Another Pomona College Lottery

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yeah my son is in at Pomona and for the major he wants, there are only two faculty members. The other school he’s considering has 13 faculty members. Definitely gives me pause.

This really depends on the department; there’s likely faculty across the 5Cs for them. I also can’t think of a department at the 5Cs with 2 faculty, nor can I find one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is this a common thing at other schools or limited to SLACs?

The data point here is just Pomona.

There’s been a similar lottery system at Carleton and Swarthmore.

[Anonymous]

If I was a full pay parent and my kid couldn’t be guaranteed a certain major at a SLAC, I’d be wondering why the hell am I paying 90k.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If I was a full pay parent and my kid couldn’t be guaranteed a certain major at a SLAC, I’d be wondering why the hell am I paying 90k.

It’s a program, not a department. I wish parents would learn about academic structure- it would change how they apply to schools entirely.

Most cognitive science departments are Half baked programs where no one is actually dedicated to the department other than some coordinator (who inevitably will be cross faculty with another department). Stop going to LACs for programs- they’re interdisciplinary fields of study that you’re expected to double major with, because they don’t have the full support of the institution to be a department’s

Go to an LAC for neuroscience or Psychology or Statistics or even Russian if you want to. But stop being surprised that programs aren’t well supported.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If I was a full pay parent and my kid couldn’t be guaranteed a certain major at a SLAC, I’d be wondering why the hell am I paying 90k.

It’s a program, not a department. I wish parents would learn about academic structure- it would change how they apply to schools entirely.

Most cognitive science departments are Half baked programs where no one is actually dedicated to the department other than some coordinator (who inevitably will be cross faculty with another department). Stop going to LACs for programs- they’re interdisciplinary fields of study that you’re expected to double major with, because they don’t have the full support of the institution to be a department’s

Go to an LAC for neuroscience or Psychology or Statistics or even Russian if you want to. But stop being surprised that programs aren’t well supported.

Sounds like someone should give Pomona a heads up that they merely only have a “cognitive science program” instead of a Linguistics and Cognitive Science Department (https://www.pomona.edu/academics/departments/linguistics-cognitive-science)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If I was a full pay parent and my kid couldn’t be guaranteed a certain major at a SLAC, I’d be wondering why the hell am I paying 90k.

It’s a program, not a department. I wish parents would learn about academic structure- it would change how they apply to schools entirely.

Most cognitive science departments are Half baked programs where no one is actually dedicated to the department other than some coordinator (who inevitably will be cross faculty with another department). Stop going to LACs for programs- they’re interdisciplinary fields of study that you’re expected to double major with, because they don’t have the full support of the institution to be a department’s

Go to an LAC for neuroscience or Psychology or Statistics or even Russian if you want to. But stop being surprised that programs aren’t well supported.

Sounds like someone should give Pomona a heads up that they merely only have a “cognitive science program” instead of a Linguistics and Cognitive Science Department (https://www.pomona.edu/academics/departments/linguistics-cognitive-science)

Looks like the department is well supported. A lot of linguistics faculty! They also have a full CS, Philosophy, and Psych, and Neuro department. Weird that students are finding it hard to do cognitive science.

[Anonymous]

It’s amazing what inventive issues DCUM finds about this school every week

[Anonymous]

NP is there someone on here who really hates this school or is Pomona running into a lot of issues these days?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP is there someone on here who really hates this school or is Pomona running into a lot of issues these days?

Let’s have you do the math: is it more probable that the $3.5 billion endowed institution with top rankings and outcomes is plagued with a billion issues or that someone has it out for this highly rejective college?

[Anonymous]

Seems like a nonissue for a majority of students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP is there someone on here who really hates this school or is Pomona running into a lot of issues these days?

Let’s have you do the math: is it more probable that the $3.5 billion endowed institution with top rankings and outcomes is plagued with a billion issues or that someone has it out for this highly rejective college?

It feels like every top SLAC has at least one dedicated troll on DCUM. Williams, Amherst, CMC, Middlebury, and Pomona all have them just off of the top of my head.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm sure they'll resolve it soon. They had a CS crisis a few years ago and things are back to normal now.

This is an ongoing issue at many top LACs where career-minded students are largely looking at ~6 fields of interest: CS/cognitive science, economics, math/data science, physics, political science/IR (pre-law), and biology/biochem/neuroscience (pre-med). Most other departments, especially those in languages and humanities, are struggling with major enrollment despite having substantial faculty. Tenure track faculty cannot be removed easily to help a needy department, and hiring faculty is largely dependent on accreditation recommendations rather than short-term demands. The consequence is that when an unexpected wave of popularity happens, especially coupled with tenure track professors on sabbatical or administrative duties, it can create problems.

Research universities have plenty of graduate students to shoulder the burden of advising and mentoring students, even with surges in popularity. Liberal art colleges emphasize the exclusive faculty-student advisor relationship. In order to provide that experience to their majors, some schools will have to use lotteries to limit enrollment to prevent overburdening professors. It sucks but it's usually temporary.

Why are "CS/Cognitive science" listed together I wonder? Are they at all related to each other?

Cognitive science is critically related to both CS and AI. It’s a very well rounded major if integrated well across subjects. Kids may pick a concentration within the major - usually CS/neuroscience/linguistics/psychology/philosophy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Seems like a nonissue for a majority of students.

But a big issue for majors

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seems like a nonissue for a majority of students.

But a big issue for majors

+1000

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seems like a nonissue for a majority of students.

But a big issue for majors

+1000

We all know you onanistically bumped yourself.