My sister is applying to college next year and she wants to go to a top liberal arts college. These three seem to be her top choices right now, can someone compare the academics, relative prestige, and difficulty of admission at these schools?
I’m going to assume from your username that your family is from California. I don’t have an opinion on relative academics or prestige, but I would say that in terms of difficulty of admission, getting into Pomona as an unhooked female from California is extremely difficult. The overall admit rate at Pomona this year was 6.9%, which includes ED, recruited athletes, Questbridge and Posse. On top of that there are always more female applicants than male and more California applicants than any other single state. So Pomona is definitely the most difficult admit of the three choices.
If she has not visited Reed, I would encourage her to do so. On paper, my DD thought Reed would be a good place for her. Once she visited, she decided not to apply. This is not a knock on Reed - it is a great college. But not a fit for her. She ended up at Smith. Some people would offer the same advice about Smith. Not a fit for everyone.
However, I think that many would consider these peer institutions with high quality academics.
I do agree with above. Pomona is a tough admit for a unhooked CA resident. Although, all three will reject qualified applicants because they generate more qualified applicants than spots.
Since she is open to women’s colleges has she considered Scripps rather than Pomona? Still a difficult CA admit but at least she would have a hook. Also, if she likes Smith, she might also like Mount Holyoke, Wellesley, Barnard, and Bryn Mawr.
No idea what her stats are — but since she is willing to consider women’s colleges, she should look at Scripps.