<p>I personally turned down Stanford for Pomona, and just finished my first year there. I have no regrets with the decision I chose. You should know that this is not a rare case- plenty of people turn down the top universities for the top liberal art colleges, for various reasons.</p>
<p>My personal reasons were because Pomona just felt so much more caring and accessible than Stanford. No TA’s, no graduates, and consistent small classes. The vibe I got from the students was less elitist, more open-minded, more adventurous, more friendly, and more tight-knit, and the welcome that I got from the admissions office was unparalleled. People at Pomona really, really, really care for you and want to see that you succeed at everything you do. Stanford had a similar student body (laid-back, distinguished, happy), but the students were surprisingly individual and cold.</p>
<p>Whenever someone tells me that Stanford would have offered me so much more opportunities (and look, the 2nd post already does so!), I tell them to look at it with a different perspective. Just about any college in the country has more opportunities that it offers than is possible to take advantage of. Pomona, with the country’s 4th largest endowment per student, is definitely not in shortage of opportunities. You’ll be really close to no more than 5-10 professors, you won’t be taking more than 40 classes if you graduate in four years, your friend groups will be the same size at either school, and with rare exceptions, in most universities you’ll be studying in labs that are very similar to those seen in the liberal art colleges.</p>
<p>The undergraduate level is the time to transition from learning to laying out your individual road. It is important to learn in a way that caters to your individual strengths and weaknesses. It is important to build lasting friendships with your professors and the student body, and at a liberal arts college, you’ll never be just a head among a sea of heads, a number among the thousands. This is not needed for every student- there is a special type of student who has already distinguished themselves at the research level and has a much stronger grasp for their particular subject than everyone else. These genius types would better fit at a university like Stanford, which has the graduate resources to quench their thirst, however, very few of these people are out there. For just about everyone else, I would argue a liberal arts college offer a better undergraduate education. </p>
<p>Pomona in particular is one of the most well-resourced schools in the country, and definitely the most of any of the liberal art colleges. With 2200 classes offered through the Claremont Consortium (including engineering at Mudd), over 6000 students no more than a mile walk away, open events at all 7 schools, 275 and growing clubs and organizations, full access to 7 dining halls, and a 2 million volume library (expanded to 9 million unique books through LINK+, the interlibrary loan catalogue), I would dare anyone to tell me that these resources are not enough. I’ve felt constantly overwhelmed by all that there is to do here, and Stanford having more students, more classes, more clubs, and a bigger library would not have changed my personal experience.</p>
<p>It’s obvious that Stanford would be doing significantly more cutting-edge research. But how many of these opportunities are actually open to undergraduate students? How many are actually taught by the leading names in the country? At Stanford, the competition to get research is greater, and many first years don’t get to do it. You’ll begin most likely with a mentor or graduate student instead of a faculty member. At Pomona, there is no competition, and all the professors are required to do research to maintain their positions. There are no graduate students, meaning that you’ll be lead with the professor. As a top liberal arts college, Pomona has a very distinguished faculty, so you’ll be working with some of the best. More importantly, you’ll be given individual guidance, glowing personal recommendations, and lasting connections. You won’t be penalized for not having ever learned how to research- that is why you’re at Pomona, to prepare for graduate-level work. Because of its size, Pomona won’t come close to spending anywhere as much as Stanford does in research capita. But it has a very active summer research program (SURP) which sponsors 200/1500 students every summer, research assistantships, the Pomona College Internship Program, and Independent Summer Research Grants. It has the HAP Pre-College Research program for underrepresented incoming freshmen to let students experience research from an early stage and decide if it’s right for them.</p>
<p>With all of these factors, the only other two big differences that separated the two schools were athletics and prestige. Stanford has a much better athletic program, but the athletes there are more cliquey and separated from the main student body. Pomona’s athletics are not the defining feature of the school, but they are substantial and accessible, which actually attracted me more. Prestige wise- yes, Stanford is much more well known nationally and internationally, while Pomona (and other top LACs) remain quite unknown to national attention. But to employers who matter, the top graduate schools, and competitive graduate fellowships, top LACs do as just well as top universities in placement, if not better. Pomona students won more Goldwater Science Scholarships in 2013 than any school per capita. More science PhDs are produced at Pomona than Stanford. Students who work hard at either school (or really, any school) will be rewarded. Where the name brand really matters is for graduate school. </p>
<p>It was tough to turn away from the more popular road, but a year later I can say it has been one of the best decisions of my life. </p>
<p>(*Stanford has SLE, their version of a liberal arts college, but it is humanities focused, 1 year long, and more rigid in terms of course options and options. I did consider it, but I ultimately felt it was nowhere near the level of a top liberal arts college like Pomona or Swarthmore)</p>