but have been unable to visit Harvard or Rice. Yale was lovely — everyone I talked to was wonderful, campus was very beautiful (but it was during the warm time of the year!), and people seemed to really enjoy their classes. Pomona was just as lovely. Though I liked both schools, I didn’t feel a gut reaction toward either of them.</p>

<p>I applied to all of the schools for fairly good reasons, I think: all seemed to offer, from what I could tell, very intellectual student populaces that also have a healthy sense of fun, midsize student bodies (3,000 to 7,000 students sounds about right to me, and Pomona has that many if you factor in all 5Cs), and very strong academic departments in a variety of areas (since I’m undecided, I want to make sure I’ll be okay no matter what I major in).</p>

<p>It’s just that I wasn’t expecting to get into all of them… I would’ve considered myself lucky to get in at Pomona, and I didn’t even really dream of getting into Harvard or Yale.</p>

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<p>That’s an enviable predicament, azureye! I didn’t have as much luck with the ivies (waitlisted at Columbia), which is actually why I’m answering this post (selfish reasons, yes). I was wondering mostly what your “stats” were, I guess–GPA, STA scores (I got a 690 too!), extracurriculars, etc, just out of morbid curiosity, I guess. To see where I failed? </p>

<p>But just to pitch in my opinion, I think that you do sound more of a fit for Yale than the rest. Pomona is an amazing school, but it seems like you want something bigger than that, and personally, even if it is a very prestigious LAC, I think you would regret turning down the two most well-known Ivies. These are two schools everyone knows about, worldwide (I come from South America and I knew about them). My grandfather went to Yale and he never stopped loving it. </p>

<p>However, I do agree with someone earlier in this thread that adviced you not to base your decision off of unknown people in an online forum. Research, visit the other two schools, figure yourself out. I have the same problem in choosing my career, but I’ve come to realize that even if things seem final, they are not. It’s difficult, but you CAN change your mind later on. This does not make you a failure. If anything, it will be easier to transfer from Yale to Pomona, I would imagine, than the other way around. </p>

<p>And abour Rice, people in Texas really love it (especially architects and engineers), but I live here, and let me tell you, the weather is abysmal. Also, it seems to be the least broad of your prospective schools, as it focuses so heavily on the above programs. I can’t really say for sure, but it seems like if you are so unsure of what you want to study, you should really go for a school that will have good programs in all areas you are considering. </p>

<p>Well, good luck with deciding, and if it’s not too much trouble, PM or reply to my request as I immerse myself in self-pity :)</p>

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<p>Ask yourself this question before you decide:
If prestige did not matter at all, what school would you choose?
Don’t just pick an ivy league because it’s an ivy league. Pick the school that will give you the best fit and most rewarding UG experience.</p>

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<p>Academically, you can’t go wrong at any of these institutions. That said, think about other factors, like fit, weather, location. It’s going to be a plane ride from Kentucky to any of these schools, so think about the location you want to be in. Yale and Harvard are more urban, whereas Pomona is in a suburb. It’s about 73 degrees, dry and sunny everyday at Pomona, whereas the Northeast sees much more variation in the weather, and Texas is hot and humid. One nice thing about Pomona’s location is that you are 40 minutes from the beach, the mountains (skiing/snowboarding), the desert, and Los Angeles. Harvard, Rice, Yale are close to major cities as well, so in terms of urban access it’s a wash. </p>

<p>Statistics about how happy a student will be on average are not as relevant to how happy YOU will be at a college, which will ultimately determine what you get out of your experience there. My intuition is that the happiness statistics at Harvard are lagging because many students who were accepted just enrolled without giving a thought to how important fit is to them. Some of the happiest students I know at Pomona are the ones that got into schools that more people on the street know (H,Y,P,S, etc.) but chose Pomona because they realized that it offered them exactly what THEY wanted, not what they perceived other people wanted of them. It seems nearly every student here (at Pomona) went through some introspection before choosing to enroll, and few have had a shade of doubt about the prudence of their decision. In terms of grad school and employment none of the four institutions you are choosing between will be limiting factors, at this point it is up to YOU. </p>

<p>The choice of college is almost certainly the most important decision you will make in your life (so far). Choose wisely, and make the choice for yourself.</p>

