<p>I just saw the admissions video for the first time. (Son is a soph at Swat but he never got a copy--one was sent to our daughter, a HS senior.)</p>
<p>Sorry if this has been discussed before, but what do people think? I found it a bit quirky, especially the "self-interviews," but did it resonate with would-be applicants? What did parents think?</p>
<p>If you're talking about the DVD (Swarthmore Unscripted, or something like that), we haven't seen it, but my daughter keeps hoping it will show up in our mail any day. She has responded to several mailings from Swarthmore in the past year, and we visited last summer, so I know she's in their data base, but perhaps they're holding off sending it to current HS juniors. Once we receive our copy, I'll be interested to learn how current students find it and whether they think it captures the essence of the school better than if it had been scripted.</p>
<p>My D is on their mailing list, visited four times, and applied ED & was accepted, but we didn't get the DVD! (We did get a tee-shirt today, though.)</p>
<p>I liked it a lot. I received it after I got accepted, but it affirmed my feeling that I could fit in with a lot of these kids. Granted, there were a couple of intriguing individuals on there (my parents happened to note this as well), but I found this aspect of Swarthmore to be all the more unique ....the fact that they're willing to flaunt their diversity, that is. If at all possible, I would recommend visiting - this was definitely what made my decision.</p>
<p>we also enjoyed it very much. made me even more enthusiastic about my daughter attending swathmore.</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses. I guess the video wasn't that widely distributed. Wonder if they will use it again next year.</p>
<p>The students definitely all seemed very "real," and many seemed to fit the Swarthmore stereotypes. But then they focused on a couple of athletes to counterbalance that. I guess it's nice to know that there are parties every weekend too.</p>
<p>I got the DVD in the mail and really enjoyed it. It made me very excited about Swat.</p>
<p>Never saw the video, but now it has caught my interest.</p>
<p>I got two copies. ^_^ I personally thought it was cute. As in it was interesting, considering that I was on the lookout for subliminal college spam advertising in the form of truth. And it was a good home-made video.</p>
<p>I liked the bit about Screw and Outkast the best. :-P</p>
<p>It basically confirmed everything I thought about Swat, and kept it in my mind. I have a tendency to get antsy about latching onto one school before letters - both decisions and money - come out. :-D</p>
<p>I am a parent of a son who did not ulitimately apply to Swarthmore, despite a tour of the lovely new science building, cool architecture and mix of cozy historic with cutting edge campus. We watched the DVD and were favorably influenced by it. I felt it was slick but had integrity and did not compromise the essence of Swarthmore. I really liked the variety of students and the intensity they displayed for learning. The nostalgic reflections of parent-age adults added crediblity with the Long Views of a Swarthmore education. All in all, I don't think they sold out at all or tried to mislead the public with some commercial effort. Bravo for good taste and good choices and letting the students be front and center and unadorned. Now I want to apply. What do U think R my chances. I am 49. ha. I am sharing the DVD in my neigborhood with other worthy potential applicants in mind.</p>
<p>You know what's cool? My tour guide on my visit was in the video--Sam. She acted just the same way in person (i.e. fun). So yes, it also reinforced my postive opinions about Swat.</p>
<p>You can see they didn't give it a glossy patina when you notice that Sam is wearing a Charlie Manson t-shirt in her "interview"....</p>
<p>Most schools probably would have asked her to wear something a bit less provocative.</p>
<p>Oh...that's the one you guys are talking about. It was on the website 'Swarthmore unscripted'. The building really is an abandoned building where they had the 'interview'. Sam is from New Jersey and my son knows her...</p>
<p>Faline2, I'd like to know my chances too, I'm 47 and went to college 25 years ago. .. But I think they'd reject me for being a stat kid and too boring!! :)</p>
<p>But if they did accept me, I would matriculate there.</p>
<p>Achat--The Website has only a few of the interviews. The DVD has 11 (How Swat is that to have 11? No 10, not a dozen, but 11). One of the "extra" interviews is of one of my S's friends, so I was especially interested to hear what he would say (he's the freshman who talked mostly about the party scene. Hmm--should I be worried?)</p>
<p>I guess I'm a little surprised to hear that students and parents (at least on CC) reacted favorably to the quirky, warts-and-all presentation. We are all so saturated with carefully packaged media images these days. But maybe it cut through all the clutter. I do know that the number of apps was up this year, over 2000 I believe.</p>
<p>I preferred the Swarthmore video to the slicker more Disney presentations of other fine institutions we ordered. After all, people are looking for a "fit" among peers and other intangibles.</p>
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I guess I'm a little surprised to hear that students and parents (at least on CC) reacted favorably to the quirky, warts-and-all presentation. We are all so saturated with carefully packaged media images these days.
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<p>I think it's the honesty and lack of pretense that many of us (and our kids) find appealing about Swarthmore. These qualities were very striking in the sessions with the Pres., Dean, and current students during freshmen parents orientation.</p>
<p>The admissions office couldn't have gotten away with a slickly produced, glamorized infomercial; the entire campus community would have blistered them. It's just not the Swattie way.</p>
<p>An attempt to show what college life at Swarthmore is really like is probably pretty effective with prospective students simply because of the striking contrast to the more typical airbrushed infomercial DVDs. Swat caters to a pretty intelligent crowd. Their target audience is sharp enough to spot B.S.</p>
<p>From what I heard, even this DVD was thought of as "too commercial" by some people - including some people featured on the video!</p>
<p><strong>From what I heard, even this DVD was thought of as "too commercial" by some people - including some people featured on the video!</strong></p>
<p>Really? I guess that's not completely surprising. But I think Jim Bock is right that Swat needs to reach out to potential students and not just expect them to find the school on their own. My S has been surprised at how many students are legacies--so grew up knowing about the school. And while I know they have more would-be premed applicants than they can possibly deal with, he says that would-be engineers are scarcer than they'd like.</p>
<p>Every year our HS sends a couple of kids to Amherst, Williams, Trinity, etc., but S is the only person in the past 10 years (or more) to have gone to Swarthmore. It may be because our town is pretty conservative but maybe also because Swat just isn't as well known.</p>
<p>In our town, my son is the 2nd person to go to Swat in 3 years. But our town does not send many to LACs in general - there is a lack of information about LACs. Most go to the usual suspects.</p>
<p>My son is in a team that helps his HS GCs by giving more information about his college. He went during winter break for a session where he talked to juniors about Swat. I agree, there is a need to reach out to potential students who don't know about Swarthmore.</p>