<p>What's the vibe like at Pomona College? And are there a lot of nerds, considering I'm a nerd?</p>
<p>I think intelectual is what I took away from Pomona, nerdy not so much</p>
<p>I think nerdy/geeky is more the Harvey Mudd kids (guessing) but I do believe that Pomona has a pretty diverse and liberal student body</p>
<p>The kids I know at Pomona are highly engaged in the world around them. They exhibit true, unbridled curiosity, and a willingness to ponder and debate. It’s an outgoing and friendly environment. The word “nerd” connotes a more introverted/awkward personality to me. I would not call Pomona kids introverts at all.</p>
Pomona is more of a self-contained college than the other Claremont Colleges. (It doesn’t really need to share departments with the other schools except for sports and some administration.) I think they have a diverse student body, but also view themselves as prestigious students at a highly-ranked school (which they are). Like there is one Pomona t-shirt that says “Harvard: the Pomona of the East”. I don’t really know what else to say about Pomona. It definitely has less of a stereotype than the other Claremont Colleges.
Everyone rides a long board. Literally everyone. You see the California style of clothes. There are a lot of surfer types. So like, lots of vans, flipflops, all that jazz. People tend to eat healthy and recycle. Students are really engaged in their class work. Most of them are very smart. People are very nice, nicer than any other college I’ve been to. There are definitely more specific stereotypes at the other claremont colleges. For instance, people seem to think that Claremont Mckenna has a very “Fratty” vibe. I just think all the glass buildings are really cool. The people there are nice as well, but they definitely have a work hard play hard mentality. And a lot of the guys are very big athletic types.
The one thing I notice about pomona is that it is not very diverse, and the people of color tend to stick together for support. It’s a friendly environment, it’s just there is such a big class gap at the school, and so that dominates some of the social aspects of the school. Most of the people of color are not from wealthy backgrounds. But. If you’re wealthy, or you grew up in a wealthy environment/ private school or something like that, you will do just fine with all types of people at the school.
If you don’t like"hipsters" don’t come though. It definitely has that vibe.
I don’t really agree with that- speaking as a Pomona student^
I don’t have any friends who ride long boards, and I’ve found Pomona to be extremely diverse and supportive. My friend groups are very, very diverse- socioeconomically, racially, identity wise. People ARE very nice and they ARE very supportive; racial tensions rarely come up on campus. That being said, I know people who don’t feel included and I know some people do stick together which is understandable, but if you want to make a diverse experience here you definitely can.
Hipsters? No…Pomona students are actually fairly uncharacterizable. We definitely have the hipster types but they aren’t a majority. Most students are fairly mainstream, truthfully…
@endoftheworld that was just my experience when I visited. With that being said, I definitely enjoyed my time there. So anybody who is interested, go see for yourself. Even after being admitted to an Ivy League, I am still considering Pomona. So if that means anything to you, which it does for some people, definitely look into it.
As a Pomona student, I’m kind of laughing at the comments in this thread (with the exception of EndOfTheWorld’s), since they sound like people who haven’t actually been here much/at all just repeating stereotypes they’ve heard that don’t have much basis in reality.
I had the same question as jelly765 while I was considering Pomona, since I couldn’t figure out its stereotype as easily as I could places like Swarthmore (nerdy) or Wesleyan (activist). In retrospect, the reason for this is that the line they feed you on tours at every college you visit about there being no such thing as a typical student because of diversity is actually pretty true at Pomona.
I join EndOfTheWorld in strongly disagreeing with the impression that Pomona lacks diversity, and I think most people who go here would feel similarly. Racially, the sponsor group system encourages friendships across racial boundaries, and socioeconomically, Pomona’s endowment (and the genrerous financial aid policies it allows) allow Pomona to have more class diversity than any of the other 5C’s.
The other element of the vibe here that I’d highlight is that we maintain a pretty healthy environment. We’re much more collaborative than competitive (definitely not like U Chicago or MIT), have support services when needed (but that aren’t forced on us when not needed), and typically maintain a good balance between academics and non-academics. That’s not to say that there aren’t any mental health issues on campus, but I’d say that people here tend to be pretty happy overall when compared with some other schools.
Regarding nerdiness in particular, I participated in a nerd camp (Johns Hopkins CTY) for three summers, and I was definitely looking for something similar. Pomona has it’s own brand of nerdiness (consider our obsession with the number 47, for instance), but it’ll differ from person to person (again, diversity). I know some people who are nerdy in a very traditional sense (42, xkcd, Doctor Who, etc.) whereas others who aren’t so much.
Overall, whatever your preferred vibe is (unless it’s socially conservative, the one big gap in our pursuit of diversity), you’ll probably find people here who share it. I hope that helps!
My D is a freshman at Pomona. My impression is the same as that of the two students above. It is the most diverse of all of the elite liberal arts schools. My daughter is a well off (economically) URM. Her friends at Pomona are primarily the kids from her dorm hallway, although she has made friends with some kids from the other 5C’s. She is bringing home a foreign student on spring break. She has found the environment to be cooperative, fun, but intense. She says the only issue is that there are almost no conservative kids on campus, so discussion and debate is not as broad as she would like. She is pretty liberal, but recognizes that the exchange of ideas on campus is important.
I agree with EndOfTheWorld and sdkb01. I specifically reject the “everyone rides a long board,” “it’s not very diverse,” and the “if you don’t like ‘hipsters’ don’t come” comments.
sdkb01 said in their comment most of what I would have wanted to say, so I’ll leave it at that for now. 
Can anyone who currently attends comment on the reason behind the rules in place for off-campus guests? There was an article in the fall about all off-campus guests now need to be registered first, with an ID issued, etc. btw, campus vibe seemed amazing based on an overnight visit. Did notice a lot of security, spoke with one officer a while - he seemed to know each student to a fairly deep level, and security was present at campus parties, at the door, checking IDs.
There was an incidence in which a guest had to be escorted off an ambulance, so Pomona responded to that by having tighter policies for off-campus guests.
MomTwo2, security policies will always vary from college to college, but I wouldn’t say Pomona is that exceptional. The security here seems to get along fairly well with students; they intervene when necessary but don’t do it excessively. I’ve heard stories from places like Tufts where someone was fined $600 for pirating a video on a school network; that definitely doesn’t happen here. Claremont is a very safe environment (it’s a wealthy area); our main crime issue is bike thefts, which I’m sure is true of anywhere. I’ve never been in a situation where I’ve felt unsafe or needed to use the call box to get Campus Safety.
How are the dorms at Pomona?
@4augiekids I was able to tour some and they were amazing. They are all really unique (some even have balconies or fireplaces) and most of them are pretty spacious compared to some other dorms I’ve seen. They said something like 30% of freshmen get singles and as you become an upperclassman the chances of getting a single increases.
D had a single this year as a freshman. Will have a single again next year. Which probably is saving someone a lot of grief. I think she set a record for least amount of visible floor space in a college dorm room in 2014-2015. My wife was horrified.
Lol. My D is hoping for a single. Despite being very smart, she shows no signs of understanding how to use a hanger.
When my D filled out the housing application freshman year she wrote numerous times in the questions “Did I mention I would like a single??” Needless to say she had a single for all 4 years at Pomona, something I think was a blessing for her. The dorms are all terrific, especially compared to the dorm rooms my son has had at Duke!