Pomona Vs Claremont Mckenna
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Anonymous
The average Pomona CS student makes over $200,000 according to data from CollegeScoreCard, more than Harvey Mudd and Brown University. I think they're doing fine. And Pomona has the most diverse group by far, including people who could have gone to CMC, the highest percent of first-gen/low-income students, the most countries and states represented, and the most wide-ranging academic and extracurricular interests, so stereotyping their students as "weird" is more a reflection of your aversion to anyone who's not like you and less about them specifically. |
Anonymous
| I'm pretty sure that Pomona students have to submit SAT scores. I think at Claremont McKenna only 25% actually submitted an SAT, so if you are a high SAT scorer you won't find too many at Claremont. Claremont's class size is 325 and only about 20 score at or above 1550. |
Anonymous
Completely wrong. Pomona is test optional permanently. CMC is test required next admissions cycle. |
Anonymous
| I don’t see why a student would choose Pomona over CMC These days |
Anonymous
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Pomona parent here. Both Pomona and CMC are great schools, but as others have said, different student personas. Our impression is that this is the most marked difference. If your child is comfortable with peers who have sharper elbows, then CMC may be a good fit. Pomona students definitely have the well-deserved MO of being kind, self-motivated, collaborative, and generally more intellectual/life of the mind kind of students. Quirkier too on the whole, but also more creative.
That said, CMC is excellent in its areas of strength (Econ, govt, politics, IR, certain kinds of philosophy) and CMC students are smart, driven, and often very successful just out of college. Go visit, if you can, and attend some classes and hang out on the respective campuses. We found that to be illuminating at this stage in the game, and it really depends on your kid. Congrats on having such great choices! The 5Cs are amazing. |
Anonymous
| CMC parent here. Agree with the Pomona parent, you cannot go wrong with either choice. Best to focus on fit + vibes from here. Son LOVES CMC. Have been impressed with CMC from day 1 & next kid in line is talking about ED there (with Ivy stats & Ivy legacy but likes the SoCal weather & campus culture more than the NEast or South). The outcomes are great this year for the seniors & the kids there are bright, positive, supportive and collaborative. A great experience. |
Anonymous
| our neighbor's kid just finished pomona. when we visited, he took us to lunch and said, CMC has kids who were talking about jobs freshman year. internships, kinds of careers .. it was very much a topic of conversation. I thought it was kinda gross. But it turns out pomona kids are thinking about it and going for it, just not talking about it. So everyone just magically had an interview or a great internship after sophomore year and when I asked, how did you get that, they said, sorry, you had to apply last December. so .. in a way, talking about it openly might be better .. it's certainly not worse. So dont be put off by CMC for that reason. Just focus on strength of department or even what dorms you prefer. Whatever. just not the pre-professional thing. Everyone is pre-professional. |
Anonymous
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Pomona has impressive outcomes for the top students and mediocre outcomes for the lower tier students who coast by and don't take it seriously. The school has massive grade inflation and a significant number of their enrolled students are diversity tokens that are not competitive overall (no testing submitted, poor AP scores, etc). These are students who get rejected from mid-tier UCs like Irvine and Santa Barbara but somehow into Pomona. Not to mention a significant number of Questbridge and Posse students who don't have the level of preparation that their smartest students do, both in academics and for career prospects. So overall, Pomona outcomes are very lopsided and dependent on the student.
