I was lucky enough to get accepted into all of my top choices, and at the moment, Pomona and Williams are my top two choices, followed by CMC, Bowdoin, and Bates. All the other schools I applied to aren’t financially possible for my family. I am currently totally undecided on a major, and I have aspects of all of these schools I like and dislike. I’m not super interested in rankings or anything, I just want to know if anyone would choose one of these schools over the others, and their reasons for it. Hopefully that’ll help my decision make a little more sense. Thank you all.
Since finances are an issue, figure out if travel to the east or west coasts will be a significant cost factor.
Since you are “totally undecided” on your major, consider removing CMC from your list of choices as it is a bit more specialized than the others.
Williams and Pomona are probably the two best options of those listed for someone who’s undecided. Have you had the opportunity to visit both?
I would think the main difference is consortium outside LA vs. small-town New England. If you’re fine with (or like) the small-town thing, and if you think that down the road you’re more of a northeast NY-Boston-DC person than a West Coast person, than Williams probably has the edge. Otherwise, maybe not.
The other main factor is being at the college itself: the vibe, kind of people who go there, academic and housing practices, things to study that sound interesting, etc. Those five schools are all so high-quality that if any jumped out very clearly ahead on those things you should probably just go there.
Focus on Bowdoin, Williams & Pomona.
Nothing wrong with Bates, but I think that the other schools offer much better locations.
Claremont McKenna course of study is designed for those who are set on their major.
I’d pick Pomona over Williams (personal preference).
Thank you for your response, I think I must not have made my message clear enough in my little description, but you nailed it! I think I am going to make another thread that is less confusing.
If I was making a case for Pomona, I’d point to the Claremont Consortium and the amazing weather. Pomona also has fewer students which can be a pro or a con depending on your perspective.
Williams has more name recognition.
You are going to get a different answer from everyone since they are all good schools for different reasons. Personally I’d go with Pomona because it’s top-notch across the board, part of the 5-school consortium, and warm weather. But really that’s more based on lifestyle choices than academics and I wouldn’t fault anyone who picked any one of the others. Congrats on some great options.
I would also pick Pomona College for location. Claremont is a nice college town with restaurants, sushi bars, and skiing close by, with warm perfect weather all year round. Its near the San Gabriel Mountains, but also close to LAX and Los Angeles for flying in and out, and also for all LA has to offer. Pomona has good connections to summer programs in the sciences. The consortium is nice. The library is better than the average LAC library.
Williams, while a great school,is hard to get to and really pretty unpleasant in the winter, way worse weather than Boston, its more like upstate NY for weather. Deep snow. Grey skies. Lots of precipitation and moisture. Williamstown is 4000 residents. There is an art museum, and then we are running out of things to do. Leaf peeping in the fall is beautiful. Most Williams students are athletic, and they like to hike and ski in the Berkshires and also up in Vermont’s Green Mountains are a drive away and beautiful. Some students become depressed by the mostly grey weather in Western MA. Summers are nice at Williams but you will not be there in the summer. One nice aspect of Willams College is the 4-1-4 calendar which lets you travel to Italy and other fun places when the weather is absolutely freezing in January. It will give you a fantastic break from the small town, so in that sense, Williams can be managed if you are not a winter athlete, you can get out of Williamstown every January and study elsewhere.
@Hodag2019 , that is an incredibly impressive list!
Pomona is my choice.
Beautiful weather.
Socially, you have the consortium
Laid back vibe compared to the others on the list.
All beautiful. All fantastic. So let’s go with my perception of winter and early spring temps. Lol.
Warm - CMC. Pomona
Cold - Grinnell Lawrence F &M
Colder - Williams Bates Bowdoin
Coldest - Midd Colby St Olaf Carleton Macalaster
Pomona.
I like the west coast vibe and the weather. 5 school consortium. CMC is too pre-professional.
I don’t like middle of nowhere.
