about honors programmes

<p>you guys must have wriitten that "why swarthmore" essay. i plan to write something about honors programmes, but i am totally confused by it. i have read through their websites but still don't get a clue.
help me~~
p.s what did you guys write in "why swarthmore" essay?</p>

<ol>
<li><p>If you don't understand what the honors program is, don't write about it.</p></li>
<li><p>Is there something about Swarthmore that makes you want to go there, and makes you think you'll be happy there? That's what you should write about.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>I agree that it seems like the honors program isn't what you should write about, but do you have any specific questions about how it works?</p>

<p>Yeah, your Why Swarthmore is why you want to go to Swat! It doesn't have to be a list of things about Swat - especially not those which you don't know about, haha. :]</p>

<p>What you might want to do is focus on one or two very specific things about swarthmore. in my why swat essay, i focused on the education program and described an experience that i had that made we want to teach. i explained why i wanted to get a liberal education while recieving a teaching education. i described specific education classes that i want to take as well. </p>

<p>about the honors program:
-it's optional and only for students who are really really into what they are learning (there are many students like this at swat, so the honors program is for students who are extremely passionate)
-you choose to do the honors program your junior year
-honors students are given an oral examination at the end of their senior year by professors who are not from swarthmore.</p>

<p>how long were your why swarthmore essays?</p>

<p>My Why Swat was pretty long, I guess (714 words), but it fit in the provided space on the online supplement, and I got in (that was the leading cause, I suspect, the strong essay)...so don't make it too insanely long. I'd say 500 words (about a page), like the Common App essay, is a good marker of length.</p>

<p>ohh ok. mine was kind of long and then i reailzed that it said "brief statement" so i didn't want to overwhelm them with it or anything. thanks!</p>

<p>hey, i got exact the same idea as Sozo! i have decided to become a teacher because of my teaching experience which i wrote about it in my common application essay. and i am looking through the education programmes. i am interested in the practice teaching course.
thanks all you guys! yes, since i am not familiar about the honors programmes i should not write about it.</p>

<p>p.s i just got one question to ask. i am in china, so i am not clear about the difference between education in a university and education in a liberal art school. can anyone tell me the difference?</p>

<p>In general the education is the same, unless you apply to a technical school. The main difference is that universities have graduate schools, and Liberal arts colleges, like Swarthmore, don't. This means that while at Universities you will almost certainly have teaching assistants or graduate student instructors who are still graduate students, professors of some kind teach all the classes at schools like swarthmore.</p>

<p>wow, really? and with a ratio of students: professors 8:1 ?? the more I know about swarthmore, the more i love it!</p>

<p>Chenkendra:</p>

<p>Most of the top universities started out as "liberal arts colleges" -- a term that refers to a broad-based undergrad eduction with courses in the sciences, the humanities, and the social sciences.</p>

<p>As these colleges grew, some added graduate schools, medical schools, law schools, etc. These became universities.</p>

<p>The ones that did not add the graduate schools are now undergrad only and are called liberal arts colleges.</p>

<p>For example, undergraduates at Harvard University attend Havard College -- the liberal arts college that is part of the large university.</p>

<p>The main difference is size. Typical "liberal arts colleges" have 1000 to 3000 undergrads. The undergrad colleges that are part of universities typically have 4,000 to 30,000 undergrads.</p>

<p>BTW, Swarthmore very seriously considered adding a graduate PhD program in Physics, in conjunction with the Bartol Institute that was doing early nuclear research on campus. Swarthmore eventually decided not to add a PhD program.</p>

<p>thanks a lot~~ i have a clear idea about my essay because of you guys.
thanks!</p>

<p>I wouldn't worry about the length too much. My common app essay and my why swarthmore were both over 700 words, and I managed to get in. Aim for 400-500, but just write as much as you have to say, without being unnecessarily wordy, and then stop. If cutting out an extra hundred words will kill your essay, don't do it just to hit some arbitrary limit.</p>