Hi everyone, I am a rising junior interested in Pomona college. I was wondering if anyone who is knowledgeable about Pomona could provide some insight. How is the workload? Where does it fall on the scale of like Brown to UChicago? And how hard/common is it to maintain a 3.6+ GPA? I was also wondering about how big the school feels. Obviously the 5Cs are together but how closely connected are they in both a physical and social sense? Does the school feel like one medium sized school or does it feel like 5 small schools socially in terms of parties, friends, etc. And how connected are they physically? Are they spread out or are they close enough to each other that it really feels like one campus?
Hey @Max147 , I am the parent of a Pomona student. I won’t be able to accurately portray any “coolness” factors, but can share a few basic responses to your questions :-).
The workload is manageable for sure. Pomona is based on taking 4 courses per semester. The intention is for you to delve more deeply into the subject matter of each course. Having juggled 6 courses back in the day, I believe their approach is civilized.
How common for a 3.6 GPA? I can not answer that. Based upon my child’s experience, it very much depends on the course and the professor.
The 5Cs are contiguous, which is to say, they border each other. They share a library and some schools share certain resources like labs, etc. I can attest that is common to eat at the dining halls of other schools. Pad Thai is fantastic at Pitzer. It is custom-made and worth the wait in line. Salads are super at Claremont, etc. The cafe at Scripps is delightful and charming. Having the other schools nearby is the best of both worlds. Each has their own “feel” in the sense of architecture and landscaping and even in their student “vibe”.
If you are lucky enough to attend Pomona, you may find you spend most of your time on its campus (and, in my opinion, the campus is a little jewel–just beautiful), but it so nice to be able to walk to the rose gardens at Scripps, or visit the Kravis Center at Claremont (google its images…though the images don’t do it justice because the photographs don’t really capture the transcendent quality of the building and its environs) or even stroll downtown which is really close by.
Of all the schools we visited, Pomona “feels” closest to Brown in its approach to education and the types of students that choose to attend each. U Chicago has a reputation of being somewhat more intense.
I hope you have the opportunity to visit the schools at the top of your list while they are in session, and preferably for a longer period of time if you are considering applying ED. It is worth taking the time to find the ones to which you deeply feel connected.
Best of luck!
@CallieMom thank you for the information about Pomona. It is one of my top choices and it is good to know that it is similar to Brown, which is my top choice as of now.
@Max147 Well, similar yes in many respects, but the campus feel is quite different in my opinion. I am a Pomona parent and attended Brown. Brown feels East Coast preppy and Pomona feels West Coast accessible. I strongly encourage you to visit both in person and meet students and faculty.