<p>Hey-
I have received quite a few of those advertisement e-mails (I'm a junior, so I'm being bombarded) from Swarthmore, and I finally decided to check them out. When I did, it seemed like my dream college. They have all the fields I am interested in, Dance, Anthropology, and Arabic. One of my concerns is that Swarthmore seems extremely difficult to get into, and I am not sure at this point if I have what it takes. Also, I read the thread about all work and no play at Swarthmore - how accurate is this? One of the reasons I have been looking at a school in the PA area is so that I could visit my extended family on some weekends...</p>
<p>I would appreciate any advice regarding what I should do to better my chances of getting in, for instance, average GPA and average ACT and SAT scores. I have taken two AP courses this year, but next year I plan on taking six. Also, I have an extensive volunteer record, I participate in friend's youth groups, i am a member of NHS, and my school's recycling club, I have had a year round job since the end of freshman year, and I dance five days a week ranging from 1hour to three hours with two hours of teaching the younger students. I have been dancing since the age of three. My plan is make dance my hooker EC.</p>
<p>Thank you! I really appreciate any help or advice.</p>
<p>Several of us with kids who went to Swarthmore have begged the powers that be on College Confidential to unsticky that thread. It’s complete BS that a thread written by a high school student who not only had no experience with Swarthmore, but who didn’t even apply headlines this forum. It was a drive-by shooting. For whatever reason, the moderators will not unsticky that thread. They deny that it’s even the thread they locked.</p>
<p>The fact is that Swarthmore is a champsionship golf course played from the back tees as far as academics go. The students are highly engaged and expect the faculty to challenge them. The school is structured to provide tremendous resources. I would not consider Swarthmore unless you are prepared to work hard in college. However, if you do (most of) the reading and make a good faith effort on the assignments, professors will be reasonable and you’ll likely do fine.</p>
<p>From what I’ve heard, people really like dance at Swarthmore.</p>
<p>I agree with interesteddad. My son is a sophomore at Swat, and he loves it. Does he work hard? Yes, but he also competes in an intercollegiate sport each season, is a member of a fraternity, and puts in several hours each week working at one of the labs. His weekends are pretty booked, but that’s by his choice. My point is, if you want lots of free time in college and don’t want to be challenged, then Swat isn’t for you. If you like to learn, don’t mind working at your classes, and want to be around other motivated, interesting people, then it might be for you! The student body is very diverse in interests. Will you be able to visit family on the weekends? Probably here and there, but it’s by no means a suitcase school. If you can visit, you should, and try to see faculty members of departments that interest you. Good luck!</p>
<p>The all work and no play myth is just that - a myth. I, and anyone else at Swat with time-management skills, manage to take on a full course load, run student groups, have a campus job (or several), and still get in the sleep I need, 3 meals a day, and seeing my friends. This isn’t to say that you won’t work hard. You will. But you’re working with amazing professors, intelligent, interesting peers who genuinely care about you, and tons of academic resources at your disposal. I definitely have the time to see my family in the area whenever I want to: but that’s not all that often, since there’s so much to do on campus and that’s where most people stay on the weekends. :]</p>
<p>I can’t tell you how to get in or not, but if you like Swat, go for it and make sure they know why you are trying to. We love passion, energy, and a genuine interest in learning! I agree with the post above - visit if you can. It’ll really help you get a better sense of the community here.</p>
<p>Hi Cup ‘O Buddha,
I’m one of the parents interesteddad refers to in post #2. I have asked the moderators to remove the thread and they have not done so. If you have read it and it concerns you, please go back and read the first couple of pages. My son, an actual student, posted there at my request. He was a junior at the time. It will give you one student’s honest perspective, rather than the rest of us "speculatin’" parents. You can find the SAT info and GPA info on the Swat web site. Here is the profile for the class of 2012. <a href=“http://www.swarthmore.edu/documents/admissions/Class_of_2012_Profile.pdf[/url]”>http://www.swarthmore.edu/documents/admissions/Class_of_2012_Profile.pdf</a></p>
<p>It’s not true that Swarthmore is all work and no play. Nobody would come here if it were like a sweatshop and it would have no prestige. I take a full course load, have a campus job where I work 6 hours a week, have around an A/A- in my classes, and I usually go to bed by midnight and get around 8 1/2 hours of sleep a night. I definitely have time for breaks and in fact tonight I went to see a dance show (which I thought sucked) and tomorrow or Sunday I plan to watch a performance of The Tempest. </p>
<p>I think that if you get into Swarthmore, you can probably handle the work here, so you don’t have to worry about that. People do manage to have fun, but I have the feeling that it’s much more laid back compared to many other colleges and large universities.</p>
