<p>I have the option of transferring from Pomona to Wesleyan in the Fall, mainly for personal reasons. I'm having a really difficult time reaching a decision, so I thought I'd ask on here.</p>
<p>Thoughts on both schools?</p>
<p>It's hard to say w/out knowing the reasons but prestige wise I'd say it's a step down. I don't really know what you're asking...</p>
<p>I agree that it depends on why you are transferring (although there are plenty of people who will have heard of Wesleyan who might mistake Pomona for a skin cream.) I'd say the biggest difference would be in location; you'd be transferring from an upper-middle class suburb to a fairly down-to-earth, blue collar city where it definitely snows in the winter and rains in the spring.</p>
<p>There was a short thread on this last year on the Wesleyan board:
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=148271&highlight=pomona%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=148271&highlight=pomona</a></p>
<p>I would stay at Pomona. Not to be rude, but I think Pomona, even as a really small school all the way in California carries more weight on the east coast than does Wesleyan. Both are great though.</p>
<p>Disregard prestige completely. It's a stupid reason to choose a school, and the differences are negligible. </p>
<p>What led you to consider transferring from Pomona?
What do you think Wesleyan would offer that Pomona does not?</p>
<p>The above comment is correct. The differences between the two schools ae negligible with regard to prestige and academics. If your personal reasons are strong enough, then I would go through with it.</p>
<p>In CA that's a no for prestige. Pomona is often compared with Amherst and Williams, I don't think Wes is quite up there. I'm sure academics are similar but I know pomona is amazing for med school placement, I'm not sure how Wes compares. But I don't know if this even matters to you, what are your future plans? I think the student bodies might vary a bit, Wesleyan has a rep for being extremely liberal and hippie-ish.</p>
<p>yeah I would assume a school's prestige fare's best in it's home state.</p>
<p>brand, whats your major @ wesleyan? (just curious)</p>
<p>philosophy</p>
<p>but I'm also interested in math and japanese, so I may minor or double in one of those if time permits.</p>
<p>I wonder what the cross admit data looks like? Imo Pomona attracts a much stronger applicant pool as it's the top lac on the west coast behind Stanford and I've just never heard of anyone turning down Pomona for Wes.</p>
<p>Are there any financial limitations?</p>
<p>Overall, I do think Pomona has a stronger student body, though not by much. If one goes by the age old comparison of SAT scores (USNews 07):</p>
<p>Wes 1300-1490
Pomona 1380-1530</p>
<p>Pomona has also been noted as probably the most difficult LAC to get into these days, so I'm sure that helps its student body profile. As far as cross data, if one were to find students that applied to both Wes and Pomona, I think many would choose Wes as it seems to have a very self-selected applicant pool due to its unique environment. But even then I find it hard to believe that many people would apply to both Wesleyan and Pomona as Pomona is, from what I hear, more moderate whereas Wesleyan is very liberal. People are usually one way or the other.</p>
<p>EDIT: Wes also ranks slightly above Pomona on the revealed pref. rankings. Again I think this is due to the fact that most people applying to Wesleyan really want to go either there or Brown or one of the few very quirky liberal schools like that.</p>
<p>actually, someone I hosted during wesfest this past April (wesleyan's admitted student extravaganza) emailed me to let me know they had chosen Wes over Pomona (their top 2 choices)... so it does happen:)</p>
<p>that's a pretty big difference brand. almost as big as you're going to get if you compare Wes with any other top school, such as Amherst or Brown.</p>
<p>Williams 1340-1530</p>
<p>And I don't know how many applicants would put their political beliefs before other considerations, such as caliber of the school. Pomona is hardly a conservative school and I would assume that people who apply to Wes would apply to other top lac's. And I think all small liberal arts colleges have a unique environment so I don't see why Wes would be the only one to have a self-selecting pool, and if that were the case it wouldn't be geared towards stronger applicants, just more liberal ones.</p>
<p>The low end difference is large; the high is not. Were one to assume the middle is the average score, Wes' mid SAT score is 1395 and Pomona's is 1455. Yes, 60 points, but in the grand scheme of things not a big deal. It also helps to reiterate the fact that Pomona is the most selective LAC and happens to focus strongly on academics, whereas Wes has a very self-selected applicant pool and really focuses on fit.</p>
<p>
[quote]
And I don't know how many applicants would put their political beliefs before other considerations, such as caliber of the school. Pomona is hardly a conservative school and I would assume that people who apply to Wes would apply to other top lac's. And I think all small liberal arts colleges have a unique environment so I don't see why Wes would be the only one to have a self-selecting pool, and if that were the case it wouldn't be geared towards stronger applicants, just more liberal ones.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>My point in that post was not to focus on the political environment of Pomona but to note that Wesleyan is very unique as perhaps one of the most liberal schools in the country with a very non-traditional, quirky environment. These things would come into consideration, and obviously many applicants don't find the caliber of Pomona any more imposing than Wesleyan since Wes ranks higher on the RP ranking.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I don't see why Wes would be the only one to have a self-selecting pool, and if that were the case it wouldn't be geared towards stronger applicants, just more liberal ones.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Exactly. Wesleyan seems to be a love or hate kinda thing. Most people that end up applying absolutely love it; it doesn't fall into the group of top LACs/unis that people apply to simply because they are amazingly good schools. Any student that researches their schools will find that Wes is considerably different from mainstream schools and they will either be turned on or off by that.</p>
