Claremont Colleges

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a native Californian who came east for college, but Pomona was a top choice for many of my classmates in the highest 10% of our graduating class. Even back in the day it was on par with Amherst, Williams and Swarthmore. More recently, my 2 oldest kids, who graduated from high school in this area, had many friends who applied to Pomona and I know 3 kids who are there now and loving it. It's increasingly a popular choice for east coast kids who are very strong admissions candidates -- and are savvy enough to appreciate that Pomona offers an excellent education with the added bennie of beautiful weather 365 days a year and a location within an easy drive to beach or skiing.

As for the comment that people in this area tend to favor large research universities, I'm not sure that's true, but people on this forum definitely skew that way. My sense is that many posters are just not very knowledgeable about college admissions in general, so tend to be somewhat narrow-minded in their perceptions of what makes a school "good" or "worth it" -- hence the Ivy fixation (and I say this as the spouse of an Ivy grad and parent of 2 students currently attending another Ivy).

I'm basing my comments about people in this area on our recent experience. DD is currently at a New England LAC. The majority of her class (MD private) matriculated at large universities. I also find this to be true in discussions with people in our neighborhood and at work, but maybe that's just the company I keep.

I do agree with your comments about Pomona. A good friend transferred to Pomona from my seven sister school back in 1980. It was considered top notch then and still is today. And I do agree that it's a pretty hot school right now among the minority interested in LACs.

[Anonymous]

I'm 1:06 (Pomona grad) - I would definitely visit the campus. CMC, in particular, leans fairly conservative. All of the other campuses are liberal to very liberal (Pitzer). Something worth considering.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went to an Ivy League university, and never heard of these colleges.

Sorry that you got so little out of your education! These are some of the best schools in the country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a native Californian who came east for college, but Pomona was a top choice for many of my classmates in the highest 10% of our graduating class. Even back in the day it was on par with Amherst, Williams and Swarthmore. More recently, my 2 oldest kids, who graduated from high school in this area, had many friends who applied to Pomona and I know 3 kids who are there now and loving it. It's increasingly a popular choice for east coast kids who are very strong admissions candidates -- and are savvy enough to appreciate that Pomona offers an excellent education with the added bennie of beautiful weather 365 days a year and a location within an easy drive to beach or skiing.

As for the comment that people in this area tend to favor large research universities, I'm not sure that's true, but people on this forum definitely skew that way. My sense is that many posters are just not very knowledgeable about college admissions in general, so tend to be somewhat narrow-minded in their perceptions of what makes a school "good" or "worth it" -- hence the Ivy fixation (and I say this as the spouse of an Ivy grad and parent of 2 students currently attending another Ivy).

I'm basing my comments about people in this area on our recent experience. DD is currently at a New England LAC. The majority of her class (MD private) matriculated at large universities. I also find this to be true in discussions with people in our neighborhood and at work, but maybe that's just the company I keep.

I'm the poster you quoted and I also attended -- and loved -- a New England SLAC -- wonder if it's the same one as your DD? It's interesting that the majority of your DD's classmates went on to large universities. My kids attend/ed a DC independent where the split is probably closer to 50-50, with many kids opting for top SLACs -- mostly in the northeast, but with more and more looking at schools in other parts of the country. In addiition to Pomona, Davidson and Carleton are attracting a lot of interest among SLACs outside of the northeast/mid-Atlantic.
I do agree with your comments about Pomona. A good friend transferred to Pomona from my seven sister school back in 1980. It was considered top notch then and still is today. And I do agree that it's a pretty hot school right now among the minority interested in LACs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I went to an Ivy League university, and never heard of these colleges.

Sorry that you got so little out of your education! These are some of the best schools in the country.

I agree ...


http://www.forbes.com/top-colleges/list/

#9 (Pomona), 23 (CMC), 28 (Mudd), 54 (Scripps)

By comparison ...

#6 - Harvard
#11 - MIT
#12 - Notre Dame
#16 - Wellesley
#24 - Duke
#32 - Tufts
#38 - Georgetown
#52 - Bryn Mawr
#66 - Smith



And ... http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-liberal-arts-colleges

#4 (Pomona), #10 (CMC), #12 (Mudd), #24 (Scripps), #43 (Pitzer)

[Anonymous]

sibling at AWS who is utterly jealous of the friends he met at his summer internship from Pomona.

From what I've heard through him, the lifestyle is a hell of a lot more relaxed and grading is way easier.

I briefly looked at HMC for myself back in the day but didn't want to go somewhere that focused.

Claremont schools have HUGE name recognition in prestige industries so don't worry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:sibling at AWS who is utterly jealous of the friends he met at his summer internship from Pomona.

From what I've heard through him, the lifestyle is a hell of a lot more relaxed and grading is way easier.

I briefly looked at HMC for myself back in the day but didn't want to go somewhere that focused.

Claremont schools have HUGE name recognition in prestige industries so don't worry.

AWS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:sibling at AWS who is utterly jealous of the friends he met at his summer internship from Pomona.

From what I've heard through him, the lifestyle is a hell of a lot more relaxed and grading is way easier.

I briefly looked at HMC for myself back in the day but didn't want to go somewhere that focused.

Claremont schools have HUGE name recognition in prestige industries so don't worry.

AWS?[/quote

amherst, williams, swarthmore

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went to an Ivy League university, and never heard of these colleges.

Let me guess, Cornell (aka the only Ivy League worse than most of the best publics).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I went to an Ivy League university, and never heard of these colleges.

Let me guess, Cornell (aka the only Ivy League worse than most of the best publics).

I'm OP. Please shut up and go away, this kind of nastiness is not helpful. Your kind of snobbery is not useful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:sibling at AWS who is utterly jealous of the friends he met at his summer internship from Pomona.

From what I've heard through him, the lifestyle is a hell of a lot more relaxed and grading is way easier.

I briefly looked at HMC for myself back in the day but didn't want to go somewhere that focused.

Claremont schools have HUGE name recognition in prestige industries so don't worry.

At Pomona, the students are competitive with themselves, not each other. The grading, especially in the math and sciences, is NOT way easier than the other highly selective LACs.