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The majority of students who apply to Pomona College will get rejected -- the college is one of the most selective in the country. Those students who do get into this top liberal arts college tend to have grades and test scores that are well above average. In the graph above, the blue and green dots represent accepted students. You can see that most students who got into Pomona had an "A" average, SAT scores (CR+M+W) above 2100, and ACT composite scores above 31. A winning application, however, is about more than good grades and test scores. If you look at the red on the graph (rejected students), you'll see that many students with high grades and test scores were rejected.
Pomona College, like all of the country's top liberal arts colleges, has holistic admissions, so successful applicants need to have strengths that go beyond empirical data. Competitive applications should have a winning essay, strong letters of recommendation, and interesting extracurricular activities. Also, those good grades should be part of a challenging high school curriculum. True strengths in some of these areas can help make up for grades and test scores that are a little less than ideal. That said, students with "B" averages and mediocre standardized test scores have little chance of getting into Pomona.
To learn more about Pomona College, high school GPAs, SAT scores and ACT scores, these articles can help:
- Pomona College Admissions Profile
- What's Considered a Good Academic Record?
- What's a Good SAT Score?
- What's a Good ACT Score?
- What is a Weighted GPA?
- Articles Featuring Pomona College:


