Pomona College View Book [pdf]

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Pomona & the
Liberal Arts
THE POMONA COLLEGE CURRICULUM
The body of information
we call “knowledge”
is ever-changing, but the most important intellectual skills—those needed to acquire
and evaluate knowledge, to put it into a meaningful context and to synthesize new
ideas and solve new problems—are not. The main purpose of a Pomona education is
to ensure that students develop the intellectual capacities and resilience to engage
learning over a lifetime and to thrive in a changing world. Pomona’s curriculum
provides a balance between the breadth of a traditional liberal arts education and the
depth necessary for advancement in a specific field. Pomona students find great
educational rigor, but also the freedom to pursue their individual interests.
Classes are demanding, ensuring that students’ intellectual capabilities are
stretched. Readings are intensive; projects often require new ways of thinking and
innovative methods of analysis. Part of the intellectual experience involves listening to
others and considering different points of view. Journalist Walter Lippmann said,
“Where all think alike, no one thinks very much.” At Pomona, bright, intellectually
active students learn from one another in an environment that encourages collegiality,
not competition.
www.pomona.edu/admissions
No specific course in the Pomona curriculum is prescribed for graduation. Even
the first-year seminars called Critical Inquiry courses offer students a wide array of
choices among classes with such titles as War and Art, Stages of Conscience, and
Living with Our Genes. Likewise, in place of specific course requirements, Pomona’s
Breadth of Study Requirements are designed to encourage exploration while
providing significant freedom of choice. Students take at least one course in each of
five areas: Creative
Expression; Social
Institutions and Human
Behavior; History, Values,
Ethics and Cultural Studies;
Physical and Biological
Sciences; and Mathematical
Reasoning. There are also
broadly defined requirements
for foreign language
proficiency and physical
education. Whatever their
field of study, Pomona
students explore widely among a range of disciplines, not only to inform their choice
of a major, but also to expose them to the analytical methods of a variety of fields,
hone their communication skills and put their eventual field of specialization into the
broadest academic context.
For in-depth study, Pomona offers a choice of 45 majors, including all of the
traditional disciplines of the humanities, fine arts, social sciences and natural sciences,
as well as a variety of interdisciplinary fields. Majors at Pomona are not designed
primarily to prepare students for specific careers, but rather to sharpen their ability to
think critically and in depth using the analytical methods of the discipline. As part of
the overall Pomona education, however, all majors have been shown to provide an
outstanding foundation for success in whatever follows graduation—whether it be
further study or the immediate start of a career.
Requirements for Graduation:
• Total of 32 courses, including all other requirements
• 1 Critical Inquiry Seminar (first year)
• 5 Breadth of Study courses—one in each of five areas: creative
expression; social insti tutions and human behavior; history, values,
ethics and cultural studies; physical and biological sciences; and
mathematical reasoning
• All requirements for a major field
• Proficiency in 1 foreign language (test or coursework)
• 1 semester of physical education
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