Yet another chances thread (ED)

Colleges and Universities A-Z Pomona College
1

<p>Jesus, I feel like I'm spamming these, but it seems the only way to get a good answer to these is to post one in each individual forum. Appologies if anyone is annoyed, and thanks in advance to anyone who responds. OK, I just visited Pomona and kinda fell in love with it. So how are my chances for ed admission?</p>

<p>GPA: 3.9 Weighted, 3.7 unweighteed
By year:
summer school in between 8th and 9th grade: 3.0 (computer careers, not college prep, may not count at all)
9th 3.66 (english, spanish 2, algebra 2, drawing, PE, world cultures)
10th 4.0 (english 2 honors, biology, geometry, journalism, spanish 3)
11th 4.5 (english 3 ap, chemistry, trig, spanish 4 ap, advanced journalism, ap us history)
12th (planned: american institutions, english 4 honors, ap statistics, advanced journalism, physics)</p>

<p>class rank: low 20s out of 414</p>

<p>SAT: 2230, 710 math, 720 reading, 800 writing
ACT: 33 composite, 7 writing (writers block sucks)
SAT subject: 690 Math 1, 740 Spanish, 2 more pending
AP: took 3, grades pending</p>

<p>ECs: president of progressive club for 2 years, editor of award-winning school paper senior year and assistant editor junior year, member of interact (community service) club, 9 years karate (brown belt), 10 years acting, 9 years dancing (hip hop), couple of other fairly meaningless clubs.</p>

<p>Awards: 1 first and 1 second place for pieces in the school newspaper, 1 second and 1 third place award in karate tournaments. One leadership award from the school.</p>

<p>White male nonreligious resident of california.</p>

<p>So how're my chances? The guy at the admissions session said that freshman grades don't matter that much, so that's a plus, but is it a realistic choice of a college?</p>

2

<p>You have pretty similar stats to mine, so I would love to say you're an AWESOME candidate and a shoe in, because that would mean I am too, but i can really only say you have a good chance, if you have good essays and recs. Try to emphasize your dance and karate, as they seem to be long-term committments, and show that you have a passion for something. I'm going to be emphasizing my passion for music, probably in one of the essays. The difference between a liberal arts college like this one and a big study university is that college like Pomona will look more into what you are as a person, not as a list of statistics. You might want to send in a copy of the newspaper piece that won 1st.
Also, have you taken the most challenging courseload available to you (without dropping journalism)? You have a nice SAT, it's above Pomona's average.</p>

3

<p>I've taken a hard-ish courseload, but not every AP class my highschool offers. I've always taken all the advanced classes offered in the history/english department, but I haven't been so good with math and science. I turned down 2 Honors classes (trig and chem) this past year in favor of their easier counterparts, and will be taking AP Stats instead of AP Calc, by far the harder class, next year. And no, I'm not dropping journalism.
Thanks for the quick reply! And people say this board is dead. Anyone else?</p>

4

<p>That 800 writing is golden, Pomona loves good writers, especially if your essay demonstrates that. You have the stats for sure so show your passion for the shool, best of luch-good choice!</p>

5

<p>You have very good credentials. Just one thing to consider in taking statistics vs. calculus is that many majors (and colleges) require students to take statistics for that particular line of study which may mean redundant study. D (who was accepted ED to Pomona) chose the calc route as a result.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

6

<p>Thanks for the good luck, and here's hoping I don't need it! Alright, I just called and got my AP scores, here they are.
US History-3
Spanish-4
English Language-5
Does that make a difference one way or another?</p>