<p>Previous student posters have already said that they have time for non-academic pursuits, too, but I’ll give an example from my D, a freshman, that I think really underscores what you’ve heard before from the adcom, students, and other parents – that Swatties are PASSIONATE about all they do, academic and otherwise; they are engaged and BUSY, and this commitment sometimes blurs the line between work and play: My D and her friends decided on a Saturday night last November that they were too tired to go out partying, so they decided to stay in and make cupcakes in the dorm kitchen. What might have been a 30 minute exercise lasted from 8PM until 2 AM; they did make cupcakes, but each included a large cake piece (body), and smaller cake piece baked atop (head), tail feathers, webbed feet, facial features, wattle (made from gummy worms), and an edible name tag personalizing each cupcake for each dorm resident. My D said she had a ton of fun, but was EXHAUSTED by the time they were done! Swatties take their work very seriously; in fact, they take everything they do very seriously. Call it work; call it play. They love what they do and invest themselves fully. As far as having time for other non-academic pursuits, my D plays on an IM sports team that travels to tournaments on weekends, has an on-campus job, goes to downtown Philly with her friends by train at least twice a month for dinner, has deep philosophical discussions long into the night with same, and last term had no grade below a B+ in her classes. Swarthmore students are involved!</p>
<p>My D, also a freshman has had a similar experience. Besides loving the classes, professors and intellectual discussions outside of her classes, she is very busy - but in a fun way. During the fall semester, she of coures had her classes, in which she got all A’s and B’s, but also several extra-curricular activities. She was in a musical, sang in the chorus, took private voice lessons, and worked part time on campus. She has bonded amazingly well with her hall mates. At least once or twice a month, they manage to go to Philly for dinner. There are dances most or every weekend, which as a non-drinker, she has been very relieved that there is no pressure to drink. For fun, she and her friends often watch movies or play board games until the wee hours of the morning. They have a blast. And instead of cupcakes, she and her hallmates made a life-size Wall-E cake one evening!</p>
<p>to the OP: please take a gander at our soc/anth department more closely before you decide to apply. sillily, in my opinion, we combine sociology and anthropology at swat, and the result is sociology-heavy offerings (everyone’s so “politically aware” here) and very few that would be considered anthropology at most other schools. one class that is firmly anthro, and that i hear is fantastic and is one i hope to take next year is comparative perspectives on the body, but one class does not an adequate department make.<br>
the lack of anthropology courses has been really frustrating for me since i hope to go to graduate school for anthropology. i’ve been making do with related courses here and haven’t been disappointed with the quality of them, but if you’re almost certain you want to do anthropology, you might want to consider if you like swarthmore enough to go and taker anthro courses only at upenn and bryn mawr or if you want to do what i’m doing and take courses in related fields, or if you might want to look elsewhere.</p>
<p>also, agree with what everyone says. everybody can find plenty of time to have fun here.</p>
<p>There are plenty of study abroad opportunities for studying anthropology. And Bryn Mawr’s program is often considered to be the best in the country.</p>
<p>As a soch/anth major, I really don’t find the course list limiting as someone leaning far more heavily on the anth side! The faculty in the department are half and half of each, and while you certainly can head on over to Penn or Bryn Mawr, I do think that you can find what you want here. Take a look at the course guide, anyway. The great thing about the department is that there are no distribution requirements for how many courses from each half you need to take, so it’s really up to you what you make of it!</p>
<p>I don’t think the soc/ann dept knew what hit it last year. 35 majors, 50% more than ever before. It was the fourth most popular major on campus with just under 10% of last year’s majors.</p>
<p>tsprite: I am glad you had fun at RTT. The WALL-E cake was definitely a hit. (my D is the bubbly one who sings constantly - mostly musical theatre) I hear the latest study break was a “Ratatouille” fondue party! Swatties really are good at pouring 120% of themselves into whatever they are doing - whether it is studing or taking a break from it!</p>
<p>My boy went to RTT too, and had a great time, in spite of some glitches. He ended up playing glow-in-the-dark freeze tag and cadging some tasty free snacks from the Korean club by using all the Korean words he knew to convince the members that he’s “Korean-identified” :] He got to look for the plant that is his secret password, and played soccer with the dean. He came out of it more in love with SWAT than ever.</p>
<p>Any parent who visited for Family and Friends Weekend, who may have wandered towards Willets while Crum Fest was in full swing, would be able to attest that just as there is hard studying, there is some pretty hard partying that goes on and I will leave it at that. - - I have no earthly idea how the school got the reputation that it is all work and no play…</p>
<p>As an aside, we had a wonderful time and the campus was in full bloom. The cherry blossoms could not have been more beautiful and the faculty lectures made me wish that I was young and going to school there.</p>
<p>dramatica, so glad you enjoyed the weekend! The campus is ridiculously beautiful in spring. </p>
<p>In further support of your point: I think you’ve either misheard - or maybe been intentionally misled about - the name of that particular annual celebration. It’s not actually Crum Fest. . . .</p>
<p>I was being discreet and deliberately disguised the name to prevent some parents from having a heart attack…LOL!</p>
<p>I am still laughing at the shock of an unsuspecting mom we saw stumbling into the festivities. It seems that there was confusion with dates and concern over having so many “guests” on campus at the same time, but at least the RTT’s were definitely gone by the time that this rite of Spring began!</p>
You can find the SAT info and GPA info on the Swat web site. Here is the profile for the class of 2012. <a href=“