Pomona Vs Williams

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Np our DD toured Williams, Amherst, Pomona and loved them all. Also toured Swarthmore and Harvey Mudd and thought they were also great and too small.

She wants small to mid sized colleges that offer high rigor but not a cut-throat culture, professor mentorship, research opportunities and a collaborative, tight-knit community. Also value strong grad school admissions results.

Which other colleges should she look into? Not necessarily need to be LACs, also interested in universities with population under 10k as long as undergrads get to do research. Already ruled out Rice due to Texas.

Wesleyan
Middlebury
Lehigh
Lafayette
University of Rochester
Dartmouth

WashU
CWRU
Northwestern
St Louis

Santa Clara
LMU
USD

And there are many others

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Np our DD toured Williams, Amherst, Pomona and loved them all. Also toured Swarthmore and Harvey Mudd and thought they were also great and too small.

She wants small to mid sized colleges that offer high rigor but not a cut-throat culture, professor mentorship, research opportunities and a collaborative, tight-knit community. Also value strong grad school admissions results.

Which other colleges should she look into? Not necessarily need to be LACs, also interested in universities with population under 10k as long as undergrads get to do research. Already ruled out Rice due to Texas.

Dartmouth is basically an LAC in practice and nearly in size (4.5k).

I'd reconsider Rice. Texas is more diverse than a lot of people presume, and Houston is hardly a conservative place if that's your concern.

Someone who is actually knowledgeable about LACs would never say this. Dartmouth is technically a university and has a vastly different ethos than SLACs.

What’s the Dartmouth ethos?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Np our DD toured Williams, Amherst, Pomona and loved them all. Also toured Swarthmore and Harvey Mudd and thought they were also great and too small.

She wants small to mid sized colleges that offer high rigor but not a cut-throat culture, professor mentorship, research opportunities and a collaborative, tight-knit community. Also value strong grad school admissions results.

Which other colleges should she look into? Not necessarily need to be LACs, also interested in universities with population under 10k as long as undergrads get to do research. Already ruled out Rice due to Texas.

Tufts is great and ticks all of your boxes. But it's become very selective. This year's admission rate was only 10%, and last year it was 10.5%. It's my DD's top choice for next year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Np our DD toured Williams, Amherst, Pomona and loved them all. Also toured Swarthmore and Harvey Mudd and thought they were also great and too small.

She wants small to mid sized colleges that offer high rigor but not a cut-throat culture, professor mentorship, research opportunities and a collaborative, tight-knit community. Also value strong grad school admissions results.

Which other colleges should she look into? Not necessarily need to be LACs, also interest in universities with population under 10k as long as undergrads get to do research. Already ruled out Rice due to Texas.

Our DC liked Emory, WashU and Wesleyan.

Problem is you new for ED these schools to get in so they are not realistic alternatives to Williams or Pomona

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Very, very different places geographically and weather-wise. Both are kind of in the middle of nowhere, although Pomona (in inland empire 1.5 hours east of LA) has a town that has more shops/cafes than Williams. Gets very, very hot and was surprised at the lack of consistent AC especially at night in dorms.

Williams seemed more impressive to us academically (the tutorials!) but wow, it felt isolated. Gets very very cold.

So cal is freezing at night. People forget that there’s a reason people didn’t build AC in these places- you haven’t needed it. During the day it sucks, but most students are out of their rooms during the day.

[Anonymous]

Pomona is not in the middle of nowhere… San Gabriel valley and inland empire are huge metro areas. And there’s a direct hour train to DTLA steps from campus. Yes it’s car dependent but Williams is actually remote

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Np our DD toured Williams, Amherst, Pomona and loved them all. Also toured Swarthmore and Harvey Mudd and thought they were also great and too small.

She wants small to mid sized colleges that offer high rigor but not a cut-throat culture, professor mentorship, research opportunities and a collaborative, tight-knit community. Also value strong grad school admissions results.

Which other colleges should she look into? Not necessarily need to be LACs, also interested in universities with population under 10k as long as undergrads get to do research. Already ruled out Rice due to Texas.

