I need some input please. I got into Pomona college, UCLA and CAL. I am so confused as where to go. I will be majoring in sciences and plan on going to med school.
Net price at each?
Hi. The net price is about the same. I am not sure if I will be happy with a small college but st the same time I don’t want to be overwhelmed with a really big place either
Wow you’ve got a problem most parents would be envious of lol. What major did you get for each?
Berkeley does have their FPF pathway for freshmen, where you get to enroll in smaller classes for your first year (for L&S students).
Molecular biology for Cal ; human biology for UCLA and biology for Pomona.
i would find the size, personal touch and location of Pomona much more appealing than any UC. But, that’s one man’s opinion. You will get an outstanding education at all 3.
Gongrats and good luck
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Across the nation, both Cal and UCLA may be more recognized names, but it’s hard to beat Pomona’s intimate learning environment and the quality of undergrad education students receive there. Pomona is #1 in Endowment per Student among LAC’s and #7 among all colleges. That says a lot in terms of quality resources that are available for students and their experiences. In the 2016 WSJ article which ranked top 50 feeder colleges “for getting into Yale Med, Chicago Business and all those other elite business, medical and law schools,” Pomona ranked #12, Cal ranked #41 and UCLA didn’t make the top 50. Given OP’s future plans, I would strongly encourage my own son to choose Pomona if we were faced with the same situation. In fact, my son did apply to Pomona as one of only two colleges in CA that we looked at seriously while skipping all UC’s as we were keen on targeting overall undergraduate quality institutions. For considering grad schools, it’d be a different story, however.
@TiggerDad Thanks for “heads up” on that WSJ article. A very interesting list.
I’m biased, as my daughter is headed to Pomona in the fall. One stat that I’ve seen that is relevant here: “Also in 2018, the average acceptance rate of Pomona alumni to medical schools was 85% (the national average is about 32%)” https://www.pomona.edu/admissions/why-pomona. Good luck with your decision!
@TiggerDad Could you please link the article? I want to glance at it as I decide btwn other schools
https://www.pomona.edu/administration/pre-health/apply/pomona-process indicates that Pomona has a pre-med committee that issues committee letters of recommendation for medical school applicants. Such committees will likely advise the pre-med of how realistic his/her chance of admission will be, presumably discouraging the least likely to be successful applicants from applying. So only the strongest pre-meds apply, raising the admission rate to medical schools.
Being pre-screened by a pre-med committee can be beneficial even to those discouraged from applying, since it lets them know earlier that applying would be an expensive waste of time. But if the college’s medical school admission rate is very high, it could be that if the pre-med is willing to chance a lower likelihood of admission, a pre-med committee that only endorses pre-meds with a very high likelihood of admission may be limiting.
There’s a lot of benefits to a smaller school. If you can get that for the same price as the UC I’d have a hard time turning that down. Pomona is one of the top LACs in the country (some years is #1).
@tiggerdad . . .
You have to remember that UCLA and Cal are public institutions with a good 70%+ their students grounded in California, with many being indigent, as manifest by the percentage receiving Pell grants. Consequently, many of their bac-degree holders will look to attend graduate school in California rather than elsewhere particularly for medical school. Cal’s graduates are probably more willing to attend JHU’s SOM rather than an in-state’s, but the vast majority of UCLA grads would forsake an Ivy SOM or JHU’s for UCSF, Geffen, UCSD, UCI, UCD, or UCR Medicine, with many choosing Keck also.
For law school, I had many classmates at UCLA who went to Loyola or Southwestern, because they could work during the day and attend L-school at night, with some having the fortitude to graduate in three years. Some had “better” or more prestigious choices, but they needed to work concurrently while earning their JDs.
B-school is a certainly a different dynamic, of course, with a possible interruption of one’s work to attend (hopefully) a management school that has an ascendant ranking. It’d probably be best to lay aside one’s work to attain a probable better job offer by attending Harvard or Sloan or wherever else of noted rank. The option for a UCLA grad to turn down Anderson or Marshall, however, would be tough for many.
Since you’re inferring by reference to future earnings by the mention of the WSJ article with respect to the graduates of each of the three, the NYT’s study with resultant database of earnings for a group of colleges culled from individual tax returns shows that the annual salaries of each of these colleges doesn’t show a lot of displacement; in fact, Pomona’s – if I remember correctly – trails both Cal’s and UCLA’s, with UCLA having one of the highest if not the highest mobility index of poor becoming well-off.
