Pomona College vs Johns Hopkins

Colleges and Universities A-Z Pomona College
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I recently was admitted off the waitlist for Pomona. I’m extremely grateful to be in this position but it also presents a difficult choice. If anyone could give their opinion about both schools, I would really appreciate your suggestions!

Intended major: some combination of Computer Science, Cognitive Science, Linguistics, Philosophy

Pomona: Diversity; intimate feel and culture with the student body and professors while having resources/research of the large school (Claremont consortium); small classes and priority for undergrads; very good location/vibes and laid back (higher quality of life); strong academics in neuroscience, math etc; high endowment per student.

JHU: More recognition everywhere? (I might not want to stay on the west coast to work. personally, I don’t care about prestige but it is what some people consider); stronger alumni network; however the location is a minus, I really didn’t like Baltimore that much when I visited; a larger school with more opportunities and more qualified faculty (not sure how accessible they are considering profs are spread thin over their research and grad, postdoc students)? cut-throat from quite a few people I talked to? have one of the best natural language processing research center and a center for leadership education where I can do stuff like entrepreneurship. (I’m not sure whether I need to learn business or management as an undergrad; I can always learn this later)

Both schools cost about the same. So this is not a differentiating factor. I’m planning to do grad school and go into something in artificial intelligence, or work as a consultant in the field. Not quite sure. I think it’s important to note I’m Canadian so I might come to Toronto to do AI stuff at the Vectors Institute since Canada really wants to develop their tech industry.

Again I’m not 100% sure of my understandings; these are simply what I heard from talking to students, parents etc. I really value everyones opinion, and if any AOs wants to chime in that would be awesome.
Thanks again!

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Pomona and Johns Hopkins have massive differences — you’ve done a good job identifying many of them, so my main suggestion would be to think about which ones are really significant versus which ones are more minor.

The overall cultures of the schools are probably one of the top things to consider. I don’t have any first-hand knowledge of JHU, but it’s very well known for having the cut-throat culture you mention, whereas Pomona students are still very passionate but tend to have less of a competitive attitude and place more of an emphasis on work-life balance. This difference is going to permeate every aspect of your college experience, so you should strongly consider which end of the spectrum fits with your personality better.

The size is another big thing to consider. I’m a huge fan of Pomona’s close-knit community and the kind of personal attention unique to a small liberal arts college. A place like Johns Hopkins will probably use some of those same kinds of words, but in reality, if you go there you should expect, for instance, to be taking more large lecture classes rather than small seminars. On the flip side of that, JHU will have some resources Pomona won’t because of its size, although that’s mitigated somewhat by Pomona’s greater wealth and the consortium.

For computer science, I know Pomona has struggled with over-enrollment in recent years (see http://tsl.news/news/7144), but JHU might be the same way. I’d search the archives of their student newspaper to find out about that. CogSci and linguistics are closely tied at Pomona, and philosophy is also strong.

Location and alumni/career considerations are also considerations. I think you’re correct that Pomona is the clear winner in the former, and JHU is probably better in the latter. If you do grad school, they will know about Pomona and probably look at it more favorably than JHU.

I hope all of that helps with your decision!

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What did you decide?

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@3puppies Pomona College.