A great but a difficult choice between the two wonderful schools. You’ll have to make your decision based on:
- the location: Pomona with its proximity and easy access to L.A. vs. remote but quaint Williamstown
- the weather: CA vs. NE
- strengths, resources and opportunities relating to your intended field(s) of study
- FA differences, if any
- diverse student composition, if that’s important to you
- career support services
Pomona is very unique in comparison to Williams in that it’s a part of the consortium that’s made up of 7 highly selective colleges collectively known as the Claremont Colleges, aka 7Cs, 5 of which are undergrad institutions. The consortium share the central library, cross-registration and other resources with much social interactions across colleges while maintaining an individual identity as a college.
We loved both colleges equally when my son was admitted to both and was assessing their strengths and weaknesses in relation to my son’s needs. We never took rankings into our consideration between the two, either, because we believed that Pomona’s ranking doesn’t really reflect their actual strengths. You should make your decision by paying each college a visit.
Pomona has the consortium, which will allow you to take classes at CMC as well as the other three Claremont Colleges. I’m not sure how much more “specialized” or how or why one needs to be “set” in their major (it is a LAC with a variety of majors available to its students. Having said that the only reason I’d pick CMC would be for its PPE program or if I sought a more pre-professional rather than intellectual community or specifically wanted to study economics, finance, international relations, government and/or public affairs.
Williams is very isolated. sporty, and cold.
Hello everyone! I have recently finished receiving my college decisions and I would like to know what all of you would do from the list of schools below. Let us assume every school was equally priced. I don’t want you to take into consideration what I might be looking for, all I want to know is what school you would choose, and why. Let that include a major, location, or just overall vibe. Thank you all!
Williams College
Pomona College
Bate College
Bowdoin College
Claremont Mckenna College
Middlebury College
Colby College
Carleton College
Lawrence University
Macalaster College
St. Olaf College
Grinnell College
Franklin and Marshall College
I think collectively, the 7Cs are shoehorned into virtually the same campus footprint as a single NESCAC college. A 6500 student university has a slightly different feel, probably more like Brandeis than Williams.
Congratulations! I’d say Williams if you don’t mind a small town environment and cold, including getting out of bed on very cold, icy mornings to go to class. It’s just incredibly outstanding. I’d love to go to Bowdoin, and Bates is one of my favorites, just hard to turn down all that Williams offers. You could make an argument for any of these. The other New England/Midwest schools are excellent too. If you really loved any of them, you could very well choose them. The CA schools are also excellent. The weather is way, way better, which is very appealing. We were through there a couple of years ago. The campus(es) did not speak to us, or our prospective student, and I’d hate the traffic to LA, but certainly I could see them appealing to lots of people. With cost not an issue, and rankings not that important, and a specific major not driving things, choose where you think you’d love it and cannonball right into that water. Good luck!
@Hodag2019, Maybe you could share a few of those aspects that you like and dislike. You have terrific choices and the final decision is going to come down to personal preference. Academically you can’t make a bad choice, but you might prefer one environment over another.
Williams and Pomona are different on many levels – e.g., size (with the consortium), weather, immediate surroundings – but there’s a lot of overlap in the personality-type of the students. My son is a Williams graduate, and he had a wonderful four years there, but several of his close friends went to Pomona. Post graduation, they’ve all done well in graduate/professional school admission and finding work in the careers of their choice.
If you haven’t visited, do so. Usually, at least in the case of Williams, a visit will tip the scales in one direction or another. My observation is that those students who are happiest at Williams choose it because of its insular, mountain village setting not in spite of it.
Since no one has mentioned this, I feel compelled to have you think about Bowdoin.
It is just a very open and intellectually diverse school. The students aren’t sporty preppy imho but the biggest student club is the outdoors group. They do so much to bring entrainment and speakers to the campus. It is a focus for the administration.
It also has a local reputation of being socially progressive, but not in a strident way.
I could even go as far to say that an old line, New England liberal arts powerhouse, is “hip”.
Smart and hip with old school cache (at least with the east coast establishment).
That’s quite an achievement to pull off.
To be popular and respected on the private golf club circuit, while simultaneously being home to the founder of Black Lives Matter . It’s quite a place.
They also assign every student with a local family who adopts you for the four years. If you can’t get home for some of the holidays, you have a home. Like having the benefit of parents right there if you need them.
And the little town is kind of an amazing place with over 50 restaurants featuring choices from around the globe.
^^^ This