Do not send your child to Pomona if they are interested in a CS degree. The major is not guaranteed

[Anonymous]

Everyone should see this! EMBARRASSING!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Everyone should see this! EMBARRASSING!

What should they see? What is embarrassing? This seems like an old thread, I'm confused.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And regarding the above info from Pomona's CS website, the ability to enroll in CSCI 51 is limited, so enrollment in the major is still limited.

Also from the website (4/20/25):
"We allocate a fixed number of seats in CSCI 51 each semester for each class year (first years, sophomores, etc.). If the seats fill up for your class year, you should join the waitlist for the class and we will revisit the list if seats become available."

Only 2 students in the class of 2027 aren’t able to enroll by that time. Currently, everyone from 28 has been able to enroll and the lottery is disappearing next semester (something you didn’t notice but is clearly missing from the website). It is very easy to get into Cs51 as a sophomore, even with a bad registration time. Please listen to those us of with boots on the ground, who know the situation. The faculty list hasn’t even been updated for fall, yet and next semester 4 different intro classes are being taught.

Pomona, unlike other top LACs, is located in California, and students are very interested in CS. No other lac has dealt with nearly 1/4 of their class majoring in CS unless they were built for that demand (HMC). It’s getting ridiculous seeing the amount of energy spent on false information on threads like these.

DP. It’s not “false information” if the website has been updated for next year (“Starting in Fall of 2025”) and is still saying “Not every student interested in majoring in CS is guaranteed to be able to do so.” Read the first FAQ below. Far more logical to go with what’s on the official website than what’s on an anonymous forum. That said, an admitted student trying to decide could always reach out to the dept to ask if they mean what they already say on the site.

https://www.pomona.edu/academics/departments/computer-science/faqs

CS has vastly improved. There's now 10 tenure track faculty members and there's free space in the classes. All your link says is that they need to take CS51 by the first three semesters. Add/drop has already happened for the freshman and there's 13 open seats. If you want it, you can get it.

[Anonymous]

CS is not guaranteed at many universities. Also, at some CS is a separate direct admission. Pomona is normal. And as one PP noted, they have actively expanded the number of seats in CS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a comparison locally, at UVa there is no guarantee that a would-be BACS major will be able to get the required pre-requisite courses or will be allowed to major in CS even if they do take all the pre-req courses. Further, Echols Scholars at UVa will have an edge getting the pre-req courses, as their course requests are processed by Carruthers Hall before the rest of the students in the College.

I am not a big fan of a lottery system, but if there aren’t enough faculty to offer the pre-req courses to all students who want them, then a lottery is not totally unreasonable.

I think the heads-up about limited CS students is fine. Students who really want only CS should be targeting direct-admit colleges, such as UMCP does locally.

UVA has improved!

[Anonymous]

It's ridiculous that on one hand you have a CS glut, and on the other, colleges can't or won't recruit enough Professors. Six CS Profs at Pomona is pathetic.

[Anonymous]

Huh?

Waht's going on? Is this an old thread or new?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's ridiculous that on one hand you have a CS glut, and on the other, colleges can't or won't recruit enough Professors. Six CS Profs at Pomona is pathetic.

Pomona has 11 professors in the CS department, though (source: https://www.pomona.edu/academics/departments/computer-science/faculty-staff ). This is a long conversation, but Pomona tends to have less faculty than peers because there’s 4 other colleges around it- CMC, Harvey Mudd, and even Pitzer now have CS faculty. Pomona is also small compared to peers with only about 1700 students.

The school also was slow to hire, because they didn’t want to jump on trends. There’s only 400 or so students in a class. 80 of those choosing a cs major isn’t normal, and the college isn’t going to suddenly hire 14 new professors; they’re going to balance out their next classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And regarding the above info from Pomona's CS website, the ability to enroll in CSCI 51 is limited, so enrollment in the major is still limited.

Also from the website (4/20/25):
"We allocate a fixed number of seats in CSCI 51 each semester for each class year (first years, sophomores, etc.). If the seats fill up for your class year, you should join the waitlist for the class and we will revisit the list if seats become available."

