What's the difference between Amherst and Pomona?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also want to concur that I have heard that Amherst is hoarding their endowment and the campus looks dumpy.

We were there a year ago when touring most of the NSECAC's and a few ivies. We thought the campus was beautiful - greenspace and buildings both.

Their facilities are behind peers, beside the science center. They really need to work on capital investments soon.

Amherst has a brand new (and huge) student center opening this fall, with a new cafeteria also.

After years of construction. And that’s not really helping when they have outdated academic facilities.

The dorms are among the best within their peer group.

Some of the academic facilities are a little ugly, but so what? The ones where the facility matter (science) have an excellent building, and all of the buildings are otherwise in good condition.

Math department is in a disgusting outdated building. It is decades behind peers.

Seeley Mudd (amherst college):
Wachenheim Science Center (williams college):
Estella Laboratory (pomona college):
Science Center (swarthmore college):

[Anonymous]

Yeesh amherst needs to work on its investments

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pomona: 420 freshman
156 submitted an SAT
39 scored above 1550, or 9%

Amherst: 485 freshman
192 submitted an SAT score
48 scored above 1540, or 9.8%

They look pretty similar.

Where do you get this? just curious.

SAT data is taken direct from the colleges' Common Data Sets.

[Anonymous]

Our East Coast DC just finished freshman year at Pomona and is a humanities student. The standout features of their experience have been the college’s dedication to languages, free music lessons, and the ease of use/breadth of class choices afforded by the 5Cs. For languages, Pomona has had the Oldenborg Center with dedicated language dining hall and organized daily language tables, immersive language living, and resident language tutors. They have been able to take a regular language class in one language while taking a half-credit conversation class in another, just to be able to keep up the second language. This experience will even be upgraded as of Fall 2028 when the new Center for Global Engagement opens, though the intervening years will need to be weathered with a more makeshift but still programmatically strong set-up. For music, you can continue with or start pretty much any instrument for free in either individual or group lessons. And the 5C access legitimately at least triples the diversity of courses offered compared to other LACs, and is much easier to access than the consortium at Amherst, especially physically. Of course, the weather (aside from late August to late September) is also pretty ideal, though you might end up missing the snow at times too!

[Anonymous]

Amherst is a better school than Pomona.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Amherst is a better school than Pomona.

Based on what

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also want to concur that I have heard that Amherst is hoarding their endowment and the campus looks dumpy.

We were there a year ago when touring most of the NSECAC's and a few ivies. We thought the campus was beautiful - greenspace and buildings both.

Their facilities are behind peers, beside the science center. They really need to work on capital investments soon.

Amherst has a brand new (and huge) student center opening this fall, with a new cafeteria also.

After years of construction. And that’s not really helping when they have outdated academic facilities.

The dorms are among the best within their peer group.

Some of the academic facilities are a little ugly, but so what? The ones where the facility matter (science) have an excellent building, and all of the buildings are otherwise in good condition.

Math department is in a disgusting outdated building. It is decades behind peers.

And that affects the math instruction how? Please be specific.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pomona: 420 freshman
156 submitted an SAT
39 scored above 1550, or 9%

Amherst: 485 freshman
192 submitted an SAT score
48 scored above 1540, or 9.8%

They look pretty similar.

So my DC who comfortably scored 1560 without a tutor may be too high-performing (test score wise anyway) for Pomona and Amherst, and not high-performing enough for schools like Northwest, Brown, Penn, Duke. What schools are in between those?

Don’t get too full of yourself. Those kids would eat your little grinder as a snack.

"Too high-performing?" My 36 ACT kid is amused by this discussion. Many peers at Amherst have equally high stats. There is a high percentage of FGLI students who have lower stats, and many of the athletes, however an unhooked kid does not fall into either of those two buckets. Admissions for those kids is fiercely competitive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also want to concur that I have heard that Amherst is hoarding their endowment and the campus looks dumpy.

We were there a year ago when touring most of the NSECAC's and a few ivies. We thought the campus was beautiful - greenspace and buildings both.

Their facilities are behind peers, beside the science center. They really need to work on capital investments soon.

Amherst has a brand new (and huge) student center opening this fall, with a new cafeteria also.

After years of construction. And that’s not really helping when they have outdated academic facilities.

The dorms are among the best within their peer group.

Some of the academic facilities are a little ugly, but so what? The ones where the facility matter (science) have an excellent building, and all of the buildings are otherwise in good condition.

Math department is in a disgusting outdated building. It is decades behind peers.

And that affects the math instruction how? Please be specific.

