Great choices. Only thing I would add is that my D is a freshman at Pomona and has not felt that the drought has had a significant impact on her daily life. Yes some turf is being replaced with more drought resistant landscaping. The fountains were off for a while. You’re discouraged from taking long showers. You’re encouraged to be green, use refillable water bottles, etc. reusable takeout containers for the dining room, etc. But it’s more of an overall push to sustainable practices than treating it like a crisis situation specific to CA. Of course she is from the Southwest so maybe the adjustment has been minor for her.
Also not sure why you think Pomona is especially “artsy” as compared to other LAC’s.
Johns Hopkins is overrated big time. The medical school is the flagship division of the school. But where Homewood is concerned, the students are not much better than they are at Maryland, save for the science and engineering students. It is a very southern, conservative place that feels like you are in the 1950’s. The big chunk of students who get out of pre-med because they cannot hang default to stuff like sociology. The seriousness of purpose in the social sciences and humanities as a result is relatively low because so many of the undergrads are disgruntled science and engineering wanna be’s. Lacrosse students get a free pass through the school. Cheating is rampant amongst athletes, etc. but they turn a blind eye since they bring in tons of money from lacrosse alums - because Hopkins desperately clings to being the top school in lacrosse, As a senior professor there told me recently when commenting about his kid who went there for free, “I would not send my other kids there.” At the graduate level - the PhD stuff - it is pretty good. But undergrad, the students cannot hold a candle up to what you will find at Swarthmore, Pomona or Amherst. Btw, I went to Pomona, was an exchange student at Swarthmore, and did research at Hopkins. The latter does not compare to the former. Consider this: Reed has had 32 Rhodes, Amherst has had 20 Rhodes Scholars, Swarthmore 28, Pomona 12, and Hopkins 19. Hopkins is FAR bigger than the others.
Based on your descriptions, I’d say you lean toward Pomona.
Ask if they’d be generous enough as to give you a travel voucher so you can visit for admied students days.
The institution - JHU - is very southern. So what if students come from everywhere. Look at the diversity level of faculty and senior administrators. It is sad next to pier schools, who aren’t doing very well to begin with. Plus, Baltimore is a very southern town as well. The segregation demarcation hasn’t changed since the 1950’s. At least according to an emeritus social science professor. Ben Carson is not atypical where views are concerned. He is probably in the majority. Most have good sense not to speak out. I was invited to a holiday reception for administrators at Homewood years ago. There must have been 75 people there. All of us were Caucasian. Not even an Asian. I felt as if I were in the south. Pure and simple. My friend is still there, and says things are the same - but they pay her a lot of money so she stays.
More demographics regarding Johns Hopkins’ racial makeup:
White 47.6%
Non U.S. Citizen 17.6%
Asian 13.7%
Hispanic 7.0%
Black or African American 6.6%
Race Unknown 3.9%
2 or More Races 3.2%
American Indian or Alaska Native 0.2%
I have no affiliation with this school, but I have looked into it
Thank you guys all so much for the help! I think you guys are right at this point it’s really more about Pomona vs. Hopkins for me, probably leaning more towards Pomona. I’d still appreciate any additional feedback you guys have. And @Corinthian it may have just been the specific group of students that I met while at Pomona. And @merc81 , thank you, you provided a lot of relevant academic information that I’m looking for!
Some feedback on JHU - I was there in the early 90s getting my PhD in the humanities. At the time, I liked Baltimore a lot and did not feel a lot of racial tension. The area to the east of JHU consisted largely of stable African-American families, working to lower middle class. There was a nice farmers market where you saw community members and university folks intermingling. This was back in the day when you could walk to the stadium before they moved it downtown. I went all over Baltimore without much concern - heard a lot of good music, went to plays and museums, etc. I am a white female.
Regarding the school, for graduate work I think it is superb, again speaking from a humanities/social science perspective. Anthropology, History, Sociology, English, all fantastic. I am less convinced of its value for undergraduates. Again, my experience is dated, but I found the undergrads to be decent but not exceptional (not notably different than my classmates at my state flagship where I did my undergrad work). The lacrosse players got special treatment. And at that time, I felt that the professors paid more attention to their research and their grad students and that undergrads had to work a bit to get access. If you made the effort, they were very receptive. But you had to make the effort.
Of course this information is now 20 years out of date and not specific to the sciences, so read it with those caveats in mind. I am aware of the more recent racial tensions and incidents in Baltimore.
You have great choices and can’t go wrong at any of them. Congrats!
Some follow up comments about Pomona. You mentioned getting out of the NE cut throat scene. My D feels Pomona is challenging but not in a cut throat, competitive way. CMC has a more competitive vibe.The Pomona sponsor group system for freshman provides a great support system. My D had no trouble finding other students to study with, especially for her science and math classes She is also vegan and has been pleased with the dining option at the 5C’s.
Pomona will provide you with a better undergraduate experience than JHU (which is very much a research/graduate-focused institution, although it’s very good for languages and social science in addition to biology. But sciences are quite cut-throat at that level.)
A JHU professor attempted to report an athlete for cheating (check it out: he xeroxed someone’s paper, applied white-out and submitted it!) LOL The professor was reprimanded!! Now, it is one thing for that to happen at the University of Oklahoma - where there is tons of money on the line sportswise – though not by any means acceptable. But one would think that Hopkins, with its academic reputation, would not tolerate such. But it does. Year after year. Very sad.
There is no writing requirement last I heard. There has been a lot of internal bickering about that; their students are not getting into the top med, law, etc. schools because they do not express themselves well (this is feedback they got when they asked top places why the declining admit rate of JHU seniors), and the worry is that when parents find out they will turn their kids elsewhere. But the science/engineering contingents prevail because that is where the $$ comes from. No alienating those alums! The claim that they are good in languages and social science needs qualification: at the graduate level yes. The students are well mentored, etc. But at the undergraduate level it is another ball game. And faculty know this. But they enjoy the prestige and they have good graduate students - many of whom TA/instruct undergrads anyway.
But the school name carries it through. A friend from JHU taught at Kenyon and Amherst, and he was amazed at the difference in the quality of student writing. Kenyon and Amherst were considerably better than JHU students, although some find this counterintuitive. Sad, as Kenyon is one of the most underrated schools in the country. JHU alums and affiliates will protest this discussion out of loyalty (especially the lacrosse alums), but the truth hurts.
Two cousins of mine (twins) were fortunate enough to get into Hopkins and competitors. After much discussion, one went to Rice and the other to Chicago. During admit weekends at JHU, they met a number of students that had not been admitted to the others, but they were super adamant that all was well. The more shrill their insistence, the less enthused my nephew and niece grew. One of my siblings chose Georgetown for similar reasons. All are very happy. Not that they would not have been in Baltimore, but…
The school has its work cut out for it. But that dollop of 19th century power/thinking anchors it to the wrong dock (although for many they think it is perfect).
OP, three out of your four top choices are liberal arts colleges, and it sounds like you like Pomona the best. For an undergrad experience a small LAC in the midst of a consortium is ideal.
Swarthmore just might surprise you with the generosity of their financial aid package tho. I hope you will come back and let us know what you decided.
Swat’s FA is variable – my kid’s was terrible compared to peer schools, and they were borderline rude when we asked for a FA review. I have heard others say they got great FA.
Pomona would get my vote for the very high quality of their undergrad experience and your reaction to the school. There’s certainly a much more SoCal stereotyped laid back vibe there in comparison to your East Coast choices, especially Swat and Hopkins.