<p>Nah thats not true. Spent half my life in New York and never heard of Reed. Spent the other half of my life on the west coast and only recently heard of Reed. Pomona/Mudd are better known.</p>
<p>Anyone not knowing BOTH Pomona and Reed don’t know so much about higher ed. :)</p>
<p>I think that is the point I was making Vossron, i wasn’t trying to be subtle. Unless you are in the “know” about higher education you know simply about the institutions from your peer group.
In my case I knew/know people who are in their 50’s now and are graduates of Pomona and Mudd. As well as people who contemplated going there during their college search 30 years ago. Of course I know many people now who currently attend one of the Claremonts.
Within my peer group, Reed was never mentioned and I only learned about it when my daughter was looking into colleges. I now know it is a special college.
My point to the previous poster was simply that I grew up in New York which of course is east of the Rockies and in my experience the Claremonts were “known” and Reed was not.
I don’t present myself as someone who is an expert, only my experience in the matter.</p>
<p>“Reed was never mentioned and I only learned about it when my daughter was looking into colleges.”</p>
<p>Same here; these small schools are unknown to the general public. I knew of Harvey Mudd; a family friend’s son went there years ago. I didn’t know anything about higher ed, despite (because of?) having gone to a huge state school decades ago; getting kids through the process is an education in itself! :)</p>
<p>To the OP:</p>
<p>I was accepted for the class of 2015 and I am so excited about it! I never would have expected to get in, but I did so it is possible :)</p>
<p>I’m an A and B student with a 4.3 GPA at a difficult private school. My SAT/ACT was only a 2130/31, which is way below the Pomona middle 50%. I had 730 & 690 SAT IIs as well. As you can see, I was definitely not overly qualified or anything. </p>
<p>When I found out I got in I was stunned since their averages are so high and the acceptance rate is so low, but this goes to show that it is possible :)</p>
<p>I think that if you’re in a decent range of GPA/SAT/ACT scores, like mostly A and B and somewhere in the 2100+ range you can get in if you show that you’re a good fit. The essays and interview are both incredibly important in the process. If you want to go to Pomona, have excellent reasons why you want to go there and why it would be a good fit for you.
Something I think is interesting that I found out when I visited Brown I’d like to share: I ran into an admissions officer and I asked him “So, how in the world do you sort through 31000 applications and choose 2600 people?” At first, he just kinda broke it down for me. He said that they first break it down based on GPA and SAT/ACT, deciding who could deal with the rigor of the school. Then they move into recommendations, then essays, looking for fit. That was good to know, but then he told me the more interesting part.
He told me, “It’s really a self selecting process. There are only so many people that have a complete package and where the entire application fits together. The voice in the essays and the qualities emphasized in the teacher recommendations parallel each other, and match up with the academic quality. These are the candidates we want and ultimately end up choosing”
I thought this was the most useful thing I had ever heard regarding college admissions. Perhaps this will be useful for you, OP. Best of luck.</p>
<p>For what it’s worth, I was waitlisted at Pomona and accepted at H and P (and was much more surprised by the acceptances than the waitlist). Like many LACs, the name is only known in some circles, but where it’s known, it’s highly respected.</p>
<p>"The voice in the essays and the qualities emphasized in the teacher recommendations parallel each other, and match up with the academic quality. "</p>
<p>Absolutely, RunningBear. My daughter is at Pomona ('14) and loves it. </p>
<p>In cleaning out files recently, I found her app papers for various schools. IMO, despite impressive academics and great SAT scores, her Stanford essays somehow weren’t cohesive (she was rejected). OTOH, her Pomona essays complemented each other and gave a much clearer and more engaging picture of her. I don’t think it was intentional; she didn’t “package” herself for any school and wrote all her own essays. But that year she was able to put together a thread that was honest and real, and I believe it spoke to the Pomona readers.</p>
<p>I’m in NYC and I only vaguely heard of Reed until I read something about heroin use there in the NY Times, and then something about how they were going to consider requests for financial aid (negatively) in considering applicants. That was in the Times too. Then again, I only vaguely heard of Pomona until my D got accepted. I’m not sure what’s better-- bad publicity or no publicity at all?</p>
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<p>It can be amusing how a school’s being need-aware gets translated in the press!</p>
<p>Does Pomona really put that much of an emphasis on class rank? For instance, I am around 80/200 due to going to a magnet school where everyone piles on as many AP’s as they’re allowed to take.</p>
<p>Class rank is a consideration, especially in a competitive high school. That said, three of the four applicants from D’s HS were accepted. IMHO, SAT scores are a more level playing field. Pomona will look at applicants from all angles, so don’t worry about class rank.</p>
<p>“I’ve had 3 C+'s in my high school career and I got in. Don’t let your B’s discourage you. Good luck!!”</p>
<p>Hi, I’m submitting my app for Pomona tonight and it has been my top choice since i was 8 years old. I’ve always taken hard classes (8 AP and 4 Honors) but have gotten 3 C+'s which always discouraged me and made me think I wasn’t good enough for Pomona. Now I know that there’s still a chance so thank you !</p>