<p>I got one! Woohoo!</p>
<p>I watched it today, it was awesome. It looks like a killer school. Do I have a chance with <1200 SAT?</p>
<p>i think you would need very good SAT IIs/ number one or two in your class/ or some unique talent or asset to the school</p>
<p>just got mine</p>
<p>My D got hers Friday. Originally, I thought an unscripted video would wander, feature self absorbed students and not convey any unified themes. However, I think they did a good job and the unscripted nature gave it credibility. The editing showed perhaps more dorm life and arts than what I was anticipating but I think it helped in countering 'the fun goes to die' stereotype. The kids seemed bright, inquisitive, diverse and perhaps most important happy. I would give it a very good grade. Also, A DVD was a good marketing idea in an age when mailboxs are full of expensive view books, a lot of which go unread.</p>
<br>
<blockquote> <p>The editing showed perhaps more dorm life and arts than what I was anticipating but I think it helped in countering 'the fun goes to die' stereotype. </p> </blockquote>
<br>
<p>Just thinking about the things my daughter has talked about during her first semester at Swarthmore, I would have to say that "dorm life" (or in a broader sense, interacting with the other students) has been the single biggest impact of the experience. So, to the degree that the DVD emphasizes that, it's probably honest, especially for a freshman.</p>
<p>I think that's what makes picturing college so difficult for high school kids. They define "social life" as organized parties, drinking, or whatever. The reality is that the "fun" at most colleges is far more impromptu than that and part of the daily experience than that. </p>
<p>Same thing applies to the "learning" or exposure to new things. For example, my daughter's hallway has a little shared network of their favorite music. It has been very interesting to hear about. Daughter came home for break looking to borrow our Simon & Garfunkel and Dylan's Greatest Hits CDs. Two of her friends actually put country music on their little network, much to her chagrin because she and I had a longstanding joke about Swarthmore probably being a hotbed of country music!</p>
<p>I really enjoyed the DVD. My two top choices at this point are probably Stanford and Swarthmore (Yale is also up there on my list), and for a while I didn't really think I could turn down Stanford for Swat. After that DVD, however, I know I could. I love how Swat isn't afraid to have a personality, unlike most colleges I've visited where they ALL tell you the same thing. The more I hear about Swat the more I fall in love with the place. Now my challenge is just getting that across in the Why Swat essay... </p>
<p>Thanks interesteddad for all your input about Swat on this board. It's really helpful to get an insider's view and see how well the marketing matches the actual product.</p>
<p>I love how I hung out with one of the people featured on the DVD. I was so excited when she started talking.</p>
<p>Otherwise, the DVD is really cool.</p>
<p>Man. I still didn't get one. Hopefully this is not a bad omen.</p>
<p>I didn't get one either...I'm just reminding myself that they shouldn't send a DVD because we'll know within a week or so...right? Sigh. I overanalyze mailings entirely too much :)</p>
<p>Well, mine <em>just</em> arrived yesterday, and I live two and a half hours from Philadelphia. I wouldn't worry about it.</p>
<br>
<blockquote> <p>I didn't get one either...I'm just reminding myself that they shouldn't send a DVD because we'll know within a week or so...right? Sigh. I overanalyze mailings entirely too much </p> </blockquote>
<br>
<p>Yeah. Don't over-analyze. Trust me, the folks at the Swarthmore admissions office are wonderful, friendly people, but they certainly aren't organized enough to be sending subliminal messages according to who got and didn't get a DVD.</p>
<p>They have a bunch of Swattie students in a backroom putting labels on DVDs and acceptance letters while they yak about quantuum mechanics or the hot guy on the 2nd floor of the dorm! With any luck, you'll get an accepance letter instead of a disc in your DVD mailer!</p>
<p>If it's efficiency in mailing operations you are looking for, I recommend Emory. They are the best!</p>
<p>The two best things about the DVD:</p>
<ol>
<li>Trying to count how many ways "Swarthmore" is pronounced.</li>
<li>The a capella group singing my favorite REM song.</li>
</ol>
<p>Marlgirl- I swear we're applying to all the same places (Stanford, Swat, Yale, Chicago...)</p>
<p>Anyway I got the DVD last week and watched it over the weekend. It didn't turn me off of Swarthmore, but neither did it make we want to go there any more already, since it's one of my top choices right now. Looks like I'll be meeting a real variety of interesting people at Swarthmore if I go there, and that is definitely a good thing.</p>
<p>By the way, I pronounce Swarthmore with a silent "R."</p>
<p>I vary the pronounciation depending on the effect I intend to make. If I want to make Swat sound like an elite boarding school or a mental asylum in rural England, I say Swa'thmore. I say Swarthmore when my mouth isnt full of peanut butter.</p>
<p>College_hopeful, that's quite possible... if all goes well it'll just be Stanford, Swat, and Yale for me, plus RPI. It's not all that surprising that we'd be applying to many of the same places... to me Chicago and even Yale to some extent (with the residential colleges... kinda sorta) are somewhat similar to Swarthmore. </p>
<p>I pronounce the "R" in Swarthmore. I mean it's in the word... if it was supposed to be pronounced without the "R" then it'd be called Swathmore. "Swathmore" does sound better though, and it's easier to pronounce. </p>
<p>itsrainingpants, your user name makes me think of topological pants. 10 points to anyone who's actually heard of topological pants before!</p>
<br>
<blockquote> <p>a mental asylum in rural England, </p> </blockquote>
<br>
<p>Not too far off, actually. Swarthmore College is named after Swarthmore Hall, the 17th century British home of Margaret Fell. Fell became the wife of George Fox, the founder of the Quaker religious group. The first Quaker meetings took place in Swarthmore Hall.</p>
<p>Fox, as you can imagine, was viewed as a bit of an eccentric and had done some jail time for the crime of "blasphemy".</p>
<p><a href="http://www.swarthmoorhall.co.uk/%5B/url%5D">http://www.swarthmoorhall.co.uk/</a></p>
<p>It's so odd. I got the DVD after I went on Discovery Weekend to Swarthmore in mid-November. I saw at least five people who I met on campus in the dvd. There was the indian girl who drew a henna on my hand, the black chick who is really hot who drove me to my interview, my host's girlfriend who happens to have the exact same last name as mine (Alba - pretty rare), and a couple of others I met there.</p>
<p>I still haven't received one......not feeling good about this, esp when a coyple of my friends who didn't even apply got their last week!</p>
<p>i'm in NC too, and still haven't gotten the dvd. don't worry!</p>