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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow. Huge red flag

Yep

That’s wild for a school with Pomona’s resources and profile

That’s some state school move

[Anonymous]

Go to Mudd for CS, not Pomona

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you were a good computer scientist and lived in silicon valley, why in the world would you teach for $150k a year at Pomona when you could pull $500k (or more, if youre really good or are part of a startup) in private industry.

This is the issue.

Because of the lifestyle?

[Anonymous]

20% of the student body majoring in CS is absurd for a LAC outside of Harvey Mudd (which only does STEM degrees). Pomona has 48 distinct majors

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ugh…not like Pomona is known for its CS. My guess is it is the typical kids all selecting a major that they are told makes them most marketable.

I don’t know many HS kids interested in CS that have Pomona on their list. Admittedly, the list may be different if you live on the West Coast.

All the top LACs attract strivy students. Pomona is ranked in the top 3, their most popular majors are Econ/CS/math and have been for many years now

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:20% of the student body majoring by in CS is absurd for a LAC outside of Harvey Mudd (which only does STEM degrees). Pomona has 48 distinct majors

It suggests to me AOs did a terrible job ensuring a diverse applicant pool.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The students shut out should just take the classes at another school in the consortium.

Mudd is the only other one with a CS program

They've barred Pomona students from majoring in CS there and severely limited students from the other 5Cs without a CS program (Pitzer, Scripps, CMC).

Pomona doesn't even let off-campus students major at Pomona. The situation is that bad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can see them getting sued by parents of Sophomores. The advertise the ability to choose major and then limit choices. Maybe they should reallocate resources to majors that kids actually want

This is definitely blindsiding for current incoming students and rising sophomores at Pomona. I anticipate a high transfer out rate for CS prospective majors. Why pay nearly 90K for Pomona when you can't be assured you will be able to do your desired major?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ugh…not like Pomona is known for its CS. My guess is it is the typical kids all selecting a major that they are told makes them most marketable.

I don’t know many HS kids interested in CS that have Pomona on their list. Admittedly, the list may be different if you live on the West Coast.

All the top LACs attract strivy students. Pomona is ranked in the top 3, their most popular majors are Econ/CS/math and have been for many years now

Ewww

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you were a good computer scientist and lived in silicon valley, why in the world would you teach for $150k a year at Pomona when you could pull $500k (or more, if youre really good or are part of a startup) in private industry.

This is the issue.

Williams has 13 tenure track faculty members. Swarthmore has 11.

The fact that Pomona only has 6 is a sign of poorly managed administration that cannot seem to get their priorities together. I've heard horror stories about other aspects regarding them as well. Avoid the headache and don't bother applying here. Most of the other T10 LACs are much better run.

[Anonymous]

If you're a Stem-y oriented student, you just can't go with the SLACs. Maybe Harvey Mudd and Cooper Union. But otherwise, they don't have the resources. If even Pomona is pulling this BS, you can imagine what it's like at other schools.

[Anonymous]

There is no excuse for this. They have the money to go out and hire. They clearly have other priorities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you're a Stem-y oriented student, you just can't go with the SLACs. Maybe Harvey Mudd and Cooper Union. But otherwise, they don't have the resources. If even Pomona is pulling this BS, you can imagine what it's like at other schools.

Compare STEM PhDs per capita from Swarthmore with any university. Pomona is an outlier here. Top SLACs tend to have excellent science facilities and they focus on under graduates not PhD candidates

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow. This is inexcusable for a school that expensive l especially for kids already there. This should be implemented for kids are about to be high school seniors, if at all.

But ideally they would hire other professors to meet the demand. This is messed up.

80k per year and you can’t even take an intro computer science class?

Yes, that's really poor organization and communication. I hope parents sue for their money back.

[Anonymous]

I've hired plenty of software developers; Pomona is highly regarded.

To me it's disappointing but not shocking that a school with even its resources has to cap the number of CS majors. That's been going on for decades at larger public universities, and it was probably always a matter of time before we saw it happening at well endowed privates.

What's more disturbing, frankly, is the description posted about who gets to major. As I understand things, it comes down to random luck regarding who gets to register for the overcrowded classes before the deadline to declare. That's not how it should work. The best students should be given priority. Those with a higher GPA in related courses should have some registration advantage over those who did worse. I would be livid if I had a 4.0 child lose a seat in the major to someone with, say, a 3.0 because of pure randomness. Hopefully I am misreading things.