Should I apply ED?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Pomona College
1

<p>Hello,</p>

<p>If anyone could take the time to answer some of my concerns I'd be grateful, thanks.</p>

<p>I'm considering applying ED to Pomona. I really love the school, I'm pretty sure it's my top choice. However, I also really like Dartmouth, Colorado College, USC, and some other schools I'm looking at. Should I hold off and apply regular decision? How much of a difference will applying ED make in my admissions chances? When I visited, the admissions officer who gave the information session said that you have the same chance of admission no matter when you apply— is this true? </p>

<p>Here are my stats: </p>

<p>ACT: 34
SAT: 2260
PSAT:228 (National Merit I'm pretty sure)
AP's: 5's in Psychology, Biology, English 11, Statistics, and World History; 4 in US History
GPA: 4.5 or something weighted.. only 2 or 3 B's in 3 years, top 5% of my class, possibly top 1%</p>

<p>ECs:
Captain of the boys tennis team, 4 years varsity, 2 years manager of girls team
Vice Pres of the band
Founder/Pres of Amnesty International Student Group
Swim team 4 years varsity</p>

<p>Jobs:
Month long trail crew job in Colorado this summer, Lifeguarding, teaching swim lessons</p>

<p>Any help would be appreciated, thank you!</p>

2

<p>I’m definitely not an expert here, but I’d say go for ED only if you are 100% certain that Pomona’s your first choice. Applying ED usually does help your admissions chances, although from what I’ve head, it doesn’t make as much of a difference at Pomona as it does at a lot of other schools. So go for ED if your absolutely certain that Pomona is #1 on your list and you’re OK with not having any other options. If you aren’t so sure, don’t sweat it; you won’t lose too much by picking regular decision instead.</p>

3

<p>I wouldn’t recommend applying ED, simply because you don’t seem 100% sure that Pomona is your first choice. If you do so, you are absolutely taking away all of your other options upon acceptance, so what happens if you decide you don’t like it as much as you thought you did or you like another school more? You seem like you would be a very competitive applicant at pretty much any of the schools you listed, so I’d suggest just applying RD and waiting to see where you get in to visit and make your final decision. Just my opinion, though.</p>

4

<p>I’ll second that it appears that ED confers a smaller (and possibly nonexistent) advantage relative to RD at Pomona than many other highly selective LACs. The numbers are 22.6% for ED vs 14.7% RD. That’s about a factor of 1.5 difference. At many places, such as Williams and Middlebury, it’s greater than a factor of 2. And those raw numbers make the advantage appear larger than it really is. Once you factor in tipped athletes, legacies and a stronger applicant pool in general, my guess is it really doesn’t provide a significant boost to your odds applying ED to Pomona.</p>

<p>A weird side note I learned from looking at the Pomona common data set: Pomona gets way more female applicants! last year it was 4190 vs 2574. What that boils down to is last year 12.6% of women got admitted vs 18.2% of men. That’s the largest difference I’ve seen of the LACs I’ve looked at.</p>

5

<p>I think you would have a pretty good chance of getting in to Pomona ED (though I have trouble deciphering the GPA since it’s weighted). You’re male - a big plus - and you are basically qualified; ED would help to some degree. But I agree that you don’t sound completely sold on it. I guess I would consider ED only if you are completely sold on the location - which is hugely important - and if the institution really calls out to you. </p>

<p>Of the schools you mention, I know a lot about 3. Pomona has the most intellectual climate, and is in a great location. Dartmouth is great in so many ways, though the small-town isolation leads to a party-heavy atmosphere - even for kids who were straight and studious in high school. USC is surprisingly diverse, so the old stereotype of frat guys partying all the time isn’t really fair. But it is intensely urban, so life is not quite as easy as it would be at Pomona or Dartmouth. You could possibly get some good merit aid, depending on your intended major. </p>

<p>My kids both applied to Pomona, but one did ED and the other regular. Both had higher test scores than you, but lower grades at a highly-competitive prep school. The ED kid got in, the other got waitlisted. He is now at USC film with a huge scholarship, and could not have had a better experience anywhere in the universe. The Pomona kid is happy beyond belief as well. In a way, this is one of those “you can’t go wrong” decisions, but it seems really monumental at the time. If you want to be happy in college, you’ll figure it out, and I hope these comments help.</p>

<p>If your screen name is any indication of your personality, I think you would like Pomona.</p>

6

<p>All of the first-years eat dinner with the Dean of Students at some point during the year, and one thing she asked my sponsor group was how Pomona could get more men to apply.</p>

7

<p>Thanks to rayrick for the information about guys having a better chance, that’s reassuring.</p>

<p>Thanks Fauxnom, your post was really helpful. What did you mean that I could get merit aid to USC “depending on my major”? Financial aid is another consideration for me… </p>

<p>With National Merit there are places like Alabama and ASU that I could go for free, and then USC gives half-tuition scholarships. According to a calculator on the college board website, I would only have to pay $16,000 a year for Pomona, which would probably be cheaper than USC. Of all the schools we used the college board calculator for, Pomona was the cheapest, and Dartmouth would be full price. This is making me think Pomona might be the best value I could get, and I really really love it so I would be fine applying ED. </p>

<p>However, my parents are worried that if my dad’s business improves, our financial aid award would decrease, and I could end up being expected to pay 30 or 40k per year; if that happened I would have to transfer or take out loans. </p>

<p>I’m also going to try for the Barnes Scholarship at Colorado College and the Johnson Scholarship at Washington & Lee (if I don’t apply ED to Pomona). These are full rides and would be really great. </p>

<p>So I’m just really unsure of what to do! There are two bad things that could happen: I could apply ED to Pomona, get in, not be able to pay, and regret not trying for merit aid at Colorado College, USC, or Washington & Lee OR I could choose not to apply ED to Pomona, get rejected RD, get little to no financial aid from schools I want to go to, and end up at University of Illinois, Minnesota, or Alabama. </p>

<p>This was a lot of rambling. I’m not sure if I even have a question. OH I would like to know from Fauxnom about majors at USC affecting merit aid. And if anyone else has any advice for me that’d be great too! Thanks!</p>

8

<p>If you make National Merit finalist, you are guaranteed 1/2 tuition, plus you’ll probably get something else. On top of the NM money, my son got $1000 per year for NM, plus $2500 for some other USC scholarship. We know quite a few kids who got the full tuition Trustee scholarship; those are harder to come by in the highly competitive majors like film and engineering, but perhaps a bit more available in the less selective majors. </p>

<p>Pomona has very generous financial aid policies, but they will adjust if your family’s income and asset mix goes up. If you love Pomona, and get off to a good start with aid, I don’t see this as a huge problem. You can decide if and when the award is reduced. Maybe you get a job, or take a loan, or take a year off and think about transfering.</p>

<p>Since you mention it, I have to say that the Johnson Scholarship at W&L was very enticing. My D looked there, and at Davidson, where she would have been in the running for some good merit money. But she absolutely loved Pomona, so we made it work. Pomona has been fair about the money, and she landed a great on-campus job so it’s been fine for us.</p>

9

<p>My first impression based on what you’ve posted would be to not apply ED. I think you have an excellent chance of being admitted RD, and since you have some financial considerations, I think it would be unwise at this time to make a commitment.
That said, I understand your dilemma- Pomona is a wonderful school. My son graduated a couple of years ago, and I don’t think he could have been happier. (His stats were not as competitive as yours, and he got in. :slight_smile: ) I think you should take your chances- you’ll have a lot of good options in the spring, I’ll bet.</p>