PP posted the other science centers, so presumbably those institutions don't have stand-alone math buildings? Not exactly the tell she thought then.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pomona: 420 freshman
156 submitted an SAT
39 scored above 1550, or 9%

Amherst: 485 freshman
192 submitted an SAT score
48 scored above 1540, or 9.8%

They look pretty similar.

So my DC who comfortably scored 1560 without a tutor may be too high-performing (test score wise anyway) for Pomona and Amherst, and not high-performing enough for schools like Northwest, Brown, Penn, Duke. What schools are in between those?

Don’t get too full of yourself. Those kids would eat your little grinder as a snack.

"Too high-performing?" My 36 ACT kid is amused by this discussion. Many peers at Amherst have equally high stats. There is a high percentage of FGLI students who have lower stats, and many of the athletes, however an unhooked kid does not fall into either of those two buckets. Admissions for those kids is fiercely competitive.

Comment was based on CDS data showing that under 10% of all Amherst's enrolled freshmen scored 1550+. PP posted the CDS to show high scoring students are a small minority at the school. Congrats that your "36 ACT kid" is one of the minority and is amused.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our East Coast DC just finished freshman year at Pomona and is a humanities student. The standout features of their experience have been the college’s dedication to languages, free music lessons, and the ease of use/breadth of class choices afforded by the 5Cs. For languages, Pomona has had the Oldenborg Center with dedicated language dining hall and organized daily language tables, immersive language living, and resident language tutors. They have been able to take a regular language class in one language while taking a half-credit conversation class in another, just to be able to keep up the second language. This experience will even be upgraded as of Fall 2028 when the new Center for Global Engagement opens, though the intervening years will need to be weathered with a more makeshift but still programmatically strong set-up. For music, you can continue with or start pretty much any instrument for free in either individual or group lessons. And the 5C access legitimately at least triples the diversity of courses offered compared to other LACs, and is much easier to access than the consortium at Amherst, especially physically. Of course, the weather (aside from late August to late September) is also pretty ideal, though you might end up missing the snow at times too!

Appreciate your sharing this.

Can you share honest review on how easy it is for Pomona students to enroll in STEM courses at Harvey Mudd? Are "PERM" approval easy or hard to get?

Are Pomona students social and welcoming? When we toured, kids look happy and chill but kind of on the quiet and sweet side, they don't seem as social as kids we saw at other campuses like Penn, Brown or Amherst.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our East Coast DC just finished freshman year at Pomona and is a humanities student. The standout features of their experience have been the college’s dedication to languages, free music lessons, and the ease of use/breadth of class choices afforded by the 5Cs. For languages, Pomona has had the Oldenborg Center with dedicated language dining hall and organized daily language tables, immersive language living, and resident language tutors. They have been able to take a regular language class in one language while taking a half-credit conversation class in another, just to be able to keep up the second language. This experience will even be upgraded as of Fall 2028 when the new Center for Global Engagement opens, though the intervening years will need to be weathered with a more makeshift but still programmatically strong set-up. For music, you can continue with or start pretty much any instrument for free in either individual or group lessons. And the 5C access legitimately at least triples the diversity of courses offered compared to other LACs, and is much easier to access than the consortium at Amherst, especially physically. Of course, the weather (aside from late August to late September) is also pretty ideal, though you might end up missing the snow at times too!

Appreciate your sharing this.

Can you share honest review on how easy it is for Pomona students to enroll in STEM courses at Harvey Mudd? Are "PERM" approval easy or hard to get?

Are Pomona students social and welcoming? When we toured, kids look happy and chill but kind of on the quiet and sweet side, they don't seem as social as kids we saw at other campuses like Penn, Brown or Amherst.

Dp but DS is currently a rising senior. He’s a physics major and has gotten into every Mudd course he’s been interested in. PERMs are just a part of the Pomona experience, and you get better at writing them and emailing professors as you get older. He’s taken Mudd Physics, Engineering and Math courses.

Pomona students are very extroverted and many are loud, but it still has a very nerdy side. Definitely just as social as Amherst.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our East Coast DC just finished freshman year at Pomona and is a humanities student. The standout features of their experience have been the college’s dedication to languages, free music lessons, and the ease of use/breadth of class choices afforded by the 5Cs. For languages, Pomona has had the Oldenborg Center with dedicated language dining hall and organized daily language tables, immersive language living, and resident language tutors. They have been able to take a regular language class in one language while taking a half-credit conversation class in another, just to be able to keep up the second language. This experience will even be upgraded as of Fall 2028 when the new Center for Global Engagement opens, though the intervening years will need to be weathered with a more makeshift but still programmatically strong set-up. For music, you can continue with or start pretty much any instrument for free in either individual or group lessons. And the 5C access legitimately at least triples the diversity of courses offered compared to other LACs, and is much easier to access than the consortium at Amherst, especially physically. Of course, the weather (aside from late August to late September) is also pretty ideal, though you might end up missing the snow at times too!