So you can wax indignant about how someone would consider UCLA or Cal in relation to Pomona, but the truth is that the former two do a far greater job of educating those of all backgrounds and giving them a better chance for far greater earnings potential.
@ucbalumnus . . . re, your post in #10.
Yes, and it doesn’t matter if they don’t get into med school by not obliging to Pomona’s counseling because they aren’t counted in Pomona’s survey with respect to med-school placement. Those whom edit:“who”) assent to Pomona’s counseling to defer would undoubtedly still receive very good counseling in the subsequent cycle, but they’re not counted that year’s survey.
Parent here of a kid who recently - and successfully - experienced the “Pomona Process” (admitted to 8 med schools). First of all, I agree that it’s possible for a college to “game” its premed success rate, so that should not be the sole reason someone chooses one college over another. I can only speak to why Pomona’s premeds tend to do well (everybody my kid knows who applied got in). My kid was not aware of anybody who was explicitly screened or advised out of applying to med school by the committee. What the committee did do was to begin meeting with prospective premeds during their freshman orientation week - even before they registered for classes - to tell them exactly what med schools are looking for them to do over the next 4 years with respect to classes, grades, activities, clinical and non-clinical volunteering, and research. Armed with that info, obviously some kids will change their minds either at that point, or after they receive the o-chem (or gen chem) reality check. The advising continues all four years, highlighting the resources the college provides, including financial support for internships (kid got free use of Zipcars for hospital rotations), and research (which, for kid and friends, led directly to post-bacs at places like HMS, Columbia, and JHU). With respect to post-bacs, Pomona advises students to take at least 1-2 gap years (although kid has several friends who didn’t), and continues advising their students even after they graduate - providing a timeline for applying, giving feedback on personal statements, helping them organize their LORs, writing a committee letter (if requested), and providing mock interviews. (@ucbalumnus provided a good link to look at). Even saying all that, (and getting back to OP’s original question), a big part of getting into med school is being in an undergrad educational environment where you feel you can personally thrive. Try to squeeze in one more visit to your top choices, sit in on classes, and maybe spend the night with a current student. You have three amazing choices. Congratulations and good luck!
@otisp . . . good for your son and his classmates. Pomona’s a great college and it’s not isolated which would be problematic as it’s so small, but my responses were geared more to tiggerdad and the others who needlessly hype it, even tangentially, when it isn’t needed.
And exactly how did I and others “hype” Pomona?
@tiggerDad . . . see my post #12, thank you.
Most successful pre-meds are not in a position to choose what medical school to attend, since most get only one medical school admission. It is a rare pre-med who gets more than one medical school admission and actually has a choice to choose one with lower cost and debt.
@TiggerDad . . . since you referenced the 14-15 year old report by the WSJ, I’ll reference the NYT’s salary study by graduates of college/university. Again, this periodical perused numerous tax returns and came up with the following for the three colleges:
………………………………………Cal…………………….UCLA…………………Pomona
Median Salary at 34………….$67,900…………………$65,800……………….$62,000
………For Men…………………78,300……….…………75,700…………………72,900
………For Women……………….61,500……………………60,200…………………55,100
Share in Top 1%…10.0%…8.2%…11.0%
…….In Top 5%…31.0%…27.0%…26.0%
…….in Top 10%…44.0%…41.0%…37.0%
…….in Top 20%…60.0%…59.0%…56.0%
…….in Bottom 20%…9.7%…10.0%…8.6%
According to this study, Cal’s median salary ranked 7th, UCLA’s 8th, and Pomona College 12th right behind USC in the state of California.
Here are the links for each:
[Cal Berkeley](Economic diversity and student outcomes at U.C. Berkeley - The New York Times)
[UCLA[/url]
[url=<a href=“https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/college-mobility/pomona-college%5DPomona”>https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/college-mobility/pomona-college]Pomona College](Economic diversity and student outcomes at U.C.L.A. - The New York Times)
This study is probably about 4 years old, which should make it more current.
@ucbalumnus . . . how are you. I haven’t posted in a few years, and because of that I didn’t remember my old password, so I had to create a new user name. You’ve always been very fair in your posts, regardless if Cal was involved in the thread topic or not.
To respond to your post, I would think that there would be some who’ve been accepted at more than one SOM, but I’m sure the idea behind applying would be similar to applying to undergrad by having various targets and various “safeties,” if one can call them that. I agree, though, with Geffen, e.g., having a 1.2% acceptance rate and all the others in CA having similar rates, one should be happy with one.