Most do not have air conditioning, so September and May can be rough. New dorms are popping up, and there are plenty of singles for upperclassmen as well.

Come visit. There's nothing like the real thing.

Pomona's endowment is steadily rising and the college is happy to fund your ideas. There are many roads by which to obtain funding for a musical performance, a new club, a party - whatever you want. Mostly it's a matter of taking the initiative to do so and the money's yours for the spending. Pomona students can succumb to Southern California laziness and general apathy towards events (even the "free food" events can have low attendance), but when, on occasion, students do show up, they do so en masse, and events become a lot of fun.

The Pomona faculty and staff want students to feel comfortable, but I have changed quite a bit since coming here.

As a second-semester Senior who will be graduating in about six weeks, I have to say that I am quite sad to be leaving this place. I have made a lot of good friends here, I have a fantastic job lined up for after I graduate, and I can't imagine having had a better experience in four years of college.

It's a great school.

There are NO attractive women here. My friends and I attempted to make a top 5 list in the freshman class and we came up with two names. Yikes

don't worry about college- it'll be ok.

If you're going to give student led tours while at Pomona, don't end the majority of your sentences with "if you like diarrhea!" You'll probably get fired. Examples of some sentences: The dining hall food is pretty good... The dorm showers are pretty nice...

I feel incredibly comfortable in my dorm, and my roommate and I usually leave the door unlocked when we are in, so people are coming in and out. Sponsor groups can either be really successful in forming close bonds or not. Different groups have completely different dynamics. Some groups are always hanging out together, others have different circles of friends. For me, the people I usually hang out with are from my sponsor group, since we get along pretty well. If you like to party you will be able to find places to party, and if you don't there are still things for you to do. There are usually events to go to on the weekend. I work at the theater, and students from different campuses like to come to performances. The ballroom usually have dance lessons and a party that's alcohol free. They have movies showing for a cheap price. Sometimes it's more fun to stay in with friends and play cards or Taboo. We dunk people in fountains on their birthday. Yes, we really do. There are just so many fountains to choose from. Be prepared, they may or may not (usaully not) tell you when or where.

I love Pomona. It really is the best possible place I can imagine to go to school. I love that we're a small school with small classes and faculty who are really involved in our education. But we're also part of the Claremont consortium, and with the other 4 schools, we have a student population of 5,000, which makes social life and clubs and sports very diverse and exciting. I think Pomona escapes the feeling of isolation that a lot of smaller school get. Best day of my life? Ski-Beach day. 4 hours skiing in the morning (and I'm from Colorado, i know skiing. this was the real thing), a 2 hour bus ride, then the afternoon at the beach, with a bonfire and s'more roast as the sun set over the Pacific. Brilliant. And it only cost $20, I think.

Pomona is a small, prestigious liberal arts college. Because they have kept the acceptance low, the class environment is much more personal and you have a great opportunity to get to know your teachers and the staff. This also leads to a generally friendlier atmosphere. The town is also very much a college town in my opinion. There has been a lot of resent renovations that have been created with the students in mind, including a theater, ice cream place, and coffee house.

Athletic organizations are quite popular on campus, even though some teams aren't that competitive. There are a ton of organizations of campus and most people are involved in one or two. People leave their doors open and love when people come to visit. We have quite a few great quest speakers. People party Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays... but sadly there aren't too many BIG parties a year. There are a couple great parties and then a lot of beer pong. There are no sororities, but there are a few fraternities - but they don't play a great role in social life on campus. Most people stay on campus for parties on the weekends, yet many people go to LA for concerts and other things.

I couldn't ask for more. The classes are small, and I have never had a professor who doesn't know my name and basically everything about me. If you don't show up to class, expect an email. If you sleep in through a test or final, expect a phone call from your professor to your dorm room or cell phone. This might drive some students crazy, but I have never felt anything buy cared for. You definitely cannot fall through the cracks at Pomona. Everyone is very invested in and cares very much about your wellbeing. It does border on what some may call "hand holding." The very, very best thing about Pomona's academics is that, no matter what your major is, you will have the amazing opportunity to conduct real research (and maybe even publish in academic journals) with your professors. At Pomona, we take this for granted, because basically anyone who is interested will have the opportunity, but in reality it is VERY rare for undergraduates to have this opportunity. From the experiences I have had doing research at Pomona, I basically feel like I have already been to graduate school.

