<p>Any experience? Opinions? I'm from the NE, but I do love California. I'm interested in physics and studio art. Any info would be greatly appreciated!</p>
<p>First of all, congratulations on having such excellent taste. :) Believe it or not, this is a very common thread. Either college would be a notch in anyone's prestige belt.</p>
<p>Some extremely random thoughts based on other threads. Both schools attract a very progressive minded, tolerant and friendly student body (though Slipper1234, based on one weekend's visit, differs on how friendly Wesleyan really is.) Pomona suffers (if that's the right word) from a certain lack of notoriety in its own back yard because of the UC system and the presence of Stanford to the north, just as Wesleyan must compete heavily with the likes of Yale, Brown -- half the Ivy League really -- for many of its best students.</p>
<p>Wesleyan is dominated by easterners; Pomona is dominated by westerners, and not surprisingly, by Californians. Many Californians prefer to send their kids East in order to get away from southern California's relentless insularity. Just as many easterners are lured by California's promise of surf and sun. Some things to keep in mind: 1) Connecticut is not Vermont; when it snows, it tends to turn to slush very quickly; the best ski country is at least two hours away, 2) Pomona is not right on the beach; you have to hop in a car to get there, and there is the issue of smog.</p>
<p>Both places advertise themselves as LACs with the facilities of "much larger universities" -- and that's true for the most part. With the assistance of a small number of Ph.D students, Wesleyan operates its research labs 24/7/365 days a year (unlike Amherst, Williams and Swarthmore whose professors don't have the time to do research while classes are in session.) </p>
<p>Pomona, OTOH, solves this problem by sharing facilities with about half a dozen other LACs, called the Claremont Colleges (so-named for the small suburban town they all share.) In many ways, attending Pomona (or, any of the other Claremont Colleges) is a little more like attending a university of about 10,000 students, than attending a typical LAC.</p>
<p>Thank you so much for the detailed and insightful response. Will be doing an overnight at Wesleyan very soon, and will do likewise at Pomona if accepted.</p>
<p>But I believe the Claremont McKenna system only adds up to about 5,000, with a tiny grad. school.</p>
<p>Pomona did seem a bit more sheltered and insular, Wesleyan a bit more worldly as well as edgy, during the short campus tours at both places. Wondered if this carried over into class discussion, etc. Or is it just the happy California temperment vs the grouchier NE temperment?? Anyway, that's what overnights and class visits are for, I guess!</p>
<br>
<p>But I believe the Claremont McKenna system only adds up to about 5,000, with a tiny grad. school<</p>
<br>
<p>My bad. I was assuming each college was roughly the size of Pomona (1,500) when actually, some of the others, like Harvey Mudd and Scripps are quite tiny at 700 and 800 students each.</p>
<p>Yes, Wesleyan is not a gated community by any means. An internationally reknowned professor might live down the street from the woman who punches your meal plan ticket in the dining hall, or that man behind the wheel of the security vehicle. There's all kinds of levels of wealth, from Old Money legacies to first generation college goers. It's the rare winter's solstice that someone doesn't get on someone else's nerves. But, people seem to love it.</p>
<p>I'm a physics major at Wesleyan, so if you have any questions about the department, fire away.</p>
<p>Pomona actually has students from all over the country - according to USNews site, 63% of Pomona students are from out of state. This school is very hard for California students to get into!
They do a very good job of finding a diverse student body. I think your visit may surprise you.
L.A. is very close and students do use the many recreational resourses on Southern California. Smog is not a problem in the winter or spring - Sept and October can be hot, but the rest of the year the weather is comfortable and the views of the mountains are gorgeous.</p>
<p>You asked for it: How are the physics profs? How large are the classes? Can they be described as discussion based? Have you been involved in any research yet? Are you involved with or contemplating the 3-2 engineering program and/or the five year master's program? Can you suggest any physics profs who would be willing to chat with a prospective physics student during an on-campus visit? Any particular classes you would recommend such a prospective student observe? How realistic is it for a physics major to concurrently pursue an artistic passion?
