<p>And, yes....students who attend Discovery Weekend have a signficantly higher rate of admissions than the overall rate. There are several reasons for that. Af Am, Latino/a, and Asian Americans have a higher rate of admission at Swarthmore to start with. 52% of the acceptance letters last year went to U.S. students of color. Swarthmore is very aggressive in diversity recruiting.</p>
<p>Plus, the Discovery Weekend students are already pre-screened through its application process.</p>
<p>Would you call a paragraph an essay? I was initially going to just write a few sentences on what I want to gain from attending Discovery weekend (find out more if it'll fit me, see what Swarthmore has to offer, try to get a sense of college life in Swarthmore).</p>
<p>Office of Admissions
Swarthmore College
500 College Avenue
Swarthmore PA 19081-9987</p>
<p>So it seems fit just to send it to the admissions office. Also, I suggest labeling the top left hand corner of the envelope as "Discovery Weekend" because that's how it is on the prepaid envelope.</p>
<p>I want to go but I'd have transportation issues (I live too close to Swat to go by plane or something.) If I don't apply, wil Swat think I'm not really interested and look down on me during the regular admissions process? :/</p>
<p>I somehow doubt that Swarthmore keeps track of the people who <em>don't</em> visit the college - just those who do. ;) Plenty of people who get invited won't be able to make it for various reasons, so if you can't go, don't be concerned about it being a negative. Still try to visit if you can some other time, though.</p>
<p>Give the admissions office a call. There's easy and inexpensive train service directly to campus. They can probably work something out.</p>
<p>Texasmama:</p>
<p>Tons of CCers have attended Discovery Weekend. My daughter did not, but she has worked the event several times as an admissions intern. Pretty much the entire campus is involved in housing students. You can imagine that 300 visitors on a campus with only 1300 or so students is pretty much like the invasion of Normandy. Every dorm is chock full of "specs", as is the dining hall.</p>
<p>It's a great event. It gives high school kids a taste of college. And, it's really valuable for figuring out if Swarthmore is the right place for the student and vice versa. The intermingling of high school/college students and high school/high school students seems to do a good job of sorting out the "yeah, this is great" from the "probably not for me."</p>
<p>Advice: take a sleeping bag. Just go with the flow. Feel free to just walk up to people in the dorm and hang out, whether they are your assigned "host" or not. Be prepared to be short on sleep -- college students keep college hours.</p>
<p>Hooray! I submitted my app for this :) I hope I get in, Swarthmore is pure <3</p>
<p>My essays were like 1000 words each, though, haha. Ummm yeah. Hopefully the Swarthmore admissions people don't mind - or will they hate me forever for writing long essays? :( </p>
<p>I'm excited. I am dying of anticipation for September 7.</p>
<p>When you guys get your responses, anyone wanting to talk to a Swattie is welcome to message me and I can give you my number if you want to say hi or have questions! :]</p>