Interested in learning about LACs. Chances?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Pomona College
1

<p>I am a rising Junior. I am interested in exploring the possibility of Liberal Arts Colleges. I like the fact that there are small classes and a tight community. </p>

<ul>
<li>How does Pomona compare to Swarthmore, Amherst and Williams?</li>
<li>How do the top LACs compare to the Ivies? In other words, what is the reputation of the top LACs in relation to ivies?</li>
<li>How is the science program at Pomona College?</li>
</ul>

<p>What are my chances to Pomona if I apply ED? RD?</p>

<p>Is there anything I should work on to make my EC's stand out more?</p>

<p>Chinese Male (living in HK)
Lived in London for 3 years
Not Applying for Financial Aid </p>

<p>Projected Cumulative GPA (Unweighted) 4.0/4.0</p>

<p>SATs: 2100-2300 (Depending on how much I prep, probably 2200+ if I invest time)</p>

<p>APs (All 5s):
Microeconomics
Macroeconomics
US Government and Politics
Comparative Government and Politics </p>

<p>Calculus BC
Statistics</p>

<p>Biology
Chemistry
Physics B</p>

<p>Chinese Language and Culture</p>

<p>Senior Year APs:
Physics C
Environmental Science
Psychology</p>

<p>Self Study: Multivariable Calculus</p>

<p>Should I self-study APES and AP Psychology and take AP World and AP Human Geo even though I may not get an A in AP World? Should I take AP English if I know I will not get an A or a 5 on the AP Exam?</p>

<p>ECs:
Math and Science Center (Leader - 2 Years)
TA</p>

<p>Sports:
Tennis (Recreational - Twice a week)</p>

<p>Music:
Piano (10 years...dropped Freshman year - Should I include this and just say 10 years?)
Violin (3 years...dropped Freshman year - Should i include this and just say 3 years?)</p>

<p>Service:
NHS
Cheshire Home - Elderly Home for the Disable (Hong Kong Hospital Authority) (Leader)
Z Club (Director - 2 Years)
UNICEF
Heifer (Leader - 1 Year)
Interim (One week long school service trips - incl. India and South Africa)
Teach Elementary School Students English (Bring a class of Freshman) (Leader - 4 years)</p>

<p>Job Experience:
Kumon Instructor (After I completed the program in Freshman year) of English and Mathematics - Twice a week for 3-4 hours each time</p>

<p>Internship:
Summer after Junior year</p>

<p>Awards:
COMAP High School Contest in Mathematical Modeling (National Outstanding)
Mathematics Department Award
Science Department Award
Bausch Lomb Award (Possibly - Partial Scholarship for Rochester University)
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Award ("")
AIME</p>

2

<p>Alright, I know you posted this in several different colleges’ forums, so I’ll do my best to address each of them.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore, and Pomona are generally considered to be the top 4 LACs in the country. Pomona is less often included with the other three mostly due to location, and not being as well known in the Northeast. </p>

<p>For reputation, I’d say: Williams, Amherst, and Swarthmore have a very slight edge over Pomona, which in turn has a very slight edge over Middlebury and Bowdoin. Nothing worth quibbling about.</p>

<p>With regard to academics, all 6 are truly excellent. Once again, nothing worth quibbling about.</p>

<p>Where the real differences lie are in location and culture. Middlebury, Amherst, Williams, and Bowdoin are all very rural and tend to have similar cultures. Preppy “bros” and athletes abound and drinking seems to be a predominant social event, due in no small part to the weather.</p>

<p>Swarthmore has a reputation for being much more hardcore academically. More nerds and fewer athletes, and less of a drinking culture, I believe.</p>

<p>Pomona seems to be the most balanced of the bunch, with its laid back West Coast culture, and more of an even split among different types of people and social activities.</p>

<p>Pomona and Swarthmore are both suburban.</p>

<p>This said, you will find all different types of people, and all different types of things to do at each and every one of these colleges. Some are just more common in different places.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Academically, they’re on par with Harvard et al. Maybe even better, depending on the person.</p>

<p>In the general public, the name recognition for top LACs is virtually nil. When you tell most people that you’re going to Pomona/Williams etc., you’ll get little more than a blank stare. Same thing overseas.</p>

