Would the interview be an important place in the application where admissions would look for the student’s character? Because I had a great interview that I think will definitely show admissions my personal qualities but I don’t think my letters of rec will. I’m hoping that since Pomona values interviews as “important” that it might push my application to “accept” if the rest of my application does not clearly demonstrate my character.
As do many SLACs, Pomona College embraces a holistic review of applicants and thus engage in a very laborious and protracted process of discovering the character and capabilities of its applicants. They look for coherence, credibility and consistency. So think of every facet of your application as contributing to your chances and the degree to which they cohere as paramount. So your performance on your interview per se is not as relevant as how much it contributes or contradicts the rest of your application.
I have interviewed on behalf of Brown U as an alum interviewer for many years and found that the interview has limited impact on an applicant’s chances. I am making a leap in assuming that most SLACs treat their interviews similarly. In fact, my son first registered for an interview with Pomona College and then cancelled it thinking he had no chance of admission. Despite not interviewing and in fact cancelling an interview, which could not have helped his chances, he was admitted to Pomona and is enjoying himself immensely as a freshman Sagehen. By the way, his scores were not extraordinary. But he did show a clear, compelling, and coherent pattern of extra-curricular engagement that matured in complexity and social impact over many years. His friends on campus very much reflect the Pomona College culture of modesty, curiosity, collaboration, diversity and social responsibility. In comparing Brown to Pomona College, I give Pomona the clear advantage in quality of learning environment.
Not just learning environment, but in most every way.
I would agree with “Not just learning environment, but in most every way.” Both my wife and I are Brown alum and both of us would have much preferred attending Pomona College ourselves. The one area in which Brown is definitely much weaker is in student diversity. The Brown Multi-cultural building segregates student affinity groups into ethnically focused rooms; how ironic! Also, the socio-economic diversity at Brown is far less than at Pomona College. Brown does enjoy much better brand-name recognition amongst the general audience. Many in the latter group have never heard of Pomona College or mistake it for Cal Poly Pomona. But employers, grad schools and those in the higher education industry certainly recognize the excellence of Pomona College.