(upbeat music)
- I'm Sam Clark with Crimson Education
and we're here at Pomona,
one of the Claremont Colleges.
And we're here to ask some big questions.
(upbeat music)
- [Woman] Look at this puppy!
- [Sam] It's a puppy!
- [Woman] Look at this puppy!
- [Sam] Okay, we'll get started, we'll over (laughs)
- [Man] Not sorry. - [Sam] Pomona also?
- [Woman] Yes. - [Sam] Okay, great.
What is the best thing about Pomona?
- [Woman] I think the best thing
about Pomona is the classes.
Like they have a large variety of classes.
And I'm a Media Studies Major,
so I've taken a little bit of literally everything.
- [Sam] Yeah.
- [Woman] It's also a part of a consortium,
so there are literally like
four other colleges right here.
- [Sam] Mm-hmm.
- [Woman] So it is just a complete variety.
- [Man] I think the best thing about Pomona
is that it's a small school
and you get the attention that you think need,
and deserve as a student,
compared to going to a big college.
And I think one of the best thing,
one of my, like, top most reasons
for choosing this school was the consortium.
I think I will have resources of a large college
in a small college environment.
- [Man] I guess, I mean,
it's covering all the 5C's,
but like the small classrooms settings,
I have to say, is something that's been really nice.
I'm a first year, so it's been really nice to have, yeah.
- [Man] The people, the people and the weather.
Everyone's so nice here.
- [Man] I would say the community here,
all the kids are very nice,
the faculty's very caring about the students
and they actually want you to succeed.
- [Sam] Perfect. - [Man] The sense of family,
everyone kind of works as a community.
Very, very homely feeling with the community here.
- [Man] The best thing about Pomona
is the incredible opportunities to get involved
outside of the classroom,
and the fact that there are so many clubs on campus,
and everybody is always, "Oh, I'm involved
in this artistic thing or this extra-curricular."
And the fact that there's always stuff to do
when you're not in a classroom.
- [Sam] And in contrast, what's the worst thing
about Pomona?
- [Woman] There's not too much going on here really.
It's just, how would you describe it?
It's like really calm, kind of tone deaf.
- [Sam] Sure.
- [Woman] So, yeah.
- [Woman] (laughs) The flip side of being small
is everyone knows everyone's business.
- [Sam] Sure.
- [Woman] And because it's not in the city,
you don't really have, it's like, very insular.
- [Man] I don't know, I think,
sometimes it gets too hot.
- [Sam] Sure.
- [Man] Yeah. - [Sam] Too hot.
- [Man] Probably just say the heat sometimes,
I'm from New England so --
- [Sam] Okay.
- [Man] Not too used to the desert heat
but it's something to get used to.
- [Sam] Gotcha.
- [Man] It feels really dead all the time.
I guess, maybe because we don't have that many people
on campus, but you get used to it
and that's probably why it's fine, yeah.
- [Sam] Okay. (laughs)
- [Man] Probably the WiFi,
I feel like we'd do a lot better, Yeah.
Sometimes it's slow, it's hard to connect,
but I feel like it's not that bad of a thing.
- [Man] I'd have to say the workload.
It keeps you up til like four in the morning
very often.
- [Man] Worst thing about Pomona is the fact
that Frank Dining Hall is closed on the weekends.
And so I have to walk to North Campus,
that's the worst. (laughs)
- [Sam] And what do you typically do on weekends here?
- [Woman] Right, okay, so I'm on the track team.
In Spring we have track meets
and that's my whole Saturday basically.
In pre-season, we're still going on runs.
A lot of homework.
- [Sam] Sure.
- [Woman] A lot of homework, that's a lot of my weekend.
But if I play it right, maybe I can go to L.A.,
or go on a hike, or something like that.
- [Woman] I am sometimes doing stuff,
like I'm involved with the Claremont Ballroom Dance Company.
So I'll do, either go to performances
or social dances or I'll hang out with friends.
You have something to say bud?
- [Man] Yo, what's up?
- [Woman] I also go into L.A. a lot
and I just hang out with my pals
and sleep a lot and do work.
- [Man] I like to think I also do some studying sometimes.
And I just chill, I mean, the campus is beautiful.
There's nice places to sit and be at every time.
- [Sam] Cool.
- [Man] Well, during orchestra season,
we had a few performances over the weekends.
Volleyball season's coming up, so then we're going
to have competitions, tournaments all around.
We have volleyball practice every weekend.
So, usually that kind of stuff.
- [Man] I'm super involved artistically,
so I'm usually in rehearsals during the day,
and then after that there's constantly
extra-curricular events going on,
and then parties at night.
- [Sam] What did you write
your college application essays about?
- [Woman] I wrote mine about art and imagination
because those are pretty important to me.
I'm planning on being an illustrator
or an animator at some point.
So I pretty much wrote them about that.
- [Man] Well, my personal, because I applied
through common application,
my personal statement was actually
about a favorite dish that I tried for the first time.
Well, it became my favorite after I tried it.
- [Sam] (laughs) Okay.
- [Man] But it was about a Nigerian dish
called Jollof Rice that I tried for the first time.
And that was what I wrote about.
- [Man] I was QuestBridge,
so I just filled out the QuestBridge application,
which was talking about your upbringing
and what inspired you to become what you are today.
- [Man] Being a captain in high school sports teams
and how that translated into leadership roles elsewhere
outside of athletics.
- [Man] I wrote it in the form of a three act play
about my experience in Macbeth,
with acting in it, and then a few years later,
directing the same production.
- [Woman] I wrote about my mom dealing with PTSD
and growing up, also involved more during the uprisings,
and marching Al Mahdi and Hawi.
Going to college was important for me
as a way to give back to so much that my mom sacrificed.
- [Sam] Anything to add?
- [Woman] Puppies are amazing.
- [Sam] Puppies are great!
- [Woman] We also have three dining halls, by the way.
Which is -- - [Woman] We can eat at all
six of them.
- [Woman] We can eat at all of them,
so we have like seven dining halls.
So just shameless plug.
- [Sam] So go to the dining halls.
- [Woman] Yeah. (laughs)
- [Sam] Puppies.
- [Woman] Puppies, oh my God.
- [Woman] It's pretty great,
but it's a lot of hard work.
- [Sam] Yeah, totally, totally.
- [Woman] Oh my God.
- [Woman] So.
- [Sam] Thank you guys so much.
- [Woman] No problem.
(uplifting music)
- [Woman] So good.
- [Woman] I'm taking one of those home right now.
- [Sam] If you like this video,
and want to learn more about Top Colleges,
please, please subscribe.
- [Woman] Oh my God, she was lonely.
- [Woman] Oh my God.
- [Sam] You taking it?
- [Woman] I'm taking this guy home.
- [Sam] I'll bring him home.