FGrady

Spanish Major

I am a freshman, so I do not know much about the Spanish program. However, I know that all of our language professors are of course native speakers, and in order to major in any language, it is required to travel a semester abroad in a country that speaks that language and live a year in Oldenborg, our Center for Modern Languages and International Relations. Oldenborg is a GREAT resource for any language student or student simply wishing to practice a language. The six languages taught at Pomona College (Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Russian, and Spanish) and Arabic (taught at another one of the Claremont Colleges) all have sections of Oldenborg for students to live in. In the dining hall, we have tables at which people speak foreign languages (full list can be seen here: http://oldenborg.pomona.edu/language-programming/tables/), and we have six foreign language residents (one for each language offered at Pomona) who live in Oldenborg and stay for two years and are from a country that speaks that foreign language. They are required to teach an intermediate and advanced conversation class (capped at fifteen students) in their native language. These language residents are also required to take three classes a semester and are relatively young (early twenties) and are a great resource!

Health & Safety

We had a small incident earlier this year at the Claremont Colleges in which a drunk male junior from Pitzer College entered the unlocked dorms of two Scripps College students and stood above them on their beds half-naked as they slept. However, the culprit was caught and was handed over to the law. If you lock your doors (duh!!) then there shouldn't be any problems.

I, as a female freshman, feel very safe on campus, even walking alone at decent hours of the night. Upon arrival, we were given whistles to attach to our lanyards to use in case of an emergency. There is a $100 fine if it is needlessly blown, so Campus Security takes it very seriously if they hear one. This wonderful group of men and women patrol the campuses at night in golf carts and are just a phone call away (from your personal cell phone or one of the emergency blue light phones we have around campus) from picking you up all the way on the north end of Claremont McKenna and driving you back to your dorm on the south end of Pomona at any time of the night in case you don't feel safe walking that far alone or if it's just too cold. The campus security member who picked me up was very friendly and not awkward at all.

Parking

It is $60 to keep a car at school, but our campus is not very car-friendly, and it would be absolutely ridiculous to drive to class rather than walking 2-10 minutes. Parking spaces are always available and usually convenient.

Transportation

Around campus, we have campus security available to drive us late at night (for example if we don't feel safe or are injured) and injured student drivers to drive injured students to classes and sometimes meals. This service is of course free. We can also call the $1 Cab which runs on the Claremont Colleges. This service is obviously $1. Biking is rather popular, and we have a free service called Green Bikes that rents bicycles out to students for a semester (you must return it and reapply the following semester). Otherwise, most people walk.

Locally, we have regular taxi cabs and the Metrolink, which can take us one way toward Riverside and the other way from LA. From Union Station, you could go pretty much anywhere. For youth (ages 6-18), it is $8.50 to get to LA on weekdays and $6.50 on weekends. For adults between the ages of 18 and 64, it is always $8.50. For $35/yr, you can also rent Zipcars 24/7 if you are eighteen and have a license. There is free gas (for the first 180 miles) and insurance. However, rates are $8/hr or $66/day if you wish to rent and use one. Orrr you could use your own car if you have one.

For long-distance travel, Ontario Airport is a fifteen-minute drive from campus, and Super Shuttles ($21) or the Pitzer Transportation Coalition ($8) can easily take you there or pick you up right outside your dorm. The Amtrak thruway bus services can also pick you up at the Claremont Metrolink Station (less than 500 feet from the southwest end of campus) if you are taking a train. Amtrak is very clean, reliable, and convenient, and I would recommend it. Prices are cheap, especially if you sign up for a Student Advantage card (http://www.studentadvantage.com/discountcard/). It is $50 for four years ($40 for three years, etc.), and it paid for itself within two public transportation trips for me. If relying on Greyhound, the station is a 1.2-mile walk from the southwest end of campus. However, although it is VERY cheap ($32 for my round-trip bus ticket to visit my cousins in Bakersfield) my experience with Greyhound has been rather sketchy and very unreliable, and I do not recommend it.

Financial Aid

Our financial aid is 100% need-based (no merit-based scholarships) and need-blind. We have very generous allotments and PLENTY of options for work-study. Our aid does NOT include loans, and with ANY offer, there is a $5,000 OPTIONAL INTEREST-FREE loan available for any student each year.

