Anonymous wrote:People here love miserable, mentally exhausting, and dull colleges, so makes sense that a southern college liberal arts college most known for its work/life balance isn’t DCUM’s cup of tea.

In all honesty, I think DCUM is an equal-opportunity hater of all things. Name a college or type of college, and one or more dingdongs here will tell you it's irredeemably terrible. The Internet and DCUM's particular brand of anonymity attract people with unnuanced, sweeping opinions that are so vehement that the holders self-righteously confuse them with facts.

Anonymous wrote:Right? I don’t understand some of these responses. The whole point of going to college is to be challenged and exposed to rigor. Why should Pomona and other elite schools continue to spoon feed As when their job is to educate?

The more I hear about Pomona the less I see the point. Going to a utopia where wine flies endlessly, the sun is perpetually shining, and grading is easy? There are cheaper ways to vacation. Some of us care about going much above the high school level and being pushed to our fullest academically - so thank you to Swarthmore, Uchicago, MIT, Davidson, Johns Hopkins, etc who actually care about ensuring their graduates learn something

Are you sure you aren't conflating grading with rigor? Swarthmore and Pomona have long had an exchange program, and most of the Swatties/Sagehens who take part in it report that the rigor and workload is the same even if the cultures differ. Also, as someone else noted, a third of Pomona's students were their high school's valedictorians. Do you really think they just stop working hard after matriculation?

Last note: Davidson is a great school, but I'm puzzled by it's inclusion in your list of schools known for pushing students. I've always understood it to have great academics and balance of life, which is more or less antithetical to your premise. If you had included Williams, Harvey Mudd, or Wellesley, it would made a lot more sense.

Anonymous wrote:It’s so interesting to me that everyone on DCUM wants every college to be UC Berkeley, but when you mention UC Berkeley, everyone starts trashing how competitive and terrible the culture is…

Great observation, +1!

It’s so interesting to me that everyone on DCUM wants every college to be UC Berkeley, but when you mention UC Berkeley, everyone starts trashing how competitive and terrible the culture is…

People here love miserable, mentally exhausting, and dull colleges, so makes sense that a southern college liberal arts college most known for its work/life balance isn’t DCUM’s cup of tea.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Right? I don’t understand some of these responses. The whole point of going to college is to be challenged and exposed to rigor. Why should Pomona and other elite schools continue to spoon feed As when their job is to educate?

The more I hear about Pomona the less I see the point. Going to a utopia where wine flies endlessly, the sun is perpetually shining, and grading is easy? There are cheaper ways to vacation. Some of us care about going much above the high school level and being pushed to our fullest academically - so thank you to Swarthmore, Uchicago, MIT, Davidson, Johns Hopkins, etc who actually care about ensuring their graduates learn something

Your concerns are so valid that Pomona has some of the best graduate school admissions in the country and students consistently win massive fellowships! They’re so stupid they become scientists!

Had. No longer has to the same extent because grad schools/fellowships are rightfully concerned about what a truly standout Pomona student is actually like. The grad school placements are noticeably lower tier than previous years.

"Rachel Levin, a biology professor and committee member, said that individuals in the committee were told that some national scholarships and professional schools do not consider
Pomona students’ grades because of a high level of grade inflation at the college."

https://tsl.news/news4694/

This was in 2015; imagine the situation now.

Yawn

Jennifer Locke, Assistant Director of Fellowships at the Pomona Career Development Office, said that she has not heard of Pomona being singled out in this way by any national scholarships. However, she said that she has heard that the scholarships have been seeing high GPAs in applicants across the nation.

Locke said that Pomona students continue to do well in terms of receiving these scholarships because they are able to stand out in areas besides grades, such as leadership, impact on one’s community, research, and more.

Pomona’s awarded fewer As since that article was produced and has had better graduate school admissions in the past two cycles than most of the schools history. People like you are constant cherry pickers and liars, because, for some reason, you need to bring a college you have no interest in down.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Right? I don’t understand some of these responses. The whole point of going to college is to be challenged and exposed to rigor. Why should Pomona and other elite schools continue to spoon feed As when their job is to educate?

The more I hear about Pomona the less I see the point. Going to a utopia where wine flies endlessly, the sun is perpetually shining, and grading is easy? There are cheaper ways to vacation. Some of us care about going much above the high school level and being pushed to our fullest academically - so thank you to Swarthmore, Uchicago, MIT, Davidson, Johns Hopkins, etc who actually care about ensuring their graduates learn something

Yes, let’s look at Swarthmore!

