claremont and beyond

The San Gabriel Mountains, sometimes snow-capped in winter, provide a constant backdrop for Pomona's classy architecture.

Check out a detailed map of Pomona College and its environs and the first thing you’ll notice is that its campus is nestled alongside those of several other institutions—the other members of The Claremont Colleges. Beyond those shared borders you’ll find the quiet, tree-lined streets of Claremont, California. Keep widening the view, and you’ll find roads winding into the San Gabriel Mountains just a few miles to the north, freeways and train-lines stretching into Los Angeles about 35 miles to the west, Pacific beaches about 40 miles to the southwest, and the dry scrub of the Mojave Desert a like distance to the east.

The campus

With 62 up-to-date buildings in a 140-acre garden-like setting, the Pomona campus has an endless array of wonderful places to work and play, plus a remarkable collection of educational resources. It’s also a high-tech campus.

Best of Both Worlds - The Consortium Outdoors in California - OTL

Widespread wireless access means anyone with a laptop can do research (or just check your email) in any little courtyard on campus—one reason why PC Magazine and the Princeton Review named Pomona one of the “Top 20 Wired Colleges” in the nation.

The Claremont Colleges

Beyond Pomona, the possibilities grow exponentially. Pomona’s campus has been called “elastic”—meaning you can make it as small as its 140-acre boundaries or take advantage of the opportunities offered by the consortium to make it much larger. With five undergraduate colleges clustered on contiguous campuses—putting as many as 150 public events per month within a 15-minute walk—some students almost never venture away, preferring to remain within what some call “the Claremont bubble.” But you’ll find it well worth the effort to break out of that bubble now and then.

Los Angeles and all its cultural offerings are within easy reach, with the Metrolink trains just a short walk from campus.

Claremont

Ranked No. 5 on Money magazine’s annual list of “Best Places to Live,” the residential community of Claremont is known as the city of “trees and PhDs.” Just a block from campus, “The Village,” as the downtown area is known, offers an eclectic mix of shops and restaurants, ranging from a tapas bar to a sushi restaurant. Notes Money: “The downtown is a mix of hip boutiques and old-school businesses. And the historic College Heights Lemon Packing House is now home to the Claremont Art Museum, restaurants, a jazz bar and artists’ lofts.” The expanded Village also includes a new, five-screen movie theatre.

Southern California

Learning to surf is only one of many trips first-year students can choose for their Orientation Adventure before classes even start.

If that isn’t enough, a 30-minute car or train ride will take you to Los Angeles, the commercial capital of the Western United States and home to major museums, professional sports teams and entertainment venues of every stripe. Not much farther away are the beaches, mountains, and desert, making our location a truly incomparable setting, uniquely rich in academic, cultural and recreational variety and opportunity.