Pomona v Occidental

[Anonymous]

my sample size is not large (but not small), but I dont know anyone who LOVED their time at Oxy.

I think that's a school that shows off better on a tour than maybe reality. It's pretty for sure!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oxy is closer to LA and more chill. Better for media, arts, and industry connections to entertainment (like music). 20 mins from DTLA. Has a hippie/boho feel.

Pomona is more academic and driven. They have the consortium as their bubble where most of social life occurs. They are in the inland empire about 60-ish minutes from DTLA. But they are closer to Orange County (45 mins) and have a suburban/corporate feel.

Both are quite leftist.

Much more academic and driven. It’s not close. There’s no reason to pick Occidental if they’re a similar cost and you’re a serious academic student. Most LAC students are not interested in entertainment and the film industry- schools like USC and Chapman do a much better job.

Occidental is not even necessarily better than Pitzer which is regarded as the worst of the 5Cs.

It’s like the difference between Yale and Wake Forest. Both good schools, but one is in a whole different league.

Oxy is academically better IMO than Pitzer. Pitzer is permanently test-blind and vets students only by unreliable criteria - GPA and essays. You can see how that leads to an inconsistency of students. Also, Pitzer gives zero merit aid for top students.

Oxy gives merit aid for top students ($20-35K/year guaranteed for 4 years). So that brings tuition down to $35-45K/year at Oxy with merit vs. $70K/year to attend Pitzer.

Some people don't want to be holed up in a suburb in the Inland Empire living in non-AC raging heat (note: Oxy added AC to all dorms after the heat waves in LA a few years back. Now every dorm has it. Pomona still does not.) Oxy also lets all students park their car in a student garage for free, so they can get around, explore the area much more than carless 5Cs who remain mostly stuck in their bubble or taking the 1 hour each way train or paying for costly ubers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:my sample size is not large (but not small), but I dont know anyone who LOVED their time at Oxy.

I think that's a school that shows off better on a tour than maybe reality. It's pretty for sure!

I live in CA, I know plenty who did!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oxy is closer to LA and more chill. Better for media, arts, and industry connections to entertainment (like music). 20 mins from DTLA. Has a hippie/boho feel.

Pomona is more academic and driven. They have the consortium as their bubble where most of social life occurs. They are in the inland empire about 60-ish minutes from DTLA. But they are closer to Orange County (45 mins) and have a suburban/corporate feel.

Both are quite leftist.

Much more academic and driven. It’s not close. There’s no reason to pick Occidental if they’re a similar cost and you’re a serious academic student. Most LAC students are not interested in entertainment and the film industry- schools like USC and Chapman do a much better job.

Occidental is not even necessarily better than Pitzer which is regarded as the worst of the 5Cs.

It’s like the difference between Yale and Wake Forest. Both good schools, but one is in a whole different league.

Oxy is academically better IMO than Pitzer. Pitzer is permanently test-blind and vets students only by unreliable criteria - GPA and essays. You can see how that leads to an inconsistency of students. Also, Pitzer gives zero merit aid for top students.

Oxy gives merit aid for top students ($20-35K/year guaranteed for 4 years). So that brings tuition down to $35-45K/year at Oxy with merit vs. $70K/year to attend Pitzer.

Some people don't want to be holed up in a suburb in the Inland Empire living in non-AC raging heat (note: Oxy added AC to all dorms after the heat waves in LA a few years back. Now every dorm has it. Pomona still does not.) Oxy also lets all students park their car in a student garage for free, so they can get around, explore the area much more than carless 5Cs who remain mostly stuck in their bubble or taking the 1 hour each way train or paying for costly ubers.

Absolutely - Oxy is better than Pitzer because… Pomona dorms don’t have AC. Doesn’t matter that Pitzer dorms have AC, Oxy is better.

Also, Oxy is obvious academically better because… Oxy is a much easier admit and has to offer merit aid to attract students.

That’s not at all nonsensical.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oxy is closer to LA and more chill. Better for media, arts, and industry connections to entertainment (like music). 20 mins from DTLA. Has a hippie/boho feel.

Pomona is more academic and driven. They have the consortium as their bubble where most of social life occurs. They are in the inland empire about 60-ish minutes from DTLA. But they are closer to Orange County (45 mins) and have a suburban/corporate feel.

Both are quite leftist.

Much more academic and driven. It’s not close. There’s no reason to pick Occidental if they’re a similar cost and you’re a serious academic student. Most LAC students are not interested in entertainment and the film industry- schools like USC and Chapman do a much better job.

Occidental is not even necessarily better than Pitzer which is regarded as the worst of the 5Cs.

It’s like the difference between Yale and Wake Forest. Both good schools, but one is in a whole different league.

Oxy is academically better IMO than Pitzer. Pitzer is permanently test-blind and vets students only by unreliable criteria - GPA and essays. You can see how that leads to an inconsistency of students. Also, Pitzer gives zero merit aid for top students.

