Pomona College is best known for being a top liberal arts college in the country and one of the few on the West Coast. If you’re researching this college or if you’ve been accepted, yay! I stand by my decision to choose a liberal arts college. If you’re committed, congratulations! You’re going to have such a great time here.

Unfortunately, you can’t choose where you live as a first year but for good reason! Pomona has one of the most special first-year experiences. You live in a sponsor group – a group of 10 to 15 first years with two sophomore “sponsors” (basically your de facto parents for the year) – in a shared hallway. These sponsor groups are paired together through a rigorous review of a very very comprehensive rooming survey. Every single sponsor group has a shared quality, trait, or interest among all members. 

Still, you may be wondering what types of dorms you’ll be living in for your first year. I am here to give you a rundown and an inside scoop of each of the freshman residence halls at Pomona College.

All first years live on South Campus. These are the six iconic first year residence halls. 

Blaisdell, Mudd, Harwood, Wig, Gibson, and Lyon 

Sidenote: Mudd-Blaisdell is actually one building but for the purposes of this article and the differences in res life, I’ll be separating the two. There is a big hallway to separate the two and a grassy courtyard in between the wings.

Blaisdell

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So I’ll be honest, I lived in Blaisdell for 6 months during my freshman year (rip covid). I will try to be as concise as possible but there’s a lot of stuff about Blaisdell. I do love this dorm with all my heart so this might be a little biased.

Pros:

Right off the bat, the biggest thing to note is that there’s air conditioning in this dorm. I’m from Seattle. I’m hardly equipped to handle one 80 degree day, let alone an entire year of 80 degree days. 

Blaisdell has a nice kitchen. This is one of the biggest redeeming qualities. The kitchen comes equipped with a refrigerator, freezer, stove, and oven. The kitchen is connected to a lounge with a ping-pong table, pool table, grand piano, and a tv room. 

Blaisdell is also the closest dorm to Frank dining hall. You’ll be right there in 30 seconds.

Iffy Pro/Con:

While these facilities (ping-pong table, pool table, grand piano, tv room) are nice, the lounge itself is usually freezing cold and almost impossible to just sit and relax in. Every time I sat in here, I would need to wrap myself in a huge sweatshirt or blanket.

Also Blaisdell has its own filtered water fountain. While this is nice, there is only one that’s shared for all three floors. A little bit of a trek but at least there’s one in the dorm.

Cons:

Blaisdell rooms are notoriously tiny. First years are usually paired in doubles with the occasional triple in this hall. If you’re even able to fully walk into the closet, chances are you and your roommate are unable to stand in the closet at the same time. 

My roommate and I used to be able to reach out from our beds and hold hands with each other. And our beds weren’t even parallel to each other. Her desk was put in such an awkward position that we couldn’t move her chair fully out of the way. Everyday was a weird parkour trick to be able to sit down properly in front of the desk.

Doing laundry is like a breath of fresh air for me. It gives me a break from everything else I’m doing. Sounds fun right? Yeah no. It’s not fun when doing laundry is like playing Russian Roulette every time. First of all, there’s only 10 total washers and dryers. There is always at least one washer or one dryer that’s broken. Half the time, you have to plan when you do laundry around other people’s cycle and then it becomes a race to see who can claim the machine first.

Mudd 

I describe Mudd as Blaisdell’s smarter, older brother. Blaisdell and Mudd, also more commonly known as Mudd-Blaisdell, are connected through a hallway and share a grassy courtyard.

Pros:

The rooms are bigger, mostly because not all of them are doubles. Most of the rooms are singles and they’re just slightly smaller than the typical Blaisdell double. 

 The lighting in the hallway is warmer and makes the dorm feel cozier than the others. It’s generally a quieter hall so it’s easier to get work done. 

There is a great lounge for movie nights since it has a projector

Mudd is also very close to Frank dining hall! Cuts the early morning treks down to barely a minute.

Iffy Pro/Con: 

The laundry room is pretty small and it’s shared with everyone in the hall. It becomes pretty hard to find open washers/dryers but they work pretty well.

