#Pomona vs UCLA vs Reed

190 messages ¡ Page 1 of 1 (latest)

spiral frost
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Reed is extremely grad focused by the way

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Undergrad support there is so limited

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I personally think that you should go to UCLA if you want to work out of college and you should go to Pomona if you want to go to grad

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No like

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You go if you want a PhD

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It's extremely grindy and grade deflated

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LACs traditionally have better grad placement

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than others

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I think it all comes down to like class size

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Seeing as Pomona is tiny and UCLA is HUGE

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Personally I would tour both

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What did you think

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I mean, weather and wanting to not be in the Inland Empire is definitely a concern

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However

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I think Pomona is the choice for you

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You can compare the Pomona and UCLA career centers

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but from what I understand it should be easier to get an opportunity with fewer students

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Seems to me like a huge public like UCLA has fewer resources for you

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Not having people you vibe with can definitely be a concern

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There is the consortium though

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Erm

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I don't really know any places in LA ngl

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I know that Claremont is west of what you guys think passes for a downtown but that's kinda it

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Anyway

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I think you should go to Pomona

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Ideally you join us in Georgetown but

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Pomona is a really good school

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@long tulip can talk more about it, she's also an LA native

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oh right

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thats what i meant

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fascinating

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a2c has taught me so much about California geography

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specifically LA

long tulip
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I echo much of feather's statements. LACs are really good for getting jobs and opportunities because it is much easier to connect with faculty in classes of at most 20 kids then say intro lectures with hundreds of kids and TAs. I know friends who have already gotten summer research with faculty as freshmen. Im not quite on that grindset yet but I dont find it super surprising.

Pomona is quite strong in public policy and journalism, the former a very popular major here. I feel the culture here fosters it quite well too, a lot of activism and dialogue about real world events globally and locally, from the ongoing wars to a current case of a dining hall worker and union member being unjustly fired. Theres lots to learn from that experience alone I feel.

Id say the 5Cs dont quite suffer as much from the LAC social bubble as peers do, each college has its own students that often have unique characteristics or vibes, and its seamless to go between colleges in your daily life and to get involved in their own clubs etc. And all together, we are several thousand students, so not super small at all.

I will say that Pomona frosh are put on the south side of the consortium, so are a little far from everyone else. But you move more central as upperclassmen, and the whole consortium is a max 25 min walk. (UCLA for reference from when I visited friends, is that their first year dorms are a 20 min walk to campus center)

Still, there is a bit of a bubble of Claremont being quite far from the rest of LA, we are on the edge of the county. Im not a party person, so I dont mind the lacking party scene here, but if that matters to you that can be an issue. However, commutes on the Metrolink or A Line to DTLA and beyond arent hard to do for a weekend. Ive been down by Little Tokyo with friends on many occasions.

long tulip
# long tulip I echo much of feather's statements. LACs are really good for getting jobs and o...

Extra note: the other 4 colleges offer many academic and field experiences too for Pomona students. I for one took an amazing activism writing class at Pitzer, and that class is a large reason why much of my social circle is Pitzer at the moment. You arent confined at all to your home campus, if anything that kind of barrier doesnt exist much at all outside of like, a handful of things like CMC having a standalone model UN team

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Another thing I love about Pomona is that its classes are super interesting and emphasize intersectionality across fields and inquiries. And its all very open, some do require an intro class pre-req, but beyond that its not limiting at all to lowerclassmen

Especially in the art and media studies department, you can find not just basic intro drawing classes but activism art, not just an intro to media history but a history of LGBTQ film, that are available to you in your first semester

right now im taking a gender studies x environmental analysis seminar of like, 7 people, and its brilliant. hard readings that our prof has admitted are like grad school level rigor, and a project for our final. i cant believe at times im able to take this class as a freshman

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had a similar seminar last year in design activism at CMC

long tulip
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pff, youre welcome

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its not all sunshine and rainbows i will say, our admin is so sucky and probably a large reason we have such an activist culture because we have to fight them on a lot of things lmao, and again the party scene is lacking compared to the big universities

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and claremont does get boring after a little while

long tulip
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I havent felt that culture too much in my experience, but they definitely do exist out there. i mean 40% of our class is full pay

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maybe its a lot of the athletes lol

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mine is sub 10k, im so grateful for their finaid

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Yep thats absolutely possible

long tulip
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this is very true, LA sprawl makes getting to LA not super convenient from Claremont

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DTLA is like an hour Metrolink train, 1.5 on A Line after you factor in the brief bus ride youd have to take from campus to Pomona North or San Dimas station

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but obviously, DTLA isnt where most of the fun LA stuff is at