I chose Pomona because it had the best academics of ANY school I visited, and I visited a lot of schools. At first, it's a little difficult to get involved in your classes. Early classes are often almost all freshmen, and freshmen at Pomona almost never participate. And, when they do, you almost wish they wouldn't. But, the amazing professors overcome this lack of participation. I would just suggest taking mostly lecture classes your freshmen year and taking more discussion based courses later on. You will quickly find that every department is very different. Some departments are weak, like physics. And some departments have amazing reputations, such as math and chemistry. You'll notice that I only mention the sciences because all of my friends are in the sciences. You'll have to ask someone else about the humanities. I was very late in choosing my major. In fact, I only declared psychology to get into a class. The psychology department can be very hard to break into. It's not great for people casually taking classes, but once you get to know the professors, the department is great. I know all of the professors and Sandy, the wonderful secretary. They just do awesome research, and they are all passionate about the field. Pomona is all about learning for its own sake. If you want applied classes, don't come here. We learn theories and how to complete our own research and how to do things on our own. A short story complements of one of my professors can describe our style of learning... Two men are fishing on a river, and suddenly a baby comes floating down. As soon as they save the baby another one comes around the bend. Babies just keep coming. Finally one of the men walks away in disgust. The other man yells, "What are you doing? We have to save the babies." The man responds, "I'm going upriver to stop whoever is throwing them in." Pomona is about learning how to stop the person throwing the babies in, not about learning how to save the baby already in the river.

Pomona's pretty great in terms of on-campus resources and attention paid to students. The per-capita budget is a truly absurd amount of money, and generally it shows. The financial aid office has also been ridiculously helpful. I literally wouldn't be at the school without them given it's rapidly increasing price tag. On the downside, the administration, or rather the highest levels of the administration, do a really poor job of responding quickly and well to student opinions. The responses I've gotten from them usually amount to something like "Oh, that's nice, you have an opinion. Now go play and let the adults deal with this." Obviously this is a slight exaggeration, but only slight. Several recent cases of this are: an ongoing workers' rights campaign in which the administration has been incredibly slow to even consider what the students have been saying, or a recent decision in hiring a new XC coach that basically completely ignored the opinions of the entire team. Claremont is kind of a suburban yuppie haven too, so if you're into that kind of thing it's fine, but for anyone who doesn't have 10 dollars to spend on every meal it can be a little frustrating sometimes. I find myself eating a lot of 5 dollar burritos at the Taco Factory when I eat out, which is actually fine because they make a damn fine burrito. Most of the really good stuff to do is outside of Claremont though, or at least not in reasonable walking distance. My life got much more interesting after I got a car last semester, because it's very nearly impossible to get much out of the LA area otherwise. That said though, I like a lot of things about Pomona. The size is pretty much exactly what I wanted, the campus is beautiful and pretty much treats us like we're in a country club most of the time. Finding a group of friends has been a bit of trial-and-error, but I've met some great, smart, cool people there. As far as school pride...I honestly think a lot of Pomona kids are almost too introverted for much of that. There's a lot of egocentricity, but more in the sense that people are really focused on themselves and their careers.

Pomona is great with setting up opportunities to get involved with something, whether it be a club, a sport, an organization, etc. Pomona leads numerous trips throughout the year to fun and exciting places and events all around the southern california/ los angeles area, and beyond. Socially, Pomona is a very open campus and it's pretty easy to make friends right away the way things are structured. Freshman year, students are placed in "sponsor groups" which consists of the other students in the hall they are living in, and the sponsor group typically ends up being like a family. Students doors are usually open, and students are typically open and inviting. The party scene is at Pomona is decent, with a chance to go out just about every day of the week. Frat life isn't big on campus, and the few frats that do exist don't have houses or some of the other priviliges that frats on bigger campuses do. The other four colleges also allow for diversity in the party scene with Mckenna, Havey-Mudd, and Pitzer all a short walk away. In terms of frequency, a small number of students might go out four or five times a week, some once or twice, some none at all. There is no pressure in any direction and wherever you fall, there is a group of people similar to you. While many people drink, there is no pressure to and there are lots of alternatives. There is a group that puts on really fun, sober activities every saturday night and even kids that don't drink will go to the dance parties put on by the school. The alcohol policy on the campuses is pretty lax, and if your beverage is in an oblique cup, there is nothing administration or security can do to you. The school even provides kegs at some of the parties.

The main thing is that Pomona is a lot of fun. Very few students are unhappy, and the college does a great job of making sure that this is the case. Two sophomore sponsors (one male and one female) live in a hall of freshmen to make sure that everyone is happy. They are not there to punish anyone, and act as older brothers and sisters. The sponsor system is very successful. Sponsors and sponsees remain good friends the rest of the way through school.