<p>need help making my final college decision, I plan on going pre-med...would like to see pros and cons of each school, and an unbiased decision on which would be more recommended...oh and money isn't an issue</p>
<p>Welcome to CC!</p>
<p>S graduated from UCLA (Design|Media Arts) and D graduated from Pomona (Latin American Studies). Both have beautiful campuses, friendly students, offer a broad range of courses (factoring in the CC consortium), and offer the opportunity to get to know classmates/schoolmates/teachers (depending on your UCLA major - S’s program was small, so he got to know his major professors well).</p>
<p>At UCLA, you probably will have to take some large lecture classes for GEs where you won’t get to know the professor, just the TAs; that won’t happen at Pomona. Also at UCLA, there’s a must bigger focus on athletics (Div. 1 vs. Div. 3) as a social event.</p>
<p>Pomona has a great reputation for medical school admissions, and you definitely will be well prepared academically. At UCLA, you might have the opportunity to volunteer/work at the UCLA Medical Center; not sure if the opportunity to intern at a hospital of that calibre exists at Pomona.</p>
<p>When S visited Pomona for the first time, he got lost (forgot his directions) and was so impressed that students he encountered knew his sister and could help direct him. That wouldn’t have happened on UCLA’s campus.</p>
<p>Hope that helps!</p>
<p>With budget cuts, and the continuing bleak outlook for the financial health of our state, my daughter (currently a junior) will not be applying to any of the UCs. UCLA has an excellent reputation, but I am not sure how it will look 10 years from now.</p>
<p>NPR has been following the UC budget problems, and the focused one story on UCLA. They spoke of a history prof who used to have 80 students and two TAs in his classes. Now he has 120 Students and no TA. He says his office hours used to be students discussing his lectures. Now it is kids who are begging to be the 121st kid in his class. They also spoke to an engineering student who said that one his classes used to have a lab component. The entire freshman English staff was put on notice they may get rid of the class.</p>
<p>Unless you are going in with a lot of APs or transferrable CC classes, it is pretty difficult to graduate in 5 years because classes can be difficult to get into.</p>
<p>would anyone happen to know UCLA’s admittance rate into med-school?</p>
<p>I heard that UCLA doesn’t have a pre-med committee to help you put together recs and write a recommendation for you – you have to use an outside source. The pre-med committee at Pomona is extremely helpful and gives mock interviews, gets your recommendation prepared early so that you can apply early in the summer (which is very important since most medical schools have rolling admissions). Also, you’ll get great recommendations since your professors will undoubtedly know you, whereas it would be much harder at a big school like UCLA.</p>
<p>UCLA’s pre-med students who get into Med School is about 50%, which is higher than the national average of about 46%. Pomona is about 90%, as I understand… (this singular fact was a deal-breaker for my D in choosing Pomona)…</p>
<p>Oclement: Those statistics do present a seemingly obvious choice, however, wouldn’t you say that Pomona’s med school admittance rate might be skewed due to the fact that it is SIGNIFICANTLY smaller, therefore its pre-med class would be significantly smaller, say 20 students (at most) vs UCLA of about 200??</p>
<p>Absolutely!!! Stats do not reveal the whole story… 50% of 200 students is NOT equal to 90% of 20 students… But the “real” stat may be that at UCLA you have a 1 in 2 chance of making it to a Medical school, while at Pomona you have a 9 in 10 chance… I believe the odds are pretty clear, regardless of the actual numbers… Question for you is this: which odds would you rather have???</p>
<p>I think that from oclement’s stats you can perhaps infer that a school that has a smaller number of premeds might be able to give them more support to achieve their goal.</p>
<p>Definitely Pomona. Mom of a UCLA grad and Pomona sophomore here. It’s a completely different experience. You’re going to have small classes, an easy time getting those classes and an experience that includes people from all over the country, versus mostly in-state. The advising is great at Pomona and not-so-great at UCLA.</p>
<p>Thank you all, you have all given great comments… at this point I’m about 90/95% set on Pomona</p>
<p>Don’t know how accurate this is, but I heard that Pomona has had in past years a 100% acceptance rate for pre-med students to med schools.</p>
<p>its more like 85-90% but i’ve realized that the school is SOO small, im sure it has less than 20 students that get into MED school, which would yield its seemingly high rate compared to a much larger public school, so the percents might be misleading</p>
<p>In case you hadn’t seen this thread, it may have some information for you:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/pomona-college/900742-premed-pomona.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/pomona-college/900742-premed-pomona.html</a></p>
<p>The advising at Pomona is very good and very personal. Your recommendation letters for med school will be written by profs that really know you and understand you.</p>
<p>@thestarchild:</p>
<p>Yesterday was interesting day for my D. She was at the family doctor for a routine check-up and found her attending physician, a young lady, to be a Pomona graduate… class of 2005. She was an Econ major/Pre-Med at Pomona, and is now an intern at a hospital here in San Diego (she is finishing her MD program at UC San Diego this year). </p>
<p>Did you think the physician was excited to hear that my D is going to Pomona this year? That would be the understatement of the year… esctatic is not even close to describing the feeling… Turns out she is interested in becoming an Anastesiologist… exactly what my daughter wants to be… It was like two peas in the same pod… both of them. She was beyond excited… wrote out a long list with names of profs, classes to take, who to meet, what to do… all the works… including her full name, email address, home & cell phone numbers… My D was equally excited to meet another Sagehen right here in San Diego. The bond formed in that singular meeting was so strong that my D is so, how do you say this, thrilled to the nth degree… that she is going to Pomona.</p>
<p>She really missed the school so much… she’d like to be back… as a student all over again… that is an indication of the bond/loyalty to which some of these Pomona alumni feels towards the school!!!</p>
<p>oclument, that is the coolest story!</p>
<p>The day ended with my D getting a prom date for her HS Prom… “dude” had my D’s car plastered with his invitation… all nicely done… and a dozen orange roses to boot… was she excited or what? 
All-in-all, yesterday was a day she’d remember for a long time… I guess our 17 yr old D has grown up… and ready to be her own girl…</p>