Discover Swarthmore - Diversity Weekend

<p>It was so much fun! Wish I would’ve known about this thread earlier haha.</p>

<p>Really? I decided I’m not applying after attending lol.</p>

<p>What made you decide that elbeeen? I hope you had fun anyway, xD.</p>

<p>aw, sorry to hear you didn’t like it, but I agree with Emeraldstar, hope you had fun! I think I’m going to apply; I heard the fee’s waived? So nothing to lose!</p>

<p>Really? Thats good, and definitely nothing to lose then. xD. Except however long it takes you to write essays, etc.
My parents weren’t thinking of applying for financial aid either, so I guess it’d take even less time for me?
He like put info. into the fafsa, and it was like, you can pay 99,999 or w/e. >.></p>

<p>yea, that’s even less trouble! haha. I’m going to make my parents do the fafsa and financial aid thingy, cause I have enough to worry about with college apps -_- plus, Swarthmore’s financial aid supposedly takes FOREVER cause it’s so detailed so yea, I’m not doing that haha</p>

<p>elbeen: Could you tell us what didn’t you like about Swarthmore? What schools are your main targets now?</p>

<p>I’m a parent. My son went to DS! and it confirmed all the things he loves about the school. He will be applying.</p>

<p>englishjw:</p>

<p>I think it’s perfectly normal to have some students love Swarthmore after visits like Discovery or Ride the Tide. I think it’s also perfectly normal to have students decide that Swarthmore is not for them. In my mind, that’s living proof that these events really do work. Better to decide that Swarthmore is not for you now than spring sememster freshman year!</p>

<p>Rightly or wrongly, I don’t even know if “reasons” can even be expressed in many cases. For example, my daughter wrote off Haverford after a visit and was never able to articulate a particular reason. Sometimes it’s just not a “vibe” that clicks.</p>

<p>interesteddad:</p>

<p>I am a parent of a girl who just returned from the Discovery program. She now has some hesitation applying ED. She is still impressed and attracted by the educataional philosophy and the academics. However, she felt she did not click with the dozen or so student she met. Her impression is that the students are all very nice and friendly, however quite high-energy and opinionated. Our daughter is not a person without her own opinions, but she as well as her group of friends are all low-key, unassuming, somewhat understated and noncompetitive kids. She is not sure if she would fit in socially. Somehow we had the impression that Swarthmore is a kinder, gentler place for kids who wants to be intellectually challegned. Do you have any insight? Thank you for your time.</p>

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<p>My daughter was low-key, somewhat understated, and non-competitive (although outgoing) and absolutely loved Swarthmore. I would say that “unassuming, somewhat understated, and noncompetitive” is probably a reasonalble description of the majority of Swarthmore students and certainly of most of my daughter’s Swarthmore friends that I have met. If they weren’t, they’d all be looking at Harvard or Princeton.</p>

<p>There are, obviously, some real “go-go” kids at a place like Swarthmore and some kids with strong opinions about things, given that Swarthmore tends to go for kids with interesting experiences. I know that my daughter was in awe of some of her classmates, but also found it somewhat liberating to not havet to be the top dog.</p>

<p>Other than a general pride in doing well in academic environment that is a championship caliber course played from the back tees, there was nothing competitive about the academic culture of Swarthmore at all. From what I saw, it is a stuningly collaborative place. In fact, I would say that it’s one of Swarthmore’s defining characteristics. The degree of peer support and cooperation – from formal writing and science peer support to just two friends kicking around their ideas for papers with each other – is one of the areas that makes Swarthmore a leader in undergrad education.</p>

<p>tbs,
Most of the students who go out of their way to interact with prospective students are the high-energy types. Those of us with more reasonable amounts of energy (and believe me, there are plenty of us) tend to hide in our rooms and avoid contact with the swarms of overexcited high school seniors during Ride the Tide and Discovery Weekend. </p>

<p>That said–if your daughter really doesn’t feel comfortable interacting with high-energy, opinionated people in her dorm and in her classes, then yes, Swat might not be the right place. But she will certainly not be the only low-key kid on campus. She’ll be able to find some like-minded friends.</p>

<p>@Cabrera: Lol, yea . . .
@Ets: Well them how’re we supposed to get a complete picture? xD.
I feel like I’m kinda low-key as well, but I definitely enjoyed listening to the conversations, and know I’d contribute once in a while, or more. My host was definitely not a high-energy type, and neither were a few of her friends I had met, but they also had specs, so yea.</p>

<p>interesteddad:</p>

<p>"Rightly or wrongly, I don’t even know if “reasons” can even be expressed in many cases. For example, my daughter wrote off Haverford after a visit and was never able to articulate a particular reason. Sometimes it’s just not a “vibe” that clicks. "</p>

