What's the difference between Amherst and Pomona?

[Anonymous]

Is Amherst less woke than Pomona?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We visited both. Didn't attend so this n=1 opinion is based on touring only:

Amherst kids seemed more social, under less academic pressure. Talked about fun courses, parties, casual hangouts with professors. Pomona kids seemed more academically serious but not intense like Swarthmore kids. They talked fondly about professors too but in an academic setting, didn't talk about hanging out with profs. Amherst campus looks more scenic.

Kid just finished her freshman year at Amherst, not her experience at all. She's pre-med though, so it might be major dependent.

How was her experience overall as a freshman? Did she also apply to Williams and Swarthmore? How would you compare those 3 schools (+ Pomona if that was in the mix)

Applied ED to Amherst so can't compare beyond general visits. Williams felt snobby and too remote and Swarthmore felt grindy in a "students relish bragging about how little sleep they get" kind of way. Was impressed by the academics for sure, but they didn't feel like a happy fit for her. Really liked Pomona, especially the consortium options, but preferred the East coast in the end. Thought Amherst, Pomona, and Bowdoin felt culturally very similar. Almost interchangeable, with Amherst maybe a touch more intense. Her impression that Amherst felt academically rigorous but socially more relaxed has been the case. The workload is challenging, but professors and classmates are generally supportive and collaborative, and that was important to her. I don't know if I'd recommend Amherst for pre-meds right now, because there are too many of them, making it harder than usual to get research opportunities, and lines were out the door for professors' office hours. My guess is this will all improve once through the larger (~90) intro courses. She does feel the quality of the education is excellent and, by cold e-mailing alumni, found a nice research opportunity this summer that Amherst is paying for. Socially very content.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is Amherst less woke than Pomona?

A bit, yes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is Amherst less woke than Pomona?

A bit, yes.

Right...https://yaf.org/news/amherst-college-melts-down-after-student-paper-op-ed-criticized-dei/
https://amherststudent.com/article/students-protest-against-israeli-activist-noa-tishby/
https://dailycollegian.com/2026/02/hundreds-show-up-to-ice-out-protest-at-amherst-common/
https://amherststudent.com/article/notes-from-frost-amherst-uprising-five-years-on/
https://www.boston.com/news/education/2015/11/13/amherst-students-release-list-of-demands-protesting-free-speech-signs/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We visited both. Didn't attend so this n=1 opinion is based on touring only:

Amherst kids seemed more social, under less academic pressure. Talked about fun courses, parties, casual hangouts with professors. Pomona kids seemed more academically serious but not intense like Swarthmore kids. They talked fondly about professors too but in an academic setting, didn't talk about hanging out with profs. Amherst campus looks more scenic.

Kid just finished her freshman year at Amherst, not her experience at all. She's pre-med though, so it might be major dependent.

How was her experience overall as a freshman? Did she also apply to Williams and Swarthmore? How would you compare those 3 schools (+ Pomona if that was in the mix)

Applied ED to Amherst so can't compare beyond general visits. Williams felt snobby and too remote and Swarthmore felt grindy in a "students relish bragging about how little sleep they get" kind of way. Was impressed by the academics for sure, but they didn't feel like a happy fit for her. Really liked Pomona, especially the consortium options, but preferred the East coast in the end. Thought Amherst, Pomona, and Bowdoin felt culturally very similar. Almost interchangeable, with Amherst maybe a touch more intense. Her impression that Amherst felt academically rigorous but socially more relaxed has been the case. The workload is challenging, but professors and classmates are generally supportive and collaborative, and that was important to her. I don't know if I'd recommend Amherst for pre-meds right now, because there are too many of them, making it harder than usual to get research opportunities, and lines were out the door for professors' office hours. My guess is this will all improve once through the larger (~90) intro courses. She does feel the quality of the education is excellent and, by cold e-mailing alumni, found a nice research opportunity this summer that Amherst is paying for. Socially very content.

Have a premed at Pomona and personally attended Pomona and the experience is about the same. One thing I wish people would understand is that Pomona is culturally chill, as in, no noone will talk about how much work they have. But, a lot of students spend most of their weekends studying and the day to day culture is very academic. People do, of course, lay out on the quad...to study. There's a lot of wellness elements of LA that brush onto campus, but I don't think that it is any less intense than peers.

