<p>I mean sixth is still very impressive obviously, but from its stats, it should be ranked 3rd or 4th. Its graduation and retention stats are just as good, if not better than Williams and Amhersts stats It has a great facility, with 70% of classes under 20, and only 1% with more than 50 (which is better than Amhersts at least.) Also, its 25/75 sat is a good forty+ points higher than every school that is not Harvey Mudd, and it has a lower acceptance rate than every college except Amherst and US Naval Academy. So why is it not ranked a few places higher?</p>
<p>It’s pretty clear Pomona should be ranked higher. Middlebury does a better job at working the ranking system and Wellesley gets bonus points for being the top women’s college.</p>
<p>ironically I see the same point, and just posted this in the “Official US News Forum”</p>
<p>“I don’t understand the LAC rankings… How is Pomona not top 3? It’s more selective than Williams, Midd, Well, Swarthmore, and last year was more selective than Amherst, with only very minimal selectivity difference with Amherst this year. It’s endowment per student is also higher, as well as the average SAT per student. It appears to me that US News Portrays an East Coast bias.
And on an anecdotal note, I know an asian, unhooked applicant who got into Midd with less than a 1900 SAT. What’s going on here??”</p>
<p>Pomona has a lower peer assessment score than the others you mention. PA scores don’t change overnight. Cry east coast bias all you want, but until Pomona’s PA score is higher, it will remain in the 5-6 spot.</p>
<p>PA score will not change as long as there’s an east coast bias. Locate all the top LACs in the country and you can see where these peer assessments come from geographically. Pomona will always be under-ranked. No matter what, one can’t beat the Claremont University Consortium with 3 colleges in the top 15.</p>
<p>Does it really mean that much to you?</p>
<p>Fine.</p>
<p>I, an undergraduate of Amherst College, concede that Pomona College is a better school in every respect.</p>
<p>Dry your tears, you poor, sweet child.</p>
<p>I didn’t go to Pomona and I don’t have any friends who did so I have no bias here. Given the stats, Pomona should be ranked higher – and the fact that it isn’t proves that these rankings are seriously flawed.</p>
<p>LOL KWU. The time honored mantra of “the rankings don’t mean squat” rings true again.</p>
<p>The USN&WR method uses Peer Assessment as 25% of the total score. IMHO Pomona’s rating partially reflects that it is nearly three thousand miles from the epicenter of American academia.</p>
<p>That said, kwu is completely on point. Would you like us to solicit similar declarations from students at Williams, Swarthmore, Middlebury, etc.? Or you willing to be at peace with your greatness?</p>
<p>To be fair, Pomona benefits greatly from its location far from the madding crowd of Eastern LACs and Ivies. Besides neighboring CMC, it’s the only top LAC for thousands of miles, and one of only a handful of top LACs or private universities west of the Mississippi. California is the nation’s most populous state, and when it comes to kids looking for an elite private school experience without going far from home, the Claremont Colleges, Stanford, and CIT are pretty much their only options. </p>
<p>Back East, you have the greatest concentration of the nation’s top colleges and universities, all within driving distance of one another, competing for the same group of smart kids.</p>
<p>It’s really no wonder that Pomona’s stats are so high but its reputation lags. It pretty much has a monopoly on kids who want a highly-ranked LAC in sunny, warm southern Cali. Combine that with the fact that Pomona shares sports teams with the other Claremont Colleges (hence, no need to recruit 40 football players, some of whom are athletic tips) and it’s surprising that their stats aren’t even higher.</p>
<p>Pomona’s location is a primary contributing factor to its heightened selectivity in recent years. A blessing and a curse, so to speak.</p>
<p>Only 28% are CA residents. So that should debunk your CA kids want to stay close to home. By the same token, Stanford has a good 30% CA residents as well.<br>
Pomona has to compete with Stanford, the little ivies. You’re overplaying the location quite a bit. There are plenty of CA residents at Amherst, Williams, and Swarthmore. Assuming they got into both, why aren’t they at Pomona? </p>
<p>Most Midd, Wellesley, Bowdoin students wouldn’t be able to get in anyway.</p>
<p>Gee, it looks like we’ll have to contact Pomona and tell them to correct the erroneous data on their web site:</p>
<p>“Geographically, 30.8 percent live in Southern California, 17.8 percent in Northern California, 22 percent in other states west of the Mississippi, 26.1 percent east of the Mississippi, and 3.2 percent overseas.”</p>
<p>[Pomona</a> College : Welcome : About Pomona : Facts and Figures](<a href=“http://www.pomona.edu/Welcome/AboutPomona/FactsAndFigures.shtml]Pomona”>http://www.pomona.edu/Welcome/AboutPomona/FactsAndFigures.shtml)</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.pomona.edu/Admissions/otherinformation/classprofiles/2012profile.pdf[/url]”>http://www.pomona.edu/Admissions/otherinformation/classprofiles/2012profile.pdf</a></p>
<p>28%.</p>
<p>“Most Midd, Wellesley, Bowdoin students wouldn’t be able to get in anyway.”</p>
<p>Absolutely correct! Pomona has just 1520 students, whereas Middlebury, Wellesley and Bowdoin have 4646 total. MOST WON’T FIT INTO POMONA!!!</p>
<p>NewHope, you’re looking under the alumni section. If you read it in context, you’ll realize they are talking about alumni:</p>
<p>"Pomona has about 23,975 living alumni. Of those in the work force, 25.2 percent are in business and finance; 20.3 percent in education, 9.8 percent in law and government, 8.3 percent in health and medicine, 4.1 percent in science and technology, and 5.1 percent in arts and media; the remaining 27 percent are in other fields.</p>
<p>Geographically, 30.8 percent live in Southern California, 17.8 percent in Northern California, 22 percent in other states west of the Mississippi, 26.1 percent east of the Mississippi, and 3.2 percent overseas."</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>So 30 percent of kids in-state isn’t significant. Okay. Whatever you say. 5% of Middlebury students are from Vermont (granted, a much smaller state), and more than 75% are from outside New England. What percentage of Pomona kids are from states west of the Mississippi?</p>
<p>You forget to address the fact that Pomona is one of only a handful of LACs in a mild climate (other are Davidson, W&L). There are plenty of kids who want a LAC in a warm climate, and Pomona is ground zero for them. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Cross-admit data suggests otherwise.</p>
<p>
Please quote a Pomona/Middlebury cross admit from the Middlebury ad. office.<br>
I can’t imagine a CA student got into Pomona and decided to head out to Middlebury.
I also can’t imagine a NE student got into Pomona and decided to stay in Vermont. Why applied to Pomona in the first place?</p>
<p>And I received hate messages for dragging Middlebury through the mud. Arcadia, you have quite a following.</p>
<p>Hang in there, middsmith. I’m with you.</p>
<p>East Coast bias is firmly entrenched and virtually impossible to counterbalance.</p>
<p>The incestuous and parochial “masters of the universe” back there don’t like to give up their self-declared and self-perpetuated dominance to upstarts from the wild west.</p>
<p>Consider Pomona, Stanford, CalTech, Harvey Mudd, or Cal. None get the respect they truly deserve *simply because of their location.</p>
<p>Agree with everyone who said that Pomona is too far from Cambridge …</p>
<p>There are many biases among academics, who after all are human. One is that a southern accent equates to ignorance, and that a british accent equates to intelligence. Another is that the Greater Los Angeles area could not possible contain the highest test scoring students in all of LAC-dom (Harvey Mudd and Pomona).</p>