Only 2 students in the class of 2027 aren’t able to enroll by that time. Currently, everyone from 28 has been able to enroll and the lottery is disappearing next semester (something you didn’t notice but is clearly missing from the website). It is very easy to get into Cs51 as a sophomore, even with a bad registration time. Please listen to those us of with boots on the ground, who know the situation. The faculty list hasn’t even been updated for fall, yet and next semester 4 different intro classes are being taught.

Pomona, unlike other top LACs, is located in California, and students are very interested in CS. No other lac has dealt with nearly 1/4 of their class majoring in CS unless they were built for that demand (HMC). It’s getting ridiculous seeing the amount of energy spent on false information on threads like these.

DP. It’s not “false information” if the website has been updated for next year (“Starting in Fall of 2025”) and is still saying “Not every student interested in majoring in CS is guaranteed to be able to do so.” Read the first FAQ below. Far more logical to go with what’s on the official website than what’s on an anonymous forum. That said, an admitted student trying to decide could always reach out to the dept to ask if they mean what they already say on the site.

https://www.pomona.edu/academics/departments/computer-science/faqs

CS has vastly improved. There's now 10 tenure track faculty members and there's free space in the classes. All your link says is that they need to take CS51 by the first three semesters. Add/drop has already happened for the freshman and there's 13 open seats. If you want it, you can get it.

Add/drop has not happened for freshman. They meet with advisors tomorrow and then can adjust their course registrations on Friday. Add/drop happens AFTER all that and the “shopping” period. That said, CS classes still have availability and this problem has been addressed, as others have mentioned.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Huh?

Waht's going on? Is this an old thread or new?

The Pomona troll is at it again. Rumor has it that she dated Pomona in high school, but Pomona broke up with her before prom and took her best friend instead. Ever since, the Pomona troll has resided under a wifi-enabled bridge and sought vengeance through semi-coherent online diatribes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And regarding the above info from Pomona's CS website, the ability to enroll in CSCI 51 is limited, so enrollment in the major is still limited.

Also from the website (4/20/25):
"We allocate a fixed number of seats in CSCI 51 each semester for each class year (first years, sophomores, etc.). If the seats fill up for your class year, you should join the waitlist for the class and we will revisit the list if seats become available."

Only 2 students in the class of 2027 aren’t able to enroll by that time. Currently, everyone from 28 has been able to enroll and the lottery is disappearing next semester (something you didn’t notice but is clearly missing from the website). It is very easy to get into Cs51 as a sophomore, even with a bad registration time. Please listen to those us of with boots on the ground, who know the situation. The faculty list hasn’t even been updated for fall, yet and next semester 4 different intro classes are being taught.

Pomona, unlike other top LACs, is located in California, and students are very interested in CS. No other lac has dealt with nearly 1/4 of their class majoring in CS unless they were built for that demand (HMC). It’s getting ridiculous seeing the amount of energy spent on false information on threads like these.

DP. It’s not “false information” if the website has been updated for next year (“Starting in Fall of 2025”) and is still saying “Not every student interested in majoring in CS is guaranteed to be able to do so.” Read the first FAQ below. Far more logical to go with what’s on the official website than what’s on an anonymous forum. That said, an admitted student trying to decide could always reach out to the dept to ask if they mean what they already say on the site.

https://www.pomona.edu/academics/departments/computer-science/faqs

CS has vastly improved. There's now 10 tenure track faculty members and there's free space in the classes. All your link says is that they need to take CS51 by the first three semesters. Add/drop has already happened for the freshman and there's 13 open seats. If you want it, you can get it.

Add/drop has not happened for freshman. They meet with advisors tomorrow and then can adjust their course registrations on Friday. Add/drop happens AFTER all that and the “shopping” period. That said, CS classes still have availability and this problem has been addressed, as others have mentioned.

The freshman registered early this year. I know because one of my good friends is a Pomona prof and had to deal with the temporary chaos of the students registering for classes due to a new portal by anthology.

You are right that add drop period isn’t over, because it reopens for students to add their 5th And 6th courses on Monday.

[Anonymous]

Also if anyone is wondering how we know about course availability, it’s publicly available on hyperschedule.io

The intro cs course is CSCI51