Pomona 101

<p>Anyone here available for some quick summarization of Pomona's atmosphere, comparisons to other LACs...synopsis on the girls? :)</p>

<p>If you want to learn about the people and atmosphere of Pomona, a sterile thing like a black and white (maybe blue and grey on your screen) blog is not the appropriate place to receive the incredibly important information you seek.</p>

<p>I think a trip to Claremont would be in your best interests.</p>

<p>well, pomona is probably one of the most liberal places you'll find. the school takes a lot of measures to ensure that minority groups feel safe and welcome. if you're a woman, homosexual, latino, or whatever, you'll be taken care of.</p>

<p>the weather is california at its finest (albeit not lately) and you have the option of driving half an hour to the mountains, half an hour to the beach, half an hour to a big city, and half an hour to a tiny town. it's right in the middle of everything, which is great. this great weather also comes with a world-class education.</p>

<p>in comparison to other LACs, you won't get this kind of weather/atmosphere anywhere else. that's for sure.</p>

<p>the girls might not be the most attractive people you've ever seen but they might be the smartest. also, the fact that it's a small school means you won't have many options. either way, if you're basing your college decision on the female pool, you probably shouldn't be going to pomona anyway.</p>

<p>There is always Scripps college next door, an all girl's school although my S has never once complained about the girls at Pomona.</p>

<p>arizonamom or anyone- How are the email addresses set up for students at Pomona? Are they assigned at the beginning of the year by first and last name, or last name only, and is there any choice? Is the formal first name always used,or could the student opt to have a more preferable middle name instead, or an initial, in the address?</p>

<p>Your e-mail is assigned to you. To an outsider, it appears as <a href="mailto:firstname.lastname@pomona.edu">firstname.lastname@pomona.edu</a>. Internally, it's coded with numbers as well for security, so when you log in to your e-mail remotely, you'll have to remember what that log-in is.</p>

<p>There's a second form of email address (goes to same account), which is the initials and year of entry, I believe (i.e. <a href="mailto:ABC2004@pomona.edu">ABC2004@pomona.edu</a>). </p>

<p>The nice thing about Claremont is that the atmosphere on all of the colleges is different so you have plenty of opportunities to find your niche. Pomona students due tend to have the least amount of off-campus interaction, though, due to the larger size (of both student body and campus) and to the location of the school. If you could arrange it, a trip would definitely be worthwhile simply because Claremont is such a uniquely structured place.</p>

<p>Thanks, both of you.
What if you don't go by your first name, and none of your friends or acquaintances use that name, but you go by your middle name instead? Is there someone you could talk to so that your email reflected the name you use in real life?
I cursed my son by calling him by his middle name all his life - so now he IS that person, and he doesn't really like his legal name all that much. He mentioned that it will bother him if his college email uses it instead of the one he prefers. Is there any hope that he could use his preference? Or is it all done automatically?</p>

<p>He should probably call the school and talk to the registrar.</p>

<p>I do know people who do not go (and have never gone) by their first names, but their emails still use them. They are assigned automatically. Whether you can request a change, I do not know. </p>

<p>As all of registration, etc. is done under legal name, your son will probably just get very used to immediately requesting the use of his middle name, and those around him will quickly understand the distinction. It's not an uncommon thing at all.</p>

<p>Also, he could choose to only give out his alternative (<a href="mailto:ABC2004@pomona.edu">ABC2004@pomona.edu</a>) email so that it won't display the full name. I don't actually know of any schools that give choice regarding school email, and if they do, then it's like Pomona where it's a choice between equally structured addresses, not "whatever name you want". Good luck on the issue...assure him that his situation is really not uncommon. He can also get a hotmail/yahoo/etc. personal email under his own name for personal emails and only use his school email for schoolwide type mailings (many professors will request whatever email you want to be contacted at rather than automatically using your school address).</p>

<p>Thanks, student615. This is a fairly trivial concern, I realize - thanks for your info. He' cope - maybe he'll prefer the alternative.
I have to say I was impressed that his admit letter used his middle name. Rarely does this happen on any official type of mail.
Someone was paying attention! The personal touch, already. :)</p>