<p>I am wondering how exactly things will change in Pomona (academics, housing, class sizes etc) now that the class has about 70 more students, and how selective Pomona will become in the subsequent years. What do you guys think?</p>
<p>Daughter will be in the class of 2018. Apparently there are surplus dorm rooms available - some have been empty and some have been on loan to Scripps. But 70 is a large number. There will be a lot of juggling. Intro classes are going to be larger - in some cases much larger. Hopefully, a few more professors or lecturers will be hired over the coming months. The article in Forbes probably swayed a lot of kids. That’s a huge increase in yield. Next year will be difficult for admissions. Hard to say if this is a one time deal or if Pomona will become one of the sub 10% admission schools. </p>
<p>Pomona’s used to making adjustments due to student interest, and their endowment ensures that even a 15% size increase in students can be handled. I don’t expect much changes for the students in terms of how large their classes are or if they can get a room. They’ll definitely cut down on how many they accept next year if all 470 enroll, though they won’t all enroll due to summer meltdown. </p>
<p>I really don’t think Forbes was the big reason for why yield increased (as Pomona rated high last year on Forbes too- in the top 10, but that year had a decrease in app). I think the big reason is that Pomona changed its marketing materials to really reflect on a practical education, which is what students look for these days. A lot of the admitted students were really eager to know about internships and research, which Pomona is excellent in.</p>
<p>Will this be a consistent trend? Most likely not. It really depends on how Pomona markets itself- to this day it is one of those schools that rarely sends out materials. If they try to reach out/spam they can easily reach 10%. Do I personally want it to? No, Pomona is a hidden gem and I’m worried that we might lose that little quirkiness of us finding the school by sheer luck (at least some of us) if it becomes more nationally known.</p>
<p>Wish they would loan some of those extra dorm rooms to Mudd – my sophomore didn’t get campus housing there in the lottery this year. She is on the waitlist and seems likely to end up on campus before fall, but it is stressful for me (she does not seem in the least worried, though!). Admission ebbs and flows to colleges – Pomona is a fine school, but honestly I don’t really see it as particularly “on the rise” in rankings and selectivity. </p>
<p>Wow, that’s a change from last year when they had to go to the waitlist. I hope they get moving and hire a new comp sci professor or two, I hear those classes are increasing in popularity and a couple profs are leaving.</p>
<p>@nostalgicwisdom I was wondering what you meant by the ‘summer meltdown’? and yes, I do agree that if Pomona sent out a lot of spam material (much like UChicago who has driven its acceptance rate to single digits with all the materials that they send to students that are not even qualified for the school), they would be able to decrease their acceptance rate. Either way, I think that more students are learning about Pomona. This year, about 8 people applied for Pomona from my school, and I already know about 15 juniors who have came up to me and told me that they will apply to Pomona for class of 2019 (and there may be more). My case is obviously local, but it is just an example of how more people are getting to know about this small LAC in Southern Cal. </p>
<p>Summer melt refers to students who deposit but do not attend, usually because they were accepted off a waitlist at another school.</p>
<p>@mamabear1234 oh thx for clearing that up</p>
<p>I find it hard to believe that Pomona will lose too many kids to “summer melt.” The most likely losses would be to the Ivies and Stanford. Yale has apparently closed their wait list after taking a handful of kids. Princeton is using their list but not expected to take many. Stanford is not going to the wait list. How many of these kids have deposits at Pomona? I suspect very few.</p>
<p>@akiddoc I agree. The yield rate for the ivies and Stanford has been higher than ever, meaning that it is less likely for students to get off the waitlist of schools that are more “prestigious” than Pomona. Heck, even Pomona did not go into the waitlist, and its yield rate is lower than the big name schools. My friend who was also waitlisted at Columbia said that they sent a mass email this year to all waitlisted students (instead of waves), mostly suggesting that they did not go into their waitlist pool for accepting more students. Yield is inversely proportional to acceptance rates- as acceptance rates get lower, yields get higher (more like a generalization- Dartmouth breaks the rule this year). </p>
<p>I think it may have been a bit naive to say that Pomona can handle a 15% increase in students without feeling it. It was felt during room draw this year as many sophomores we’re unable to draw into rooms, and now there are rumblings that some students, who thought they were lucky by having good numbers and a successful room draw, may also get displaced. </p>
<p>It is great that Pomona is getting more visibility. However, as the parent of an existing Pomona student the impact of this year’s Admissions generosity is already being felt in class registration (more class slots were reserved for incoming freshman) and inadequate housing. </p>
<p>Overall my student has been very happy with the decision to attend Pomona, but as a parent I see a number of things lacking when compared with our experience at the top LAC that my other child attended.</p>
<p>So many things wrong with the above post.</p>
<p>First of all, deferred housing has always been a thing- this year didn’t change that. People were deferred BEFORE Pomona knew how many matriculated in the upcoming class. They guarantee housing for everyone no matter what and they won’t change that policy. The reason some get deferred is because admissions can’t predict how many will matriculate from the first year class, and they want to ensure first years get the freshman dorms first. After sophomore year, deferred housing isn’t a thing.</p>