Applying is both simple and stress-free. All that is required is the FAFSA and a couple of forms that, if not turned in by the deadline, the financial aid will e-mail you reminding you to do so. You will NOT be penalized or denied aid if you accidentally are late turning it in. :)

Facilities

Between all five campuses, our athletic centers are sure to be open 24/7 and available for use. The Pomona one usually has only two or three other people in it when I work out. It has seven treadmills, some ellipticals, StairMasters, stationary bicycles, and other equipment. Our weight room is a separate room, and I've never been in there.

Smith Campus Center is pretty neat. It has a store (The Coop Store), a restaurant/hang out-type place (The Coop Fountain; it has pool tables, foosball tables, and several TVs with free rentable gaming systems), a cozy area called The Living Room (this contains our mail center, a fireplace, two TVs available for use, six computers and a printer, and SO MANY comfortable and colorful couches, sofas, armchairs, futons, ottomans, etc)) the Career Development Office, the Business Office and all those other administrative buildings, the ASPC (Associated Students of Pomona College) Office, the Draper Center (community engagement and outreach options, ideas, opportunities, and programs), Edmunds Ballroom (for parties, lectures, hypnotists, whatever), Dom's Lounge in the basement(for parties), the Poster Lab in the basement (where you can make posters to advertise your club/events for free), and many empty rooms upstairs that can be used for club/organization meetings (just sign up!).

The library shared between the five campuses is Honnold-Mudd and is located pretty centrally between them. It has four stories (with the level of noise allowed decreasing for ever story), PLENTY of study space and outlets, and a HUGE number of books. There is also a store with pretty expensive prices and a cafe.

There is always SO much to do on campus no matter WHAT you're interested in. So many clubs, parties, free food, activities, etc.

Our campus is absolutely beautiful and was designed to look like "a college in a garden." In addition to our flora, we have many beautiful fountains and great lighting effects.

Diversity

30% of students are from CA, while 62% of students are from other states and 8% of students are international. We are split 50/50 men vs. women. Racially, we are an unfortunate 43% white, 13% Asian, 12% hispanic, 10% black, and <1% Native American (the rest of people annoyingly declined to state).

We have many mentor programs for "minorities," including AAMP (Asian American Mentor Program), one for Latin Americans, one for African American, ISMP (International Student Mentor Program), and QQAMP (Queer, Questioning, and Allied Mentor Program). However, I feel that these further create divides between students by categorizing them by ethnicity. I am white, but in high school the majority of people I knew and were friends with were Asian or foreign-born Eastern European. At Pomona, unfortunately, I have noticed that "minorities" tend to hang out only with members of the same ethnicity, which I feel is a result of the mentor programs. In addition to the mentor programs, we also have many student organizations for races, religions, and political leanings. Some examples include but are not limited to many locations of Bible Study, Intervarsity Christian Fellowship, Jewish Student Union (JSU), similar organization for Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, and Atheists, Pan-Afican Student Association (PASA), Black Student Union (BSU), Black and Christian, several Latin American organizations, Democrats of the Claremont Colleges (Our student population is mostly made up of Democrats), and Republicans of the Claremont Colleges.

I do not think anyone even notices people's economic background because of our wonderful financial aid program, but I have seen no discrimination on account of this.

Our campus is ranked thirteenth most LGBTQ-friendly in the nation, partially because of our awesome Queer Resource Center (QRC). We have many out LGBTQ students and faculty members and some transgenders, as well.

Overall Experience

Pomona College, not Disneyland, is the Happiest Place on Earth. No further explanation required.

Nightlife

Most parties are 5-C, meaning that even though it may be a party on Claremont McKenna, students from any of the Claremont Colleges may attend. All parties must be registered and are not allowed during finals week, Reading Days, of the weekend in between. All parties will have campus security present to keep an eye on things but will not do anything about underage drinking unless they are put specifically in charge of handing out drinks or whatever.

I really don't go to parties, but the few I have been to have been fun. We had a Yule Ball in the beginning of December in Frary Dining Hall (which looks like Hogwarts, btw), which was a formal dance, and it was a blast! Free food (but of course!) and good, fast music with a live band for the first hour and a DJ the last two.

I am a freshman and so have no idea about local bars or clubs, if Claremont even has any. I kind of doubt it.

Greek Life

LOL, WHAT GREEK LIFE? Gross. Glad we don't have any.

Weather

Claremont is absolutely beautiful. Come mid-January, you'll be back to the high sixties/low seventies. Quite warm. Perfect weather!