Washington and Lee is a top liberal arts school yet really isn’t diverse at all.
It may or may not “dilute the academics” - a median score of 730 only means that half the students are 730 or higher. There could be a fairly sizable cluster of very low scores at the bottom. I suspect there is not, but we can’t be sure from this evidence.
“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.”
It may surprise the Californians on this board to learn that not everyone is from California or has deep, intimate knowledge of all those California schools.
Normally when one makes a claim that X is just as good as Y or X is even better than Y, one actually just shows the supporting data rather than posting the data from X and assuming everyone carries the data from Y in their heads.
I still don’t see how this is wildly different from any other elite school. Intparent is right.
“Washington and Lee is a top liberal arts school yet really isn’t diverse at all.”…so what. when I look for a school I want a safe place with most students living on campus and a very high retention rate,close to a hospital and airport.
and importantly to me no greek life or very little if they have it. also single rooms available in dorms and ac in the dorms. supportive learning environment like my bio professor knows me and wants me and the other students to learn.
washington and lee would not be on my list …but not because they have met some threshold on “diversity”. if that floats your boat…great but what does that matter? do people actually go up to people of other “groups” and say hey your diverse can we be friends so I can get some validation or something? (never mind do not answer that)
zobroward, like you my son did not care at all about diversity at his college. However, both of my daughters did care very much about it, and rejected schools that did not appear diverse when they visited. They wanted an environment unlike the mostly white suburb where they grew up. (You would find all those attributes you describe at Pomona, oops, not sure about the hospital)
mamabear not against “diversity” just not sure what the obsession with it is, I never discuss my background on CC because it is not relevant IMO but…I have heard in my life… I want my kids to have diverse friends…to which I am suppose to say?? hey thanks now I know why you want to be friends with my family? people of other backgrounds are not part of some social experiment they are humans too! friendships and such grow organically. I will leave it at that!
Zeldie, just own it. You made a claim “assuming” that everyone else just magically knew the statistics of the school(s) that you were comparing Pomona too. You didn’t even have them at your fingertips. So you were “bragging” about something Pomona had that should have been an “example to others to follow” but you didn’t bother to even look up and provide the numbers that would have substantiated that P was superior on those dimensions. For all I know, every single top 10 LAC has similar stats so how is P a “shining example”? Own it - you didn’t do your homework.
Ah, you are not looking for diversity because you are one who brings diversity! It’s not an obsession, it is just looking for something different. None of my kids wanted to stay in the same area where they grew up either. They all went at least 4 hours away, one to an urban environment and one to the opposite end of the country.
There are at least 25 Pomonas in the east, more if you add some small universities. We are used to elite schools.
Tough crowd!
I think it’s perfectly fine to brag about ones school. By all means brag about Pomona’s admitted class, it’s a great bunch of students going to a fantastic school. :-bd
However, I read the initial post as implying that Pomona’s admissions system, is better than other elite LACs, due to “diversity”. Yet, since other elite LAC’s are just as diverse (or close to it), I don’t see that it’s offering something that should or isn’t already replicated by the other elite schools.
Each of these elite schools have slightly different priorities when filling out it’s class. What works for Pomona isn’t necessarily going to work for Stanford or Brown.
@Zeldie you’re right, it is a tough crowd. Often the choice of title for a thread can really set people off, and I think that’s part of what happened here. “Shining example” was a bit over the top and obviously rubbed people the wrong way. Also, there’s a lot of resistance by easterners to considering Pomona to be anything special, as suggested by OntheBubble’s post. Plus, on any forum like this, people with high post counts periodically need to spank the junior members to keep them in line. 
@Corinthian It’s just a statement of fact given the concentration of schools from North Carolina to Maine.
There might be dozens of elite LAC from Maine to Florida, but how many have admission rates in the 9 to 12 percent range? Now, that is a brag if there was one for the little California LAC. 
I for one am not an Easterner – long time Midwesterner who just moved to the West Coast, in fact. And I think Pomona is a fine school, wish there were more like it on the West coast. But it doesn’t make it more diverse than other similar caliber schools – and admission offers do not calibrate with a final more diverse population. Agree that if the OP had just posted the stats with “Nice job, Pomona”, it would have drawn less fire. It was implying that they are superior on this front that raised questions. We are indeed a tough crowd when it comes to data.
@Zeldie The acceptance rate is a function of the lack of alternatives in California and the surrounding states versus the population. This will also create a situation of more low outliers applying. Students that go to Pomona are no different than students that go to dozens of schools in the east. Nothing wrong with Pomona but for us it doesn’t cause much of a stir.
The spirit of the OP was indeed about doing a fine job! And in this case doing a fine job in offering admission to a diverse group of students that included groups that are regularly considered less competitive. It was not about being more diverse but being able to remain one of the two most selective LAC with this increased diversity.
It is also true that press releases do not always correspond to the data released in the Fall. However, the numbers and details released in April carry some importance as they describe the admitted class and send a signal about the schools’ direction.
I was typing this response but couldn’t finish it before OntheBubble posted exactly what I anticipated: @Zeldie when you mention the extremely low acceptance rate for Pomona and compare it, for example to Williams (10% vs 17%) you’ll be told that Pomona’s acceptance rate is artificially low because there are so few elite LAC’s on the west coast. Therefore, the reasoning goes, the applicant pool must be full of “low outliers.” (Have actually seen that term used to explain the Pomona acceptance rate.) Although this is one instance where nobody insists on data to prove that point.
@OnTheBubble, in addition to the admission rates, you have the fuller selectivity rates that include rankings and test scores! In terms of selectivity, few East Coast LAC can match the numbers of Pomona and the 5C.
Your comment about the student bodies at dozens of EC schools is easily belied by data. Is this crowd really a stickler for data? There are, at best, a handful of EC LAC with similar selectivity stats. Surely not dozens of them!
The East Coast bias in education is still alive and kicking.
“Ah, you are not looking for diversity because you are one who brings diversity! It’s not an obsession, it is just looking for something different. None of my kids wanted to stay in the same area where they grew up either. They all went at least 4 hours away, one to an urban environment and one to the opposite end of the country.”…I personally bring nothing but a different point of view(because I march to a different drummer) and a nice smile(ask my mom)
but, in my opinion everyone should go to college far enough away that you need to fly to get there. it is part of the growing experience. it is not for everyone or practical but for those who can they should. as I like to say spread your wings and fly! you can always come home after 4 years!
p.s. pomona is a cool school whether it is 95 asian, 95 % white or 100% eskimo!