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something something suburban sprawl has ruined LA city planning and the flaws of a hub and spoke transit system

spring rain
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as someone who live in Portland, there's a surprising number of Republicans theyre just not all as vocal but if you're not pursuing a graduate degree after ur done w/ undergrad probably wouldnt go for it

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I went downtown the other day and there was this guy with his fatass truck and Trump flags and that black and blue american flag

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I think it definitely depends on the circle you involve yourself in and with because there's always something going on politically

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you always know at least one person whose going to protest on the weekly tho

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I have beef with l&c personally

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oxy my friend goes there and she enjoys it

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im not a fan of the west side of portland

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people are stuffy

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yeahh

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the further west you get, beaverton hillsboro area the richer and out of touch people get but same applies to the East side in terms of Happy Valley and Damascus

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I like the area Reed is in though, Sellwood and Woodstock area has nice people

long tulip
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im not saying its impossible

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UCLA is a world class university, they have excellent resources

spring rain
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yeah sellwood is great, my aunt lived nearby and it's very walkable and friendly people compared to other parts of portland

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I think downtown portland is where people would enjoy if it weren't for the fact parking is nearly impossible but I enjoy the farmers markets there

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PSU farmers market is really nice

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I think if you end up at Reed you could and would, me personally the closest stop is a 20 minute walk and not worth the hassle in the rain

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so I drive places

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car privileges ❤️

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but reed has a lot of bus stops near campus its rlly convenient

long tulip
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L&C is a bit off the rail system

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Reed is like one bus stop away from one

spring rain
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yeahh l&c is really far

long tulip
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i will say Eagle Rock/where Oxy is also is kind of a transit desert atm, i dont recall if any buses stop by campus and its a ways from the A Line

spring rain
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agreed, sw portland is barely even portland east side is where all the heart is

long tulip
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oh yall will get the NoHo-Pasadena BRT this year then

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thats huge

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aw its okay

ionic crag
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Reed Pros:
Probably won't have to talk to republicans
Reed Cons:
Echo chamber, dont get to talk to republicans

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which is it

long tulip
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oh the consortium is pretty healthily represented across all spectrums

ionic crag
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ive seen you say this often enough even after touring reed that i think you can safely rule reed out

long tulip
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you said this on 12/17 in comparing UCLA to Oxy

image.png
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no as in you wouldnt choose it over Oxy

ionic crag
muted rose
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Jumping in here rn

ionic crag
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you have pomona higher on most everything on here

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muted rose
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What would your major be at oocla?

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For me the choice is Pomona but I see why this is a dilemma

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I did not have a choice

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My sole criterion for ucla was it is commutable

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As when I left northwestern the deal was I would commute

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I was actually committed to CSUN but then I was told I couldn’t do my Spanish minor so I sucked it up and did UCLA

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The student life is much worse than the DB. But that matters way less than you think. I was on my CC’s no name newspaper and preferred it to DB

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what matters is what you do at the paper, not how good the paper is

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Like if your work samples are really good, the name of the paper isn’t important

ionic crag
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Literally college admissions part 2

muted rose
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Also another common misconception is that jobs/internships want you to have been an editor

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They do not gaf for the most part

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You just need good clips

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Another thing is I interned with a girl who was recently managing editor of the student life and now she’s a fellow at LAT! She loved it there

ionic crag
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You don’t have to intern at a multi billion dollar company as a high schooler to get into college what matters is what you did

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If you did smth locally impactful that’s good

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Same shit

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If Pomona’s paper isn’t as highly ranked you are not cooked

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You just need to do good things there

muted rose
ionic crag
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Idk how papers work 😔

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Long and short cloud I always saw you as someone who would attend an LAC

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I think you may be letting what you think other people think of the UCLA name get to your head bc you’re staying locally regardless of if you choose Pomona or UCLA

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You literally wrote “prestige whore” as the first point for UCLA pros and I refuse to believe that didn’t have at least some truth to it

long tulip
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^ a large part of attending a LAC is letting go of the notion that name recognition matters as much as people make it out to be
most people wont recognize any LAC name, and thats completely fine

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most people as in, casual people you come across on the street

stone edge
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I’m ngl most of the people I know cared about this significantly less once they actually get into college

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So like this might be a downside now but in the future it probably won’t be

long tulip
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yeah im not into school spirit at all lol, dw its not much of a culture here at Pomona like it is at big sports schools

stone edge
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i mean esp if that isnt your deal

ionic crag
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I had this dilemma with ucsb and uc Davis

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UCSB is definitely a more outgoing school than Davis

