NU vs Pomona

Colleges and Universities A-Z Northwestern University
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<p>I posted this on the main board and only got pro-pomona responses, so i figure id put it on here to hear more opinions. please be honest, though?</p>

<p>What a difficult choice. Yes, I do realize they are totally different. I'm planning to overnight at Pomona soon, and I live real close to Northwestern, so I have hung out with friends there and know the school pretty well. I thought I'd get some opinions here first.</p>

<p>I don't know what I wanna major in, but it's not science or math. I'm thinking social sciences, maaybee English or somewhere in the humanities. Not sure. I want an all around good education, opportunities to explore. I honestly don't know how much class sizes or professor interaction mean to me. What appeals to me about Northwestern is that it just seems full of opportunities to explore and learn a lot of new things. And have fun in the dorms/res college. And explore Chicago (even though I've been here for so long). I'm pretty sick of the Chicago winters, though, and wouldn't mind living in socal! Friendly/fun/interesting student body is important to me. Claremont's Ultimate team is good, which is a plus. Money is a pretty much non-issue.</p>

<p>Any advice on LAC vs. University would be helpful as well. thanks!</p>

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<p>Hard choice man...if you can, you should visit both campuses (which you seem to have already planned) and then decided where you want to live and study for the next 4 years...</p>

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<p>The way you are talking it seems like Pomona is a better fit, and is stronger than NU in the English / Humanities section.. Theres a big difference in size though</p>

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<p>bump please, any other opinions?</p>

5

<p>Hahah from the date of the last posting it sounds like you've already made your choice but I'm currently stuck in the same situation as you!! Argh, I feel your pain :( Well, for the sake of future victims...</p>

<p>Advantages of Pomona:
-- weather at Pomona is better
-- more research opportunities at Pomona, esp. for undergraduates which is -extremely- rare everywhere else... I guess this is more something for the science majors though
-- Pomona spoils its students! Research things like Death by Chocolate the week before Finals, Ski-Beach day, the orientation activity overnight trips, and the amount of subsidized trips that Pomona funds, making the cost v. v. cheap for students!
-- though it may not be well-known as of yet name-wise, esp. outside of California, it is still a great school, don't worry!</p>

<p>Advantages of NU:
-- Pomona is a really small, tight-knit community school and there is a possibility of not being able to just withdraw from the scene. NU would give that bigger university feeling
-- closer to a bigger city... IMO Chicago is funner than LA
-- easier to double major at NU because it's on the quarter system so you can take more classes
-- Will you be stifled at a small school by the time you turn 21? "You can always turn a big school small but you can't turn a small school big." Then again, Pomona also has the populations of the other 5Cs so it's not terribly small I've been looking through the rest of College Confidential and another good point is <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/northwestern-university/493413-northwestern-v-small-schools.html?highlight=pomona%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/northwestern-university/493413-northwestern-v-small-schools.html?highlight=pomona&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>N/A:
-- Class variety isn't really an issue unless one is going into Journalism or something like that, but extracurricular variety is a problem...
-- Transportation isn't really an issue; though Chicago has better public trasnport, Pomona has a train station nearby and buses that run in the city (however the train station doesn't open very late, but many students there have cars and there is a beautiful thing called ZipCar! The cars are hybrid too)</p>

<p>I guess I'm leaning towards Northwestern... Even though it is pretty much widely recognized that Pomona -is- a better (academically), more selective school (esp. in my prospective major, English)</p>

6

<p>I'm currently making a similar decision, but with Duke vs. Pomona. I really like Pomona, but the fact that Duke is much more recognizable is killing me.</p>

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<p>Pomona students tend to be very happy, idk if you care about that.</p>

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<p>The town of Claremont is charming but it is incredibly small. So is pamona. Even with the extended Claremont campuses, there is not much to do. cmc is full of young republicans studying accounting and econ and the principal entertainment is drinking. Mudd is science and engineering so I doubt you would have much interaction and it's somewhat isolated. Scripps is all girls and sort of junior league meets 1970's feminist. Pitzer are a bunch of freaks., always disrupting the other campus' events. Going to and particularly getting back from West hollywood , Westwood etc is difficult. Nu is much more cosmopolitan on campus and off. Evanston> Claremont and Chicago > LA. Also there is much more to do on campus at NU. Pamona is a top lac, but NU is at least a top 15 "university". There is a big difference. Just walk the two campuses and get a feel for them. Then decide. Academics are a push.</p>

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<p>Hey all,</p>

<p>I started this thread way back when. I chose Northwestern in the end, and haven't regretted it.</p>

<p>When I visited Pomona, I loved it, the people were great, the weather was great, the campus was beautiful, but in the end, it just felt so small. I felt like I wasn't going to see much more than I'd seen on the visit in my next 4 years. It's also pretty separated from LA, whereas Evanston feels like a neighborhood of Chicago in many respects. I went mostly by gut feeling, and even though Northwestern is just 10 minutes from my house, which I hated the idea of at that time, I love it here. </p>