Tufts seems like a bullseye fit for what you describe. (If you ruled out Rice due to Texas, you'd probably rule out WashU due to Missouri, so I won't suggest that.) Tufts is in MA, like Williams and Amherst. It's the perfect "goldilocks" size of 6500-700 undergrads. There are graduate students (famous Fletcher IR/diplomacy, and prominent Tufts Med school, etc.) but undergrads make up the majority and most get to do research as undergrads. Tufts is R1, but still thinks and acts like a LAC in some ways. They have LAC-style distribution requirements, you don't declare a major until end of sophomore year, but all majors are open to you. It's high rigor, but not cutthroat and profs really sound like they are accesible and open to working with undergrads. It is known to be collaborative too. Kind of sounds ideal for what you're looking for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Np our DD toured Williams, Amherst, Pomona and loved them all. Also toured Swarthmore and Harvey Mudd and thought they were also great and too small.

She wants small to mid sized colleges that offer high rigor but not a cut-throat culture, professor mentorship, research opportunities and a collaborative, tight-knit community. Also value strong grad school admissions results.

Which other colleges should she look into? Not necessarily need to be LACs, also interested in universities with population under 10k as long as undergrads get to do research. Already ruled out Rice due to Texas.

Tufts seems like a bullseye fit for what you describe. (If you ruled out Rice due to Texas, you'd probably rule out WashU due to Missouri, so I won't suggest that.) Tufts is in MA, like Williams and Amherst. It's the perfect "goldilocks" size of 6500-700 undergrads. There are graduate students (famous Fletcher IR/diplomacy, and prominent Tufts Med school, etc.) but undergrads make up the majority and most get to do research as undergrads. Tufts is R1, but still thinks and acts like a LAC in some ways. They have LAC-style distribution requirements, you don't declare a major until end of sophomore year, but all majors are open to you. It's high rigor, but not cutthroat and profs really sound like they are accesible and open to working with undergrads. It is known to be collaborative too. Kind of sounds ideal for what you're looking for.

OP - thanks!

[Anonymous]

Mine got rejected from both but, she would’ve chose Williams.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Mine got rejected from both but, she would’ve chose Williams.

Thank you for your empty comment.

[Anonymous]

Pomona also offers a mid size (8K) student body with the consortium model and ability to cross enroll. It’s a really unique model (akin to Oxford) and Claremont is a super cute and safe town. Close enough to LA too and all it offers. The only problem is getting accepted!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Np our DD toured Williams, Amherst, Pomona and loved them all. Also toured Swarthmore and Harvey Mudd and thought they were also great and too small.

She wants small to mid sized colleges that offer high rigor but not a cut-throat culture, professor mentorship, research opportunities and a collaborative, tight-knit community. Also value strong grad school admissions results.

Which other colleges should she look into? Not necessarily need to be LACs, also interested in universities with population under 10k as long as undergrads get to do research. Already ruled out Rice due to Texas.

Tufts seems like a bullseye fit for what you describe. (If you ruled out Rice due to Texas, you'd probably rule out WashU due to Missouri, so I won't suggest that.) Tufts is in MA, like Williams and Amherst. It's the perfect "goldilocks" size of 6500-700 undergrads. There are graduate students (famous Fletcher IR/diplomacy, and prominent Tufts Med school, etc.) but undergrads make up the majority and most get to do research as undergrads. Tufts is R1, but still thinks and acts like a LAC in some ways. They have LAC-style distribution requirements, you don't declare a major until end of sophomore year, but all majors are open to you. It's high rigor, but not cutthroat and profs really sound like they are accesible and open to working with undergrads. It is known to be collaborative too. Kind of sounds ideal for what you're looking for.

+1 on Tufts — fits your description perfectly! They are looking for smart but collaborative kids. Also has a T station (the Boston subway/train system) on campus, so easy access to the city for fun or internships. Quick walk to a different T station just a few stops from Harvard Sq, students mix a lot with kids from the other Boston/Cambridge colleges, etc.