How to Write the Pomona College Essays 2025-2026
Pomona College, based in Claremont, California, a suburb of Los Angeles, is one of the most prestigious and selective liberal arts colleges in the country. Part of the Claremont Colleges consortium, which consists of seven private institutions of higher learning, Pomona offers a world-class education, with an emphasis on research.
This year, Pomona’s supplemental essays consist of two essays, with the first prompt having three options, and you need to select one.
Read this Pomona essay example to inspire your writing.
Pomona College Supplemental Essay Prompts
Prompt 1: Pomona is home to a diverse community of faculty, staff, and students who, through close ties and collaboration, enable each other to identify and explore their greatest passions. Considering this, respond to one of the following: (250 words)
Option 1: Reflecting on a community that you are a part of, what values or perspectives from that community would you bring to Pomona?
Option 2: Describe an experience you had outside the classroom that changed the way you think or how you engage with your peers. What was that experience, and what did you learn from it?
Option 3: Choose any person or group of people in your life and share how they would describe you.
Prompt 2: What draws you to the subject(s) you selected as potential major(s)? If Undecided, share more about one of your academic passions or interests. (150 words)
Prompt 1
Pomona is home to a diverse community of faculty, staff, and students who, through close ties and collaboration, enable each other to identify and explore their greatest passions. Considering this, respond to one of the following: (250 words)
For the first essay, Pomona gives you a choice of three different prompts to choose from. Before you immediately jump into the first prompt that catches your eye, read all three carefully. You might even want to do brainstorming exercises for all three to flesh out your ideas.
Prompt 1, Option 1
Reflecting on a community that you are part of, what values or perspectives from that community would you bring to Pomona? (250 words)
This is the classic Diversity Essay question. Pomona wants to admit a class with unique perspectives, backgrounds, and beliefs, and this question allows them to see what you’d bring to the table.
Remember that “community” can mean many different things. It can refer to:
- Clubs, organizations, or sports teams
- Culture, language, or ethnic background
- Hometown or geography
- Family
- Friend group
- School
- Shared interest, value, trait, or ability
When selecting a community for this prompt, think of the one that impacted you the most that isn’t already addressed in your application.
Here are some potential examples for this prompt:
- You come from a low-income community, which forced you to be extremely resourceful growing up. You wore your older sister’s hand-me-downs, which were often sizes too large. You rarely ate out, and when you did, you saved the containers to use as Tupperware. You had to cut open your toothpaste tubes to scrape out every last bit. While you used to be embarrassed about your financial situation, you also recognize how it pushed you to be more sustainable, and find it funny how these types of habits are now being popularized. You plan to continue making the most of the resources you do have and sharing these low-cost sustainability tips in the Environmental Activism and Responsibility club at Pomona, ensuring that voices like yours are represented in the sustainability movement.
- You’re a member of a community orchestra that has members of all ages, from teenagers to retirees. You’ve been able to see how music can be used for social good, as the orchestra has raised thousands of dollars for charity by donating most of its revenue from concert tickets. You were also able to lift people’s spirits after a natural disaster in your city when you played at a Red Cross charity event. You hope to continue making music at Pomona in the symphony orchestra, and you also hope to start a band with students and community members to put on concerts for social causes.
There are many ways to write this essay, but here’s a potential outline you can follow:
- Start your essay by describing a meaningful experience you had in your community through imagery, dialogue, and your in-the-moment thoughts.
- Provide a brief background on your community. Who is in it? What is the group dynamic like?
- Reflect on the perspectives and values the community has taught you. How did it help you see your life and the world differently?
- Share how you’ll bring these values to Pomona.
Prompt 1, Option 2
Describe an experience you had outside the classroom that changed the way you think or how you engage with your peers. What was that experience, and what did you learn from it? (250 words)
Pomona wants to admit students who are open-minded and willing to admit they were wrong.
In today’s polarized world, you’ve probably had many disagreements with your peers, adults, and others. While this prompt lends itself well to nuanced political issues, you want to avoid potentially offending the admissions officer.
Some of the most polarized topics are also going to be the most written about, so that’s another reason to pass on issues like abortion, gun control, defunding the police, etc. Of course, you can still write about them if they’re especially personal to you, but you shouldn’t make this decision lightly.
Another topic to avoid is saying that you used to be opposed to a certain group of people or didn’t understand them, and now you’re more open-minded. While it’s great that you’re more open-minded, this could paint you in a bad light, especially since Pomona is a more liberal school.
Some topics that are going to lend themselves more easily to a strong essay include things like:
- Changing your opinion about an activity. Maybe you used to hate sports and thought you weren’t athletic until you decided to join a dance-a-thon for a classmate’s fundraiser. You didn’t realize how fun it could be to push your body and try to move in sync with others. This led you to join the dance team.