<p>Second of all, this was not admissions generosity as you say it is. This year, admissions took the smallest number of students in nearly two decades. No one could have predicted a 10% increase in yield from last year. So they aren’t the right people to blame.</p>
<p>Lastly, about classes and experience and such- Pomona has a 2 billion dollar endowment- tied with Williams College, with 2200 students there (600 more than Pomona), as the largest among LACs. There is absolutely no shortage of money in giving more people financial aid, hiring more teachers (or asking them to teach more courses), or what not. Faculty positions at Pomona get over 300 applications for each position; Pomona can very easily analyze the demographics of the first year class and see where the shortage is, and how to compensate for it.</p>
<p>Will there be a little bit of trouble at the start? Certainly, but primarily for first years, not for sophomores and above. Is it much reason to worry? Not really. If Pomona was undergoing a financial crisis, if the administration was marred with red tape…but they aren’t.</p>
<p>470 enrolling, of which 10 are expected to defer, 10 to attend another school or not attend for whatever reason = 450. Pomona already had plans to get a class of 410 in new classes, so the amount that it’s up by is 40, not 70. With a few triples in the largest dorms, some of the larger deferred single rooms converted into doubles, and the extra rooms which are always left unclaimed each year, 40 is not difficult to allocate. Just leave it to the hands of the administration and they’ll figure everything out.</p>
<p>My daughter tells me that the number is now 460. I don’t know if that includes deferrals or if that is the number of freshmen expected on campus. Obviously not much attrition this summer. I have confidence that the administration is handling things well. On the other hand, the parent affairs office seems to have issues this summer. </p>
<p>Unknown to me, my daughter was still thinking of Princeton until that wait list closed 3 weeks ago. She is a little worried that Pomona is not “busy” enough. Hopefully she will quickly realize that Pomona can be fun. Will be there in 32 days. </p>
<p>Went to the regional freshmen family reception today. 447 freshmen will be on campus. 13 taking a gap year. Housing issue has been dealt with. Hiring extra staff where needed. There will be a few triples - rooms that were lounges or extra large RA rooms are being converted. Scripps kids are not being removed - at least not for this year. </p>
<p>There are many good things about Pomona… but as the summer has progressed many of my comments about managing this large incoming freshman class have proven to be true. There ARE sophomores who have been displaced from rooms they selected in Room Draw this past spring. Some have been hearing over the last several weeks, more heard today. With many students returning to campus over the next two to three weeks (for sports or to help with orientation) the very late notice on changes in their rooming situations is really disappointing. </p>
<p>Pomona, in the classroom, is consistent with its reputation. However, in our experience, communication with and by administration is far less organized and forthcoming. Maybe my expectations were set too high by our experience with my other child’s LAC, but since this is a forum to help set expectations for other future students and parents, I feel it is appropriate to be honest about the school’s ability to manage fluctuations.</p>
<p>I’m sure that they will admit less students next year and move towards a large waiting list in order to protect their yield, much like some of the ivies and the like, so that the class of 2019 doesn’t become as large as 2018’s. </p>
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<p>Making such projections is a fool’s errand. As it was shown for the 2013-2014, the conversion of admitted to enrolled is a fickle business to predict. The number of WL admits at above 70 was pretty large considering an enrollment below 400. This might happen when the school overadmits students who end up getting a good number of different options. </p>
<p>It should also be noted that Pomona was very stingy with its ED admits for the class of 2017. I think that this was the year with the largest contrast with CMC that admitted more ED students, had a lower admission rate, and had zero WL movement. </p>
<p>What we can safely assume is that the schools do whatever they have to do to build a competitive class, and offer them the very best in terms of education at a LAC. </p>
<p>This said, handling fluctuations of 5o to 70 students is not a walk in the park. </p>
<p>Pomona’s stingy with ED applications because they don’t provide the racial and international diversity that it wants. For the Class of 2018, only 31% of ED students were students of color, and only 6% were international students. The admitted students profile however was 47% students of color and 14.5% international students.</p>
<p>^^ They were stingy for the Class of 2017. That is the last CDS available. We have nothing verifiable for the Class of 2018. Chances are that more ED admits = smaller of zero WL in 2018. </p>
<p>@xiggi I remember that about 94ish students were admitted ED1 for Pomona. There’s also QB and ED2, but as you said, we can’t really tell the number of ED admits. I think we can all agree that the Forbes ranking for the class of 2018 was a factor in making this year’s admission cycle extremely competitive. We should wait and see if the class of 2019’s admission cycle is gonna be as competitive as 2018’s, considering the fact that many students applied to Pomona just because Forbes ranked it as #2 last year.
Another thing that I noticed was that unlike many of its private research university peers, Pomona does not advertise with brochures and spam mail (unlike UChicago, UPenn and other privates who constantly sent me unwanted mail). I only received one email from Pomona after my campus visit. </p>