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<p>^^^ “My intuition is that the happiness statistics at Harvard are lagging because many students who were accepted just enrolled without giving a thought to how important fit is to them.”</p>

<p>That may be partially at play. But the “happiness gap” that is so often cited on CC is largely traced back to a Boston Globe article from six or seven years ago that surveyed students at 31 selective colleges and found that responses from Harvard ranked 27th among the schools. On a 1-5 scale, the happiness ranking of the Harvard students averaged 3.9. When the student ratings from 26 out of 31 schools exceed 3.9 out of 5, I’m inclined to think that to some extent, many of those respondents are responding to an urge to keep up with the Joneses.</p>

<p>It’s not my goal in life to boost Harvard or to recruit cross-admits there. But my two kids weren’t originally inclined to consider applying there because of some intimidating urban myths they’d heard about the place, none of which they’ve subsequently found to be very accurate. The fact that those stories are so pervasive strikes me as unfortunate. I know my kids’ experience and that of dozens of their friends, including many whom we’ve taken out to eat or had visit in our home. None of these Harvard students that I’ve gotten to know have demonstrated any noticeable degree of unhappiness with their college experience - in fact, as a person who’s spent 31 years in college administration, I have to say that as a group they’re probably as happy and enthusiastic about their school as any students with whom I’ve ever interacted.</p>

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<p>GaDad:</p>

<p>I certainly don’t know but perhaps human nature is a bit of it. If you go to a restaurant that has a fantastic reputation, it can (at best) live up to those expectations. However, you go to the same restaurant before the hype, it will strikes you as delightful.</p>

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<p>^^^
word!</p>

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<p>ctyankee: you are 100% correct. When my daughter was looking at colleges, on the way back from Tufts, I suggested that we take a walk around Harvard. She refused to even get out of the car because somebody she knew who went there was a jerk. She ended up going to another friend’s freshman formal there, loved the school and decided to go there.</p>

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<p>Of the top three winners of the 2009 Intel Science Talent Search competition, all three listed Harvard as one of their prospective schools. The other two schools mentioned were Yale and MIT (once each). This same sort of pattern is true in practically all areas, not just science. You can’t overestimate the value of learning with the brightest students from around the world in the same classes. Pomona and Rice, while excellent schools, just don’t compete at that level.</p>

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<p>Tough one. You seem to like everything and do it all well. Is money not a factor at all? For many families at or below a certain income level, Harvard and Yale have become relative bargains.</p>

<p>I have to say (and of course it’s hard to judge from a chat like this), you do not seem to fit the profile of a CS/IT geek. It’s not a question of whether you could succeed in the field. It’s a question of whether a person with your varied interests and personality would be happy in it. There are a lot of burn-outs there after 5 or 10 years. </p>

<p>I hope you explore your love of literature in school, but after that, it’s pretty much a dead end career-wise.</p>

<p>If you were my daughter, I’d encourage your biology and environmental science interests. If you had an emerging laboratory research focus, I’d say Harvard or Yale, but I’m not hearing that. Go someplace where the weather is good and you can get out in the field all year round. Pomona sounds most attractive to me based on the kind of person you seem to be. But don’t forget to wear sunscreen and a hat.</p>

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<p>I concur. Usually, Carnegie Mellon, MIT, Stanford, or Berkeley come to mind. With regards to CS, relative to these schools, Harvard, Yale, and Rice are all second or even third rate.</p>

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<p>As an Amherst student, I don’t consider HYPS students to be “below” me, nor do I believe that most of them would consider me “below” them. I can only hope this is the case for students of Rice and Pomona.</p>

<p>If you’re interested in a well-balanced, high quality education, and you’re not completely certain of exploring CS to the end, I would encourage you to consider either Yale or Pomona.</p>

<p>In regard to Pomona, you’re right: the Claremont College system is an invaluable academic and social resource. It has strong name-recognition among employers and those in higher education in the know: it is also very competitive with regards to graduate, law, and medical school placement.</p>

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<p>herenow:</p>

<p>LACs like Pomona are NOT below Harvard and Yale; in fact they rival such schools. Just because you are not familiar with the school or its outstanding progams does not give you the right to make such assumpitons.</p>