<p>Northwestern has a ton of stuff going on and a lot of things you can get involved in. Any given weekend, there's some guest speaker to see, several theater performances, cultural events, you name it. I'm very happy with the academics here - I've taken so many classes that I've not just liked but loved, classes I took away a lot from both intellectually and personally. The academic support in WCAS is solid, and it's definitely small enough here that you can talk to your professors one-on-one. The quarter system is fast, but I like it that way. I still learn a lot, and I get to take so many different classes. I've taken Astronomy, Global History, Russian Literature, Geology and Advertising classes while still being able to do a double major in Soc and Urban Studies. Class variety <em>is</em> an issue, and NU has a ton of variety - a bunch of specialized classes in so many different topics. I'm taking a class on Urban Open Space and Public Policy, and one on Public Housing in Chicago - two special topics classes I might not have had a chance to take elsewhere.</p>

<p>There's also lots of opportunities NU gives its students. There's a bunch of money in research grants the university sets aside each year for undergrads (and work study jobs and independent study opportunities in research if you want to get more into it). There's Chicago Field Studies, in which you take a whole quarter off from classes and work a full time internship and get credit for it. They have a big alumni job shadowing program (called NEXT), with which I got to shadow a creative director at Leo Burnett (big ad agency) for a day. They have $2,000 internship grants for unpaid interns over the summer. Lots of things like that - NU takes care of its students pretty well. </p>

<p>Never underestimate location. Chicago is world-class in every respect - anything you could want, you have there. Transportation into Chicago is so easy. Besides the El and Metra trains, which are a couple blocks away from campus, NU has a shuttle that goes to the downtown NU campus (which is near Water Tower place on Michigan Ave. - heart of downtown) every weekday and Saturday. Easiest way to get downtown. People go to concerts, restaurants, bars, sports games, and just hang out in the city all the time. </p>

<p>The winters, to be honest, are rough. But there's fun to be found if you want it, and a lot of people use the slower social life to get focused on school, and I definitely get my best grades winter quarter. After spring break, though, get ready for a veritable explosion of activity on campus for spring quarter. Spring here is awesome.</p>

<p>Those are a few of my thoughts. Let me know if you have any more questions - you can email me at p-sohn (at) northwestern (dot) edu</p>

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<p>Re: Duke vs. Pomona</p>

<p>Name-recognition of the school is a bit of a ridiculous reason to choose your college! It will only get you so far in life -- sure, when you introduce yourself to peers, new friends of you/your parents, employers, you'd be able to say "Well yes actually I went to ~<em>~</em>DUKE<em>~</em>~... Razzle tazzle!", but where would you get a better, more solid education that can make you smart enough to back up that "good name" with a knowledgeable personality? Where would you make better memories and meet people you would like better?</p>

<p>:) Good luck with your decision</p>

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<p>I'm facing this decision right now, with less than 24 hours to make it official.</p>

<p>The only things keeping me from choosing Pomona is the fact that NU has name-brand academics, much bigger departments and variety, and is generally the "safer" choice in terms of post-graduation opportunities. At the same time, if I do choose NU, I will feel like I'm losing the fantastic quality of life Pomona is rumored to have. So which holds more weight, the fact Pomona makes me happy or the fact that Northwestern guarantees me its stellar academic reputation? Either way I feel as though I'm giving up something big...</p>

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<p>I would think that post-graduate opportunities would be excellent at both schools. They are both highly respected schools. Figure out which is the best fit for you and go for it.</p>

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<p>LolaPop- I'm just a little worried about your statement of "the fantastic quality of life Pomona is rumored to have." You should base your decision on which type of school you want (as hktk says the best fit, not necessarily "rumors"). If you want pre-professional opportunities, NU has those since they have in-house professional programs. Also they have larger graduate departments but Pomona will get you in choice graduate schools as well as Northwestern. As jedipsohn intimated, it is not clear you would not be happy if you chose Northwestern or guaranteed that you would be happy if you chose Pomona. Good luck in your choice.</p>

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<p>Lolapop -- I'm in the EXACT same situation as you, but with tulane and northwestern. I've visited both. My brother goes to tulane, and he loves it, and I've gone and visited several times too and had a great time. I visited NW during wildcat days, but everyone was preparing for midterms, so it didn't look too fun. but how can I base my decision on that? I guess I'm just unsure of how the real atmosphere is at NW, especially on weekends. it seems as though it is miserable in the winter time, which is a large chunk of the year. Although prestige isn't that important, it's a huge difference between the two schools. It seems 'safer' to go to NW, but I dont know if I want to. oh and i'm probably majoring in mathematics.</p>

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<p>quality of life is highly subjective. there are miserable people at Pomona, and really happy people at NU - it all depends on the group of friends you end up with, what kinds of things you're into, what makes you happy, etc. Pomona has good weather and what seems to be a closer, more insulated community that was pretty fun to be in when I visited. My dorm at Northwestern (Willard) has the same feel. Remember that quality of life is something that you largely control yourself - make your own life at college, wherever you are</p>

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<p>OP - based on your original, as well as your most recent posts, it seems you made the best choice w/ regard to "fit".</p>

<p>Some people really like the small LAC feel, but for me (after visiting a no. of friends at small NE LACs), they felt a bit claustrophobic and uhmm, a bit too "high schooly".</p>

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<p>ahh wow this is nuts. I got waitlisted at pomona and accepted to northwestern. ive been trying to get off pomona's waitlist but the more I see of northwestern the funner/cooler it seems. i especially loved the res colleges. i visited during midterms too but people were so nice and unpretentious.</p>