<p>Well, I know this is asking a lot: I want to compare Vassar, Pomona, Swarthmore, and UC Santa Barbara in four areas: atmosphere (relaxed, cordiality, friendliness); biology (1st major); creative writing (fiction and poetry), and religious studies.</p>
<p>Does anyone have anything they can tell me? Thanks very much.</p>
<p>I don’t know about the other schools, but Pomona:</p>
<p>Atmosphere - relaxed, friendly, from what I’ve heard much more relaxed than Swat and much much much smaller than SB
Biology - IDK but we have lotsa premeds
Creative Writing - IDK but we have Jonathan Lethem
Religious Studies - I have heard our department is amazing, I’m dying to take a RST class</p>
<p>thanks for the feed-back, much appreciated.</p>
<p>UCSB is completely different from your other choices. Is money a factor? Otherwise, your other three choices are clearly better academic options. </p>
<p>Vassar, Pomona, and Swat are three of the best colleges in the country. You’ll get a great education at any of them. They are definitely different schools, though. Vassar has a similar atmosphere to Wesleyan, if that means anything to you. Swarthmore is known to be academically intense, and stress is often prevalent, depending on the student. I would think all three schools have a friendly student body. Pomona is relaxed and friendly for sure. The locations are also very different, particularly Poughkeepsie. I recommend an overnight visit at each of them.</p>
<p>As CurseIt pointed out, the Creative Writing dept just hired Jonathan Lethem to teach and, I believe, lead the department. He’s a pretty famous fiction writer. Biology is one of Pomona’s best departments. I don’t know much about Religious Studies, but I’ve also heard it’s good.</p>
<p>Easier to get good grades at Pomona than Swat, based on the experiences of Swat students doing the Pomona semester exchange program (but an enjoyable semester at that).</p>
<p>@Dad2: Which Pomona classes/profs did they take? Would be good to know. :)</p>