[Also posted in the Columbia thread to balance out bias!]
Hi all! I am amazed to have been accepted to both Columbia and Pomona, and am now faced with a decision I never thought I’d have to make. I intend to major in English and History, but am also open to minor in/replace one of those majors with environmental policy or linguistics! Here are some important factors to me…
Mental health. I have ADHD (and possibly an undiagnosed mood disorder) which means I have a very inconsistent work ethic. Thus, I want to be in a school that fosters mental health - both administratively, e.g. with solid, easily available counseling, as well as a supportive, collaborative (and not super competitive) student body - e.g. lots of study groups. In this respect, I think Pomona definitely takes the cake.
Surrounding environment. I live 40 minutes from NYC and have been there 2+ days a week for the last year. I LOVE the energy and the pace, and also would have my best friends and family close by. However, I also feel that CA's sunny warm weather would do my mental and physical health wonders. So, this one's a toss-up.
Internships/research/study abroad opportunities. Columbia's internship opportunities are truly unparalleled, and I believe I'd have some truly awesome opportunities. I know Pomona is ~1hr from LA on the metrolink (a little further than I am from NYC now), which does help but just can't beat Columbia. I believe both have great study abroad opportunities, but I haven't researched them thoroughly. Also worthy to mention - Pomona fosters much closer relationships between professors and students, which may help on the internship/research fronts if I take initiative.
Social life. This one's also a toss-up, since I want to be surrounded by (generally) liberal, kind and diverse people who are intellectual but not ultra-competitive. By this metric, Pomona's vibe certainly is a better fit for me. However, Pomona is also smaller, so there would be less opportunities to make friends (or go on dates, considering I'm gay). Meanwhile, Columbia is situated directly in a large city that I'm comfortable navigating, and I can definitely make friends from other colleges my friends are attending.
I plan on visiting both colleges prior to May 1. However, I’d love any and all input and advice! Thank you!
Well, frick, you have a very tough decision to make. Both excellent schools (two of our favorites), have visited both with my son, and while I live in and am from SoCal, I went to school in, and used to live in NYC. You’ve lined up the pros and cons perfectly. The only thing I could add is for you to not discount how homesickness (for family, friends, familiar things) can affect a person. I would say Pomona for the reasons you’ve listed, but being so far from home could be tough. I don’t think it would be tough because someone has ADHD, but it could be if you’re prone to depression and/or anxiety. That said my friend’s daughter, with mental health issues, went to college a full day’s drive away from home. Her family just had her set up with a good therapist and psychiatrist in the town where the college is, and she has done fine. She was finally diagnosed with bipolar disorder, but is totally stable and thriving, and just about to finish up her third year at college. I think, even if you do struggle at all, the Pomona community will be very suppportive.
Oh, one other thing, I don’t think Pomona will be too small for making friends, and finding people to date, because of the consortium.
It might just come down to the visit…and as people say, do you see yourself there, do you see your people there.
Good luck, and please update this thread as you go.
My daughter went to Pomona, we live in NYC. On the LA thing, students don’t go into LA much. If you want to enjoy City life Pomona is not for you in this regard. If on the other hand you enjoy the outdoors-- hiking, biking, camping etc. Pomona (and all the Claremont Colleges) cannot be beat. My daughter did treks and hikes and campouts in the most beautiful places in America while she was there.
@jqueens as a Pomona student I have to disagree. I think things have really changed in the recent years and the school really is trying to make LA part of the experience. Pomona just brought a coach bus last year for 50 students to be able to take them to trips and such. I went to LA once a week and that was pretty standard for most of my friends. Of course it’s not going to be like living in the heart of NYC, but the city is readily accessible thanks to the metrolink train station 2 block away + all the transit options from Union Station. Pomona also has a lot of event funding for off-campus trips thanks to the Pomona College Internship Program + PEC Off Campus Trips + Smith Center Off-Campus Trips. The college maintains a list of places to go to as well as how to get to them via public transport and has a competition for the person who goes to the most places in LA in a year: https://www.pomona.edu/life-at-pomona/47-things-do-leaving-pomona
Of course you could live on campus without ever venturing out to LA. The colleges have a lot to do themselves and the commute time does mean you can’t really go anytime besides weekends unless you have a car or no classes that day. That’s a conscious choice some kids make, and I think that’s part of Pomona’s balance- you get a lovely, quiet, tranquil area to experience college, right next to some of the best outdoors areas in the world, but if you want to get out to LA, it’s there.
Sorry, I don’t mean to undermine your D’s or your experience, so please don’t take it the wrong way. It could very well have been the case for her. I realize that there can be so much subjectivity to the college experience. Maybe other people can chime in too.
@nightingale13 Congrats! Pomona and Columbia were #1 and #2 on my student’s list also. In the end, she chose to be a Sagehen because of the community. They are similar from an academic perspective but very different from a community perspective. They are both rigorous, but in the end Columbia may be more like a pressure cooker, although being right in the city has its advantages. Good Luck. You can’t go wrong really with either.
I would not worry about the home sickness comment. If you don’t have a touch of home sickness, you haven’t gone far enough away from your parents. College should present challenges, both academically and personally. My daughter is a junior at Pomona. She seems to know a lot of gay students, but I am not an expert on the degree of diversity for LGBT students. I think you will find the answer when you visit the two schools. They are so different that it will probably be readily apparent.
Regarding 2: One thing I’d take into consideration is the advantages of being able to explore somewhere new. I chose Pomona over a college in an east coast city near my home, and while I love that city, I’ve already explored it a lot (as I imagine you have with NYC). Getting to explore all the new destinations in Los Angeles that I hadn’t been to before (and wouldn’t have ever been able to go to if I had chosen the east coast school) ended up being a really big plus.
Regarding 3: For research opportunities, I think Pomona is better than Columbia, in part because there are no graduate students here, so good research opportunities actually go to students as opposed to being taken by more qualified post-grads.
Regarding 4: Don’t underestimate the importance of a vibe that fits with you; in a lot of ways, that’s the single most important thing when choosing a school. Don’t be worried about the size—Pomona will have far more people with whom you’ll want to become friends (or date) than you’ll ever have time to become friends with haha, especially given the consortium. There is a very strong LGBTQ community here and at the other 5C’s.
@sdkb01 Columbia College (and Barnard) students do not in any way compete with graduate and PhD students for research opportunities. They are two very different constituencies. Given your choice of major, there are many internships available to undergraduates at the UN, Council on Foreign Relations and various NGOs that are specifically for undergraduates. Research opportunities are one thing that are not in short supply at a major research university
A major misconception is that undergraduates compete against graduate students in their courses, or are expected to perform at “graduate” level in upper level classes. This is not the case. The course list indicates the level of students. Faculty take this into consideration.