Pomona College

Overview

Rankings

• #1 Best Communications Colleges in California
• #2 Best Psychology Colleges in California
• #2 Best Biology Colleges in California
• #3 Best Liberal Arts Colleges
• #3 Best Colleges in California
• #3 Best Colleges in Far West
• #3 Best Colleges in Pacific Northwest
• #3 Best Colleges for Psychology

Academics & Admissions

Is It Hard to Get Into Pomona College? Acceptance Rate & Requirements

Based in Claremont, California, Pomona College turns away the vast majority of its applicants. The acceptance rate is 7%. Admitted students typically arrive with an average SAT score near 1,534. The graduation rate is roughly 93%.

Acceptance Rate

7%

Retention Rate

98%

SAT Average

1534

ACT Midpoint

34

SAT Range

1490–1560

ACT Range

33–35

Full-Time Faculty

94%

Faculty Salary (mo)

$15,085

Student–Faculty Ratio

7:1

Diversity Index

0.82

First-Gen Students

30%

Applicants

10,666

Admitted

749

Inside the Admissions Office

School-reported Common Data Set · 2025-26

The acceptance rate tells you how hard Pomona College is to get into. Its Common Data Set tells you what happens once you are admitted: how many students say yes, how many arrived without test scores, and whether applying early tilts the odds. 47% of admitted students go on to enroll here, making it a school more than half of admitted students choose.

Yield Rate

47%

of admits enroll

Submitted SAT

37%

of enrolled freshmen

Submitted ACT

12%

of enrolled freshmen

Cost & Financial Aid

How Much Does It Cost to Attend Pomona College? Tuition, Net Price & Aid

Published tuition at Pomona College is $65,420, but few families pay that. The number to watch is net price, what students actually pay each year after federal grants and institutional scholarships. Here it averages about $19,285. Students from families earning under $30,000 typically pay closer to $4,841 after need-based grants. The median graduate leaves with about $11,782 in federal student loans.

In-State Tuition

$65,420

Out-of-State

$65,420

Avg Net Price

$19,285

Median Debt

$11,782

Pell Grant Rate

20%

Federal Loan Rate

9%

Students Like You

Tell us a little about yourself to see what students like you have typically experienced at Pomona College — the net price for your income, your admission odds, and the outcomes that follow. These are patterns from federal data, not predictions.

Graduate Outcomes

Is Pomona College Worth It? Graduate Earnings & ROI

Ten years out, alumni of Pomona College earn a median of $77,779, well above the national average for bachelor's degree holders.

6 Years After Entry

$60,850

8 Years

$68,385

10 Years

$77,779

Debt-to-Earnings

0.15x

Loan Repayment (3yr)

94%

Earning > $25K

64%

Social Mobility

Data: Raj Chetty's Mobility Report Card · 30M+ anonymized tax records

Does Pomona College Drive Upward Mobility? Economic Mobility & Low-Income Outcomes

Pomona College is a genuine engine of upward mobility. Its mobility rate, the share of students who start in the bottom income quintile and climb to the top, is 1.95%, well above the typical college. Access is narrower: only about 3.7% of students come from the bottom income quintile, typical of more selective, higher-income institutions. Among bottom-quintile students who attend, roughly 53% go on to reach the top of the income ladder. The median family income of students sits near $161,600, a snapshot of the campus's socioeconomic mix.

Mobility Rate

1.95%

Bottom 20% → Top 20%

Success Rate

53.0%

If bottom 20% get in

From Bottom 20%

3.7%

Share of students

Parent Median Income

$219,558

today's $ (2015 cohort data)

Social Capital

Data: Opportunity Insights Social Capital Atlas

How Connected Is Pomona College? Social Capital & Cross-Class Networks

Social capital, the web of cross-class friendships that researchers link to long-run upward mobility, runs high at Pomona College. Its economic connectedness score is 1.86, where about 1.0 is the national norm. Its friending bias is low (-0.01), a sign that students from different economic backgrounds actually mix rather than self-segregate. Around 15% of students take part in civic and volunteering activity.

Economic Connectedness

1.86

Cross-class friendships

Friending Bias

-0.01

Lower = more inclusive

Volunteering Rate

14.8%

Support Ratio

1.00

Community support

Innovation & Knowledge Creation

Patents, inventors, and research influence · Opportunity Insights & Times Higher Education

Pomona College produces inventors at an above-average rate (top 19% nationally), with 33 patents tied to its graduates.

Inventor Rate

1.35%

Top 19% nationally

Patents Produced

33

Linked to graduates

Patent Citations

121

Downstream influence

Inventors From Low-Income

1.41%

Bottom-20% families

Institutional Finances

Data: NCES IPEDS

Federal Grants

$4,863,000

Investment Income

$-193,590,000

Top Programs

The fields Pomona College awards the most degrees in, by share of completions. Where federal field-of-study data exists, we show what graduates in that major earned early in their careers. Each links to its degree guide — or see what someone with your income, scores, and major would pay and earn here in the Students Like You simulator.

• Social Sciences 20% $91,744 early-career
• Computer Science & IT 17% $152,964 early-career
• Biology & Biomedical 14%
• Physical Sciences 7%
• Mathematics & Statistics 6%
• Psychology 5%
• English & Literature 4%
• Communications 3%

Early-career median earnings by major (typically 1–2 years after completion, bachelor's level where available), in today's dollars (CPI-adjusted). Source: U.S. Dept. of Education College Scorecard field of study. Distinct from the school-wide 10-year median; suppressed for small programs.