While Pomona is only about 50 miles from the coast, getting to the beach is quite a struggle. I had never realized just how difficult it is to get around without a car in some areas. Being from urban Jersey, living right next to New York City, I've spent so much of my life commuting, taking trains and buses, that having a car never seemed necessary. While I have my license,...
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Fall Break: Lost in Rural China Edition
After a long week of midterms, a few friends and I set off for a week of terrifically underplanned backpacking adventures. We had not yet booked hostels or figured out any transportation, but with packed backpacks, the exhilaration of having finished midterms, and overconfidence in our Chinese abilities, we boarded a 9-hour overnight train for Lijiang.
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Why I Applied Early to Pomona
2 years ago, around this time, I told my parents that I wanted to apply ED1 to Pomona College. It had been a long process of considering all of my options, a few hours of meditation, and a lot of listening to thought provoking music before I knew for sure. The long two hour conversation I had with my parents after telling them only confirmed my desire to apply ED. The main q...
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For the Prospective International Student (Especially Those of Asian Descent)
I am Yttrium Sua, a senior double majoring in anthropology and environmental analysis. I come from the tropical island-nation of Singapore and I spent my junior year abroad in Kyoto, Japan.
In my post, I hope to provide another perspective, to relate some of the things I have been exposed to during my 4 years in college and in the US – things I have experienced as a Pomona C...
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A Major in Music and a Minor Identity Crisis
I’ve heard so many stories and jokes surrounding the indecisiveness of the majorless first-year, those lost liberal-artsers who constantly change their interests, take courses from every department possible, and woefully declare the hopelessness of their future. The good news is that all of these confused first-years eventually find something they love or something at which the...
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Why Study Abroad?
A pretty large number of my Pomona friends are studying abroad this semester, and if not this semester, they plan to go abroad in the spring. We are in places as far-flung as Cameroon, Germany, Australia, Hungary, China, Greece -- the list goes on. We all made the decision to forfeit a semester at Pomona, giving up loads of interesting classes, on-campus involvement and respons...
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Pomona: My EdUtopia in Real Life!
I applied to Pomona College as an international ED1 (first round of Early Decision) applicant from China, where, arguably, Pomona and other liberal arts colleges are still in the process of gaining widespread public attention, compared to large research universities that generate more craze and hysteria across the country. Among so many fantastic higher education institutions t...
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¡Saludos! from Salamanca!
Hello everyone! My name is Ashley Land. I am a junior (cannot believe that) and media studies major at Pomona. I am from the windy city of Chicago, and as some of you may know, I am not at Pomona this semester but in the beautiful city of Salamanca in Spain. Choosing to study abroad was a very difficult decision for me. I thought it was going to be a horrible experience and...
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Life on a Language Pledge
Here in Kunming, I’m not just studying abroad in China. I’m studying abroad in Chinese. The Middlebury program I am on has a strict language pledge, essentially meaning we can’t speak anything but Chinese for the whole four months. It sounds intimidating, and it definitely was at first.
One complaint about the language pledge is that it makes it harder to make friends. T...
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A Trip to Dali
This past long weekend, I was lucky enough to spend a couple days in Dali, a small(er than Kunming) ancient city that used to be its own kingdom. Dali is about a 6-7 hour drive from Kunming and is famous for its beautiful scenery, old town, and the Bai ethnic minority. Though it threatened to rain at times, for the most part, the weather worked out in our favor -- meaning lots ...
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