I am looking into applying to either Pomona College or CMC for a major in neuroscience and minor/double major in Education. Also potentially premed.
Other notes: I’m only looking at them because they’re really good, in CA (my hometown), and also a part of the 5Cs, and I’m kinda social, so I’ve heard that with the 5Cs there’s going to be plenty to do on the weekends. I’m looking for a less politically liberal environment (my current HS in LA is too liberal for me), a kinda preprofessional school (that’s why not sure about Pomona, because I’ve heard it’s extremely un-preprofessional), good food. Not really into the whole “liberal arts” thing because I kinda hate writing/english, but other top universities I’m looking at basically all have a “liberal arts core curriculum/gened requirements”, which is basically a LAC. so i might as well look at some LACs in my hometown (i wanna stay in CA), and also they have an undergraduate focus, which i kinda like.
side note: is the only difference between a LAC and a top university with a “liberal arts curriculum” that a LAC has a more UG focus than a uni?
**side note: I did not see an “Education” major/minor/sequence in either schools…what should I do?
please let me know which one i should apply to and if u can to answer my many jumbled questions. thanks so much.
You should do a better search, go away to school and find the right school for you.
These schools are both reaches and that’s if your stats are impeccable but you did not share them. Nor did you share your finances meaning what your parents will pay and what the net price calculator says you can afford.
But even so clearly these schools do not fit you.
Have you looked at other schools? Thought if they size you’d like ? Weather. Environment…urban, suburban, rural etc. you being from CA is not relevant to cust, etc at a private school.
So if you provide some basic info we could do a lot better job assisting you.
Between the two, CMC is clearly a better fit for you than Pomona. Also, if you’re looking to apply ED, CMC gives a much bigger “bump” for doing so than Pomona does.
However, I can’t see any student who “kinda hates writing/English” being happy at at the 5C’s. And while there are a few education-oriented classes, there’s not a full-blown undergrad education sequence, as you note.
Seems to me that schools like LMU and Chapman might be a better fit.
They are not good fits because they don’t support your choice of majors. If you want to study Eduction, your best bet is not going to be a LAC but typically a public university in your state. If you want to stay in CA, getting an education degree in state will also serve as a pipeline to jobs as you’ll be getting practical experience at local schools.
Strong education programs sometimes are found beyond premier flagship schools because historically “teaching colleges” often became integrated into university systems as regional universities. To meet your social preferences, you’ll probably want to look for a school that has a significant % of students residential on campus, as opposed to a more commuter-oriented school.
If you are flexible about majors and decide you really want the LAC experience, I agree that CMC is a better fit for what you are seeking in a college. Both CMC and Pomona are extremely selective for admissions and are expensive if your parents are full pay, so check the Net Price Calculator to get an idea of what it might cost. Finally, if you are serious about pre-med, you should keep undergraduate costs to a minimum because med school is extremely expensive.
Would agree that you should broaden your search (for many of the reasons listed above), however Pomona might not be as weird a choice as some have made it out to be. It is a great school for neuroscience, which is a common major for pre-meds there. I don’t think you mentioned what kind of education you said your were interested in, but “education” in general is actually the second highest destination for recent Pomona grads. Obviously one reason is that some of those folks are heading for PhDs to become profs/do research, but another is that quite a few graduates use Teach for America/AmeriCorps for their gap year activities while they apply to med school, etc., and others head for Claremont Grad University’s teacher prep program. But as others have pointed out, both Pomona and CMC are very long reaches for anybody, and both are pretty writing intensive - even for STEM majors. So yeah, make sure you put more colleges on your list.
Yeah, currently also considering most UCs, northwestern, Rice (possible ED), Emory, WashU St. Louis, Case Western Reserve, Cal Poly SLO… USC, Vanderbilt, Pepperdine