Winnie Ngo ’15, a transfer student from Northwestern University, hasn’t had a difficult time transitioning to the coursework at Swarthmore; in fact, she says the amount of work assigned at the two institutions is comparable.…Ngo noted that Swarthmore students seemed to cope with uncertainty surrounding post-graduation jobs and plans by refusing to think about the impending future. “People say that you can’t think about it here, that you just have to study what you’re interested in,” she said. “I feel like that’s a very defined example of how we are sheltered here.”

The ‘everywhere else it would’ve been an A’ is talking about schools outside the top elite colleges,” she said of Swarthmore’s unofficial motto. “It definitely doesn’t apply to Haverford, and I don’t think it applies to Bryn Mawr, either.

Sounds like an absolutely insufferable student body who thinks way too highly of themselves

Swarthmore isn't even grade deflated anymore lol. The average student has like a 3.7 GPA there these days. I actually know someone who did the Pomona-Swarthmore exchange and found the two comparable in grading scale. It's more of a stereotype than anything based in reality.

https://www.gradeinflation.com/Swarthmore.html In 2013 the median GPA for grads was a 3.56, which was one of the highest in the nation.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Virtue signaling institution that is just destroying whatever brand it had, but it will continue as long as people are willing to fund the grand experiment.

Lmfao, virtue signaling my bum. The grade distribution at Pomona has been like this for decades. Take your culture warrior bull$hit to some other institution.

no it hasn't

https://www.gradeinflation.com/Pomona.html

the current 2025 median gpa is around 3.83

What? No it isn’t. Average gpa is around 3.5-3.6. Where are you getting these numbers?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Right? I don’t understand some of these responses. The whole point of going to college is to be challenged and exposed to rigor. Why should Pomona and other elite schools continue to spoon feed As when their job is to educate?

The more I hear about Pomona the less I see the point. Going to a utopia where wine flies endlessly, the sun is perpetually shining, and grading is easy? There are cheaper ways to vacation. Some of us care about going much above the high school level and being pushed to our fullest academically - so thank you to Swarthmore, Uchicago, MIT, Davidson, Johns Hopkins, etc who actually care about ensuring their graduates learn something

Your concerns are so valid that Pomona has some of the best graduate school admissions in the country and students consistently win massive fellowships! They’re so stupid they become scientists!

Had. No longer has to the same extent because grad schools/fellowships are rightfully concerned about what a truly standout Pomona student is actually like. The grad school placements are noticeably lower tier than previous years.

"Rachel Levin, a biology professor and committee member, said that individuals in the committee were told that some national scholarships and professional schools do not consider
Pomona students’ grades because of a high level of grade inflation at the college."

https://tsl.news/news4694/

This was in 2015; imagine the situation now.

Anonymous wrote:Right? I don’t understand some of these responses. The whole point of going to college is to be challenged and exposed to rigor. Why should Pomona and other elite schools continue to spoon feed As when their job is to educate?

The more I hear about Pomona the less I see the point. Going to a utopia where wine flies endlessly, the sun is perpetually shining, and grading is easy? There are cheaper ways to vacation. Some of us care about going much above the high school level and being pushed to our fullest academically - so thank you to Swarthmore, Uchicago, MIT, Davidson, Johns Hopkins, etc who actually care about ensuring their graduates learn something

Yes, let’s look at Swarthmore!

Winnie Ngo ’15, a transfer student from Northwestern University, hasn’t had a difficult time transitioning to the coursework at Swarthmore; in fact, she says the amount of work assigned at the two institutions is comparable.…Ngo noted that Swarthmore students seemed to cope with uncertainty surrounding post-graduation jobs and plans by refusing to think about the impending future. “People say that you can’t think about it here, that you just have to study what you’re interested in,” she said. “I feel like that’s a very defined example of how we are sheltered here.”

The ‘everywhere else it would’ve been an A’ is talking about schools outside the top elite colleges,” she said of Swarthmore’s unofficial motto. “It definitely doesn’t apply to Haverford, and I don’t think it applies to Bryn Mawr, either.

Sounds like an absolutely insufferable student body who thinks way too highly of themselves

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Virtue signaling institution that is just destroying whatever brand it had, but it will continue as long as people are willing to fund the grand experiment.

Lmfao, virtue signaling my bum. The grade distribution at Pomona has been like this for decades. Take your culture warrior bull$hit to some other institution.

no it hasn't

https://www.gradeinflation.com/Pomona.html

the current 2025 median gpa is around 3.83