- Changing your mind about a person. Perhaps you thought your dad was cold and wished he’d show his affection more, but then your grandparents visited from abroad, and you realized that it was simply how he was raised. You began to recognize the different ways he showed his care for you, such as bringing you sliced fruit while you do homework, taking you to the art supply store even though he doesn’t understand your abstract art, and showing up to pick you up from practice early so he can see you play.
- Changing your perspective on a local issue. Maybe you attended several anti-fracking protests as part of your school’s environmental club, but then you spoke to a local miner whose family has made its living from the mines for generations. He said that he didn’t know what he’d do if fracking were banned, and that he felt ashamed for simply making his living the way he knew. While you still oppose fracking in principle, you now recognize the importance of inclusive advocacy and no longer believe in a total, immediate ban.
There are several other ways you could’ve changed your mind; the important thing is that you share your thought process and how you’ll use this new perspective going forward.
Prompt 1, Option 3
Choose any person or group of people in your life and share how they would describe you. (250 words)
Although it may seem daunting to describe how others see you, have fun with this essay! It is your chance to be creative and boast about yourself, which will provide Pomona with new insights about you.
The way to know you’ve written a successful essay is if it could only apply to you. Strong essays will be specific, personal, and really show the student’s personality. However, you don’t want to list out five different adjectives that your friends or your teachers might use to describe you. You want to reveal those character traits through an anecdote.
For example, maybe you want to write about how your siblings would describe you as a comedian. Here’s what you don’t want your essay to look like:
“My siblings would say that I’m a very funny person. I’m always cracking jokes at the dinner table.”
This straight up tells the reader how the student would be described by their siblings without providing anything descriptive to demonstrate why they are funny. The student’s voice is missing from this example, and we get little to no insight into their personality. This student should instead phrase their essay like this:
“You don’t know the wit and mental dexterity needed to be a comedian until you can successfully make both a phone-obsessed 14-year old girl and an ADHD-riddled 11-year old boy snort water out their noses over an impromptu routine on why the roast chicken crossed the road.”
Notice how this version doesn’t ever say the student’s siblings find them funny, but it reveals that through the details it shares? That’s what you should be aiming for. Be specific about who your chosen person/group is—rather than simply saying my siblings, this version gives us details about who they are. Even if you pick one central way to be described (i.e. a comedian), find ways to incorporate other associated traits (i.e. we see this student has a witty sense of humor and is quick on their toes from their inclusion of phrases like “wit and mental dexterity” and “impromptu routine”).
Keep in mind, like any good college essay, this one should include self-reflection. How does other’s perception of you influence how you show up in the world? Has the way someone views you inspired you to pursue specific activities, hobbies, maybe even a career path? Do you want to be remembered as that type of person, or are you working towards changing that perception of you they have? Ask yourself these questions and make sure to weave your reflection into the essay so the admissions officers can see how others view you, but also how you view yourself.
Prompt 2
What draws you to the subject(s) you selected as potential major(s)? If Undecided, share more about one of your academic passions or interests. (150 words)
This is the classic “Why This Major?” essay. With this prompt, Pomona wants to know why you chose your major(s) and what you hope to accomplish with your studies.
Make sure you hit these points in your essay:
- Give one or more examples of a recurring experience or state of mind that you have when exploring this major and why this is appealing.
- Illustrate your interest with at least 1-2 specific, real-life examples of things that you enjoy in this major.
- Explain how this major would serve your life and/or career goals.
Here are some potential examples:
- A Computer Science major may open the essay by sharing their satisfaction at turning a 10-hour student council website update task into a 1-hour automated project by writing some code. They appreciate compsci for its ability to make processes more efficient and especially enjoy contributing to projects in social responsibility. They strongly believe that technology can be used as a force for good, and they even helped edit the code for an app that helps blind people go grocery shopping. While they’re not yet sure of their specific career goals, they hope to become a software engineer for a social enterprise.
- An International Relations major might describe her experience studying abroad last summer in Spain, and the engaging conversations they had with her host family around Spanish and American politics. She loves being able to connect with Spanish speakers around the world and is even part of an online language exchange club that pairs you with a native speaker in a different country each month. She’s also volunteered on local political campaigns and translated pamphlets into Spanish. She hopes to eventually work as a diplomat.
If you’re undecided, that’s fine! Simply pick two of the majors you’re considering and share what you enjoy about them, following the three major points above. While you may be considering more subjects, this essay is extremely short, so you should limit your selection to two.
You should also share why you’re undecided. Maybe you’re torn between different career paths, or you’re not sure yet how to combine your passions. Maybe you just need some time to explore. You want to show Pomona that you’ve thought hard about your plans and aren’t undecided because you’re aimless about your future.
You can get more tips in our guide to writing the “Why This Major?” essay if you’re undecided.
If you have the space, you can end the essay with a line or two about how studying the major at Pomona specifically will help you achieve your goals. Is there a unique class, resource, or club that suits your interests perfectly? Make sure to mention it!
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