Pomona: The Big Picture
The best thing about Pomona is really hard to define. I just know that I love it. It gets to be a little small after the first two years, especially as the population of students who goes out on a regular basis is pretty small. With the 5Cs though it's a pretty good size as long as you make the effort to meet people from the other schools. We spend a lot of time on campus and almost never make it out to LA. The good thing is that if you have a car or know someone with a car you can easily get to the beaches, J-Tree, the museums, Pasadena, or concerts. Claremont Village itself trys to pretend that there are not 5000 college students living there. Most of the places are a little upscale for a college budget (though Full of Life Bakery and the Juice Co. stand out as being delicious!) but a new expansion to the village is trying to combat that. There's not much of a nightlife off of campus however. There is one sportsbar that is always too packed (with non-college people) and one other bar. But the colleges always have parties or at least gatherings everynight of the week except Sunday. Having the other colleges there is a huge plus for Pomona socially as the nerdiness of Pomona is a little balanced out by the alphaness of CMC.
Pomona is very sensitive to the discourse of diversity, almost overly so. The major controversy on campus my freshman year was the lack of gender neutral bathrooms. Since then, the situation has been remedied and every dorm now has female, male, and gender neutral bathrooms. Everyone is very liberal at Pomona which leads to an openness to "difference" but a lack of variety in opinion and a decided bias against conservatives.
One major drawback to Pomona is that nobody has heard of it. If they have it's often a mistake and they think you mean Cal Poly Pomona...which actually gets to be frustrating.
Pomona Academic Life
Academics at Pomona are great. The clases offered are usually exactly what I want and if you don't get into a class you want you can usually talk to the professor and get into it. My biggest classes have been large survey intro classes of no more than 40 students and the average is around 10 though I've had one history seminar with two other students. The work is there and at times can feel overwhelming but you can also choose an easier path if you like, though most students choose not to and most people take a heavier course load then required and many are double majoring. THis intellectualism carries over to the discussions at meals which are always interesting even if they aren't purely academic.
The nerdiness aspect of Pomona means that the classses are not really geared towards professional careers exactly, but you can always take your accounting class at CMC.
Pomona's Student Body
see Pomona the Big Picture
Pomona students are not the most fashionable group. A well dressed girl usually elicits comments about "Scripsies" and a boy wearing a polo shirt is almost always from CMC.
Pomona Student Activities + Social Life
see Pomona the big picture and
The sponsor group program is really great way to start out college your freshman year. You basically have a group of friends from the very start and the people from your sponsor group often turn out to be your best friends throughout college.
Football is not big at Pomona at all. Water Polo and Basketball games are pretty popular and bigger than the PP-CMC football game is the PP-CMC Basketball game. That is a can't miss. Pomona is small enough though that you will know people on all the teams and friendship usually draws people to games even if they aren't that exciting.
The social scene is divided between those that go to the parties and drink and those who are in "sub-free" housing. This is very frustrating as I feel that I only know and only see half of the school. There is a group that organizes Saturday night activities such as karaoke, pool tournaments, twister, etc.
