Intl St: Why Pomona and not Whitman??!

Colleges and Universities A-Z Pomona College
1

<p>Hi, I am an international student from Egypt and I was hoping that you could help me decide between these two wonderful colleges. Unfortunately I won’t be able to schedule a visit before I make my decision so any advice will be heartily welcomed. </p>

<p>// As you may have noticed the title of this thread is visibly inclined towards Pomona rather than Whitman but this only because I created the same thread (reverse title) in the Whitman camp. So feel free to be biased, but obviously a more comparative, analytical and balanced account would be more helpful…</p>

<p>A quick profile: </p>

<p>Academic Interests:
I am interested in a myriad of things, but my main interests are in Physics and Neuroscience, I also share a deep interest in Philosophy and Cognitive science. I speak five languages, but my Japanese and Portuguese is not that good, so I was hoping to improve on that and I also would like to learn Russian someday. </p>

<p>Other Interests:
I am a big literature and music lover. I am a voracious reader and an amateur musician, I played the Violin as a kid and I am a Progressive/Techno DJ. Apparently I have an eye for writing fiction, but I never do it unless I am forced to.
I also enjoy architecture very much, but I never stepped the line beyond mere visual enjoyment, domage. I am equally a big movie fan (those that actually have a plot), and have a 200+ collection title.
Currently I am working on an internet startup, a cyber-information-network that aims to give birth to Tim Berners-Lee’s vision of the Semantic Web in an inductive fashion, but at this stage it’s a more .nyet if you catch the drift. </p>

<p>Some Concepts that I like:
Honor Code (only Haverford's and Reed's)
Individually advised curriculum
Winter Study
Integrated Science
Oxbridge style Tutorial
Senior Thesis</p>

<p>Amenities:
I enjoy the outdoors, so I wouldn’t mind doing some of that.
Where I come from it’s almost an anomaly if it rains, so I wouldn’t mind a bit of snow. As a side note, I actually find Norway’s weather quite appealing but only because it’s light for 6 month and dark for the rest, and they have magnificent fjords.
I don’t mind the seclusion (I actually find the idea of Deep Springs College quite appealing, but I found about it too late to apply), but I request tasty food and nice, spacious dorms. </p>

<p>Other random facts: </p>

<p>Philosophical leanings:
Cynicism (Diogenes)
Zen
Nietzsche
Analytical Philosophy (Russell, Wittgenstein)</p>

<p>Musical leanings:
Classical Music
Electronic Music
Progressive Rock (mostly Bjork, The Knife and Sigur R</p>

2

<p>It sounds as if you would fit right in at Pomona! And if you’re interested in improving/learning your foreign language skills, then having lunch at Oldenborg (where there are various tables designated for speaking specific languages) might really appeal to you. In addition, the arts abound at Pomona, and there are any number of opportunities for you to eat tasty food. And you have access to the outdoors (including snow on Mt. Baldy), the arts, and practically anything that comes to mind - either in/near Claremont or LA. Washington State is beautiful (I lived nearby in Idaho for a while), but towns are fewer and farther apart than in California.</p>

<p>Good luck with your choice!</p>

3

<p>Unrelated to your criteria, have you looked into flights and travels times? We crossed Whitman off the list because it was harder to get to and would really add hours to the travel.</p>

<p>Have you looked at the kinds of offerings the On The Loose group offers? If you don’t want to go on any of the official trips, it is very easy to borrow tents, etc for making your own trip. Only a few weeks of class left so the number of trips is winding down. Look at the link for past trips.
[url=<a href=“On The Loose”>http://www.on-the-loose.org/]www.on-the-loose.org[/url</a>]</p>

<p>The Oldenborg dorm has language halls similar to the language houses at Whitman. Off the top of my head there are halls for Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, French, Arabic, and Russian. The rooms are very spacious and mostly are singles that share a bathroom with one other student.</p>

4

<p>I’m a big fan of Whitman, but I have to say it sounds like you would find more intellectual peers at Pomona. Good luck with your decision!</p>

5

<p>To twomules:</p>

<p>Traveling is definitely a pain, but then I would have to cross both of them off the list and that would be a pain :slight_smile: Thanks for everything.</p>

<p>To FauxNom:</p>

<p>Don’t you think that you’re generalizing more than you should. It’s a Pomona board, so you there’s no problem with being biased towards Pomona, but I think that you were a little too much to offer really helpful information.</p>

6

<p>Congratulations on your acceptance! Pomona, in short, offers more opportunities. And that should be how you view the next 4 yrs. Going to college is not just about opening up a door. It’s about opening up a massive gate to a hall filled with even more doors. </p>

<p>As a Pomona grad, I’m obviously biased. But here it is.</p>

<p>Whitman doesn’t have the Consortium. Does it make a difference? Oh yes, each school has a different culture type and can offer more classes. CMC, CGU (Arabic for example), Pitzer, Scripps, HMC. </p>

<p>Claremont’s not too far from LA, in case you wanted to explore.</p>

<p>Neuroscience got a brand new building two years ago. You have studied 5 languages? Great, so will have a bunch of other Pomona students!</p>

<p>Good CS department that produces winners like those guys who won the 2007 Hidden Agenda contest.</p>

<p>Another reason: Pomona’s endowment per student. If you enter Pomona in fall 09, they’ll have built new dorms, new fields and probably renovated a few academic buildings. Under constant construction, 6 new buildings went up when I was there, and Pomona was already really beautiful when I visited as a high school senior.</p>