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Davis isn’t socially dead but there is a lot less going on there

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But I am also a socially anxious person who tends to blame themselves when the smallest of social things go wrong

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I realized I was looking at ucsb as if overwhelming myself with a very extroverted environment was suddenly going to fix my social anxiety

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And then I realized if ucsb didn’t turn out the way I imagined I was going to blame myself for being socially inept bc there are all these social events around me so surely there must be something wrong with me if I’m unable to click with them

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Well my point here is I chose Davis bc it was a school that still had stuff going on but I kinda like that there was a more community orientated environment

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I will honestly never know

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And sometimes it still bothers me

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Bc things didn’t always go ideally at Davis and when that happened I told myself it would’ve been better at ucsb when in reality I know it’s just a grass is greener thing

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Last June

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It’s a decently large school just a small town

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20-30 mins from the nearest major city of Sacramento

mental relic
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In terms of pomona cons, I think there’s a huge difference between name recognition by the general public and employers. It’s definitely a reputable school for work placements but in terms of general recognition, you right, ucla is more well known (esp internationally if u do plan to work abroad) :) it def depends on if u plan to study post-grad asw, cuz in that case pomona mogs like crazy. I’d also speak with current undergrads in ur major bc I think that would give you a better picture of what your experience will look like! Since you’re in the area im sure AOs/ASDs can connect you or smth :)

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Both schools are great tho so there’s no wrong choice!! 🙂‍↕️

mental relic
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Ahh yess, have fun! All the pomoners I connected with were so sweet, it’s gonna be a blast :)

muted rose
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Workload wise, ucla will be harder than Pomona imo

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At least ucla is way harder than northwestern was

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It’s not so much that the work is harder, it’s that the classes r huge and ucla doesn’t have grade inflation

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Basically most LACs have some grade inflation

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And so did NU

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vs at ucla it’s not uncommon for 1/3 of a class to get Cs or lower

long tulip
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i cant attest fully to grade inflation here yet, but my first year seminar was generous with grades. gave super solid and honest feedback but graded stuff higher than i expected

ionic crag
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What’s gonna change

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How so

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Do you get seasonal depression

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Reed is gonna rain

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Won’t be pouring but rain is definitely there compared to what you’re used to

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From my experience of living in Portland for two years from SoCal for my whole life the rain is very fun the first few times but it eventually gets annoying when you wanna go outside and see the weather apps says 9 of the next 10 days will rain almost nonstop

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Summer is very nice

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Winter is more when this happens

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I was there 2021-2023

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I’ve heard since I left summers have been a bit more hot

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Idk if you’d ever be there over summer but a lot of old places don’t have AC

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And it’s been dogwater for those places with the unprecedented heat

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Ah

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How do you feel about the people and culture of reed vs Pomona

spiral frost
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oh jesus

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if january in LA does that to you

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ohh

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i think rain in LA is very different than rain in portland

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consider that it will not be 60-70 and raining

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rain in 40 is awful

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right

ionic crag
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SoCal is an umbrella place Portland is a rain jacket place

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You can tell someone isn’t local if they use an umbrella for light rain

spiral frost
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our rain doesn’t obey physics

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it go sideways

ionic crag
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Portland rain usually wasn’t horrid

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But Boston rain got heavy while I was there

spiral frost
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i love clocking new tufts freshmen when their umbrellas get blown away in a noreaster

spiral frost
ionic crag
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Yeah you could

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Although my main concern for you is the people and culture aspect

spiral frost
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and jeans

ionic crag
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It wasn’t for a job

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It was for cc

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I did a year at a 4 year and then had a crisis thinking I was gonna drop out and A2C unironically convinced me to try cc

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My home life is terrible so I knew I needed out and Portland cost of living was cheaper than San Diego + they had a reciprocity agreement where I’d pay in state rates for cc as a CA resident

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And still had adequate public transit

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I lived in a pretty dogshit apartment building but had it been up to par it probably would’ve been worth double what I was renting it for due to how centrally located it was

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They were aiming at students (had to send them proof of enrollment) so as soon as I graduated I had a term before I needed to move out

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I moved out in June 2023 and spent the summer back home to save money before moving to Davis for my 2 transfer years

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I had very few in person classes bc my cc was abnormally slow to move back to irl classes (even in spring 2023 I was unable to schedule my required classes in a way that allowed for more than one on campus that term)

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So that probably did hinder my friendship abilities

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But I found the Seattle freeze carried over a good amount from the few friends I did make

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It felt like we were friends out of convenience

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I have become very content with doing solo activities and I think living in Portland is a solid reason for that

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There is also very little diversity if that’s a concern