Oxy gives merit aid for top students ($20-35K/year guaranteed for 4 years). So that brings tuition down to $35-45K/year at Oxy with merit vs. $70K/year to attend Pitzer.

Some people don't want to be holed up in a suburb in the Inland Empire living in non-AC raging heat (note: Oxy added AC to all dorms after the heat waves in LA a few years back. Now every dorm has it. Pomona still does not.) Oxy also lets all students park their car in a student garage for free, so they can get around, explore the area much more than carless 5Cs who remain mostly stuck in their bubble or taking the 1 hour each way train or paying for costly ubers.

What’s with people imaging the IE as some far flung place. Claremont is still LA county, people commute all the time from Claremont to LA, there’s a train on campus that takes you directly DTLA, there’s a light rail just a mile from campus that takes you through Pasadena towards Long Beach. Apparently people are allergic to commuter trains.

[Anonymous]

DC is two years into Pomona with some financial aid (100% needs based FA is available for all). Got into OXY too with merit aid. When choosing and looking at what was offered to DC at Pomona as compared to OXY, the former has an abundance of resources in all ways. OXY does not and it felt on tour that they were "stretching it" a bit in terms of what they offered (academics, facilities, etc.). One huge difference that impacts academics, the feeling of freedom to choose, social life, is that having the 5 colleges together is real. OXY felt very small by comparison. I don't think there's much to choose from between Claremont and Eagle Rock in terms of "great" location. I might be wrong. What I do know is that DC took their car down to Pomona at the beginning of Sophomore year and is always heading to the hills or to LA/beach from Pomona. (To the post saying "no ACs" my DC has had both AC and no AC dorms. It definitely got hot for a couple of months without AC but the dorm building itself had AC in common areas and there were a couple of times some slept there).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oxy is closer to LA and more chill. Better for media, arts, and industry connections to entertainment (like music). 20 mins from DTLA. Has a hippie/boho feel.

Pomona is more academic and driven. They have the consortium as their bubble where most of social life occurs. They are in the inland empire about 60-ish minutes from DTLA. But they are closer to Orange County (45 mins) and have a suburban/corporate feel.

Both are quite leftist.

Much more academic and driven. It’s not close. There’s no reason to pick Occidental if they’re a similar cost and you’re a serious academic student. Most LAC students are not interested in entertainment and the film industry- schools like USC and Chapman do a much better job.

Occidental is not even necessarily better than Pitzer which is regarded as the worst of the 5Cs.

It’s like the difference between Yale and Wake Forest. Both good schools, but one is in a whole different league.

Oxy is academically better IMO than Pitzer. Pitzer is permanently test-blind and vets students only by unreliable criteria - GPA and essays. You can see how that leads to an inconsistency of students. Also, Pitzer gives zero merit aid for top students.

Oxy gives merit aid for top students ($20-35K/year guaranteed for 4 years). So that brings tuition down to $35-45K/year at Oxy with merit vs. $70K/year to attend Pitzer.

Some people don't want to be holed up in a suburb in the Inland Empire living in non-AC raging heat (note: Oxy added AC to all dorms after the heat waves in LA a few years back. Now every dorm has it. Pomona still does not.) Oxy also lets all students park their car in a student garage for free, so they can get around, explore the area much more than carless 5Cs who remain mostly stuck in their bubble or taking the 1 hour each way train or paying for costly ubers.

Are you attending a liberal arts college or are you attending a commuter school? The point of paying $$$ for LACs isn't to constantly go off campus all the time, it's to build deep camadrie with your classmates and to immerse yourself in a wide range of campus activities and organizations. And the Claremonts are close enough to venture out if you want to, unlike truly isolated LACs such as Colby and Williams.

Also, Occidental is not in a very convenient part of LA if you want to use public transit. It's 50 minutes by bus to Union Station, which is almost the same time as the Claremont Colleges via Metrolink.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oxy is closer to LA and more chill. Better for media, arts, and industry connections to entertainment (like music). 20 mins from DTLA. Has a hippie/boho feel.

Pomona is more academic and driven. They have the consortium as their bubble where most of social life occurs. They are in the inland empire about 60-ish minutes from DTLA. But they are closer to Orange County (45 mins) and have a suburban/corporate feel.

Both are quite leftist.

Much more academic and driven. It’s not close. There’s no reason to pick Occidental if they’re a similar cost and you’re a serious academic student. Most LAC students are not interested in entertainment and the film industry- schools like USC and Chapman do a much better job.

Occidental is not even necessarily better than Pitzer which is regarded as the worst of the 5Cs.

It’s like the difference between Yale and Wake Forest. Both good schools, but one is in a whole different league.

Oxy is academically better IMO than Pitzer. Pitzer is permanently test-blind and vets students only by unreliable criteria - GPA and essays. You can see how that leads to an inconsistency of students. Also, Pitzer gives zero merit aid for top students.

