<p>I am trying to decide between these two schools and I would love some outside opinions.</p>
<p>I’m a high school senior, so what I say might not be spot on; but I have visited both UChicago and Pomona, and I also have an AMAZING college counselor at my school who has helped me immensely. So, here’s my take…</p>
<p>Pomona and UChicago are pretty opposite each other when it comes to most things outside of academic rigor. Pomona is small, has more liberal teachers/ a more liberal college philosophy, and is located in sunny SoCal. UChicago is bigger, puts on a front of being incredibly liberal in teaching ideology, but really has teachers who are there to “instruct” (this according to my college counselor), and is located in the colder Chicago (good or bad, depending on what you want). Pomona students also have more of a reputation to be bright in class as well as sociable outside. UChicago students, on the other hand, tend to study study study (again, could be good or bad). Ulitmately, you’ll get a great education at either school… it’s just a matter of what exactly you want in your college experience.</p>
<p>If it changes anything about my post, I live in the suburbs of Chicago and was considering applying to UChicago, but decided against it after talking to my counselor and having visited the Claremonts prior.</p>
<p>My main concern between the two schools is the student body. I feel like UChicago has more kids who like to associate themselves with nerd culture, which could result in an inactive student body outside of the classroom and even a dissolution of values inside the classroom. And I honestly do not know much about Pomona’s student body, from what I have heard is that the students are more laid back but still focused on learning. Well, what does that even mean? Is it a system of just get the grade and then relax or is, like Chicago, a school of involved learning but the students are less awkward? Because what I want is the latter, so I wanted to get some insight on if that is more correct for Pomona.</p>
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<p>I think the latter assessment is more accurate. In my experience, Pomona students are more concerned about learning than actual grades. One instance where this was pretty apparent was when I looked at Pomona’s course review website; people tended to mark a course down more if they felt like they didn’t learn as much in the course as they expected, as opposed to whether or not the professor was incredibly difficult/they got a bad grade.</p>
<p>The best way to describe the majority of Pomona kids would be very balanced. What exactly do I mean by this? While we love learning about a wide variety of subjects (especially with other sharp-minded people), we are also athletic (nearly everyone I know does PE classes/IM sports/pickup games/frequent outdoors trips/varsity or club sports team) and spend lots of time on extracurricular passions. </p>
<p>One thing I’ve noticed (and maybe it’s a function of the sponsor groups and small, tight-knit student body) but people here really like doing things with other people. I eat almost every meal with friends, my room almost always has a bunch of people in it, and group study is popular. A lot of people in my sponsor group, myself included, have done/are taking PE classes and doing IM sports together. A good friend and fellow potential IR major are in the same three of our four classes next semester. For those moments where you need your alone time (perhaps for a serious study session), everyone is very understanding, and there are plenty of great places to escape to. </p>
<p>So to sum up, academics are taken pretty seriously here, but people love to do other things just as much. At Pomona, I couldn’t be much happier, academically and socially.</p>