Hi guys! I am fortunate enough to have been accepted into Swarthmore, Johns Hopkins, Pomona, and Amherst and am having a hard time choosing between the four. Each has a pretty equal amount of pros and cons (no deal breakers though) in my mind.
For instance:
Pomona has better weather, but I have to buy a plane ticket and go through airport security to get there (I live in Jersey). Also, might be a little too artsy for me & there’s a SEVERE drought. But I felt the most at home and comfortable when I did a weekend visit there and also really liked one particular professor I met. The campus was the prettiest out of them all, which I know is superficial but it will have a pretty big impact on my daily mood. Saw kids skate boarding in bathing suits and I’m thinking it might be good for me to get out of the New England cut-throat and to a more SoCal vibe.
Amherst is a little too cold for my taste and didn’t offer as good financial aid as Hopkins & Pomona, but still enough that it’d be affordable for me. Doesn’t allow minors which sucks, however there’s an open curriculum. Really loved the classes I sat in when I spent the weekend there, I wanted to enroll in them that very second. But the social scene seemed a little off to me (It just didn’t look that fun). Basically all the kids go to UMASS Amherst to have fun. Then again, I feel like quality of classes is more important in a school than quality of parties.
Swarthmore: A little too small for my taste. However, perfect distance from my house, also really generous with there money (free laundry & printing, which none of the other colleges have). That’s a pretty big pro for me. Known for being kind of artsy though & to put it frankly I’m very money-minded and am most concerned with getting a high paying job after college, not necessarily saving the world. However, I am a vegan and very liberal politically so I feel like I would be pretty comfortable around them. Still waiting for their financial aid package info.
Hopkins: Better weather than Amherst and Swarthmore and now severe drought. Also gave me the most financial aid. However, I worry that the kids here are all primarily on the premed track or engineering and I am not. I feel like it may not have as good opportunities for someone looking to go to Wallstreet as say, Amherst. Since it’s majority pre-med students that’s what they’re going to cater to most. Did an overnight weekend here as well and really liked the social scene, it had a strong black community (I’m African American) plus lots of clubs. The kids here seemed more my personality type (not particularly preppy or artsy). Not quite as prestigious as the others, but I know that’s a pretty shallow reason not to go. Also, the location really doesn’t bother me at all but my parents are concerned that Baltimore isn’t exactly a college town.
This was super long but I’d really appreciate your thoughts, especially if you go to any of these or have someone close to you who does. I don’t know how I’m going to choose!
Still waiting to hear from Swarthmore but potentially zero student loan debt at all the others (they all gave me grants not loans). Amherst still expects me to pay 10.6k, Pomona 7.3k, and Hopkins 6.7k. My parents have told me those are all generous enough that they’ll make it work.
As for majors/professions I’m undecided. In general, interested in biology (specifically epigenetics or evolutionary biology), economics (specifically investment banking or consulting), maybe computer science, and maybe a minor or something in sociology or creative writing.
Ah. Btw, I live in SoCal and I must say, the drought we are in shouldn’t really affect your college experience. Pomona College is just 30 minutes away, and I completely agree with your assessment of the campus beauty.
My observation is that until you find a way to take a higher level view of your choices – beyond draught, free laundry, weather, vibe, air travel, etc. – you might as well pick one at random. You won’t go wrong. They are all excellent choices. Surely there’s an academic and high-level social reason to make the decision. If not “yet” revisit each of the colleges. It might be a bit expensive to do but it’ll be time and money well spent.
Given your interests all over the place, be sure to plan your course work in your first year of college so that you will be able to pursue any of these paths without delaying graduation due to not having started the prerequisite sequences early enough.
Also verify that there are not administrative or capacity barriers to declaring any of the majors you are interested in. It does not look like this is the case at any of these schools, but you may want to verify just in case. You may also want to look up on-line class schedules to see class sizes in each subject and whether they are typically completely full or tend to have some space to accommodate students adding at the beginning of the term.
Setting cost aside (since you didn’t mention), I’d say Pomona.
you felt at home there
SoCal weather!
SoCal vibe (you mentioned you're vegan, very liberal)
LA > Baltimore
reputation on par with Amherst & Swarthmore
opportunity spend time in another part of the country (new perspectives, etc.)
downside: if your goal is work in a NE financial services firm, a college in NE offers edge on internships/connections - might get you closer to making $$ instead of saving the world ;)
– If I was advising my son/daughter between those choices, I’d say: Pomona, Swarthmore, Amherst, JH, in that order.
Congratulations whatever your decision. All are excellent schools. Can’t go wrong!
Regarding the drought, the Pomona campus could indeed change over time. They may, quite responsibly, go to xeriscaping as at Pitzer, which would result in a brown overall appearance, rather than the current green one. These types of fundamental transitions are often difficult to imagine before they occur, so I find it interesting that on some level you have given it some thought, @lails98.
Amherst students may experience somewhat uneven social relationships as a result of the collegiate gender imbalance in the area. This could be somewhat true of Swarthmore and Pomona as well, but probably to a lesser extent than at Amherst.
Can you go to accepted student visits at both? My kid goes to another 5C college, and they gave her a voucher to cover her flight for accepted students. You can ask Pomona admissions about this. Visit Pomona and JHU for those accepted student days – it will likely be very well worth your while in making a final decision.
She is a Mudder, and it came with her acceptance packet (the one they mailed). You can call Pomona admissions and just ask if there is any way to get your flight covered to come to accepted student visits. Can’t hurt to ask. One if my kid’s other colleges sent one, too, so while all colleges don’t do it, they probably won’t be surprised at the question.
The open curriculum makes it pretty easy to double major, a handful even triple. So, no minors, but there’s that. There are also some certificate programs through the 5 colleges, like, for instance, the Five College Program in Culture, Health, and Science: https://www.fivecolleges.edu/chs/
But I also think Pomona sounds like the one you like best.
It sounds like you like Pomona the best, followed perhaps by Swarthmore. Swarthmore would have slightly more ties to Northeastern financial sectors for post-college work, but Pomona is an excellent top LAC which can also lead to Wall Street jobs after college. So you can’t go wrong.
This is somewhat technical, but the economics departments of your choices can be compared based on faculty publishing (data is not adjusted for department size):
LACs
Amherst: 18th
Pomona: 28th
Swarthmore: not in top 25%
All Schools
JHU: 39th
(“Economics Departments at Liberal Arts Colleges” and “US Economics Departments,” IDEAS.)
When reviewing the analyses, also consider options that may be available to you within the relevant consortia.