<p>On the other hand, going to any of these LACs will not disadvantage you in any way with regards to employment, grad school, law school, med school, fellowships, or anything like that. The people in charge of these areas are fully aware of these schools, and will be just as impressed with them as with any of the Ivies.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>The science programs of each of these schools are excellent, from what I understand. They won’t have billion dollar research equipment like the Ivies, but the effect of that on an undergrad is truly minimal. There is still plenty of research going on, and in most cases it will be as easy, or even easier, to get research experience as it would be at an Ivy.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Please don’t apply ED to a college just for a perceived admission boost.</p>

<p>You are a solid applicant for any college, but none of these colleges and none of the Ivies have admission rates higher than 20%. Nothing is guaranteed at these schools, for anyone.</p>

3

<p>

</p>

<p>Mainly by Pomoma students ;-)</p>

4

<p>For what it’s worth, Williams is probably the best known of the top LAC’s in China specifically. They are all great, all have enviable per capita endowments and high achieving graduates who make their mark in both the professions, the arts and academia.</p>

5

<p>“Mainly by Pomoma students ;-)”</p>

<p>arcadia, are you a bit touchy that manarius did not include Middlebury in his/her assessment??? ;-)</p>

6

<p>

</p>

<p>If you say so. I only included that because I have seen numerous times on this forum acronyms like SWAP and WASP thrown around. I have yet to see SWAM or SWAB. I also noted in the next sentence that Pomona is less often included with the other three. Not that any of it even matters.</p>

<p>As someone who was forced to choose among Pomona, Middlebury, and Grinnell, I can attest to the futility of trying to discriminate in this group based on pure academic quality.</p>

<p>In the end, I chose Pomona not because of some perceived academic superiority, but because of a very real cultural and financial disparity. There are things about Middlebury and Grinnell both that I would have absolutely loved (the beautiful locations for one, and even the weather to an extent).</p>

<p>My goal here was to give the OP the necessary information to make his own informed decision. I’d be glad to discuss if anyone thinks I’ve not done that.</p>

7

<p>

</p>

<p>Now why in the world would a Pomona kid do that? I won’t argue that it should be A/W/S/M if you don’t argue that it should be A/W/S/P. Deal?</p>

8

<p>

</p>

<p>Self esteem boost? Narcissism? To annoy parents of Middlebury students?</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Who cares? It shouldn’t be a/s/w/p, a/s/w/m, a/s/w/q, a/s/w/z, p/g/h/b, a/s/w, a/w, or any other combination of letters. There is absolutely no reason to arbitrarily group a few of these schools together and exclude others that are just as good. None of them are better than the others, only different. Williams could be the best college in the world for person A, but might pale in comparison to Reed for person B. Or Grinnell, or Carleton, or Kenyon, or Oberlin, or Swarthmore, or UCLA.</p>

9

<p>Arcadia, manarius is s good kid. He’s not the druid you’re looking for. ;)</p>

10

<p>“Now why in the world would a Pomona kid do that? I won’t argue that it should be A/W/S/M if you don’t argue that it should be A/W/S/P. Deal?”</p>

<p>I don’t think I argued either way. I was a bit surprised by your earlier statement which seemed quite defensive in tone. People are allowed to have their own opinions, yourself included.</p>

11

<p>Everyone can have their own opinion for sure. I don’t doubt that manarious is a good kid. His later posts strike a slightly different tone than his first though. I only take issue with the phrase “generally considered.” By whom? U.S. News [no]? Forbes [yes]? College P r o w l e r [who knows]? I’m just trying to present a more balanced discussion, which manarious certainly does later in the thread. I think they all are fabulous schools, but I wouldn’t say that one is “generally considered” to be better than the rest (with the possible exception of AWS, which consistently top the beauty pageants and popularity contests).</p>

12

<p>

</p>

<p>This was unbalanced? And strikes a different tone than my later posts? Phrased differently, maybe.</p>

<p>It seems like you just read my first sentence before becoming blind with rage at the impudence of any who dare rank any school other than AWS above Middlebury, and didn’t bother to continue reading.</p>

<p>Like I said, I only even mentioned that because I’ve seen SWAP and WASP thrown around on this forum (pretty much the most informative source there is for college rankings and such) in multiple places by multiple different people. I’ve also seen AWS far more often, which I mentioned. I have never seen SWAM. And like I went on to say, it really does not matter at all.</p>

