Pomona College Top Questions

Thad, a junior, is director of On The Loose, Pomona's outdoors club that takes you out into Southern California.

You'll hear a lot of people talk about sponsor groups. This is basically the hall that you live on during Freshman year. Many become very good friends with their sponsor group and continue that for the next three years. This has it's consequences. It's more difficult to branch out earlier on; this place is cliquey. Also, these things breed incest, which can become tricky. Then again, you will know people well that would wouldn't know otherwise. Everyone is, of course, terribly friendly. Doors are open, chit chat is welcome. I personally have never locked my door. I find that I have at most, two nights a week where I can go out. Some have more. There are a lot of school-sponsored things. In fact, I believe that the school provides beer five nights a week if you know where to look for it. Nice! We have two excellent events during the year: Harwood Halloween and Smiley 80's. The first is a subterranean parking garage Halloween party and the latter is self-explanatory with a pretty rockin' 80s cover band. Oh, and there's a weekly thing called Table Manners that's pretty wicked. The school tries to wow people with things like ski/beach day and death by chocolate, but they're not as sweet as they sound.

I would say sponsor groups provide the first way for people to meet their closest friends. 3 years later I am still very close with students in my sponsor group. We are a pretty friendly campus. I am still excited to meet new people as a senior. There are plenty of students who work hard and party hard, and there are students who spend time with there friends by doing homework together on some weekend nights before relaxing. You don't have to drink to have fun on campus. There are weekly parties on some weeknights. Tuesday nights there's Table Manners, where student dj's show off their schools and people dance. The school has an alcohol fund for beer and wine, which is great. People do try to go into LA or Pasadena on the weekends.

One great thing about Pomona is the fact that every incoming freshman is put into “sponsor groups” which has 12-20 freshmen and 2 sophomores that live in the same hall based on their housing application. They help make the transition to college easier, and the people that were in my sponsor group freshmen year are still some of my closest friends. In many of these sponsor groups (though not all, it depends on which one) there is a sense of community, and people tend to eat together, go out to parties together, hang out talking and eating ramen at 3am, etc. I normally drink 3-4 nights a week and am an occasional pot smoker, but every person and group is different. There are people who drink and/or smoke everyday, people who are completely sub-free, and people everywhere in between. Fraternities/sororities aren’t big on campus (maybe 3{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} of people are in them, and they don’t have houses), so almost all parties are put on by individual people in their rooms or by the college (parties at only of the 5 colleges are open to anyone at the colleges, and there is always free beer!) I would say most of the people I know go out Thursdays-Saturdays. If you don’t want to drink though, there is a substance free club that puts on events every Saturday night like movie night or doing tie-dye. There are always a lot of stuff to do on campus, but if you ever want to get into LA, there is public transportation available. Also, the school organizes off-campus events that are highly subsidized and include transportation, so you could go to six flags for $10, the beach for free, etc. There is also an outdoors club called On The Loose (OTL) that organizes trips to go surfing, hiking, skiing, etc all over the place.

I feel incredibly comfortable in my dorm, and my roommate and I usually leave the door unlocked when we are in, so people are coming in and out. Sponsor groups can either be really successful in forming close bonds or not. Different groups have completely different dynamics. Some groups are always hanging out together, others have different circles of friends. For me, the people I usually hang out with are from my sponsor group, since we get along pretty well. If you like to party you will be able to find places to party, and if you don't there are still things for you to do. There are usually events to go to on the weekend. I work at the theater, and students from different campuses like to come to performances. The ballroom usually have dance lessons and a party that's alcohol free. They have movies showing for a cheap price. Sometimes it's more fun to stay in with friends and play cards or Taboo. We dunk people in fountains on their birthday. Yes, we really do. There are just so many fountains to choose from. Be prepared, they may or may not (usaully not) tell you when or where.

You make your own fun here. There is plenty of extracurricular stuff to take part in. There are plenty of parties between the 5C's and the drinking policies are (for the most part) hands off. There is no Greek life and everyone lives on campus.

Pomona is not a giant state school. There are no frats (atleast in the southern state school sense) or sororities. There are big parties from time to time, but mostly it is smaller dorm parties. There are people that like to get fucked up in every sense of the phrase. And there are those that swear they will never touch a substance. I personally like to party and I find that this does happen. I was never into the whole bar scene, so it doesn't matter that Claremont doesn't have a huge bar scene.

see Pomona the big picture and The sponsor group program is really great way to start out college your freshman year. You basically have a group of friends from the very start and the people from your sponsor group often turn out to be your best friends throughout college. Football is not big at Pomona at all. Water Polo and Basketball games are pretty popular and bigger than the PP-CMC football game is the PP-CMC Basketball game. That is a can't miss. Pomona is small enough though that you will know people on all the teams and friendship usually draws people to games even if they aren't that exciting. The social scene is divided between those that go to the parties and drink and those who are in "sub-free" housing. This is very frustrating as I feel that I only know and only see half of the school. There is a group that organizes Saturday night activities such as karaoke, pool tournaments, twister, etc.

I don't really do extracurriculars, but it seems like there are lots of clubs and such to join. I don't know anyone who goes to sports games... but that's probably just my friends. I went once, and there were a bunch of drunk kids... I didn't really enjoy it. Parties are mostly school sponsored since the frats that exist suck a lot, and not many people live off campus. There is a substance free group that runs activities on Saturday nights... the only times I've gone, I've been drunk, so they probably don't like me very much. Sometimes I go into LA to hear some live music or go to a museum or something, but not too much. I go to the beach or to Joshua Tree a few times a semester. Dating is probably similar to most colleges: non-existent. People are either in serious relationships or drunkenly hooking up. No one actually goes on dates. I haven't found many boys I dig on here... many are awkward or bland looking or... I don't know, just not appealing. Pitzer boys on the other hand.... H-O-T. Unfortunately, I don't really have any Pitzer friends, so I mostly just ogle from afar.

Most kids party on campus, which means drinking in the dorms and courtyards. There are dance parties every weekend. It's usually not that cold at night, so kids chill outside and play Beirut on their balconies. Many kids like to smoke weed. But there are plenty of kids who don't smoke or drink, and they still have fun. The few kids who live off-campus have parties at their houses. A lot of Pomona kids play music and form bands, and the bands play at parties. Pomona has good sports teams, and a lot of kids watch the big rivalry games against the other Claremont Colleges (but otherwise no one goes to sports games). The outdoors club is rad and very popular. Pomona is in a great location for hiking, backpacking, beach camping, climbing, kayaking, surfing, etc. On weekends, a lot of kids go to Joshua Tree, Death Valley, Catalina, Big Sur. During Fall Break and Spring Break, kids go to Mexico, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, Yosemite. The Metro (a train) runs right by campus and takes you to LA in like 20 minutes. Most Pomona kids don't go to LA often, but you could if you wanted to.