Everyone at CMC does well in terms of outcomes. The school openly looks for people who are ambitious and determined. It's a preprofessional school and almost everyone talks about preparing for the job market all throughout. Amazing internship programs, 9 research institutes, numerous consulting and finance oriented clubs, and applied classes make their students extremely qualified. I would strongly recommend CMC. With the rankings shift toward outcomes, CMC is tied or above Pomona in virtually every ranking now. CMC is the one that is looking to take the liberal arts colleges to the future. Pomona will be left behind. |
Anonymous
| My Pomona kid took classes from every school of the 5C except CMC (but joined a CMC club). So definitely check out the course offerings of both schools and like everyone said fit is most important. |
Anonymous
Citation: PP’s butt. You don’t have access to any meaningful evidence for your anti-Pomona outcomes bs, which you’re just making up. Go away, troll. |
Anonymous
This is such an insanely biased comment. Half of the men at CMC are athletic recruits and few submit SAT scores. (You can look up the number of male students playing varsity sports vs how many actual students are there, and then look up the rosters of the indiv sports to see that CMC fields 80-90% of the Mudd-Scripps-CMC joint sports teams. The women's teams do have Scripps contributing as it's an all female school. Mudd is primarily student vs. athlete.) CMC males are hardly the academic best and brightest like Pomona. They are primarily Econ bros and Govt bros who want to go into finance or consulting. Pomona is a bastion of learning in contrast. The students are very bright, like Mudd. They also are collaborative and civic-minded and curious about many topics, not just making money. Notice the difference in tours. CMC trains (and pays) their tour guides to deliver a script with pre-approved talking points. Pomona guides are not restricted from saying anything that's not authentic and it's ok for them to share downsides, at CMC they are not allowed to say anything wrong with the school. They are very scripted and polished. I live in CA and have a lot of intel, and experience, close friends and family who go to or are alums at or who taught at the 5Cs. |
Anonymous
Pomona USED TO BE a bastion of learning. It USED to uniformly have bright, curious kids. Ever since the school shifted to test optional, the qualifications of the student body have dropped considerably. Ever since the school shifted from President Oxtoby to President Starr, the amount of administrative staff have gone up dramatically while the spending on students and faculty have remained stagnant or shrunk. The school went from having a semi-high median GPA in 2015 (3.55) to an absurdly high median GPA now (3.8+) while the students themselves are becoming increasingly less academically qualified with each entering class. The admissions office cares more about taking people who can write "diverse" narratives than actually strong students. That doesn't have to be mutually exclusive, but it's something their office does emphasize, which results in exceptionally qualified applicants getting rejected if they don't tug at the heart strings of the adcom somehow. Said students get into Ivies, Williams, Amherst, etc. no problem but somehow Pomona is too good for them. On the other hand, you have objectively mediocre kids who have a well-written application and somehow that's enough to get in to a top 10 liberal arts college! Those kids get into no other reaches because other colleges see through the farce by actually reviewing academic credentials. Meanwhile, Pomona gives many of them full rides and basically pampers them throughout the experience. A colossal waste of money, but I guess it doesn't matter because of how high their endowment is. Said students are often overindulgent, unappreciative, and politically disruptive. They want to get their two seconds of fame, but haven't done anything of serious note at the college, which is a shame because it actually offers so many opportunities and resources. Claremont McKenna packs loans even for the lowest income student because it wants them to understand the gravity and privilege of attending a school of such a caliber. Their students are required to be prudent and thoughtful about maximizing the value of their experience. And as such, they are extremely qualified and they shine for professional endeavors. Pomona can try to cater to the woke train all they want, but employers and grad schools can see the discrepancy of their students. It's a school going downhill, fast. |
Anonymous
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I live in CA and have a lot of intel, and experience, close friends and family who go to or are alums at or who taught at the 5Cs.
But you are not a current parent or student? So no current direct experience. |
Anonymous
But you are not a current parent or student? So no current direct experience. My sibling is a current Professor at one of the 5Cs, my spouse is an alum, my niece and nephew currently attend. Many parents at my school's parent community are alums (like my spouse) and my best friend and her husband are both alums, many students at our school matriculate to the 5Cs. I have toured multiple 5C schools, multiple times. My daughter was admitted to 3 of the 5Cs but goes to college on the East Coast. I don't want to dox myself but I'll leave it at that. I think I have more familiarity from a varied group of people over many years, including current students and alums, then just being a parent of one current student. |
Anonymous
My sibling is a current Professor at one of the 5Cs, my spouse is an alum, my niece and nephew currently attend. Many parents at my school's parent community are alums (like my spouse) and my best friend and her husband are both alums, many students at our school matriculate to the 5Cs. I have toured multiple 5C schools, multiple times. My daughter was admitted to 3 of the 5Cs but goes to college on the East Coast. I don't want to dox myself but I'll leave it at that. I think I have more familiarity from a varied group of people over many years, including current students and alums, then just being a parent of one current student. (sorry for reposting, the format was confusing) |