<p>No doubt if I had instead said, “Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore, and Middlebury are generally considered to be the top 4 LACs in the country”, you would have been just tickled and seen nothing wrong with it, which is exactly the kind of egotistical, prestige hungry thinking that creates these problems in the first place. A rather vicious circle, I’d say.</p>

13

<p>I’m hardly blind with rage. Methinks you doth protest too much. And I put a winky face after post #3 to add some levity. Listen–I only took issue with one line of your post. Not a big deal. It’s all good. I’m not the one who said the general consensus is that Pomona is a step above Middlebury and Bowdoin in terms of prestige. You are. Can’t I disagree with you, or is that not permitted on the Pomona board?</p>

14

<p>An N-Gram comparing Williams, Amherst, Middlebury, Pomona – oh, and Wesleyan, over the past 80 years: [Google</a> Ngram Viewer](<a href=“http://ngrams.googlelabs.com/graph?content=the+Wesleyan+University%2Cthe+Amherst+College%2Cthe+Williams+College%2Cthe+Pomona+College%2Cthe+Middlebury+College&year_start=1930&year_end=2008&corpus=0&smoothing=3]Google”>http://ngrams.googlelabs.com/graph?content=the+Wesleyan+University%2Cthe+Amherst+College%2Cthe+Williams+College%2Cthe+Pomona+College%2Cthe+Middlebury+College&year_start=1930&year_end=2008&corpus=0&smoothing=3)</p>

15

<p>Sigh. Well, here goes.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>hy·per·bo·le   
[hahy-pur-buh-lee] Show IPA
–noun Rhetoric .</p>

<ol>
<li><p>obvious and intentional exaggeration.</p></li>
<li><p>an extravagant statement or figure of speech not intended to be taken literally, as “to wait an eternity.”</p></li>
</ol>

<p>

</p>

<p>Oh, my bad. I didn’t see the magical winky face which clearly makes what you said not stupid.</p>

<p>But that’s okay. By ignoring my explanation twice, I think you’ve adequately demonstrated who is actually here to promote “a more balanced discussion”, and who is just here to ***** and moan about nothing.</p>

16

<p>[Hypocrisy</a> - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypocrisy]Hypocrisy”>Hypocrisy - Wikipedia)</p>

17

<p>Don’t you guys have anything better to do with your time? This conversation is absurd.</p>

18

<p>It’s interesting how you continue to make personal attacks whilst ignoring the actual issue.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>I’ve always enjoyed the irony of these statements.</p>

19

<p>You know, Manarius, before you become the expert for the best liberal arts colleges in the country, it might be helpful to actually have been a college student for a few weeks. I know you think as a high school graduate you are in a position to inform us about the four most prestigious liberal arts colleges in the US, but there are some here who wonder why you care so much. This is not a personal attack, but an observation regarding your priorities. This is probably not the type of person the Pomona admission committee thought they were admitting to the school.</p>

20

<p>

</p>

<p>Again, please read my link above. You’re the one who said my statement was “stupid” and then tried to teach me the meaning of hyperbole. You’re clearly not used to having people disagree with you. Welcome to the real world. The actual issue is this: you stated that Pomona is “generally considered” to be the only school on par with AWS. You then say that in terms of reputation, AWS>Pomona>Midd, Bowdoin, etc. You then go on to criticize people for talking about prestige and hide behind your subsequent qualifying statements (e.g., differences are nothing to quibble about, etc.). I asked you to back up your statement that people “generally consider” Pomona to be on par with AWS, and you say that you based it on the fact that people use the acronym “WASP” on this website. Later you say that those acronyms are meaningless and arbitrary. Which is it?</p>

<p>To be fair, I never even brought up Middlebury in this thread. Nor would I, because I don’t think that Midd is better than Pomona. Nor would I suggest that Amherst, Williams, Swarthmore, and Middlebury are generally considered to be the best 4 LACs in the country (as you did with Pomona). If you had said “in MY opinion, Pomona and AWS are on the same level,” we wouldn’t be having this conversation. But you made it sound as if it was a general consensus, and I just want to know what you’re basing this on. Are we clear now?</p>