Pomona College

Pomona College ( pə-MOH-nə) is a private liberal arts college in Claremont, California. It was founded in 1887 by a group of Congregationalists who wanted to make a "college of the New England type" in Southern California. In the 1920s, it founded the Claremont Colleges group. Pomona is a four-year college for undergraduates. About 1,700 students from all 50 U.S. states and 63 countries go there as of September 2025. The college offers 48 majors and 600 courses, but students can take about 2,700 courses total when the courses at the other Claremont Colleges are counted. The college's - main campus is in a residential area near the base of the San Gabriel Mountains. Pomona has the lowest acceptance rate of any U.S. liberal arts college (7.09% for the class of 2028) and is ranked among the top five liberal arts colleges in the country by Forbes, U.S. News & World Report, and The Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Education. It has an endowment of $3.01 billion as of 2024, giving it the eighth-highest endowment per student of any college or university in the U.S. In 2020, Niche ranked Pomona as the most diverse college or university in the country; 74% of students are from outside of California, 56% receive need-based financial aid, and 61% are a person of color or an international student. Pomona has about 25,000 living alumni. The college's alumni have won Oscar, Emmy, Grammy, and Tony awards. They have also become U.S. Senators, ambassadors, and other federal officials. Others have won Pulitzer Prizes, become billionaires, won a Nobel Prize, joined the National Academies, and competed in the Olympics. The college is a top contributor to the Fulbright Program and other fellowships. References