Is there anything bad about Pomona?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Pomona College
1

Everyone I have talked to and most of the people on CC, absolutely love this school.

Less than 5 seniors applied to Pomona (25+ people applied to each Ivy) so besides the fact that they might have never heard of Pomona, is there a particular reason why some people decide not to apply?

I’m just wondering if there are any downsides to this school?

2

Where are you?
If you’re on the East Coast or an international student your friends and neighbors may not be applying to Pomona because it lacks the name cachet of some of the other selective schools.

3

I live in Southern California and am not too far from Pomona, maybe a 2-3 hour drive.
I don’t know why so many people apply to other privates such as Stanford, USC etc. but don’t consider Pomona?
I was thinking about applying ED to Pomona and I wanted to get a clearer picture of the school but it seems that there are no negatives? I was wondering if it was too good to be true as nobody in my high school really seems to think so.

4

FWIW, and that may not be much, my son’s college counselor (up here in northern CA) told us that a lot of southern California kids don’t apply to Pomona because they want to move a bit further away from home, and that most of the CA kids that are there are from northern CA.

The ‘negatives’ have to do with fit. Pomona attracts certain types of students, and like ALL schools it’s not for everyone. You should visit the campus while school is in session, really get a feel for what’s going on there, and see if you feel “I can see myself here”. There’s more to schools than rankings or outside assessments of strengths and weaknesses.

5

We live in SoCal and find that there are lots of people who don’t know the Claremont schools (I have two kids going there — Scripps and Harvey Mudd). I just consider it our “little secret” or “hidden gem”.

I suspect others don’t apply for any number of reasons: they’ve never heard of it, or if they have, they just don’t know much about it, assume it will cost too much money, prefer a “big name” school, or prefer a large research university.

While each of the 5 C’s may have their “downside” — or simply not be a “fit” for a particular student, I think the only “universal” downside to going to any of the 5 C’s is constantly having to explain where you are going. LOL!

Claremont is a great place to be. I’d say go for it, if it’s the right place for you.

6

D went to a “smart” HS less than an hour from Claremont, and she still spends a lot of time explaining that she is not going to Cal Poly Pomona. I think part of the reason kids from CA know about and apply more to places like USC and Stanford is that they’ve grown up seeing their football teams on TV every week and not Pomona’s - which, come to think of it, is probably a good thing…

7

Yeah I’ll probably go and visit Pomona when I have a chance and see if it’s the right school for me.

8

You may want to check out the other schools while you’re there too!

9

The only bad thing I can think of is that they don’t offer merit aid.

10

OP, there are five Claremont schools and they are all quite good:

  • Pomona
  • Claremont McKenna
  • Harvey Mudd
  • Scripps (women only)
  • Pitzer

As a consortium, students can take classes at all five schools. That is an incredible benefit in the LAC world, as individual LACs may lack certain courses. But at the Claremont schools, you can take not only the best courses at your school, but some of the best courses at the other schools as well. It seems like quite the collaborative, and complementary, setup.

11

As a Pomona student, I honestly struggle to come up with anything really substantive to answer your question. We’re obviously not perfect, but at least for the criteria I had in my college search, there was nothing where Pomona wasn’t at least well above average. That said, I’ll list some things I’d consider to be negatives about Pomona (most are pretty minor/apply more-so to many other schools):

  • Lack of name recognition
  • Our website needs a re-design and other aspects of IT need upgrades (I think this is being worked on).
  • The sprinklers are on too much, given the drought.
  • L.A. traffic is bad (literally everything else about SoCal is awesome, though).
  • Oldenborg's food isn't that great (although it's still better than most colleges, and Frank/Frary are even better, and dining at some of the other 5C's is even better still)
  • Slightly weaker alumni network (we became ultra-selective more recently than, say, Williams)
  • An increasingly pre-professional focus (not nearly as much as CMC, but more so than places like Reed).
  • Like almost all other colleges, we're still struggling to improve our support networks for sexual assault and mental health.
  • Food in Claremont is often expensive (it's a great college town overall, though).
  • Snack isn't as great as it's advertised to be.
  • Lack of political diversity.
12

Great place. My S though has found some difficulty taking classes at the other colleges… students from the home college have priority in registering, and if the class fills up (common for popular classes and/or star profs) there are zero seats for students from other members of the Consortium. I don’t think it’s a deal-breaker but it would be good to ask some probing questions of any admissions/academic staff you speak with. Intellectually and socially though, the Consortium is great at reducing the small-pond effect that small LACs can experience.

I would second the remark above about the website being disorganized; information and status reports for parents can be hard to track down (especially this year while they are upgrading to an e-payment system). But that’s minor… as is the fact that it can be hot (100F +) for the first month of school (or if you stay over the summer), and humid/hot during monsoon spells. (Smog thankfully is less of an issue than it once was.)

But overall, a tremendous experience. I can’t think of a better way to watch my life savings melt away…

13

LOL! Couldn’t agree with you more! (I have two at the 5C’s)

14

If it hadn’t been for the daughter of my husband’s cousin who transferred from Wellesley Colllege to Pomona, we wouldn’t have heard about the College. Our daughter ('09) wasn’t all that sure she would like it, but after visiting Pitzer, CMC, and Pomona, she fell in love with Pomona and the Claremonts. One big plus is the opportunity to cross-register at the other Claremonts and they’re only across the street!