Anonymous
08/19/2025 13:32
Subject: where would top SLACs fall in an overall college ranking list?
Anonymous wrote:I would love for our DC to attend Pomona over pretty much all Ivies + MS except perhaps Yale and Princeton, and most definitely over U Chicago
My daughter chose Pomona over U Chicago. And she is happy she was rejected by Yale and Brown bc she couldn’t imagine herself being happier there than in SoCal
Anonymous
08/19/2025 11:03
Subject: where would top SLACs fall in an overall college ranking list?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Just dropped my first-year DC at Pomona. Totally non-scientific feedback, but it’s hard for me to imagine a more ideal college — truly diverse student body, gorgeous environment, dedicated faculty and staff, access to the 5Cs for social and academic purposes, and tons of funding leveraged for the benefit of students.
We’ll see how it all shakes out in due course, but learned at Parent Orientation that a multi-year alumni outcomes project has just been rolled out. Advisors will be able to use that to counsel students on their academic choices and I’m guessing it’ll be more publicly available soon too.
Pomona does seem ideal for a SLAC. If you want a little more bro-y, there's Claremont-Mckenna to the left. Want a little more nerdy? There's Harvey Mudd to the right. And in the meantime, it's a very solid education in a good location.
But Pomona only admits roughly 750 students. Class size is about 440 students. There are less than 200 young men per year at Pomona. It's a nearly impossible admit for some random unhooked student from the burbs in the DMV. Pomona is not reachable for most talented students.
As for Williams in 2025, for boys, it's also a pointless app if not a D3 recruited athlete.
Swarthmore and Amherst are more attainable. But not everyone vibes with those two schools.
But the reality is most smart boys are frozen out of WASP no matter how well they do.
The T20 schools offer much better odds and opportunities for boys today.
+1. Pomona is the wise parent of Alex Keaton (CMC), a hippy kid (Pitzer), a math nerd (Harvey Mudd), and a feminist (Scripps). Of course, the best of all groups are at Pomona (that’s where the kids’ gene pool, so to speak, comes from.) Agree that the odds for boys at top SLACs are very tough, but Pomona, Carleton, and Vassar, as examples, have a smaller proportion of athletes so there are more spaces. Don’t recommend a steroetypical male major — at top SLACs or unis — such as CS, Econ, STEM etc., as that nullifies the gender advantage.
Anonymous
08/18/2025 16:44
Subject: where would top SLACs fall in an overall college ranking list?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Just dropped my first-year DC at Pomona. Totally non-scientific feedback, but it’s hard for me to imagine a more ideal college — truly diverse student body, gorgeous environment, dedicated faculty and staff, access to the 5Cs for social and academic purposes, and tons of funding leveraged for the benefit of students.
We’ll see how it all shakes out in due course, but learned at Parent Orientation that a multi-year alumni outcomes project has just been rolled out. Advisors will be able to use that to counsel students on their academic choices and I’m guessing it’ll be more publicly available soon too.
Pomona does seem ideal for a SLAC. If you want a little more bro-y, there's Claremont-Mckenna to the left. Want a little more nerdy? There's Harvey Mudd to the right. And in the meantime, it's a very solid education in a good location.
But Pomona only admits roughly 750 students. Class size is about 440 students. There are less than 200 young men per year at Pomona. It's a nearly impossible admit for some random unhooked student from the burbs in the DMV. Pomona is not reachable for most talented students.
As for Williams in 2025, for boys, it's also a pointless app if not a D3 recruited athlete.
Swarthmore and Amherst are more attainable. But not everyone vibes with those two schools.
But the reality is most smart boys are frozen out of WASP no matter how well they do.
The T20 schools offer much better odds and opportunities for boys today.
Tough odds, yes. But not impossible. Better opportunities at T20s — not sure what that even means?
Best advice is to consider seriously how strong a fit your student is. YCBK has a great episode on what Pomona looks for in its admits and it seems to hold true.
Overall, a key takeaway from the 2024-2025 application cycle was not to be dissuaded by all the doom and gloom talk. With a strong application (grades, stats, ECs, LORs, and compelling essays), the outcomes can be good or better than expected. So manage your own and your DC’s expectations for sure, but don’t let pessimism prevent an application to Pomona or anywhere else your DC might fancy. You never know, if you never try.
Anonymous
08/18/2025 15:58
Subject: where would top SLACs fall in an overall college ranking list?
Anonymous wrote:Just dropped my first-year DC at Pomona. Totally non-scientific feedback, but it’s hard for me to imagine a more ideal college — truly diverse student body, gorgeous environment, dedicated faculty and staff, access to the 5Cs for social and academic purposes, and tons of funding leveraged for the benefit of students.
We’ll see how it all shakes out in due course, but learned at Parent Orientation that a multi-year alumni outcomes project has just been rolled out. Advisors will be able to use that to counsel students on their academic choices and I’m guessing it’ll be more publicly available soon too.
Pomona does seem ideal for a SLAC. If you want a little more bro-y, there's Claremont-Mckenna to the left. Want a little more nerdy? There's Harvey Mudd to the right. And in the meantime, it's a very solid education in a good location.
But Pomona only admits roughly 750 students. Class size is about 440 students. There are less than 200 young men per year at Pomona. It's a nearly impossible admit for some random unhooked student from the burbs in the DMV. Pomona is not reachable for most talented students.
As for Williams in 2025, for boys, it's also a pointless app if not a D3 recruited athlete.
Swarthmore and Amherst are more attainable. But not everyone vibes with those two schools.
But the reality is most smart boys are frozen out of WASP no matter how well they do.
The T20 schools offer much better odds and opportunities for boys today.
Anonymous
08/18/2025 15:31
Subject: where would top SLACs fall in an overall college ranking list?
New rankings including SLACS from T&C: https://www.townandcountrymag.com/society/tradition/a65441595/best-alternative-ivy-league-colleges-2025/
Anonymous
08/18/2025 15:25
Subject: where would top SLACs fall in an overall college ranking list?
Anonymous wrote:Just dropped my first-year DC at Pomona. Totally non-scientific feedback, but it’s hard for me to imagine a more ideal college — truly diverse student body, gorgeous environment, dedicated faculty and staff, access to the 5Cs for social and academic purposes, and tons of funding leveraged for the benefit of students.
We’ll see how it all shakes out in due course, but learned at Parent Orientation that a multi-year alumni outcomes project has just been rolled out. Advisors will be able to use that to counsel students on their academic choices and I’m guessing it’ll be more publicly available soon too.
Excited for you and your family. Chirp chirp!