For math superstars, aren’t you better off going to a large university where you can take graduate level courses when you run out of undergraduate offerings. You can also hang out with math PhDs. What is the appeal of being with 2000 students for 4 years isolated from civilization. Sounds like a nightmare to me

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a hiring manager and have always enjoyed the Pomona kids - probably interviewed at least 20 over the years. Williams kids not so much, a different feel to those kids - almost like they are always selling how important and prestigious their school is - always like they had a chip on their shoulder that they didn’t attend an ivy

I go to williams and also got into ivies, so did many of my classmates. Not sure why your dissing the school when you had bad experiences when hiring them.

In response to OP, both schools have great undergraduate experiences in math. The caveat i believe is that i think the SMALL reu research program for math at williams is famous, with many pomona kids trying to go and which many williams students have preference for admission in. I also think the faculty have more awards for teaching math nationally, so there are more reputable top faculty in math at williams.

This is not a diss at Williams, but it flat out has worse faculty than Pomona. I’m sure their teaching is A+, but Pomona has some heavy hitting faculty in a way that Williams really doesn’t. Seriously, look up Edray Goins and look at his record. Also most Pomona students don’t really want SMALL, most are going for PRIME on base campus or are trying for summers at big universities.

I think they’re very different places. The benefit of Pomona is having access to all the classes at Pomona with the professors recs and then using a few Pomona class, Harvey Mudd and CGU for grad courses. There’s a lot of bonuses to going to a small college with access to 6 colleges for math classes and a location in SoCal.

Anonymous wrote:OP: Examine the math courses offered at each school.

Does the student have a preference for warm weather or for cold weather ?

If concerned about breadth & depth of math courses and related majors offered, then consider attending a National University such as U Chicago, Brown, or MIT.

All schools offer plenty of math courses for everyone except the rare few who know who they are and have much much better places to get advice than DCUM.

What matters is the teaching, because math is an extremely hard subject area.

Also the cohort. Williams doesn’t have an honors freshman math courses like Harvard, MIT, and Stanford do. They just throw those students in with upper grade students doing the common upper level sequences.
That’s an LAC issue in general. They are for highly capable well rounded students. Academically spikiest students don’t have peers at LACs.

Two great schools, so this mostly boils down to East Coast vs. West Coast. Where do they want to live for college and potentially long term? Peer groups at each school will be national, but still, more East Coast kids at Williams and West Coast kids are at Pomona.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why not get the best of both worlds (New England and a consortium) at Amherst?

The consortium in Amherst is a different animal than the one in Claremont - they are essentially on one campus. No shuttles required - not even a long walk. (But Amherst is a great place to go to school too...even without a shuttle-accessible consortium)

What makes that different from a University? Amherst sounds like a real consortium.

Because it is 5 different schools.....that happen to be built together like a university. Each campus has it's own style. Each school is unique.

But it is clearly a university that just lacks a central administration? Why would students want to be on 5 different campuses, sounds stressful and inconvenient.

I eat my words, It is a university with a central administration: https://services.claremont.edu/leadership/. These kids should discover national universities. It'll blow their minds

Claremont has more distinct colleges with their own status. There’s no niche academic branding if you go do a big university. You’re lumped in with everyone else.

Anonymous wrote:I’m a hiring manager and have always enjoyed the Pomona kids - probably interviewed at least 20 over the years. Williams kids not so much, a different feel to those kids - almost like they are always selling how important and prestigious their school is - always like they had a chip on their shoulder that they didn’t attend an ivy

I go to williams and also got into ivies, so did many of my classmates. Not sure why your dissing the school when you had bad experiences when hiring them.

In response to OP, both schools have great undergraduate experiences in math. The caveat i believe is that i think the SMALL reu research program for math at williams is famous, with many pomona kids trying to go and which many williams students have preference for admission in. I also think the faculty have more awards for teaching math nationally, so there are more reputable top faculty in math at williams.

Anonymous wrote:For math, there is no lac better than Williams- the BEST liberal arts college in America.

The kids seemed happier at Pomona.

