I’m a Swat alumn and graduated in 2012. I used these forums a lot back in 2007/2008 when I was applying. (I just made a new account to track some scholarship boards. After taking some time to work, I recently started grad school.)
Anyway, I’m happy to check back in here to answer any questions about my Swarthmore experience from application to alumni life. Overall, I am grateful I went to Swarthmore, but I certainly did not have an ideal college experience and think I can offer a pretty balanced perspective on the school.
There has been very little activity on the CC Swarthmore forum. I wonder if this is due to its small size or lack of visibility?
My kid has applied to Swarthmore and we loved our tour. My big concern is the level of academic pressure. Is that overstated, or is it really a problem?
Also, as an alum, when you mention Swarthmore do people look blank?
I think that lack of activity is due more to small size than lack of visibility. Another might be that Swarthmore students (and interested students) are less competitive in terms of personality than students/applicants with similar achievement profiles and maybe less prone to use SDN.
The pressure is real but kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Expectations are high and workload is tough, but it’s not unmanageable if you work smart. People with poor time management or who are poorly prepared for high-level college academics can struggle. Another tendency people had was to over-estimate their abilities and sign up for tougher course loads than appropriate. If your kid goes, I’d recommend taking all pre-reqs and intro level classes before moving onto the more difficult courses even if they were an AP/IB super star (exceptions for things like math and languages, but don’t try to skip levels in those either).
As for your last question, I’d say it depends. People who went to (or whose kids are looking at) elite colleges know it well, which covers most bosses, supervisors, and other people I’ve needed to impress. Some of my peers in my grad program have never heard of it. It’s more well known on the coasts than in the Midwest, but that’s probably true for all coastal-ish SLACs. It’s frequently confused with Skidmore-- my own father mixes the names up. I usually explain it as a “small, intellectual liberal arts college near Philly” when people look blank and that suffices.
My negative experience was 80% my fault and 20% due to Swarthmore’s environment, I’d say. I dealt with severe mental and physical health issues during my time there (which were exacerbated by the academic pressure, though I wouldn’t say that was a cause) as well as some bizarre family drama.
Swarthmore students are incredibly passionate, mostly introverted people. This was one of the school’s biggest positives and negatives in my opinion. When I was dealing with my situation above, I found it hard to be passionate about anything and thus struggled to connect with my peers who were great at discussing intellectual, theoretical topics and pursuing their interests at the highest levels but less great at basic interpersonal skills. I spent a lot of time feeling very isolated even though I was involved in clubs, leadership activities, sports, etc. Everyone talks about community at SLACs, and I don’t think I understand going in that my expectation of community (an environment were people work together to solve problems and support each other in achieving goals) wasn’t really what Swarthmore’s was.
I also did not get the ideal academic experience. I majored in the sciences, and because I did not intend at the time to continue onto a PhD program or medical school, I think some of my professors didn’t take me seriously despite being an A student. I never got research experience, summer internships, TA positions, or any experience outside of the classroom in the sciences, and I didn’t have many connections with professors in my major. On the other hand, I had great relationships with professors in my social sciences minor, and they are the ones who wrote me recommendation letters for my first few jobs out of school.
I would not say that most alumni I know share this opinion/experience, so take it all with several grains of salt.
I did not take classes at Bryn Mawr or Haverford, but I did take a class at UPenn (also part of the consortium). I enjoyed going into downtown Philly each week but found the UPenn class way less rigorous and engaging than any Swarthmore class I took. Bryn Mawr and Haverford also have a reputation on campus for less rigorous academics; as a result, I think more of their students come to Swarthmore than vis versa. I did go to Bryn Mawr and Haverford several times a semester for social events, speakers, etc., and played a club sort that frequently competed and practiced with them. It's very easy to get between the campuses on the shuttles which run frequently and, I believe, have expanded into mini-buses since I graduated. It was definitely a positive experience to be in the consortium!
The Friends community is active as many people living in the town attend services at the campus meeting house. I believe student involvement tends to ebb and flow; when I was there, there was a bit of a revival in interest towards my final year. Most of the people I knew who attended meeting were those raised doing so, which is a small percentage of the student body. I do think this has changed based on what I've seen in alumni publications and would suggest asking a current student for more information if this is important to you/your kid. Quaker values and practices are integrated into the college environment for sure (esp. consensus), but I wouldn't say it's a deep focus.
I know nothing about the quality of the theater program but always enjoyed attending student performances! I have a few friends who were in the theater program and are now thriving professionals in the Philly scene. I will say in general that most people who come to Swarthmore with an interest in the arts also tend to have another more ""sustainable"" academic interest. I knew a surprising amount of music and biology double majors, for instance.
@apex45 Hello, sorry to hear about your more dismal experience.
You mentioned your minor in social sciences, did you take any classes that overlapped with Swarthmore’s political science program, and do you know much about how good their political science department is?
Is the support system any good for finding internships during college/during the summer?
Thanks!
I did take one political science class and actually entered as a political science major. The class I took (American Elections) was great but far above the level I was capable of performing at freshman fall. I would have been better off starting with an introductory class but chose to take that one as it was Fall 2008 (Obama vs. McCain). Overall, the polisci department is very strong, as is Peace and Conflict Studies (which I believe overlaps). I didn’t continue with it because I realized (a) I was more interested in my science courses and (b) the things I liked about my government/polisci classes in high school were better found in sociology, education, media studies, and psychology (which were not fields I was exposed to before Swarthmore).
I really can’t comment on the summer opportunities-- mine were mostly spent dealing with my medical issues, though I did work full time at the campus library one summer. Most of my friends found summer research opportunities through professors or their major departments, and many did internships with Swarthmore alumni in their home cities. I would imagine that support for summer opportunities through career services has increased though as internships are more essential to getting into grad/med/law school than they were a few years back.