This year Pomona is celebrating 20 years of partnership with QuestBridge, a national nonprofit that connects exceptional, low-income youth with leading colleges. Through the QuestBridge National College Match college and scholarship application process, Pomona offers a number of College Match scholarships annually that cover the full cost of tuition, room and board and are loan-free.
Bayarmaa Bat-Erdene ’26
“The access to college that QuestBridge provides is closely aligned with our mission statement at Pomona College to gather individuals, regardless of financial circumstances,” says Edward Pickett III, senior associate dean of admissions and director of recruitment.
Pomona has also hosted QuestBridge-related events such as the National College Admissions Conference, where QuestBridge participants can learn about the college admissions process and meet with admissions staff from partner colleges. This year there are 25 QuestBridge scholars at Pomona. Here’s a snapshot of a couple of them!
Illinois native Bayarmaa Bat-Erdene ’26 credits QuestBridge for making her college experience. She says that her parents, who emigrated from Mongolia, worked really hard to get her to Pomona, and wants to make sure that her parents’ “contributions and efforts were worth it.” Bat-Erdene is studying sociology and public policy analysis, thinking closely about issues like income and immigration. Reading the book The Maid’s Daughter for a class, she was able to compare it to her own experience as her mom worked as a housekeeper for a time.
Peter Schwammlein ’26
Peter Schwammlein ’26 was drawn to Pomona for the Claremont Colleges consortium, the liberal arts education, and students he had met through the QuestBridge network. Raised in Fayetteville, Arkansas, Schwammlein is majoring in linguistics and considering double majoring in German Studies. Schwammlein has especially enjoyed the students at Pomona. “People are willing to listen to other perspectives,” he says. “The school pulls deep-thinking people that can see multiple sides and are not fully set on their ideology.”