On the other hand, research opportunities and office hours are very easy and accessible, even for her intro courses. Pomona alumni actually are shocked when anyone reaches out to them, so a proactive career-oriented student will have a lot of help.

[Anonymous]

Location and proximity of the consortium members are the biggest ones.

The 5Cs are not only co-located (vs being a town or two over) but they have a unified academic schedule while the western Mass schools all maintain their own schedules. In California it’s closer to taking a class at a different department vs a different school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is the point of paying Chanel bag prices for a non-branded bag however high quality it is?

I do not understand the hype about Pomona.

Pomona is not for your family not because they are not worth it, it's just not a crowd that thinks a Chanel bag is something to be proud of.

[Anonymous]

about the same.

[Anonymous]

Why would there be a difference? They share a lot in common and the differences are pretty tiny. If you want the small New England feel, go to Amherst. If you want California or a proper consortium, go to Pomona. Most other differences are speculative or natural to the small differences in student interest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why would there be a difference? They share a lot in common and the differences are pretty tiny. If you want the small New England feel, go to Amherst. If you want California or a proper consortium, go to Pomona. Most other differences are speculative or natural to the small differences in student interest.

Agree with this PP completely. It will be a very similar applicant pool academically and politically. Some will get into Amherst vs Pomona due to closer feeder HS relationships with each. Some will prefer to be in CA vs MA. Amherst slightly more athletes, Pomona warmer weather. Pomona has a better consortium but weaker name recognition in the east coast but strong in west coast. Both full of kids that could have done very well at Brown or Yale.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why would there be a difference? They share a lot in common and the differences are pretty tiny. If you want the small New England feel, go to Amherst. If you want California or a proper consortium, go to Pomona. Most other differences are speculative or natural to the small differences in student interest.

Agree with this PP completely. It will be a very similar applicant pool academically and politically. Some will get into Amherst vs Pomona due to closer feeder HS relationships with each. Some will prefer to be in CA vs MA. Amherst slightly more athletes, Pomona warmer weather. Pomona has a better consortium but weaker name recognition in the east coast but strong in west coast. Both full of kids that could have done very well at Brown or Yale.

About the same name recognition overall. No one knows these schools except for the hiring managers and grad schools. I wouldn’t use that as a factor at all.

[Anonymous]

Just want to add that, in my experience, both colleges are very difficult admits in RD. My senior DD was rejected from Amherst and Pomona RD, but was accepted to Hopkins, Tufts, Emory, UMich, Northwestern and Cornell RD. DD visited and demonstrated interest and has an uncle who is an alum of one of these schools.

OP - if your child is set on attending one of these schools, I highly recommend ED'ing since these SLACs take very few students in the RD round and competition is fierce.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just want to add that, in my experience, both colleges are very difficult admits in RD. My senior DD was rejected from Amherst and Pomona RD, but was accepted to Hopkins, Tufts, Emory, UMich, Northwestern and Cornell RD. DD visited and demonstrated interest and has an uncle who is an alum of one of these schools.

OP - if your child is set on attending one of these schools, I highly recommend ED'ing since these SLACs take very few students in the RD round and competition is fierce.

Your DD didn’t ED anywhere?

[Anonymous]

Pomona has much better facilities in my experience and the town and access to the consortium (along with the social life) is better. But Amherst is the more prestigious school. You’ll have to work harder from Pomona to access doors that are easily opened at Amherst (IB, quant, etc).

Agree that the students attending both are pretty much indistinguishable in terms of political leaning, character, quality, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pomona has much better facilities in my experience and the town and access to the consortium (along with the social life) is better. But Amherst is the more prestigious school. You’ll have to work harder from Pomona to access doors that are easily opened at Amherst (IB, quant, etc).

Agree that the students attending both are pretty much indistinguishable in terms of political leaning, character, quality, etc.

Amherst hardly has that many students in quant and, in general, non athletes at Amherst and Pomona are gonna have a rough time trying to enter IB. I'd look into ivies if that is the goal, and if you love lacs, middlebury or Pomona's neighbor across the street has better outcomes: https://www.peakframeworks.com/post/ib-target-schools