Advice for Admitted Students – Page 2

Icky Introductions

Posted on June 15, 2020June 15, 2020 by Oluyemisi Bolonduro

By Oluyemisi Bolonduro ‘23 “What’s your name?” “Oluyemisi.” “Do you have a nickname?” “No, just Oluyemisi.” “Can I give you a nickname?” “No, I don’t do nicknames.” My whole life prior to Pomona, I went by a nickname; it was how I tried to assimilate. It was a tool I used to make people comfortable when interacting with me. I decided to go by my full name, ...

Choose Pomona and Be Ready

Posted on April 30, 2020 by Ebenezer Mensah

By Ebenezer Mensah ‘23 It has been almost a year since I gained acceptance to Pomona, but I still remember reading my acceptance letter as if it happened yesterday. I still remember the shriek of laughter from my English teacher that pierced the still night when she read the letter, my teary eyes as I stared blankly at the computer screen, and the several times I spent readi...

Coming Back Home

Posted on April 22, 2020 by Hayeon Lee

A trip to Little Tokyo, Los Angeles with my ID1 Class, Mirroring Japan/ese America

Hayeon Lee '23 I am originally from Los Angeles but attended a boarding high school in Connecticut for four years. Although I enjoyed the four years that I spent on the east coast for high school, I had always known that I wanted to come back to Los Angeles for college and that I felt most at home on the West Coast. However, after college decisions came out in March o...

Food, Food, and MORE Food: What Makes Pomona Dining Special

Posted on April 14, 2020 by Chris Meng

By Chris Meng ‘23 When visiting a college, you hear about academics, housing, and student life, but there’s a significant part of the college experience that doesn’t get the time it deserves — food. Between the 19 meals per week offered at The Claremont Colleges, I probably spend a good 15 hours in the dining halls each week. That’s more time than I spend in class! So, it’s ...

Need Aware Does Not Mean No Aid

Posted on March 16, 2020 by Ebenezer Mensah

By Ebenezer Mensah ‘23 On 16th February 2019, my English teacher and I huddled up around a computer in my school’s computer laboratory in Kumasi, Ghana around 1 a.m., an hour after Pomona’s admission decisions had been released. The room was dark, and the throbbing of my heart was the only sound that could be heard in the room. The internet was slow, and the portal was takin...

Why Did I Choose Pomona?

Posted on January 2, 2020 by Myles Ashitey

By Myles Ashitey ‘22 Coming from a small boarding school in southeastern Pennsylvania, I didn’t want to stray too far from my comfort zone when choosing a college. Also high on my list of importance was ensuring that my college education was affordable to me. As it turned out, Pomona was one of the only schools I applied to that offered me a viable financial aid package, whi...

Combining Queer Theory and Pipetting Bacterial Cultures

Posted on November 20, 2019 by Calder Hollond

My summer internship with Planned Parenthood Great Plains, working in the reproductive justice sector

By Calder Hollond ‘21 When I came to Pomona, I thought I was going to be an English major. That’s what I had told all my family and friends before I left home, what I told all my new friends at Pomona during the initial “What are you planning on majoring in?” small talk, and what I made sure to enroll in during course registration. What I hadn’t planned on was that after the...

The Beautiful Flexibility of a Small(ish) School

Posted on November 13, 2019 by Chris Meng

By Chris Meng ‘23 Pomona College has all the amazing perks of a small school without sacrificing the overwhelming variety of resources of a bigger college. If it weren’t for the flexibility and spirit of exploration built into the values of Pomona, I wouldn’t be here today as a first-year student. Let me tell you about my winding path to Pomona. To begin, I wasn’t accepte...

A Letter for Incoming Black Students, from a Black Student

Posted on September 3, 2019 by Ebere Amadi

By Ebere Amadi '22 It was a 47-minute car ride from my house to Pomona College on Move-In Day, August 25th, 2018. I drove down the 60 freeway with a car full of family, luggage, and Frank Ocean’s nostalgic tunes. As the familiar melodies of Ivy and Nights boomed through my speakers, I almost cried as Frank beautifully sang “we’ll never be those kids again” because it was tru...

Failure at Pomona

Posted on June 12, 2019June 13, 2019 by Danny DeBare

By Danny DeBare ‘22 Failure is both the most and least talked about phenomenon at Pomona. Students at Pomona throw it into casual conversations: “Oh my gosh, I totally just failed that midterm!” Yet this over-exaggerated comment–dare I say joke–almost rarely equates to a D or F grade. On the other hand, when not getting cast in theater productions, or not receiving specifi...