Oxy gives merit aid for top students ($20-35K/year guaranteed for 4 years). So that brings tuition down to $35-45K/year at Oxy with merit vs. $70K/year to attend Pitzer.

Some people don't want to be holed up in a suburb in the Inland Empire living in non-AC raging heat (note: Oxy added AC to all dorms after the heat waves in LA a few years back. Now every dorm has it. Pomona still does not.) Oxy also lets all students park their car in a student garage for free, so they can get around, explore the area much more than carless 5Cs who remain mostly stuck in their bubble or taking the 1 hour each way train or paying for costly ubers.

Absolutely - Oxy is better than Pitzer because… Pomona dorms don’t have AC. Doesn’t matter that Pitzer dorms have AC, Oxy is better.

Also, Oxy is obvious academically better because… Oxy is a much easier admit and has to offer merit aid to attract students.

That’s not at all nonsensical.

Are you ok? I'm actually in CA and my sample size of students going to both colleges via friend and family (including one niece at each) is probably larger than yours. You can get into Pitzer with lots of community service, less rigor and mediocre grades if you apply ED, but you need to be full pay as they don't think it's worthwhile to award any merit. At Oxy, to get their top $35K/year merit, you need tons of APs/high rigor, mostly As and 5s on APs (which they accept along with standardized tests). Pitzer is fully test blind, including AP tests. They genuinely look at very little except for activism and passion in the essays. Scripps is far better IMO than Pitzer and like Oxy, does provide merit aid for top students.

[Anonymous]

Pitzer doesn't need to give merit aid because Pitzer is much more desirable than Occidental (35% vs 17% yield).

[Anonymous]

https://www.pomona.edu/news/2026/04/20-charles-brainin-27-and-ryan-mooney-27-receive-prestigious-goldwater-scholarship

[Anonymous]

No offense, but this debate sounds like who's the tallest midget. They both attract quality students. Not outstanding.

Pomona has fewer than 30 students getting 1560 or more on the SAT for its entire freshman class.

At Occidental, 108 students bothered to submit an SAT score. Of those who did, probably 2 or 3 actually scored above 1560. The 75% at Occidental is only 1510. So only 26 students in total scored above 1510.

These are both fine schools. Let's not make them out to be something different than each other.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No offense, but this debate sounds like who's the tallest midget. They both attract quality students. Not outstanding.

Pomona has fewer than 30 students getting 1560 or more on the SAT for its entire freshman class.

At Occidental, 108 students bothered to submit an SAT score. Of those who did, probably 2 or 3 actually scored above 1560. The 75% at Occidental is only 1510. So only 26 students in total scored above 1510.

These are both fine schools. Let's not make them out to be something different than each other.

This may sound crazy but maybe Pomona has many students it could choose with good SATs and *shocker* they don’t care.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No offense, but this debate sounds like who's the tallest midget. They both attract quality students. Not outstanding.

Pomona has fewer than 30 students getting 1560 or more on the SAT for its entire freshman class.

At Occidental, 108 students bothered to submit an SAT score. Of those who did, probably 2 or 3 actually scored above 1560. The 75% at Occidental is only 1510. So only 26 students in total scored above 1510.

These are both fine schools. Let's not make them out to be something different than each other.

This may sound crazy but maybe Pomona has many students it could choose with good SATs and *shocker* they don’t care.

According to all statistical analysis, the majority (more than 50%) of high scorers (1560+) attend Ivy, Stanford or MIT.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No offense, but this debate sounds like who's the tallest midget. They both attract quality students. Not outstanding.

Pomona has fewer than 30 students getting 1560 or more on the SAT for its entire freshman class.

At Occidental, 108 students bothered to submit an SAT score. Of those who did, probably 2 or 3 actually scored above 1560. The 75% at Occidental is only 1510. So only 26 students in total scored above 1510.

These are both fine schools. Let's not make them out to be something different than each other.

This may sound crazy but maybe Pomona has many students it could choose with good SATs and *shocker* they don’t care.

Our 1590/4.0 kid was rejected. He’s going to Yale now. They aren’t hurting for high scoring students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No offense, but this debate sounds like who's the tallest midget. They both attract quality students. Not outstanding.

Pomona has fewer than 30 students getting 1560 or more on the SAT for its entire freshman class.

At Occidental, 108 students bothered to submit an SAT score. Of those who did, probably 2 or 3 actually scored above 1560. The 75% at Occidental is only 1510. So only 26 students in total scored above 1510.

These are both fine schools. Let's not make them out to be something different than each other.

This may sound crazy but maybe Pomona has many students it could choose with good SATs and *shocker* they don’t care.

According to all statistical analysis, the majority (more than 50%) of high scorers (1560+) attend Ivy, Stanford or MIT.

There’s only a class of about 400 at Pomona.