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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Anyone know why Pomona is so hard to get into? 0% admitted from TJ? 3% admitted from top Bethesda high schools? (http://www.bethesdamagazine.com/Bethesda-Magazine/September-October-2016/The-College-Chart/index.php?cparticle=4&siarticle=3#artanc) HYPS are all easier to get into. Does Pomona favor in-state students?

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Pomona is part of the CMC and is very small. About 400 kids a class. So there just aren't that many slots.  My understanding is it's the most selective college in the country because if the size plus reputation as founding the CMCs. I don't think it favors in state.  It's more of a try to get a kid from every state and every country type Place.  But it does not favor kids with a TJ preparation. It only offers majors in humanities, social sciences and "natural sciences".  Without much emphasis hard sciences.  For example, if you want to take CS above intro (which all TJ kids take), you need to go to Harvey Mudd for the class.  Because TJ offers much more advanced STEM classes than Pomona does.  It's an amazing school for the right kid.  But the right kid is unlikely to come from TJ.

Among the CMCs, TJ students are most interested in Harvey Mudd.  Which is also super selective (14%), and only has 200 kids a class. TJ had 11 apply, 4 accepted, 2 attend this year. [/quote]

Interesting theory but it doesn't quite hold true. Pomona has a higher percent of STEM majors than any other LAC after Harvey Mudd. CS is their 2nd most popular major, math third, neuroscience fourth, two different biology majors fifth and seventh, chemistry 9th, and physics 10th. 48% of their recent grads had a STEM degree, which is higher than that at all the Ivies and most universities. It's also ranked 12th for PhD production among all colleges. Though it could be the case that students at TJ aren't aware of this and associate it as a liberal arts college well-removed from science. I don't think Pomona explicitly markets for STEM majors like HYPSM and others do.

I think the greater reason is simply because Pomona (and most LACs) don't attract the likes of TJ students. You have Williams with a dismal 9 applicants total and Amherst with 6. TJ is substantially Asian/middle and upper-middle class; that's not a demographic which frequently applies to LACs. Not because they aren't a good fit, but because all the talk/school atmosphere is about Ivies and whatnot. LACs not on the east coast are even more unheard of given the region. Taking a look at the Bethesda link, you have MIT with 144 apps and Pomona with 36 (a 4x difference), even though MIT received only 2.2x as many applicants. Pomona has its pick of the best of the best in the whole world, and that changes depending on the year. If the TJ pool is unexceptional (which it probably was this year), students won't be admitted- Pomona has the luxury of making that call. If the TJ pool is as good as the time 40% were admitted, then yes, you'll see skewed results. With small sample sizes, it is impossible to make a judgment about admissions as a whole as the quality of the pool makes a difference. The year before, Bethesda reported an admit rate of 8.5% for Pomona applicants (http://www.bethesdamagazine.com/Bethesda-Magazine/September-October-2015/College-Admissions-Chart/index.php?cparticle=4&siarticle=3#artanc).

People forget that the LACs get a LOT of applicants for the number of seats they have in the class. Pomona got 9000 for 415 seats. Swarthmore 9300 for 425. Compare to Stanford's 44000 for 1750, Yale's 31000 for 1400, U'Chicago's 31000 for 1600. The yields may not be nearly as high, but the interest is there such that a LAC could easily not admit a single student from a school (or many) and still be able to build the class it aims for.[/quote]

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