Chances ED II?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Swarthmore College
1

<p>History Major</p>

<p>White male, rural public highschool (>30% go onto non-community college education, Avg SAT~<1000)</p>

<p>Taking all APs and Mult.Var. Calc at U. of Delaware</p>

<p>Rank 2/246 , GPA (~99%)</p>

<p>SAT I: 2360 (800 CR, 800 M, 760 WR)</p>

<p>Subject Tests: 800 US History, 720 Literature</p>

<p>APs that I've taken (highschool only offers four; I'm taking three this year, one last year): APUSH: 5
But I have 16 credits in college math</p>

<p>Activities (Note: only the important ones. I am a member of Key Club, Honor Society, etc...a bunch of filler): Math League (9-12), Newspaper Staff (Editor-in-Chief), Skateboarding Club (Founder/President)
Comcast Academic Challenge Quiz Bowl (Captain), Debate Club(Vice President), Student Film Society (Vice President), and making a documentary about my town (involves a lot of historical research; should be good since I want to major in history), Science Olympiad (Co-Captain), Mentoring Autistic Kids (11-12)</p>

<p>Awards</p>

<p>Academic...
Michael C. Ferguson Scholar (11)
A **** ton of "Highest grade in [insert subject]"
A lot of other generic sh#t, won't waste your time with it
Math League Highscorer</p>

<p>Essays+Recs good, English teacher called essay "great piece of work". Stresses how skateboarding taught me to deal with failure+set goals (skateboarding club is only really "quirky" activity and I spend about 10+ hrs a week on it) plus another one about my aunt who has Down's Syndrome...tied it into my mentoring of autistic kids.</p>

<p>Should I wait until RD or what? Will this give me a significant advantage by applying ED II? I really like Swarthmore...whatever. Oh..and they only consider your highest SATIIs? Because I'm retaking Math IIC in January...</p>

2

<p>If you really want to go to Swat, why wait? EDII will give you an edge, and your stats at least appear in the range that Swat would accept...</p>

3

<p>If Swarthmore is your definite first choice, go for ED - you'll almost for sure get in. You can never be sure with RD, though you'll have a good chance there too.</p>

4

<p>I think you have a good chance either way unless you mess up the application. Like not showing interest in the school etc.</p>

5

<p>How would you rate its English/History deparment? It's known for getting people into grad school, but what about law school? Will I be lambasted for my moderate political philosophy?</p>

6

<p>d3!ty,</p>

<p>English and history are fine at Swat. Chances of getting into law school are excellent: 80% according to this website<br>
<a href="http://www.swarthmore.edu/Admin/prelaw/guide_for_applying_to_law.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.swarthmore.edu/Admin/prelaw/guide_for_applying_to_law.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>I think you should not worry about being politically moderate. My daughter, a recent graduate, is the definition of moderate, and her experience of Swat was excellent. I think a diversity of voices is a good thing, by the way. Your stats look really good. If you can make a case for LOVING Swarthmore ED II looks good.</p>

7

<p>Thanks for the input, momofthree</p>

8

<p>Also, I live on the Delmarva peninsula. Will I have a shot at getting the McCabe scholarship?</p>

9

<p>Swarthmore isn't really an activist school, anymore. There are a lot of moderates. Which somewhat surprised me when I arrived. It very clearly is very liberal, but not very aggressive about that liberalism.</p>

10

<p>You are welcome!</p>

11

<p>Sounds more and more like a perfect fit for me...</p>

12

<p>Arador:</p>

<p>I think it's just the tenor of the times.</p>

<p>D3:</p>

<p>Other than geography, I've never been able to discern any pattern to what Swarthmore looks for in awarding the McCabe Scholarships. I'm sure there is one, but it just hasn't jumped out at me in looking at the recipients like it has with the Evans Scholars.</p>

13

<p>ID: Probably. We actually were discussing the "End of History" theory in International Politics today, and Tierney (the prof) mentioned how the author of the article has a sense of sadness about him as he writes that liberalism has 'won' as an ideology, and the days of the great battles between ideologies, that the world will be peaceful but boring.</p>

14

<p>Seeing has how we've never seen a peaceful world yet, I'd be happy to give "peaceful but boring" a shot!</p>

15

<p>Arador, was Tierney talking about Francis F-u-k-u-yama? Then, that paper was written in the mid-90s right before the Balkan problems....he was proven wrong many many times after that what with the Balkan problems, rising nationalism in other countries such as India and then the rise of the new ism, Al-Qaeda. </p>

<p>But of course, I wouldn't want to argue with Tierney or you.....just a mom here.</p>

16

<p>Yep, ***uyama. And yes, he has been proven wrong...in some ways. However as a general trend you look at the number of liberal democracies ~100 years ago, and you look at the world today and the trend is fairly clear. The process isn't instant, and it isn't a thin that moves in only one direction. But I, at least, see it slowly moving forward. But we only discussed it for part of one class (at the same time as Huntington, Mearschimer (sp?), and Mueller).</p>

17

<p>Glad you (and Tierney?) see it that way...I wish I was a student again, is all I can say! :)</p>

18

<p>I went to see ***uyama with my IR class. It was at a moderately conservative think tank, and it was interesting to see how he'd tempered some of his views since then. I still didn't agree with 90% of what he said, but the man is a genius.</p>

19

<p>Tierney is very very good at not revealing his own opinions (other than about public opinion, which he is publishing about...). He is very adept at highlighting both sides of public opinion.</p>

<p>Personally, I'm more attracted to Fu kuyama and Huntington. And they are nearly polar opposites. Good times. :P</p>