<p>As a parent of a student at Pomona (class of '14), and knowing that many other parents of past, present and future Sagehens participate and help out on CC, why not create a dedicated thread for us to discuss and share our views and opinions of everything to do with Pomona College.</p>
<p>OK, here is mine. My wife attends the Parent's Association group at Pomona and mentioned that in a previous meeting some parents complained to Pomona admin staff about the pre-reqs for Freshmen that sometimes prevent a few from getting necessary credits in courses that help set them firmly on the Pre-Med route. So Pomona listened and loosened things up a wee bit and now those kids can get into Bio and Chem classes as freshmen to give them a good Pre-Med head-start. Next parent's meeting is next Saturday, and she will be attending as well. Always a great thing to get involved... and we have always done so for our kids.</p>
<p>Our second D, a Senior, has also applied to Pomona (RD) and patiently waiting till April when RD are released. That will be very exciting for us to have our 2 kids at Pomona. Second D already had her Pomona interview (Dec 2nd), several sleep-overs with her sister at Pomona, and a John Legend concert at Pomona. Obvious she loves the school and really looks forward to becoming a Sagehen as well. But we shall see... If she doesn't get into Pomona, she already has a Dean's Scholarship and admission to USC (Bio/PreMed) and it won't be such a bad second choice either...</p>
<p>^^^ ??? I don’t see the brag in the context of this site, but then I’m another proud parent, not a young person hoping to get into the school.</p>
<p>Good luck to your second daughter, oclement. The problem I see with your suggestion is that with a school the size of Pomona, anonymity is tough. I seldom post about my son’s past experiences at Pomona because the school is so small that almost any identifying information could compromise his privacy. </p>
<p>Pomona is great. The main complaint I have about it is that the four years went by in the blink of an eye. I was very involved with my kids’ schools in elementary, middle-school, and even a bit in high school. In college, though, we felt it was time to step back. Other than sending in some annual fund support, we didn’t do anything with or for either of our kids’ colleges. I’m not taking anything away from your wife’s and her cohort’s efforts in suggesting changes they’d like to see, but to he honest, if the school didn’t meet my son’s curricular needs just as it was, he would have gone elsewhere.
I know that the school has a parent coordinator and encourages involvement, but I just never felt comfortable getting involved, even though part of me would have loved to. My son was an adult when he loaded all his gear in the car and we set out to Pomona , and there was little I could do for him at that point that it wouldn’t be better to let him do for himself.</p>
<p>as a parent of an incoming freshman, class of '15 ED I, I appreciate your starting this thread plus views of both oclement & moonchild. this seems like a good forum for sharing institutional history, asking questions and getting informed answers. my son is not interested in reading or posting and I may not share alot of what I read on here, hope other parents will weigh in! Once accepted no doubt there are strategies to planning AP’s before high school ends, various gen’l ed approaches, etc that can be useful for novices like me.</p>
<p>If we lived closer, it would be fun to get more involved. Are any of you going to family weekend? Too busy at work and in life to make it this year, but I made a bunch of business trips in the fall that took me to the area, so I at least have gotten to visit pretty frequently this freshman year. </p>
<p>Ajax, I think your son is going to love it if he loved it enough to apply ED. My D said that among her high school friends, she thinks she is the most happy with her college choice. Absolutely great so far.</p>
<p>I also have a D at Pomona, and she loves the school. Academics is pretty intense but not too competitive, offset somewhat by the all the perks offered by the school to all students. Will like to see improvement in how room mates are assigned within residence halls to make sure truly agreeable personalities are placed together. My D has problems with her room mate and there does not seem to be anything the RA can do about it. I guess, it can be a learning experience for her…</p>
<p>^^I’m sorry about your D’s room mate issues, Rocketace. I think this happens at all colleges, no matter how they may be assigned. I believe that at Pomona, the student questionnaires are looked at carefully by the entire group of sponsors, and matched according to interests and personal qualities. Unfortunately, certain personality issues that aren’t brought out in the questionnaire would be very hard for anyone to know until the student arrives and lives with someone. I can also see how it would be hard to switch once everyone has their room mates unless others were also unhappy and wanting to switch. But… I do think it’s possible to do something about whatever the issues are, which would involve the two people who have the issue. The sponsor should try to have the girls figure out something that is workable to both parties- not just ignore it. </p>
