College of the Week / Featured College

POMONA COLLEGE

Pomona offers its approximately 1,500 students-evenly divided between men and women-a comprehensive curriculum in the arts, humanities, social sciences and natural sciences. With a student-faculty ratio of eight to one, students have the opportunity to work closely and collaboratively with professors who are also top scholars in their fields. Students and faculty challenge each other in laboratories, classrooms, and co-curricular activities, and everyone benefits from the energy generated by such an assemblage of sharp and eager minds. Friendships forged among Pomona faculty and students frequently endure far beyond the four years of college.

Few institutions can match Pomona's ability to combine such intimate qualities as an average class size of 16.5 with such large-scale resources as a two-million-volume library. As the founding member of The Claremont Colleges, a unique consortium of seven independent institutions on adjoining campuses, Pomona offers its students the personal experience of a small, academically superb liberal arts college and the breadth of resources normally associated with major universities.

Students challenge and learn from one another not only in the classroom but also in daily life. On-campus housing is guaranteed, and few students choose to live anywhere else. The extraordinary ethnic and social diversity of its student body gives Pomona a broader mix of backgrounds than just about any comparable educational institution.

Our location-within an hour of the Pacific Ocean, the Mojave Desert, the San Gabriel Mountains and the city of Los Angeles-informs and shapes daily life at the College. There aren't many places in the world where you can ski in the morning, play on the beach in the afternoon, and take in a major league baseball game or an opera at night (not to mention the simple joy of wearing flip-flops in the middle of February). But beyond the recreational and cultural possibilities, our location also adds another dimension to the learning experience, with unequalled opportunities for field study, community involvement and internships.

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ADMISSION REQUIREMENTS

Since prospective applicants come from a variety of educational experiences and from across the nation and around the world, we do not specify individual classes that are required for admission; however, we do seek a broad range of academic experience in a variety of disciplines and expect that competitive candidates will have completed:

four or five academic subjects each term, including 10th, 11th and 12th grades
four years of English
three years of a foreign language
two years science with laboratories
two years social sciences
four years mathematics (one year geometry, second year algebra, year of trigonometry and analytical geometry, year of calculus is highly recommended)
one year each biology, chemistry and physics for students interested in pursuing science majors

It is extremely important for applicants to ensure their applications and supporting papers present an accurate reflection of academic and personal traits for the Admissions Committee consideration. We urge students to evaluate their own materials and consider how to provide full information to our staff.

THE CLASSROOM EXPERIENCE

One of the few things we know with some certainty about the future is that it will reward people who are intellectually resilient—people who can think critically and express themselves clearly; people who are skilled at solving problems and identifying opportunities; people who have learned to embrace life creatively and thoughtfully, whatever circumstances may confront them.

Developing and nurturing these abilities is the main point of what goes on inside Pomona College classrooms and laboratories.

With an average size of 14, most classes here are taught as seminars, in which the professor serves not as the source of all knowledge, but as a participant in a common search for understanding. In the lively discussions that are the heart of these classes, you will be free to draw your own conclusions and express and defend your own ideas. Even those rare classes that do number more than 30 students typically have smaller discussion sections or laboratory components. And all classes are taught by faculty members—not by graduate students.

If you already know what you want to study, you’ll receive plenty of encouragement and support. By the time you begin your senior exercise, however, you may find that your academic path has taken some unexpected twists and turns. About 80 percent of students end up doing something other than the probable majors they listed on their applications. You may discover your life’s passion in a conversation with a professor, or while taking an elective to fulfill the College’s General Education requirements, or while spending a semester abroad in one of our globe-spanning study-abroad programs, or while taking advantage of one of the countless other opportunities Pomona will put in your path.

Whatever you choose to study, you’ll work closely with academic advisers who will take the time to get to know you and to help you find not the path of least resistance, but the path that leads where you really want to go.

LIFE AT POMONA

Pomona College welcomes first-year students to campus on Sunday, Aug. 21, well before the start of classes, to give newcomers a chance to make friends and begin to adjust to college life. The centerpiece of the week is a three-day Orientation Adventure (OA) trip, where students delve into activities ranging from kayaking to community service. Students also will find time to settle in to campus and prepare for the start of classes.

OA is an exciting, educationally-based Orientation Adventure program for all incoming students, exposing students to the surrounding southern California landscapes. While the activities of each trip differ, all participants have the opportunity to meet classmates, learn about college life first-hand from student leaders, and discover Southern California's rich recreational opportunities. In recent years the OA program has increased the number of trips with intentional connections to sustainability, work in the community, and educational content. The OA program is a major component of new student orientation, and includes all the logistics and planning aspects for sending out all 400+ first year and transfer students on 32 different trips led by 80+ trained student leaders. Trip leaders are volunteers, and OA provides opportunities for these students to develop and utilize leadership skills.

Pomona prides itself on the fact that its faculty serves as the primary source of advising for students, and the faculty take their advising roles very seriously. During the summer, the Dean of Students Office and the Office of Admissions will assign you an advisor. You will receive your faculty advisor's name when you arrive on campus in August. You may have a very good idea of what your major will be at Pomona. However, your faculty advisor may or may not be matched with you on the basis of these academic interests alone. For example, your advisor may be in a different department than your intended major, but he or she might be from a small town, just like you. Your advisor may have been an athlete in college, and may have a special understanding of your plans to play a sport at Pomona. Or, your advisor may be someone who has a special understanding of another co-curricular activity that interests you.