Appreciate your sharing this.

Can you share honest review on how easy it is for Pomona students to enroll in STEM courses at Harvey Mudd? Are "PERM" approval easy or hard to get?

Are Pomona students social and welcoming? When we toured, kids look happy and chill but kind of on the quiet and sweet side, they don't seem as social as kids we saw at other campuses like Penn, Brown or Amherst.

Dp but DS is currently a rising senior. He’s a physics major and has gotten into every Mudd course he’s been interested in. PERMs are just a part of the Pomona experience, and you get better at writing them and emailing professors as you get older. He’s taken Mudd Physics, Engineering and Math courses.

Pomona students are very extroverted and many are loud, but it still has a very nerdy side. Definitely just as social as Amherst.

PP
thanks. So overall your son has been happy at Pomona? What other colleges was he considering or got into if you don't mind me asking?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our East Coast DC just finished freshman year at Pomona and is a humanities student. The standout features of their experience have been the college’s dedication to languages, free music lessons, and the ease of use/breadth of class choices afforded by the 5Cs. For languages, Pomona has had the Oldenborg Center with dedicated language dining hall and organized daily language tables, immersive language living, and resident language tutors. They have been able to take a regular language class in one language while taking a half-credit conversation class in another, just to be able to keep up the second language. This experience will even be upgraded as of Fall 2028 when the new Center for Global Engagement opens, though the intervening years will need to be weathered with a more makeshift but still programmatically strong set-up. For music, you can continue with or start pretty much any instrument for free in either individual or group lessons. And the 5C access legitimately at least triples the diversity of courses offered compared to other LACs, and is much easier to access than the consortium at Amherst, especially physically. Of course, the weather (aside from late August to late September) is also pretty ideal, though you might end up missing the snow at times too!

Appreciate your sharing this.

Can you share honest review on how easy it is for Pomona students to enroll in STEM courses at Harvey Mudd? Are "PERM" approval easy or hard to get?

Are Pomona students social and welcoming? When we toured, kids look happy and chill but kind of on the quiet and sweet side, they don't seem as social as kids we saw at other campuses like Penn, Brown or Amherst.

Dp but DS is currently a rising senior. He’s a physics major and has gotten into every Mudd course he’s been interested in. PERMs are just a part of the Pomona experience, and you get better at writing them and emailing professors as you get older. He’s taken Mudd Physics, Engineering and Math courses.

Pomona students are very extroverted and many are loud, but it still has a very nerdy side. Definitely just as social as Amherst.

PP
thanks. So overall your son has been happy at Pomona? What other colleges was he considering or got into if you don't mind me asking?

Extremely! It’s surpassed every expectation we had, which were pretty high.
DS got into Brown, UPenn, Berkeley, Williams, USC and a few other LACs. When he got into Pomona, it was mostly between Pomona and Brown.

His friends have gotten into a range of schools like Oxford, Stanford, Caltech, Princeton, Uchicago, Swarthmore, etc. Friend at CMC got into Wharton and Ross.

There’s also a decent amount of students who just got an amazing aid package from Pomona and chose it over a UC or similar small lacs. Like all of these schools, students are very accomplished and his friends have gone off to wonderful graduate programs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also want to concur that I have heard that Amherst is hoarding their endowment and the campus looks dumpy.

We were there a year ago when touring most of the NSECAC's and a few ivies. We thought the campus was beautiful - greenspace and buildings both.

Their facilities are behind peers, beside the science center. They really need to work on capital investments soon.

Amherst has a brand new (and huge) student center opening this fall, with a new cafeteria also.

After years of construction. And that’s not really helping when they have outdated academic facilities.

The dorms are among the best within their peer group.

Some of the academic facilities are a little ugly, but so what? The ones where the facility matter (science) have an excellent building, and all of the buildings are otherwise in good condition.

Math department is in a disgusting outdated building. It is decades behind peers.

Seeley Mudd (amherst college):
Wachenheim Science Center (williams college):
Estella Laboratory (pomona college):
Science Center (swarthmore college):

Science Center (Amherst College)
Horrendous cherrypicking here.