<p>Parunt57 seems like you are overly touchy as well in regards to the Library. The distance between the middle of Pomona and the edge of Pomona is not far. I think you are wounded over the perceived t-shirt insult. I don’t believe other kids wear Pomona shirts either but in the end this is really a discussion comparing Pomona and Barnard. - Scripps parent</p>
<p>Yeah, I was irritated, but mainly because the description of Pomona and its position in the consortium is constantly mischaracterized by CC posters, who have never visited Claremont and really don’t what’s going on there. However, I don’t intend to debate this topic. I have seen enough posters on the Pomona thread who love to compare the schools in this manner.</p>
<p>I visit the Claremont boards regularly although I don’t post just mainly snoop. Each is pretty proud of their own college which is the way it should be. I don’t think it is really being misrepresented. CMC is known for producing community leaders, kinda the alpha dog personality. It is not always easy for an alpha dog to share the limelight. Accept the fact Pomona is a great college and people love it. It won’t mean CMC is any less great then it already is. Each of the 5 colleges provide strenghths when combined are a killer combination. Competition is best suited for the sports venue.</p>
<p>What the heck are you talking about. Did you hear me denigrate Pomona even once. You are evidently projecting your own feelings, because I never said what you are implying. I don’t have a problem with certain people loving Pomona; all I am doing is correcting mischaracterizations of the Claremont Colleges by other posters. Why are you feeling so aggrieved?</p>
<p>I hate to add fuel to the fire here, but, I did not just make up the t-shirt thing. I know of one S2 of a very good friend of mine who regularly wears a Pomona tee when he comes back east for breaks (which is not as often as his parents would like.) His explanation was very straight forward: that since he’s taken courses there, he’s entitled to the shirt (in fact, he wears a Scripps shirt for the same reason) and also, that it’s easier to explain to people where he does go to college since the follow-up question nearly always is, “Isn’t that near Pomona?”</p>
<p>I bought a Harvey Mudd tshirt from the college store when I first visited in 2003. My s never even ended up applying (he applied ED elsewhere) but I have always, since I was in HS, loved the name of the school, even though a select few on my side of the country had even heard of it. So am I a bad person for wearing a Harvey Mudd T-shirt when I have no affiliation? I do actually wear it, when I exercise. I thought it might be a conversation piece, but no one has ever said a word! And by the way, the library across the street from the bookstore, should anyone care.</p>
<p>When I went back with younger s to see Pomona and CMC in 2007, we didn’t hit the college store-- no tshirt purchase this time.</p>
<p>If someone wants a gently used Harvey Mudd tshirt-- let me know. Size medium, I believe.</p>
<p>johnwesley, regardless of your S2’s one friend who wears a Pomona t-shirt, your statement “in many ways it symbolizes its status as first among equals; it’s even common for students from the other campuses to prefer Pomona t-shirts to their own.” is quite false, which you yourself just agreed with by saying he wears a Scripps shirt for the same reason. On the 5Cs I’m quite certain no one would wear a Pomona shirt because they believe it to be better than their own particular college. Perhaps you are confusing them with the t-shirts some of the colleges make portraying the sterotypes of the others, which occasionally mock Pomona for the elitist attitude a few of its students have. Pomona is the largest and perhaps most well known of the 5Cs, but as monydad said, they each have different focuses and can’t be directly compared, and I wouldn’t consider Pomona the “first among equals” by any standards. </p>
<p>As for how much Pomona students make use of the Consortium, I don’t know the specifics, but Pomona does limit its students more than the other 5Cs do. As for dance, the Claremont Colleges Ballroom Dance Company has members from all of the 5Cs and has about 50 members, and Pomona offers plenty of ballroom dance classes.</p>
<p>Johnwesley, I agree with Suin - you have one friend who wears a Pomona t-shirt and that is somehow indicative of Pomona’s position among the Claremont Colleges is ridiculous. Furthermore, I live in California and Pomona is no more well-known than CMC. Generally, if people know about one of schools, they are also familiar with the other schools. To be honest where I live CMC is better known than Pomona.</p>
<p>I seem to have struck a nerve, here. You know, to paraphrase Sigmund Freud, sometimes a t-shirt is just a t-shirt. :)</p>
<p>You haven’t struck a nerve, you drew a false conclusion from a single point of data and were called out on the inaccuracy so that other readers would not be given a false impression of a school. A t-shirt is indeed just a t-shirt, until someone purports it as a sign of superiority.</p>
<p>Now that the matter has been resolved, perhaps we should return to the original purpose of the thread?</p>
<p>I have no personal experience with Pomona (have not even looked it up and won’t pretend to know anything about it! 
