@sanjosedad Williams alum and parent of a DS who is a junior there. I don’t know Pomona, though I’ve visited the Claremont Colleges several times, love the campus and think the 5 college consortium is a fabulous idea. On Williams: it deserves everything said and written about it. Outstanding academics, great kids (all are very engaged and engaging, even if a bit nerdy), a beautiful place. I agree with the comments that an overnight at both would provide some real, though somewhat random, data about real life on campus. I see that you’re from the Bay area. We live in LA. One thing about Williams that may or may not matter to you. It’s very hard to get to. It takes a whole day. Weekend visits are nigh impossible – you need 4 days to accommodate the travel on both ends. That may sound immaterial in the scheme of things and maybe it is. But it’s a reality your family will have to weigh. Another difference: 2000 kids v. 5000 kids (at the five college of Claremont) is also a difference – as is being only 75 minutes from Los Angeles. Williams is isolated. Some kids could care less. Others are affected. Of course, in the end, your daughter has a choice between what many would say are the two best small colleges in the country. She could flip a coin and she’d probably be deliriously happy whether she calls heads or tails. If you’d like more information you can PM me and I’ll give you a phone number.
^^they are both top notch, but agree Williams is isolated. Unless you are a skier you are very limited on campus. It can get depressing. Personally, I think Pomona is more beautiful, but I am from Massachusetts and a parent of a Sagehen. My daughter thought Williams was too small about the size of her prep school and Pomona is part of the 5Cs which make it larger. Lots of nice things about each school. Williams is a little easier to get in. Good Luck with this tough decision.
Congrats all new Sagehens. For those on the WL if Pomona really is your top choice, PM me for ideas about how to handle the WL.
@sanjosedad My spouse and I visited Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore, Haverford with our child, who ultimately chose Pomona College. I remember Williams’ gorgeous library, which is far more beautiful than the Honnold Library at Claremont Colleges. I also recall Swarthmore being unbelievably beautiful. But none of that mattered much compared to the culture of accessibility, inclusion, tolerance, curiosity and down-to-earth ness my child felt at Pomona College. Take a visit to the schools your child has gained admission to and spend quality time speaking to students and professors on campus. Cultural fit should be a major factor. Also, the 5C consortium is unrivaled among other consortium colleges. The schedules are synchronized and the schools are adjacent. My child is taking about 40% of classes from the 4 other sister colleges and enjoying the variety of students from the other 4 top notch colleges.
@sanjosedad Oh, by the way, when our family visited Williams in January two years ago, we almost got stranded on a country road in our rental car because our car could not climb up an icy road. We waited and waited for help. Finally, a rare passing car told us about an alternate road to take which was not as icy. But that road was still fraught with winter hazards such as unmarked edge of road, unplowed snow and very narrow passages. I really thought we would crash and end up staying overnight in our rental car. We finally made it to our motel which was under 3 feet of snow. In contrast, this past January I visited my child at Pomona and played tennis in shorts and t shirt. Sunny and warm. My spouse and I attended college on the East Coast. PM me if you want to chat.
accepted RD after deferal!! SO excited.
1490 SAT, 4.0 UW
Rejected 
35 ACT, 3.89 UW, 800 Math 2, 760 Bio-M, OOS
Congrats to all those who got in!
From the Pomona website: 6.9% admitted. By far the lowest percentage ever. Over 10,000 applicants, the highest number ever. We’re talking 5th hardest school in the country to gain admission behind Stanford, Harvard, Yale, and Columbia.
Waitlisted
Most of my daughter’s friends were choosing between Pomona and Yale. If you read the website on who was accepted, you have to have a hook. There are so many reserved spots for first gen, recruited athlete, URM, Questbridge, Posse and the like, there’s so few spots left for stellar students with great stats and ECs and kick-a** essays. if you got WL or rejected, realize that there are just too few seats, and they couldn’t take all who are qualified. I’m sure all you amazing and talented students will land well. Good Luck!
@PeacOfMind, Many thanks for your posting. We visited both campuses last Fall. Of course, winter will be much different than in Fall! Brutal winter is one of the concerns. Also, traveling to campus from Albany airport is another big concern. The earliest flight arrives in Albany from bay area is around 5pm. I am not sure school will have any shuttle after 5pm or so. We will check with the school about all these concerns. My son went to RPI(Rensselaer Polytechnic) to study CS and graduated 2 years back. He works for a software company in SF, but he says he won’t like to go back to east coast in winter. Initially he liked it but gradually over the years during his study, he became anxious to get out of there. He says driving during winter is no fun and he doesn’t want to deal with it, if he has other options. My D be attending the admitted student day in late Apr at Williams. She will spend overnight with a student host, attend classes, talk to the profs etc. She will do the same at Pomona also on Apr 9th. Then it may help her to make the final decision, God willing.
