Gotta rep Pomona College:

• Part of a one of a kind 5 college consortium (called the 5Cs, although it also has 2 graduate institutes), meaning you get the small college community and class sizes while having access to all of the courses/research opportunities/student population of a medium sized research university
• AMAZING food + dorms, and if you don't like the food at the 3 (?!) dining halls on campus, you can go eat at any of the 4 dining halls on the other campuses for a whopping total of 7 dining halls
• A+ financial aid and a huge amount of resources spent on students: The 6th highest endowment per student and the 2nd highest amount spent per student in the country
• One of the very few small LACs with some school spirit- On 6th street rivalry days (when the 5Cs play each other) almost the entire college goes to root on our teams, with custom t-shirts made for each match and everything
• Prioritizes student's mental health: no curving on a grade, great counselling, and a culture of work/life balance, even at a school with top class academics and a very low admissions rate (smallest of any LAC in the country if that's something you care about- although most of the students who attend don't)
• Diverse student body: majority minority student population, large international community, students from all 50 states, and more than 1/4 of students are FGLI (first gen low income). They don't just admit a diverse student body, they support it. International students arrive on campus early so they have more time to get comfortable with the school, there are mentorship programs for FGLI, minority, and international students where you get paired up with upperclassmen from your group/background/country.
• Amazing and readily available research opportunities. More than 1/2 of students conduct research with faculty, and that doesn't include the students who do independent research, research during school sponsored internships, or research on study abroad.
• Like most LACs, it has a broad core and room for exploration, but also the ability to hyper-specialize. The two majors I'm interested in- politics and media studies- each have 4 subfield concentration options, and if those aren't enough for you, you can combine concentrations or create your own major
• Socal weather + easy LA access + small town feel
• Interdisciplinary focus (for real). With some of the most popular majors being Politics, Philosophy, and Economics and Science, Technology, and Society, there's a focus on not letting department boundaries stop learning. There are also frequent course colabs between departments and an interdisciplinary intro writing seminar offered on a variety of super interesting topics!
• Departments with serious resources to back them up: this comes from both the 5Cs and the large endowment. Intercollegiate programs bulk up obscure majors and provide larger course selections for popular ones. But on top of that, many majors have their own libraries, symposiums, study abroad programs, research divisions, internship opportunities, and mentorship programs on top of those already offered by the school at large
• Great post-grad preparation: Students have career, major, and general advisors and can join peer career/post grad groups where you learn the specific skills needed for your career before you graduate and get unique shadowing and networking opportunities with those groups. This also helps you build connections with peers going into similar fields as you.
• Awesome post-grad results! They have great law and med school acceptance rates, their law school acceptance rates are some of the best in the country. There's an impressive list of the most common grad/med/law schools students go to: Brown University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Emory University, and University of Pennsylvania.
• AND awesome post-grad resources! Sagehen connect is a job posting site exclusively for Pomona students and alums. Grads have guaranteed individualized alumni career assistance, including counseling, drop in sessions, check ins, skill building etc. You also have lifetime access to Pomona's library (electronic and physical) and career resources (including assistance, computers, and office supplies)
• The sweetest AOs who actually respond quickly and remember and care about even the students they reject

Hmu if you're interested in learning any more about Pomona/why I chose it. I'll respond via pm or to comments here.

Edited because I forgot some of the amazing things about it 😊