No one knows about Pomona.
Ok, that’s a lie. They say the people who matter (you know, in the world of jobs) know about Pomona.
But when I’m home, or gallivanting about Seattle, and someone asks what school I go to, and I say “Pomona,” and then they nod, I normally assume they either have no idea what I’m talking about, or vaguely recognize the name because of Cal Poly Pomona.
This past weekend I went to a one-day music festival just outside of Seattle. I was chatting with people who were working at the Honest Tea booth, and the scenario of the above paragraph played out. It gets a little old, so I asked (maybe a bit too defensively), “Do you actually know the school? Or are you just…” The girl responded, “Pomona? Yeah. My sister goes to Scripps. She applied to Pomona. Congrats on getting in, it’s a tough school.” I was flattered (and a little embarrassed about my aggressiveness).
Thing is, I’ve found that no one, outside of California or outside of the group of people who’ve been taught by family or friends, recognizes Pomona as a wonderful, intellectual, high-ranked school. Though they obviously should.
Imagine my surprise when, as I’m weaving back through the crowd at this music festival, head down, trying not to step on people (or trip, for that matter), a voice says, “Hey. Do you go to Pomona?” Momentarily thrown off from my path, I looked up alertly at a face I recognized from around campus. I replied, “Yeah, you do too, right? What’s your name?” And there, in a crowd of at least a thousand, I had run into a Sagehen from Seattle. Honestly, that’s not extremely surprising, because a lot of Sagehens come from the Seattle area, but it was something I definitely wasn’t expecting. Also, though we’d never met or talked, and are in different years, we recognized each other from around campus and were able to say hi. That’s what the size and community of Pomona do—on some level, even just facial recognition from a glance in the dining hall, you know everyone.