@preppedparent, thanks a lot for your feedback. My daughter goes to a small girls only Catholic college prep high school, only about 180 students in her class. She is not into any outdoor activities. She prefers to stay inside mostly and a little bit philosophical. She is into social justice, gender equality. She is accepted at Wellesley also, and was inclining towards them until Williams and Pomona came in. Wellesley hadn’t send her the financial aid package yet, she got accepted through early evaluation application; school notified the selected ones a month before the RD notification but send the aid package when RD notification comes out.
Williams has higher acceptance rate than Pomona, I think because of isolation, it attracts less number of applicants but is larger body school, 1600+(pomona) vs 2000+(williams). It’s just a simple math, total admitted student over total applicants. One very simple reason Pomona attracts more applicants, 'cause of location(can’t beat the SoCal weather) and part of 5C. Just my 2-cents!
@sanjosedad, your D sounds like a perfect fit for Williams. I have friends whose kids attend currently or have recently attended both Pomona and Williams. Based on your description above – look closely at Williams! Also ranked #1 liberal arts school by US News! Didn’t you also do the early admit weekend at Grinnell? Is that off your list? Hard (but GREAT) choices are in her future!
@latiniscool, Hahaha, you definitely tracked me down correctly from Grinnell discussion group Yes, we did attend the early admit weekend first weekend of March. My daughter was little hesitant after attending the events. Then these two came in. Financially, either Pomona or Williams will cost us another $10K/yr than Grinnell, but my daughter is more excited about them. Let’s see where does she finally end up with, God willing.
I think she actually sounds like a better fit for Pomona, with how you described her as philosophical/into social justice! And I also have friends at both places/considered both. Funny how that works, isn’t it? Don’t pay too much attention to the rank. Everyone who knows these schools see them as equals. It’d be silly to pick just because one ranks #1 in one particular ranking. Kind of akin to saying- Pick Princeton over #5 Stanford/MIT since US News said so.
I would recommend not discounting Grinnell entirely. I do know someone who turned down both Williams and Pomona for Grinnell after doing an overnight stay at all 3. Felt that their students were the most down-to-earth and caring, just felt more immediately at home. She is thriving and happy with her decision. But all in all, every liberal arts college has a special community and feel. We’d love to see her at Pomona, but will be sending our blessings all the same whether she goes to Williams or Grinnell or Wellesley (or Amherst, if that gets put on the table)! Just be sure to pack some nice winter clothes for the latter Best wishes to her, congratulations on the many great choices.
One facet that particularly attracted my family to Pomona is the diversity (ethnic, first generation, low income, international) on campus in students and faculty. The diversity was not as great at the SLACs on the East Coast.
@nostalgicwisdom, Many thanks for your wishes. I hope she chooses Pomona too; logistically it will be much easier fo us, only few hundreds miles south.
My D18 just told me, apparently Pomona mentioned about her CommonApps essay on their twitter/instagram page! She is one of the two who wrote on a topic, that caught their attention
Rejected with 3.83 UW and 4.05 W with three concussions. 1470 superscored SAT with 760 math and 710 english. EC of varsity and club volleyball (captain senior year, 2nd team all league senior year, state and norcal regional champion junior year), performing arts (school musical all for years, advanced choir three years, advanced drama), activism (feminist club, QSA), and a job for two summers. Congrats to those who got in!
D18 waitlisted. Accepted at Williams and Bowdoin. 35 ACT (36 English, 35 Math), Cum Laude Society at an Eight Schools prep, res hall proctor, three sport athlete (all-state before prep transfer), president of political and social activism clubs, decorated visual artist, accomplished wilderness traveler. Daughter is frankly indifferent–Williams and Bowdoin were her top choices–but her older brother (CMC’15 and the winner of 3 Peace Pipes) is exalting: “Told you Pomona would get it wrong.” (Guess those Stags are pretty smart after all.)
P.S. Life goes on. Everyone here will have a good choice; none will have a perfect choice. Take the good choice and make it YOUR perfect. To all the new Sagehens: Claremont is a lovely city and Pomona a terrific place. To all the new Sagehen parents: Encourage your son or daughter to venture north of 6th Street, and to take full advantage of all the 5Cs have to offer. Good luck to all.