Beyond the usual statistics that read “The College received 8,104 first-year applications. This was the most selective year yet, with the College admitting a record-low 9.1 percent of applicants, or 743 students,” there are those few gems:
Students admitted to the Class of 2020 come from 48 states plus the District of Columbia, Guam and Puerto Rico. Admitted students represent 44 nationalities. The admitted group is evenly split between men and women. Domestic students of color make up the majority of the admitted class at 52.3 percent. Of these students, 14.4 percent are Asian, 12.4 percent Black/African American, 16 percent Latino, 8.1 percent multiracial and 1 percent Native American. International students comprise another 11.1 percent of the admitted class. Among the admitted students, 16.8 percent are first-generation college students, meaning neither parent has a four-year college degree.
In addition, this diversity does not seem the dilute the academics at one of the most selective schools in the country.
Students admitted to the Class of 2020 are academically outstanding. From high schools that rank, 92 percent are in the top decile of their class, 18.9 percent are valedictorians and another 9 percent are salutatorians. Median SAT scores are 730 critical reading, 730 math and 740 writing. The median ACT is 32.
An example for other schools in California or for the Ivy League?
The super selective schools get so many top end applicants that they can fill their classes with any desired demographic mix of top end admits, if that is important to them.
^^^What UCB said. I’m “shocked! shocked!!” that an elite LAC with over 8,100 outstanding applicants can some how pick out the class they want…it really isn’t any different from the IVY’s. :-??
All of these elite schools select the classes (sex/race/origin/SES/GPA/class rank/test scores/etc.) they want. Is Pomona’s “formula” any better than Stanford or Brown?
Now, I can see why an applicant, may want to choose Brown over Stanford, or Pomona over Penn, based on the demographic mix, but I don’t see how one is intrinsically better than the other.
EDIT: Oh, and Congrats to everyone admitted to Pomona! =D>
All of these elite schools select the classes (sex/race/origin/SES/GPA/class rank/test scores/etc.) they want. Is Pomona's "formula" any better than Stanford or Brown?<<<
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In terms of diversity, the answer has to be yes, and especially for a West Coast school. How does Pomona compare with Stanford? It is not worth comparing the diversity ratios with the public system in California.
Is this really much different from any of the elite universities and LACs? I don’t have the figures and I’m sure that CC people do, but nothing here strikes me off the top of my head as being markedly different / “better.” All these schools represents from all states and lots of countries.
The numbers for domestic black and Latino students are higher than most other LACs. Good for Pomona but yes, with so many highly qualified applicants they can assemble whatever class they want. (Says the parent of a white girl who was rejected by Pomona. Not one of her top choices so it’s fine.)
To conclude anything about this story, you kind of have to show comparable numbers for comparable schools. How big, precisely, are the differences between these numbers and other top LACs/universities? You say it’s a different story - on what dimensions specifically? Surely it’s not the “all 50 states and lots of countries” dimension.
Using http://www.collegedata.com entries, we can compare Pomona and Stanford on the ethnic mix of domestic undergraduates (which may differ from that of this year’s admits):
School NatAmer Asian Black Latino Multi PacIsl White Unknown
Pomona 0.3 14.2 7.3 15.5 8.2 0.1 47.0 7.5
Stanford 1.2 21.5 6.4 17.4 11.5 0.4 41.0 0.6
What exactly are you looking for in this comparison?
14.4 percent are Asian, 12.4 percent Black/African American, 16 percent Latino, 8.1 percent multiracial and 1 percent Native American. International students comprise another 11.1 percent of the admitted class.
Ok, Stanford is more Asian and less white than Pomona. If that was the story, it would have been good for the OP just to have said that. Undoubtedly Stanford has comparable academic stats. I thought there were going to be some amazing differences.
For some reason the Pomona board draws posters bragging about something GREAT about Pomona that isn’t that different from other top schools. Don’t get me wrong, I agree Pomona is a great school, and have a kid at another 5C who takes some classes there. But a look at the Common Data Set of other schools before posting a brag of some kind is always prudent.
i’ll try to be clearer in the future but I believed that this forum would recognize the term diversity and be aware how the numbers released by Pomona compared to other schools in California.
Isn’t the usual narrative on minorities’ admissions that a school has to lower academic standards when trying to bring a better balance among races? In this case, the LAC that is arguably the most selective in the country seems to admit similar percentages of AA, Latinos, and Asians.
The variances in the ratio are larger than they appear at first.
@intparent, I commented on the racial diversity described in Pomona’s press release. I am not sure why a review of the Common Data Set might be more prudent as the latter covers the enrolled class, which can be quite different considering the yield factor.
The salient fact, again, was the admission distribution for the Class of 2020 at Pomona.
not sure why this is even something to care about?
“I believed that this forum would recognize the term diversity and be aware how the numbers released by Pomona compared to other schools in California.” and?
“My point is that you should have reviewed the Common Data Set of OTHER colleges before assuming Pomona is more diverse.”
For the record, I did not assume anything about the increased diversity at Pomona. The released numbers, if they are correct, show an increase in URM admission over prior years, and especially in AA admission. Further, speaking of assumptions, you should not assume that I was oblivious to the CDS of prior years, which incidentally show a variances of about sixty percent in Asian enrollment between Stanford and the LAC.
A little caution is warranted b/c the first list of Pomona class of 2020 is for admitted students, not enrolled students. There will be melt from that set of admitted students and it would be worth noting whether the melt is proportional for each of the ethnic/citizenship categories.
You are the one who said it should be an example for other schools in California or the Ivy League. My point is that you should research their diversity numbers before assuming Pomona is doing better in this regard, which is how I interpret your comment.
“The salient fact” is who actually shows up on campus in the fall. If, for example, the diverse applicants that Pomona accepts are also accepted at other top schools, and actually matriculate at those other schools (for whatever reason), Pomona’s Press Release is just spin.
“This forum” recognizes the statistical differences between acceptances and enrollees.
