Pomona is a small liberal arts school in California, and is also a member of the Claremont Colleges. Pomona didn’t release their regular acceptance year, so it makes sense that their transfer acceptance rates are not published by the school either. If you’re considering applying to Pomona as a transfer, be aware (and accepting) of the fact that it’s an uphill battle. Hot tip: Before you start writing, read through all of the questions to avoid overlap. Good luck!
In no more than 250 words, please tell us more about why you have chosen your intended major.
Pomona’s program offerings appear above this question in a drop-down menu, and then you’re given space to explain why you chose X major. Because the second question is capped at 250 words, we suggest using a portion of this space to tell Pomona your origin story, which is a story about how your academic interests came to fruition. The story that you tell should be small and zoomed in. If the story that you tell took place when you were much younger, be careful that you aren’t suggesting that you had everything figured out at age five. Think about past experiences, classes that you’ve taken, jobs and internships that you’ve had, and things that you’ve been excited to learn about when it wasn’t mandatory. After you’ve written that, connect the dots between your story and your major and then detail your goals as it relates to studying X major.
Please share with us your reasons for transferring to Pomona and the academic and personal objectives you hope to achieve. (200-250 words)
This is where you get to dive into the good stuff, aka why you want to leave your current school and the reasons why Pomona is the best place for you. Because this is the only space you have to explain your academic path at Pomona, you need to be extremely precise with what you write. Do all of your research first, and make a list of everything that you need to include. You need:
An explanation about why you want to transfer. Now, this is not where you write about your roommate or bad weather. Think about what your school lacks – is it academic programs? Job and internship opportunities? Research grants? You might also have more personal reasons for wanting to transfer, and that is fine to write about too. Explain why you want to transfer and move on. Don’t be too extra.
1-2 upper-level classes that you want to take. Nothing introductory! The classes that you choose should be specific to Pomona, aligned with the academic profile that you’ve created for yourself thus far, and comprised of subject matter that you’re already at least slightly familiar with. In other words, they should be a continuation of what you’ve already been doing in high school and your first year(s) of college.
A professor who you’d like to do research with. On the homepage of your major, read through the expertise of the professors who teach courses in your discipline. Instead of zeroing in on one buzz word (like artificial intelligence or genomics) and deciding “that’ll do”, actually read through their biographies and if possible, their CV’s and list of published works. Repeat that process until you find someone who you would be genuinely excited to work with, and pitch yourself as their research assistant.
An extracurricular activity that you plan to join. Look at the student organizations and clubs until you find something that is similar to the activities that you’re currently doing, or did in high school. It doesn’t have to relate to your major, but it should make sense within the context of the rest of your application
After you have all of the hard facts, try brainstorming a few different ways that you can structure them. Your end result should be a story with a beginning, middle, and end that weaves Pomona’s offerings into details about your life.
Choose one of the following prompts and respond in the text box provided below:
What life lesson have you learned during your educational journey that has had the greatest impact on you? (200-250 words)
If you’re going to answer this prompt you need to be willing to revisit and explore challenging aspects of your past, and perhaps failure. Yes, writing about failure can be difficult and scary and requires a lot of vulnerability. But the truth is that we do learn a lot from failure, and this prompt begs you to show growth. When we reflect on the things that we’ve learned, and major takeaways, they often stem from those times when things weren’t going our way. A time when you felt out of sorts and were forced to take next steps even though you weren’t sure what to do. The good thing about writing on failure and challenges is that you don’t have to focus on the failure itself. Instead, tell a story of how you struggled, what went wrong, and then use your introspective wisdom and hindsight to explain your takeaways and how they affected the way you moved forward.
Educator and civil rights activist Mary McLeod Bethune said, “We have a powerful potential in our youth, and we must have the courage to change old ideas and practices so that we may direct their power toward good ends.” What old idea or practice would you want to change and why? (200-250 words)
This question is a HUGE trap if you can’t think small. There is not a person on earth that wants to read about how you would “undo” slavery. Trust us. It’s true that horrific things have occurred, and we all wish those things away. But when you write about issues that are so much larger than you, you get lost. So how do you avoid that? Write about something closer to home. The reader of your essay should be able to easily discern the kinds of things that you truly care about after reading your essay.
So, work backward and start with the issue. For example, let’s say you’re from New York City and the trash buildup on the streets bothers you, or you’re from a beach town and plastics are starting to wash up onshore. Or maybe you live in a city, but you have poor access to produce and healthy groceries. After you’ve identified your problem, think about the ideas and practices that have led to it. This will require research and diligence on your end. Your goal is to find the rules, laws, ideologies, and practices that are currently in effect that allow your issue to be so pervasive.
Start by explaining the issue, and do it in story form! Statistics are not necessary. Tell them what it’s like to encounter X issue, and in doing so you will explain why it matters. After you’ve painted that picture, tie it back to the idea and/or practice that you’d like to change.
Transferring can be overwhelming, but we’re here to help. Contact us here.