Cons:

Furthest from the water fountain! Mudd-Blaisdell share the same one and it’s not uncommon to see someone who lives in Mudd grumble on the way to and from the water fountain.

Gibson

Gibson is most likely going to be voted the worst residence hall on campus. It sits in the middle of the courtyard between Mudd and Blaisdell. This is also the smallest residence hall for first years. There are only about 36 people in the entire hall. 

Pros:

The dorms in Gibson are huge. They’re almost always doubles and there’s more than enough space to even have dance parties in your dorm. 

The one redeeming factor Gibson does have is air conditioning. 

Some of the dorms have really tall windows and the ones that are facing the courtyard have big glass doors where you can enter and exit from. 

Cons:

The hall itself is basically barren. Because it’s the smallest, it lacks a kitchen, a lounge, a laundry room, and even a water fountain. Most of the time, Gibson residents would use Mudd-Blaisdell’s facilities. I would hate to carry my entire load of laundry to another residence hall every single time I needed to do laundry: especially if it’s a big load. 

Lyon 

Lyon is one of the picture perfect dorms that Pomona first years can live in. The exterior doors are painted an eye-catching green that’s perfect for photoshoots.

Pros:

It has one of the most comfortable lounges in South Campus. They have nice couches, a functional kitchen, and a grand piano. The rooms are almost always really big and have huge amounts of space. 

Lyon Court is also the closest dorm to Pendleton pools, one of the two pools on campus. It makes for a great space to sunbathe and take a break.

Iffy Pro/Con:

Depending on which part of the building you live in, your room may be really dark or really bright. 

Cons:

There’s no air conditioning in the entire building. While there is an overhead fan, many people still say that it’s not enough to combat the 90 degree days. 

Due to the enormous size of the hall, sometimes it’s hard to interact with other people who live in the same hall as you. However, this is not a huge problem because everyone at Lyon ends up being friendly with their sponsor groups.

Harwood

Hands down, this is one of the most popular dorms on South Campus. Everyone loves the beautiful Harwood Court. 

Pros:

Harwood has some of the largest singles and doubles on campus. The closets in the rooms are also huge. Each dorm comes with a cork bulletin board, which makes it easy to put up pictures and posters in your room.

The lounge comes with a nice table to do some work, comfy couches, and a fully equipped kitchen. Down the hall from the lounge, there’s a meeting room where you can study with your friends, play cards, or have a meal when the kitchen seems too small!

Iffy Pro/Con:

Similarly to the other residence halls, there is only one room for laundry and it’s difficult to find a time where some of the machines are open.

Cons:

The only con that people notice about Harwood is how there’s no air conditioning. That’s it. That’s literally it. As I said, people love Harwood. 

Wig

Pretty much everyone who lives in Wig either loves it or hates it. Take your pick and hopefully you’ll find ways to enjoy it.

Pros: 

Wig has the biggest dorms on South Campus. Some of these doubles and the occasional single are insanely big and will make you believe that you’re actually in two conjoined rooms.

Everyone who has lived in Wig will swear that Wig has the best lounge, fully equipped with a kitchen, TV, piano, and it leads to a small patio. Wig has the only working foosball table on South Campus, one that people fight to use.

Wig is also the dorm that’s closest to the Village – the small downtown area of Claremont. There’s a lot of small eateries around and places to get dessert. 

Cons:

Wig is the furthest first year dorm from Frank dining hall. While this is only a block away, in the morning, it’s hard to get out of bed and walk the 5 minute walk to Frank. As with half the residence halls, Wig also doesn’t have any air conditioning, making it hell in the first couple and last couple months of school. 

The dorm is the closest one to the train, just two blocks from the station. Sometimes you’ll be stressfully studying for your midterm when the train just honks by and ruins the next half hour of your concentration.

Conclusion:

In the end, it really does not matter where you end up living. You will love your sponsor group and you’ll love your hall regardless of the lack of air conditioning, the broken washing machines, and the weird water fountain. Since Pomona is so small, you’ll find friends in every single dorm. 

Your time at Pomona will be made up of so much more than where you live for your freshman year. 

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