<p>If it were my daughter I’d suggest that she write down the problems and talk to her sponsor about how she might approach her room mate. In some issues involving consideration and appropriate behavior, the sponsor might even talk to the room mate herself. I hope it gets better for her during the year. At least the students will have many opportunities to bond with the others in their sponsor group, so your D will have many good friends close by, even if the room mate isn’t one of them.</p>
<p>After this year, your daughter will be able to room with someone she chooses herself, so she has that to look forward to.</p>
<p>I’ve got a daughter in her freshman year at Pomona (class of '14), and I graduated from there in '83. She loves it as much as I did. We live about an hour away from campus so we get to see her more frequently than most parents, and have had some of her new college friends over to our house a few times. She’s on two intercollegiate sports teams, so we get to see those competitions as well. All in all, we’re quite happy with her choice to attend (and believe me, we left the choice up to her. I was jonesing about the tution cost, and Cal would have been half the price).</p>
<p>@Moonchild: Thanks for those kind words… My D plans to get a single-room as a Sophomore. She just hates conflicts and tries to avoid it if possible. Says she is better off living by herself next year. As a parent, there is not much to do for her cos she is an adult now and should be able to take care of herself. Pomona is such a great school, it is not a concern or much of an issue for us.</p>
<p>Thank your for starting this. From what I’m reading on other college posts–RD acceptance letters seem to be percolating in. We’re still patiently waiting on Pomona (& a few other schools) for D. Exciting times! :)</p>
<p>If I recall correctly, last year’s admission letters were mailed out in late March, without any hint from the online site about the pending decision. I am guessing it will be same this year. Even with a D already in Pomona, it is nail-biting time for second D who wants to go there as well. Waiting to find out is as difficult for parents as it is for our kids.</p>
<p>My S was accepted at Pomona and CMC. He wants to study economics, political science and Arabic. I don’t believe Pomona offers Arabic, but CMC does. How easily can kids cross register? Also, any thoughts as we compare the two schools?</p>
<p>@lf: The CMC Arabic department is supposed to be very good. Pomona students can easily take Arabic classes at CMC. Part of the point of the 5-C system is that the schools don’t need to all have small departments like Arabic. CMC has Arabic, and Scripps has Italian, for example. If your son is really set on those three things, though, CMC would be an excellent choice, as CMC is particularly strong/focused in those areas. In my opinion, Pomona has an equally strong economics and politics department, but CMC students really concentrate in the economics and politics area. CMC has more available classes, like finance, that Pomona doesn’t offer. I think the Politics, Philosophy, and Economics major at CMC is better than PPE at Pomona, because it’s more interdisciplinary, if he thinks he might be interested in that. The schools have a bit of a different feel, so he should choose whichever culture he thinks he will fit best in. I recommend you visit some CMC vs Pomona threads:</p>
<p>Thank you, Santeria. CMC has offered my son a wonderful package, and he loved his visit to the school. He glows when he talks about CMC—we think he’d be very happy there.</p>
<p>According to Pomona’s chart “Typical Aid: What Can I Expect?” my son would qualify for financial aid based on our income. However, we own a home and have a small business (farm). Does anyone know how Pomona views assets in determining financial aid?</p>
<p>Try putting some basic financial information into their estimated financial aid calculator (link below). The estimate I received lined up fairly well with my actual financial aid package.</p>
<p>I believe Pomona still caps the value of the principal residence at 1.5x income, which can help if you live where houses are worth a lot. I don’t know if there’s any special treatment for farms. I assume they’re just treated as a normal asset, but that is a wild guess.</p>
<p>I have a question that I am not sure is not an oxymoron…</p>
<p>That one can get the best education at the minimal cost. Does that exist these days? The reason I ask is that parents and students have to weigh and balance out a large number of variables in deciding a College to attend. I’d like to consider only 2 variables… minimal cost and maximal quality.</p>
<p>Wow that is a difficult question to answer and I am not sure there is a clear answer. </p>
<p>DD who is currently going to Pomona had also been accepted at our state flagship honor program. It is a very good program and has a very good reputation and would cost far less money. On face value you have to weigh how much a better education is worth and where it will take you. However there are many other attributes which are not as clearly defined which need to be factored into the equation.</p>
<p>An example is one of my DDs friends who is taking the same course at the aforementioned flagship university, both she and DD needed to visit their professor for questions they had that week. DD was able to see her professor and spend forty five minutes with him getting all her questions answered. Her friend waited forty five minutes in line with thirty other kids all trying to get a couple of minutes of one on one time for their questions.</p>
<p>This is the value add of a LAC education, I guess how much value is placed is up to the individual.</p>