<p>I agree entirely. My son loved Swarthmore from the first few moments of our first visit. I had no positive feelings for the college at all when we made that trip. Haverford was very different. We made a short visit one late afternoon and he had no positive reaction to: the place, the students we met, the admissions staff, etc. Nonetheless, I didn’t feel this was a fair visit and we went again. On our second trip we sat through an information session, took a regular tour (where Steve Emerson, the President, joined us). We stayed, ate lunch and walked around. This time, we both came away with a much more positive view of the school.</p>

<p>While my son doesn’t articulate reasons for his positive or negative reaction to schools, we usually get to them. One thing we did when we started thinking about colleges was to build a list of criteria to use in selecting a school. At first, it only contained negatives (e.g., he didn’t want law; he didn’t want medicine; he didn’t want finance). After a few campus visits, he added more negatives (e.g., he didn’t want a large school;; he didn’t want a campus within a major city). Slowly, he began to define the things he did want. From this list, we can usually get at reasons why he reacts positively or negatively to different schools.</p>

<p>Whoops! Sorry for the late reply. But to all who are curious, Swarthmore’s student body just didn’t live up to what I wanted it to. I know they pride themselves on being “quirky” but some of them were downright weird hahaa. Teradactyl hunts comprised the social activities of the weekend. Every other party/plan shut down by 10pm. I understand that it was midterm week, but still. The few parties they did hold were not open to “specs” and lame at best. The social scene is just lacking. I’m not looking for a raging party school or anything, but idk. It wasn’t for me. But most of the people I hung out with liked it so congrats to all who enjoyed it! This weekend did show me how happy I was at Amherst’s DivOH last weekend and I signed my ED agreement there so it wasn’t a total waste.</p>

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<p>Hah. That’s a once a year tradition that dates back decades. There are not pteradactyl hunts as a regular weekend event.</p>

<p>Yes. Swarthmore has a rule against taking high school specs to parties where booze is being served and, by and large, the Swarthmore students try to honor that request. What tends to happen on spec weekends is a little atypical: a lot of small private parties in th upperclass dorms rather than the typical large all campus party with booze. Nobody wants a bunch of drunk high school kids roaming around. Not a good deal for them; not a good deal for the College. Contrast to another top LAC that has had two high school specs found comatose on dorm stairs in recent years, hauled off the emergency room by ambulance and their parents called because the doctors weren’t sure they would survive. That’s really unacceptable.</p>

<p>I’m sure that the inability to drink on a college visit disappoints some specs. But, that’s good, too. Swarthmore is probably not the right place for them. Both Amherst and Williams would be better places for a big drinking scene, although – ironically – booze is more openly and readily available at Swarthmore. For example, security does’t do routine sweeps through dorms confiscating booze.</p>

<p>Like I said - I’m not itching for “booze” or a raging party scene. But everything literally shut down by midnight. There was NOTHING to do on campus. We sat around Parrish just talking and getting to know each other. And again, that is probably due to the fact that it IS midterm week and everyone was busy studying so nothing was really happening. But yeah, Swarthmore just wasn’t my scene. Great school but just not for me!</p>

<p>elbeeen</p>

<p>Thanks for taking the time to answer. I’m sure you will love Amherst.</p>

<p>interesteddad, etselec and everybody: </p>

<p>Thank you for your thoughts. They are quite helpful.</p>

<p>elbeen,
I have a son who graduated from Swat and one who is currently a freshman, so I am quite familiar with the school. My current freshman son visited Rice University while trying to make a final decision on which school to attend. He was very turned off to the fact that he was dragged from one drunken party to another on “spec” weekend. His twin brother did an overnight at Vassar, and the first thing his freshman host talked about was the party that night where there would be drinking. He was totally turned off to the school. Maybe you would have enjoyed that scene, and that’s why there are so many good schools out there with different social scenes.</p>

<p>As interesteddad said, the Pterodactyl hunt is a goofy tradition which happens once a year. And, as you pointed out, it was midterms week! Most Swatties are pretty serious about their academics. My current freshman son was also concerned about whether there were any “normal” kids at Swat and his overnight there convinced him that there were plenty of those folks around. He’s very involved now in a sport, an a cappella group and a musical group, with plenty of “normal” kids. Trust me, the parties normally do not shut down by 10 p.m. But it’s OK if the place didn’t appeal to you. I just don’t want anyone else reading this thread to think that what you described is the “normal” social scene.</p>

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<p>Parties don’t even really start at Swarthmore until nearly midnight.</p>