First-Years Continue To Break Records

By Jenny Mertz-Shea
Copy Editor

In the wake of Pomona’s most competitive year yet for freshman admissions, the class of 2007 is not only one of the most qualified classes in recent memory, it is also the largest.

“I think Pomona is a bit of a ‘hot college’ right now,” observed Dean of Students Ann Quinley. “It’s growing in popularity.”

64% of incoming first-years said that Pomona was their first choice. And, as Dean of Admissions Bruce Poch gleefully pointed out, applications have skyrocketed 20 percent in just the last two years. Those numbers set Pomona apart even from “the people we like to compare ourselves to,” as Poch put it, at Amherst, Swarthmore and Yale.

“Only Dartmouth and Pomona have seen that kind of increase,” Poch said. He claims the higher quantity of high-quality applications has enabled the admissions office to look beyond grades and test scores and focus more on the “humanity” of applicants.

Nonetheless, these first-years’ SAT scores have continued to rise in recent years. While the class of 2005 enrollees mean scores of 715 Verbal and 712 Math. The class of 2007’s SAT mean scores increased to 721.8 Verbal and 718.4 Math. The number of admitted students in the top decile of their graduating class has climbed several percentage points, as well.

“The classes just seem to get better,” Quinley marveled. “For the last couple years, [incoming] classes have been amazingly mature and poised. I’ve been very impressed.” Of course, she added, “they’ve been smart for a long time.”

Quinley certainly isn’t the only one making observations about the fresh-faced youngsters invading South Campus. Poch reported that Pomona’s rising selectivity has even ruffled a few alumni feathers.

“I’ve got alumni today who get angry at me and say, ‘I wouldn’t get in today; don’t you want people like me?” he said. Poch’s answer is always, “Of course we do.”

But he also stressed the advantages of being able to pick and choose from a pool of applicants who are, for the most part, unquestionably qualified to handle the workload at Pomona. This better enables the admissions department to assemble classes that are interesting, well-rounded, and diverse. For example, Poch noted that this year brings a slightly larger population of Asian, Black and Latino students up about 1% for the first two groups and 0.5% for the latter which he noted was “a move in the right direction.”

Still, for all the nuanced changes, Poch is confident that the class of ’07 will fit in.

“I always laugh when I hear sophomores commenting on freshmen, because it’s the same every year,” he chuckled. “Hell, they were saying that about you a year ago. Give them time they haven’t had a chance to become Pomona students yet.”