Does the 19% or 200/1000~ stats include the QB and Posse students?
Also no Q1 requests today!
@NebbyBag i believe so
Here are the stats for 2016/17: Number of Early Decision Applications: 1080 (This number is Ed1 AND Ed2 combined). Number accepted: 208 (again, combined). I don’t know the split between acceptances E1 & Ed2 but obviously the Posse Miami, Posse Chicago and Questbridge students are in the Ed1 round number…
Since the 1080 includes Questbridge Match binding candidates, I am quite confused. 17 students got in through match this year but I would assume that hundreds of students rank Pomona. Does that make the ED acceptance rate significantly higher than it appears?
@gnowr35 Great question! I never understood exactly how Questbridge worked since I’ve never applied through it. I am wondering the same thing?! How does Pomona know how many people ranked Pomona (I guess they read their apps) and do they factor all of these students into ED or exclude them entirely?
@Quiches All I know is that on the common data set the number of ED applicants says “This includes Posse and QuestBridge Match binding early candidates.” which means that they are included in the ED number but its a mystery how many Questbridge kids there are that apply and/or get accepted. As far as I know, not everyone Pomona accepts through Questbridge will actually enroll or be formally accepted at all (as it depends on how high they ranked Pomona.)
the portal was down like an hour ago, but I can access it now.
did anyone get a request for their quarter 1 grades yet? i heard that they add it to your portal, but I haven’t gotten one yet 
@gnowr35 I just re-checked Pomona’s CDS and you are completely right!
I then tried to search for info on how many students ranked Pomona through QB but could not find anything. I think out of nearly 1000 finalists of QB, maybe around 100 ranked Pomona (pure speculation based on the QB threads and tendencies), then 17/100 is just slightly lower than the 20% ED rate. I am not sure how Posse and KIPP work though.
All in all, I believe QB wouldn’t change the overall ED rate by a huge amount. I think around 20% is accurate.
(It is hilarious because I was just working on stats HW)
Anyone else who can comment?
@Quiches There are actually around 6000 QB finalists (5759 to be exact) lol. And - this is total speculation - but I would assume that a few hundred rank Pomona (I mean, out of 6000 students it would be quite strange if only 1-3% ranked Pomona at all). Alternatively, it could be that Pomona includes only the accepted Questies in the CDS (though it does say “candidates”) so I’m not really sure! College admissions is all one big mystery
@gnowr35 OMG, how did I not catch that?! I am so sorry, then, yes, probably more kids ranked Pomona!!!
I kept on thinking it was 1000 even though I read an article on this just two days ago.
Now, I am more hopeful because ED I probably has a higher rate than ED II and the two combined with QB is 20%, then, the real ED I rate is probably significantly higher than 20%. However, ED I also includes any athletic recruitment so we can never tell, haha!
I guess we would never know the true ED I stat. (unless one of us goes to work for admissions later :)) )
EDIT: It would indeed make more sense for Pomona to only include the accepted QB applicants to the ED stat it could severely skew the data. I wonder what other colleges do? There is probably a norm among the higher ed community for this, although most colleges do want to lower the admissions rate as much as possible, I really don’t see Pomona doing it.
@Quiches Cute avatar 
Hi everyone! I also applied ED1 to Pomona I got a request for Q1 grades…What does that mean???
is it a good or bad sign???
@NebbyBag Thank you lots :)!
@ztarik We haven’t figured that out yet! But it is definitely not a bad sign by any means, most people who were admitted last year also received a grade request! How did you know? Did Pomona send your counsellor an email?
(Also, I am ultra-nervous now because I didn’t get one)
So those who have gotten requests for Q1 grades should expect to be accepted?
How do you know if you go a request? Would it have been emailed to me or my counselor or would it have been updated on the portal?
As of this point, no one is really sure what a Q1 grade request means. Based on previous years, it’s not at all a guarantee, nor is not getting one a rejection. The whole system is largely a mystery. My guess would be that it’s people who had to show an upward trend, people whose previous grades were borderline, and/or people whose main selling point is their academics rather than extracurriculars. Those are complete guesses, though. Realistically, none of us will ever know for sure. It’ll be a nice way to rationalize the decision, though, regardless.
On the other note, @ztarik’s request is a good sign! That means decisions are out this Friday!!
@DyingInside Do you know how to see if you got a request though? I assume you are right about what the grade requests mean… Hopefully those that did not receive them still have a chance
This is going to be confusing, so feel free to ask for clarification. But here’s how it was explained to me.
In QuestBridge, students can rank schools. About ~15% of the finalists are matched somewhere. The remaining ~85% can apply via regular decision or early decision II to Pomona if they want.
Let’s say hypothetically that 500 students ranked Pomona (I don’t know the exact number). It took 16, while an additional 59 matched elsewhere (reflecting the 15% match rate). That leaves us with 425 QB applicants who now can apply either RD or EDII. Very few go for the EDII at Pomona- let’s say 25 candidates in total. And we’ll also say that 1/4 who initially ranked Pomona will not apply later for whatever reason (so 100). In essence, the QuestBridge EARLY ONLY pool looks like that 75 (matched) + 100 (not applying later for RD, but did for Match); the 25 EDII get moved to that pool.
In essence, the statement “This includes Posse and QuestBridge Match binding early candidates.” means only students who applied via Match or EDII, and nowhere else. Any QuestBridge student who was not matched but decided to apply RD would not be part of that 1080 applicant pool, since it’d be double counting.
So what does the reality look like under this?
There were 16 QuestBridge Matches out of 175 “QB Match Only, did not apply EDII or RD later”.
There were 22 Posse Scholars out of the 40 Finalists who Pomona got to pick between (the process is unorthodox).
That leaves us with 170 (208-16-22) ED admits out of 865 (1080-175-40) ED1 and ED2 applicants, putting the acceptance rate around ~19.7%.
The scenarios with 200, 300, 400, or 600 students ranking Pomona and the previous logic
200: 17.5% of ED1 and ED2 admitted
300: 18.2% of ED1 and ED2 admitted
400: 19% of ED1 and ED2 admitted
600: 20.7% of ED1 and ED2 admitted
Note that the acceptance rate doesn’t fluctuate considerably. This is because ED1 and ED2 candidates make up the bulk of the early applicants, not QuestBridge.
Pomona should be more transparent about this, I absolutely agree. But the bottom line is that the ED1 and ED2 only acceptance rate is somewhere around 20%.
@nillupa no response yet, I’ll update if I get something
Oh, I should have clarified how Posse works.
Posse recruits in urban areas. Pomona wants a cohort of 10-11 students each from two cities: Chicago and Miami. First, students have to be nominated by their high school. There is a group interview with all the nominees, and Posse staff decide who moves to individual interviews. Individual interviews are also conducted by Posse staff. They select about 20 students for the school specific interview. Prior to it, all 20 students have to fill out an ED commitment on the Common App saying they will agree to attend if admitted. After the interview, Pomona’s admission officers and deans pick their final 10-11 students to give the Posse Scholarship to. The initial pool is actually much larger, but Pomona doesn’t report everyone- only the finalists.
That’s why the Posse part of the 1080 is 22/40 (for two cities), if you were wondering.
@nostalgicwisdom Wowow! Thank you so much! You are always coming in with the most detailed and comprehensive info.
Just curious, have you ever worked in the Admission’s office when you were at Pomona? It seems like you have a lot of insider perspective, haha. I don’t know if you are allowed to disclose this info but your answers have greatly helped so many people, including us. So, thank you!
Also, any comments/ insider tips on the relationship between grade requests and admissions? I have been puzzled for so long.