hey guys! I was recently admitted to UC Berkeley and Pomona. For my major, I am interested in studying CS or economics with a minor in philosophy. I hope to work in the tech field and get into a top MBA in the future. As an international student, I’m concerned about job prospects in the US. UC berkeley has the edge in terms of international brand name, whereas Pomona is virtually unknown in Asia (to my knowledge). but I personally feel that Pomona’s intimacy, support, and the intellectual vibe will be a better fit for me, and I heard that Pomona’s CS is closely tied with Harvey Mudd’s? (I would like to know more about how cross-registration for CS works). Internship/job opportunities are important to me, and I realize that Pomona has been improving its career development resources. Price isn’t a concern for me. Can somebody please share their thoughts on this? Thanks!
I’m also considering Rice university as well
For CS, honestly Berkeley is hard to turn down. Plus Haas makes Berkeley interesting for business. While I’m the kind of person to take Pomona 9 times outta 10, for your situation I’d take Berkeley. While yes, Pomona has been improving in job prospects, Berkeley’s location is ideal for tech and even big banks recruit there (although admittedly they do at the 5Cs too).
For a general idea how cross-registration works at the 5C’s, look at this: https://aspc.pomona.edu/courses/schedule/. That’s not the official registration portal but rather a planning tool, but it’ll give you an idea. You can also search using this: http://catalog.pomona.edu/content.php?catoid=21&navoid=4407. My D is an Econ major at Pomona and has taken philosophy and literature classes at CMC. Cross-registration is easy – but when you are dealing with classes in your major, then special rules can sometimes apply. Students from CMC, Scripps and Pitzer who declare a CS major are treated identically with HMC CS majors in terms of registration priority for classes at HMC. But that is not true for Pomona students taking CS classes at HMC, because Pomona has its own CS department. Take a careful look at this: https://www.cs.hmc.edu/off-campus-students.
OP, if you’re concerned about job prospects in the US, Pomona is considered a highly elite school and the student outcomes are fantastic. Pomona is a top feeder school for MBAs (https://www.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/infographics/top-feeders-mba-programs) and most CS majors I knew were working for the most coveted tech firms in the country (https://www.pomona.edu/sites/default/files/cdo-annual-report-2015-2016.pdf pg 24-25, be sure to look at math/CS too). Just keep in mind that this excludes tech internships people did over the summers; I know people who worked at SpaceX, Twitter, Google, and others.
Yes, UC Berkeley has a more prestigious CS program with a lot more courses and more noteworthy research, no doubt. But at the heart of it all, it’s still a large, overwhelming university. Personal, individualized attention is limited, classes are huge, and there isn’t nearly as much funding or resources placed on the undergrads as much as Pomona places on theirs. You can see it yourself: just compare http://collegecompletion.chronicle.com/institution/#id=110635 to http://collegecompletion.chronicle.com/institution/#id=121345
Some people love that large university culture and want nothing to do with a small, intimate LAC- which is perfectly fine and understandable. You don’t seem like the type based on your profile. Another thing is you have broad intellectual interests. At a liberal arts college, you can pursue pretty much everything you want with no barriers- econ, philosophy, CS, politics, etc. There are more restrictions at Berkeley for that fluidity Pomona provides.
On Mudd- when you’re a Pomona CS major, you have to take Pomona’s 3 sequence intro sequence. You can only take Mudd’s first intro class, but that’s something there more for non-majors really. After that, you have equal enrollment prospect to most of Mudd’s upper-level CS courses. As the link points out, for nearly all upper-level CS courses, priority is assigned to CS majors regardless of home institution. You can also participate in Mudd’s clinic program as an alternative to senior thesis- I know plenty at Pomona who are. So in essence, you’re getting access to educational experiences of one of the best colleges in the country for CS, and Pomona’s is pretty solid too. On average, CS majors at Pomona take about 4-8 classes at Mudd.
On Silicon Valley access- yes, this is a pretty big perk for Berkeley. However, one thing to also consider is that LA has the second highest tech influence in the states, called Silicon Beach. The Claremont Colleges are a target school by a lot of tech firms both in SF and in LA and are recruited on campus (you can see all employers who visited last year pg 32-36 of the above document- don’t worry if it says recruited at Pomona because you can visit employer activities at all the schools). A number of students work with tech companies during the semester. Just a fair note though, if you plan on going regularly, you will want a car or a carpool buddy as West LA takes a long time to get to via public transportation.
Now- ALL that said and done. There is definitely something to consider about prestige. Pomona is prestigious in the states but virtually unknown elsewhere in the world (though its reputation is rising thanks to Forbes). This is something every top LAC experiences. Berkeley is regarded as a top 5 university by most people in the world who know about US colleges thanks to its stellar graduate schools. That degree will open doors for you to an extent that most schools in the US just could not, not even places like Rice or Dartmouth. It would be foolish of me to say don’t consider that, because in today’s economy it’s getting more and more competitive for foreign nationals to get Visas. The process to getting sponsored by an employee is complex and tedious, and you may want to review that if you want to work here.
I’d take Pomona in a heartbeat. First, its reputation in the US is stellar. Second, it’ll offer a superior undergraduate learning experience with all the amenities, attention, contacts, and support you could wish for. Third you’ll have no problem getting internships and later the 30-month STEM OPT because you won’t be lost in red tape. From that, you can easily branch out to an MBA or further studies, including at UC Berkeley. Personally I’d choose Pomona -> MBA Berkeley (especially since you can’t do the reverse).
Thanks for the detailed responses! Because of the sheer number of students at Berkeley, might it actually be easier to land a top-ranking job at Pomona? I would imagine that the raw number of Berkeley students who do get them is considerably higher, but taking into account the number of people applying for the same job/in the same major, would Pomona actually perform better?
It’s difficult to do a comparative analysis because the students at both schools tend to have very different trajectories from each other.
I have a student at each college. For you I agree with @Bumgarner40 completely.