<p>you may want to read up on swarthmore on s t u d e n t s r e v i e w .com</p>
<p>As always, take everything with a grain of salt, but when enough people say the same thing a/b a school, it becomes hard to think they're all the minority. From what I've seen, Swat is <em>VERY</em> hard academically and doesn't have a very happy student body. </p>
<p>Like I said, never been there, not a student, so couldn't say for sure, but a lot of people that do/have attended the school are saying that.</p>
<p>If it is an anonymous website, one cannot tell how many people post more than once. How do they verify who goes where, ie who is really a student of one institution vs another? The trouble with anonymity on the internet is that there is no accountability and anyone can say anything without it being checked for accuracy and/or reliabilty.</p>
<p>It is also very hard to give much crediblility to opinions of people who either have never attended a particular school or have may be visited only for a short while. I think that is also why the Haverford alum was so bothered by the opinion of a student who only briefly visited there, as he had a great experience attending there for 4 years. Of course, one would hope that the alum's opinion would be listened to more than the HS student who only took a tour, or even stayed overnight.</p>
<p>I think I give far more weight to knowing students that go to a school like Swarthmore that seem truly happy, of whom I know several at Swarthmore. I know one family where 3 sibs attended Swarthmore and all were very happy.</p>
<p>Hellohowareyou: I appreciate your optimistic comments. Such an attitude will take you far in life in addition to impressing many people along the way.</p>
<p>Collegialmom: I'm not surprised that your son is enjoying his time at SC. There are reasons why SC's graduation rate is so high. I agree that people are free to have their opinions and thats why I did not argue with the poster. My comments were directed at his/her arrogance and venomous distain for others. In fact, I agree with many of the points he/she cited but not to the degree of it: HC does emphasize its honor code and is a little less selective than SC by the numbers. What surprised me was how proudly he/she seemed to hold others in contempt and the pugnacious language used. </p>
<p>Anyhow, its a balmy evening in Santa Monica and Ive got better things to do. Ill leave it to the Deans of SC and, perhaps, one unlucky roommate to deal with someone who, by their comments on CC, demonstrates emotional volatility, arrogance, and a disturbing disrespect for others.</p>
<p>wow, someone is really touchy about the truth. how much can there really be to do in santa monica if one has to hang around a forum of a school that someone didn't even attend. instead of posting on this site, maybe someone should turn off their computer and help conserve energy during california's heat wave.</p>
<p>whoa, duhvinci....
hc alum... thanks;) I hope my attitude will take me far in life too! Well, I hope my Swarthmore degree will too. As well as my ravishing good lucks. The only thing I have going against me a is a lack of modesty, I'm afraid, but I'm such a fantastic actor I can pretend to be modest.</p>
<p>Any school can be depressing and oppressive if you want it to be. There are also ways to make Swat fun I'm sure. </p>
<p>Any school thats supposed to be academically rigorous will be, I'm sure, not that great if you are the type of person who feels that they need a 4.0 to go on in life. I bet the people who say that Swarthmore is such an ridiculously depressing place are probably the people who had straight As in highschool and once they got to Swat, they realized they had to actually WORK to get their As now.</p>