<p>What do you like about Pomona? What do you dislike? I don't know anything about it, so I'm trying to find out.</p>
<p>I'm a freshman, in my first week of classes, and I absolutely love Pomona so far. First off, I know the school has my best interests in mind. We go on an awesome orientation trip (mine was canoeing on the colorado river), we are put in sponsor groups with a pair of sophmores who live with up (a great idea), class sizes are small, and they have free snack every night! what more could you want? I just got back from playing squash at the gym with some new ppl - not only is this an active campus, but everyone is so friendly. if you can get in and want a small college atmosphere, there is no better place than pomona!</p>
<p>arsenal- what hs did you attend in wa. i go to bainbridge</p>
<p>roosevelt hs</p>
<p>i'm also a freshman here and so far it's amazing. im taking classes in philosophy, french, dance, and russian fiction, all of them are less than 30 students and 2 are with the heads of their dept. the kids that ive met so far seem smart, witty, friendly, and into more than just studying (although they do that too). this past week was so much fun, hmm lets see i went to see a rap concert, a club in LA, spooned with my hallmates, went to a harvey mudd dance party, snuck into the outdoor pool in the middle of the night, went to the pomona organic farm and ate fresh fruit and went down a slip and slide into a mud pit, played some volleyball, studied some plato, met lots of interesting kids from all 5 claremont schools, watched south park, talked about life, ate custom-made omelettes, got a flip flop tan, um yeah and i could go on for a bit longer, it's sweet, come to pomo if you can</p>
<p>The thing I love about Pomona is that is a small world where you really can make something for yourself and feel connected. NyLibetine, for example, is in my sponsor group (a unit, which I think is one of Pomona's greatest strengths) and I also know arsenalsweep. When I first was applying to Pomona, I asked Pomona to put me in contact with two current students from my state, Vermont. One of those people, now a sophomore is a sponsor in my dorm and is in my Calculus class. The other, a senior, is in my General Chemistry Lab section. The Orientation Adventures are led by upperclassmen. I went to a meeting for the student newspaper the other day and one of my OA leaders turned out to be one of the top editors on the paper. My biggest class is my General Chem class. I think it was limited to 45 people, but there are more like 55. Even at that size, we split up into smaller groups for lab and in the lecture the professor has been singling out students and making them introduce themselves to the class in groups of four to six each class by adding their names and pictures to his powerpoints. There is also an upperclassmen "laboratory assistant" assigned to each labs section.</p>
<p>I can (and may do so if I feel so inspired later on) go on for pages about all the things I love about Pomona so far, but this sense of community is one thing that has amazed me. Even in the first two weeks of school as a freshmen, I've found a great sense of community on campus that creates a great environment for both learning and leisure. It's been particularly helpful in adjusting to everything new (from doing my own laundry, to living with a roommate, living thousands of miles away from home, and everything in between).</p>
<p>
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went to a harvey mudd dance party
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</p>
<p>I hope that's not referring to Dis-O on Friday. That party suckkkkkked.</p>
<p>But the parties saturday night were amazing!</p>
<p>Choose Pomona because it's close to HMC. You can come to our parties and such, especially if you're a girl.</p>
<p>She's referring to Saturday.</p>
<p>I go to Stanford so I'm not sure how much help I can give you. I liked Pomona because it is one of the top liberal arts schools in the country, its pretty much warm all year round, its close to LA, and it has a small-school setting that allows you to develop close relationships with more of the student body and the faculty.</p>
<p>davviking: wht did you pick stanford over pomona?</p>
<p>to pbwain:</p>
<p>I chose Stanford over Pomona because </p>
<p>A. I received the Gates Millennium Scholarship, which allowed me to attend the school of my choice without cost. If I'm going to get my education I might as well go to Stanford. </p>
<p>B. I like the fact that Stanford is alot bigger and alot closer to some big cities. </p>
<p>C. I can change my major so many times at Stanford and whatever I choose it will still be top notch in the country.</p>
<p>Hey, NYLibertine, are your Russian lit classes through the Russian dept.? If so, how is it at Pomona?? I really loved pomona when I visited, but since it's so small, I wasn't sure how much the Russian dept. could offer me (I've studied it for 4 years and want to major in it.) Do many people take russian there?</p>
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davviking: wht did you pick stanford over pomona?
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</p>
<p>You ask as if it's surprising that someone would?</p>
<p>atomicfusion--</p>
<p>People make choices that may not make sense to others but make sense to them:</p>
<p>USC over Harvard (sciences)</p>
<p>Stevens Institute of Technology over Carnegie Mellon (engineering/sciences)</p>
<p>Vassar over Carnegie Mellon (theatre)</p>
<p>hey devushka,</p>
<p>in response to your question about the russian dept...</p>
<p>my class is great, my teacher (Larissa Rudova) leads really effective class discussions and seems to know a whole lot about the topic (she's originally from Russia) and obviously the material is unbeatable. I don't know a whole lot about the dept as a whole, I know one person taking an intro russian class and I've heard good things from her. I don't think it's a very large dept, but just from looking at the course catalog, it looks like it includes a lot of interesting classes including..19th cent russ lit, modern russ lit, sex and gender in russ culture, russian cinema, short fiction by russian masters, tolstoy and dostoevsky, eccentric fictions, crime passion and politics, modernism in russia, politicizing magic, and wow the list goes on, i didnt realize how many classes were actually offered and they obviously have all levels of learning russian and that's not including any classes at the other claremonts so yeah im sure you could be a russian major here even if it isnt the most popular track</p>
<p>Thanks so much, NY Libertine! I really appreciate the info.</p>
<p>wazou</p>
<p>We're from VT too. My son is interested in Pomona. We visited, but in the summer. Of course the campus is gorgeous. I'm wondering about workload.</p>
<p>My son's VT public HS is, I think, one of the better ones in the state, but he doesn't have to exactly kill himself to get good grades. I'm wondering whether he'd be shocked by the amount of work necessary at Pomona. He's had no trouble with AP courses. In fact he likes them better than regular ones, but, from your perspective, were the expectations difficult, coming from a VT HS?</p>