OP: Examine the math courses offered at each school.

Does the student have a preference for warm weather or for cold weather ?

If concerned about breadth & depth of math courses and related majors offered, then consider attending a National University such as U Chicago, Brown, or MIT.

For math, there is no lac better than Williams- the BEST liberal arts college in America.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why not get the best of both worlds (New England and a consortium) at Amherst?

The consortium in Amherst is a different animal than the one in Claremont - they are essentially on one campus. No shuttles required - not even a long walk. (But Amherst is a great place to go to school too...even without a shuttle-accessible consortium)

What makes that different from a University? Amherst sounds like a real consortium.

Because it is 5 different schools.....that happen to be built together like a university. Each campus has it's own style. Each school is unique.

But it is clearly a university that just lacks a central administration? Why would students want to be on 5 different campuses, sounds stressful and inconvenient.

I eat my words, It is a university with a central administration: https://services.claremont.edu/leadership/. These kids should discover national universities. It'll blow their minds

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why not get the best of both worlds (New England and a consortium) at Amherst?

The consortium in Amherst is a different animal than the one in Claremont - they are essentially on one campus. No shuttles required - not even a long walk. (But Amherst is a great place to go to school too...even without a shuttle-accessible consortium)

What makes that different from a University? Amherst sounds like a real consortium.

Because it is 5 different schools.....that happen to be built together like a university. Each campus has it's own style. Each school is unique.

But it is clearly a university that just lacks a central administration? Why would students want to be on 5 different campuses, sounds stressful and inconvenient.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why not get the best of both worlds (New England and a consortium) at Amherst?

The consortium in Amherst is a different animal than the one in Claremont - they are essentially on one campus. No shuttles required - not even a long walk. (But Amherst is a great place to go to school too...even without a shuttle-accessible consortium)

What makes that different from a University? Amherst sounds like a real consortium.

Because it is 5 different schools.....that happen to be built together like a university. Each campus has it's own style. Each school is unique.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I posted upthread but you should visit Pomona. It's easy to idealize southern Cal and there are lots of pluses to Pomona but Claremont is not a beauty spot.

DC was a recruited athlete at both Mudd and Pomona. We wanted to like the area because both schools are excellent, and we visited twice. Both times, we felt stressed by the heat and the traffic (OMG, the traffic!!!) and found the place a concrete jungle. We didn't like the bright, hard light and the stark drabness (to be fair, we visited in the middle of a major drought). We couldn't get away fast enough. However, my and my DC's experience is just one perspective. Some people love the climate and terrain and would find everything we hated to be a huge draw. You and your DC really need to visit and decide for yourselves. We didn't look at Williams.

Claremont and Concrete jungle don't align. You should also remember from the perspective of your child who is walking and taking public transit farthest to the local target for goods. Most of Claremont is idealized suburbia with a massive tree canopy.

As I pointed out, some people love the climate and terrain, and you are clearly one of them, which is absolutely OK. It's allowed My DC and I hated the place. That's allowed, too Although the CMS tennis courts weren't far from our hotel, it took us almost an hour to fight our way there through traffic along depressing side roads and freeways. The heat was unbearable, and the area was tinder dry. The air smelled funny and felt dirty. The whole place felt overcrowded and frenetic to us, and the trees didn't offset the stark, barren feel of the place. The Claremont Consortium schools are outstanding, and we really hoped we'd like the area. We didn't.

I've been to 5C's many times and it has never been crowded or frenetic? On campus or off campus.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why not get the best of both worlds (New England and a consortium) at Amherst?

The consortium in Amherst is a different animal than the one in Claremont - they are essentially on one campus. No shuttles required - not even a long walk. (But Amherst is a great place to go to school too...even without a shuttle-accessible consortium)

What makes that different from a University? Amherst sounds like a real consortium.

Anonymous wrote:Why not get the best of both worlds (New England and a consortium) at Amherst?

The consortium in Amherst is a different animal than the one in Claremont - they are essentially on one campus. No shuttles required - not even a long walk. (But Amherst is a great place to go to school too...even without a shuttle-accessible consortium)