-Sorry for the barrage of questions! Even answering some of the foregoing would be greatly appreciated!</p>
<p>Ok, get ready for gory detail...</p>
<p>(It's also worth noting that I'm a double in astronomy and physics, and of those two astronomy is kind of the one I plan to continue with after Wes, but it's basically impossible to take astro without physics, so I'm still very much a physics major too.)</p>
<p>The physics profs are generally pretty good. Like any school, some are better than others, and which ones are "better" is also a matter of taste. I will confess that I've found a few classes really hard to follow while I've found others to be excellent (esp. Waves and Oscillations with Francis Starr).</p>
<p>The average class size varies a bit. PHYS113, the first intro class, usually has around 40 people at the beginning of the semester and dwindles to closer to 30 by the end of the semester. Those 30 then enter PHYS116, the second semester intro class, and that dwindles to 15-20. Those 15-20 continue on to Waves & Oscillations (PHYS213), the third semester class. Most of the 15-20 will survive Waves and continue on to Quantum I (PHYS214). That's also the semester when most people declare their majors, so with the exception of a few late defectors who decide they can't deal with stuff like Quantum and beyond, those ~15 people become the major class. My major class is actually on the large side (closer to 20) and probably has one of the highest percentages of women in the history of the physics department (close to 40%). </p>
<p>After Quantum I the order of the upper division and elective classes (E&M, Special Relativity, Chaos, Classical Dynamics, Quantum II, Therm & Stat Phys., Optics, Atoms and Molecules, Condensed Matter, Computational Physics...) is less fixed so your classes will include a subset of your major class and the major class above/below you, which might mean between 6 and 14 people, give or take. How much discussion takes place depends on the material. There was a lot more back and forth in Special Rel, say, than in a class like waves or quantum. The more abstract and strange the material is, the more likely the prof is to set aside time for questions and challenges from students, and the more likely the students are to want to ask questions.</p>
<p>It's worth noting, though, that physics classes follow a very model than social science classes where people read and then discuss the reading in class. We are taught (more or less) how to do physics in class. Most classes have a TA session led by an undergrad or grad student TA that takes place the evening before the weekly problem set is due (often Thursday night). In, for example, Quantum which I am in now, more than half the class shows up to the TA session and works on the problem set together. So that is essentially when the "discussion" happens for the most part (the profs strongly encourage us to work together on problem sets, although they of course require individual writeups of the solutions and expect to see evidence of individual effort as well).</p>
<p>I've only been involved in astronomy research (but that I have done extensively)... I could go on and on about that too, and will if you want, but I'll save it for another post. :)</p>
<p>The 3-2 program requires you to be on top of your game, but it's a good deal in that you get essentially guaranteed admission to Columbia's engineering school (you need to apply if you want to do Caltech). I don't know too much about it other than that. The 5-year masters is mostly for people who want an extra year to finish up the requirements, due to starting late or doubling in something that was a higher priority for them and now wanting to focus on physics. It's not intended for people who want a solid masters program.</p>
<p>It should be easy to find a prof to talk to you about the major. When you're on campus, you should definitely stop by the department (2nd floor of the Science Center). Most of the profs leave their doors open when they're around, so you ought to be able to find one of them to tell you about the major and the department.</p>
<p>If you observe a class I recommend NOT observing PHYS113 or 116. You only spend your first year in those intro classes and they're less representative of what upper division classes are like, so I'd recommend observing something in the 200 or 300 level range.</p>
<p>Double majoring in physics and an art subject is definitely possible, but then you'd be doing basically two of the most time-intensive majors at Wesleyan. I mean, you could do it, but both those departments ask a lot of their majors. Just be prepared and get really good at time management.</p>
<p>Anyway, I realize that was super-long. Hope it helped.</p>
<p>Really helpful! I know it's going to be tough pursuing both science and art, where ever I go, but I've managed so far at a tough secondary school with demanding, time-consuming studio art courses. Frankly, I can't imagine giving that up. I am hoping that Wesleyan might be supportive because of the reportedly strong art programs.</p>