<p>I totally know people who chose Wes over Pomona (plus people like myself who visited and considered both and chose to apply to Wes early, which isn't quite the same thing, but anyone who can get into Wes at least has a shot at Pomona, it's still indicative of something). </p>
<p>But anyway, my feeling on the prestige thing is that it's negligible. I mean, sure, Pomona is considered slightly more selective now, but Wes has a longer history of prestige. So basically, if someone is generally knowledgeable about LACs, then they will know about both and probabl yhtink highly of both. If someone is not knowledgeable about LACs, they probably won't know of either unless they live near one or know someone going to one — remember, much of the general populace doesn't know much about Amherst or Williams either. </p>
<p>Basically, if you do well at either, you will be in a good position for getting a job or getting into a grad school (of any type). I mean, yes, if you want to stay on the West cost Pomona might be better (unless you want to go into the media industry—what is it that you want to do?), but overall they are both highly prestigious LACs, with all the advantages and disadvantages that comes with that when one the job market. </p>
<p>Anyway, I think the major consideration here should be the feel of the school. I only visited once, but as far as I could tell, Wes is a LOT quirkier. And the towns are very different. Coming from Baltimore, Claremont seemed unreal, creepily Disney-land perfect, while Middletown reminded me of home a bit — it's a slightly yuppifed working class town (and don't worry, nowhere near as dangerous as Baltimore). And of course the weather is a big difference—New England vs. LA, both with their advantages and disadvantages. </p>
<p>If you have any questions, feel free to ask. In the end, I think it comes down to your gut—you wanted to transfer for a reason. Do you still feel that way?</p>
<p>ETA: RE: the SAT scores. Not to argue that Pomona isn't more selective, because I think it is, but SAT scores might not be the best judge. Maybe I'm wrong, but when I visited both, I got a feeling that Pomona put more weight on SAT scores than Wes did in the admissions process. </p>
<p>And Brand is right that there are definietly people who would apply to Wes who wouldn't dream of applying to Pomona--even more who wouldn't apply to Amherst and certianly not Williams. They attract different student bodies. I for example would have applied to Pomona, as one of the most "normal" schoolsI applied to, with Brown and Carleton being other top choices (both probably before Pomona, except maybe for the weather issue with Carelon), and Vassar, Reed and Oberlin being my other, slightly lower choices (though, actually, I possibly would have chosen Vassar over Pomona, who knows). Amherst and Williams weren't appealing to me at all. </p>
<p>Sure, some people apply to Wes because it's a top LAC and therefore apply to other top LACs, but I get the feeling from talking to my friends that a lot more apply because it's the top "hippy liberal" LAC, with no interest in the higher ranked LACs that don't have that reputation. There's a reason Wes is known as a Brown backup school and not an Amherst/Willimas/Swarthmore/Pomona backup school! (Not that I like that reputation either, but it does seem like half the people here were either rejected from Brown early or decided to apply to Wes early over Brown as a close second choice ;) ) </p>
<p>ETA 2: Wow, this is really long. Sorry!</p>
<p>ETA 3: The student body at both is going to be really strong acedmeically. Period. (And even if the Pomona student body is slightly stronger, there will be students from the other Claremont colleges in Pomona classrooms, and if you take that into account it's REALLY all even). The feel of that student body is going to be more important.</p>
<p>well I'd choose the school with the academically stronger students, most people come to love their school anyway.
and I know it's not a huge difference between sat scores but if you are going to use sat range as the sole indicator of applicant quality than the difference is significant.</p>
<p>And of course there are exceptions. I'm sure someone chose Wes over Williams, Harvard etc. But in general I believe this is not the case.</p>
<p>addy - if I had done that, I would've chosen Washington University in St. Louis, which has a higher SAT midrange as well (1360-1520). However, I think that once one is faced with the decision of where to spend their undergraduate years, other factors come into play, especially when the difference in the academic ability of the student body is not drastic.</p>
<p>EDIT:</p>
<p>
[quote]
I'm sure someone chose Wes over Williams, Harvard etc. But in general I believe this is not the case.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Actually, again, the RP rankings show Wesleyan wins cross-admit battles more often than Pomona, which ranks 24th compared to Wes' 22nd. IMO, a difference of two spots is negligible as well when determining which one more students would go to, but it at least negates the idea that most students choose Pomona. ;)</p>
<p>Anyways, we're kinda hijacking this thread and turning it into a VS. debate, so let's return it to the OP's purpose.</p>
<p>I hate to keep posting, but I will provide one more link. According to the RP rankings, in cross-admit battles between Wesleyan and Pomona, Wes wins 66% of the time.</p>
<p>page 32</p>
<p>If that cannot be attributed to the fact that Wes has clearly better academics (it does not), it must be because those that apply to Wes have it as one of their top choices.</p>