), but my D graduated from Barnard in 2009.</p>
<p>To address a couple of points the OP had:</p>
<p>–yes, indeed, Barnard is an excellent place to continue serious dance training, even if you are not a dance major.
–Our d lived very modestly in NYC while at Barnard (we are not wealthy by any stretch) and she did indeed find inexpensive and exciting things to do there. She learned all about Restaurant week, used free and reduced admissions to shows and exhibits offered by the college activities office, took dance classes in the City, attended dance auditions for shows (if you are “kept” for a while, it’s a fun, free dance class in and of itself!); attended free concerts in Central Park; and just generally was excited to live in and explore NYC for 4 years using public transportation (we did not even continue her car insurance coverage!);
-Study abroad opportunities abound for Barnard students. Check into that!
- And any negative implications of going to an “all girl school” just did not come into play for my d. She had guy friends for sure (dated some), but also made many lasting friendships with her Barnrad classmates;</p>
<p>Those are the things I remember the OP asking about, any way…hope it helps and best to her in making her choice!!!</p>
<p>“Why are you feeling so aggrieved?” </p>
<p>Not so! Some of the issues you found fault with seem rater benign, where the library is located and if a non Pomona student wears a Pomona t-shirt. I sensed anger and resentment which are not so benign. Hence the alpha dog remark and the need to be top dog.
This string has devolved and I appologize for my part in it. I better go back to being quiet.</p>
<p>^^Nevertheless it’s illustrative of a larger point which is that by attending one Claremont College the OP would, in effect, be signing on to a peculiar kind of parochialism, the synergistic effects of which were just demonstrated here; you literally cannot say anything about one without igniting a debate about the other four (although we haven’t heard from the graduate students, yet.) It’s sort of like the normal LAC bubble multiplied by five.</p>
<p>I’m not saying one type of campus is superior to the other; I’m sure there are a lot of “alpha types” who find that kind of atmosphere invigorating. I’m just saying, Barnard and Columbia plus, New York City, perhaps have their own kind of parochialism.</p>
<p>You can say whatever you want about any of the Claremont Colleges, just try to be accurate. If that is being what you call “alpha”, so be it. Maybe I am an alpha type, but at least I don’t try to sound pretentious (peculiar kind of parochialism) and I don’t exaggerate my knowledge of things of which I have limited familiarity.</p>
<p>You want accuracy? Try this on for size: Pomona is the oldest and richest of the Claremont Colleges and has the biggest, nicest campus. Happy?</p>
<p>Many people say that Scripps has a nicer campus.</p>
<p>Further proof that my friend’s S2 has good taste in t-shirts.</p>
<p>Given your line of reasoning, maybe all Wesleyan students should wear Pomona and CMC t-shirts, since they are ranked higher by US News & World Report.</p>
<p>So, that’s the bee in your bonnet; Pomona ranks higher than CMC in the USNews poll so you automatically think everyone is an alpha type that equates good taste with a magazine poll. Nice try. FYI, I don’t particularly buy what CMC is selling; it’s a pre-professional liberal arts college, which is an oxymoron, whose sole purpose is to tap into the Wall Street, i-banking zeitgeist, on an ugly campus, that probably would sink into the earth without Pomona to act as its liberal arts beard.</p>
<p>Oh come on, johnwesley- let it go and stop flaming/antagonizing. Besides- CMC isn’t ugly. Harvey Mudd-- now *that’s" ugly, LOL. I still love HM and my HM t-shirt (though its still up for grabs-- any takers??) but the campus-- is not its selling point.</p>
<p>How about we get back on topic??</p>