<p>I am stunned at the low proportion of CCers who were admitted to Swarthmore through ED this year. The quality of applicants who were rejected outright is shocking, and if the results on CC are at all reflective of the general admissions trends, it seems like an ED bloodbath. Anyone have any guesses about why such fine applicants were not even deferred, especially given the obvious "fit" with and dedication to Swarthmore's ideals? Is this typical for Swarthmore?</p>
<p>Despite the many disappointing letters CCers have received in the last few days, let me join my voice to those who've wisely and accurately said that excellent opportunities await all those who were rejected. You are talented and hardworking students, and you will find your home elsewhere. And for those who were accepted, congratulations! Swarthmore is a remarkable institution, and you are in for an exciting and enriching four years.</p>
<p>I have to say, I’m kind of curious as well…there just seemed to be <em>so</em> many rejected applicants…it’s making me really nervous about my chances for EDII!
And yes, congrats to all those who were accepted. I’m sure those who weren’t will have some amazing choices in the RD round, given all your talent and accomplishments.</p>
<p>being someone that was rejected, I am going to get in contact with the admissions office, just because I want to see how I can strengthen my application for other schools that I choose to apply too.</p>
<p>so when i hear back from them, I will let you know what they say.</p>
<p>My advice is not to contact the Swarthmore admissions office. It’s a very subjective process and I doubt they’ll tell you anything helpful, if they even take the call or answer the e-mail. Besides, I’m sure there was nothing wrong with your application. Best thing to do now is to move on with your other applications. My Daughter was rejected last year from her ED choice and it was tough for a few days… she ended up with a lot of great choices and all worked out well. I’m sure the same will be true for you.</p>
<p>The best approach is to simply take the attitude that it is Swarthmore’s loss and move on to the other great colleges on your list.</p>
<p>Admissions offices are not going to share opinions about your application. Understand that virtually every ED application they get is from a qualified applicant. Swarthmore gets very few unqualified applications in any round. It’s not about that. It’s about filling 900 slots – 15% recruited athletes, 450 Asian American, African American, and Latino/a students. A mix of engineering and music and theater and interpretation theory. Writers, and writing tutors, and bloggers. Political activists. And, on and on and on. When you really start looking at the numbers, they are very small in any given “category”, espeically for female applicants. </p>
<p>The admission process is very subjective anyway. If you’re not admitted, you’ll still have many chances in other great colleges. Just don’t give up.</p>
<p>Was there a correlation between the rejections and financial need? Maybe Swarthmore has had to drop its academic standards in order to get more students in the door who can pay full price? Just curious.</p>
<p>A.E.:
That logic works the other way. Since ED students as a population are generally less reliant on financial aid than those admitted RD, the College would be increasing the number of students admitted ED to compensate for its decreased endowment. If anything, a decreased ED rate indicates higher academic standards, or at least a College that is in a position to be very choosy.</p>
<p>Swarthmore’s revenue/expense budget adjustments are detailed in the 26 page three year budget plan approved by the Swarthmore Board of Managers a week ago Saturday, in conjunction with the cuts made for the current fiscal year and announced last winter. This document covers all areas of the College’s operations, including a section on financial aid.</p>
<p>Need-blind, full-need, and loan-free financial aid policies continue. The only cut to financial aid is a budgeted $457,000 reduction in the anticipated $25 million financial aid budget. As a point of reference, the cost of going loan-free last year for the extra 60% of finanicial aid students (up to $200,000 annual income) who weren’t already loan-free was $1.7 million.</p>
<p>The Board decided that the $457,000 savings would be achieved by increasing the expected summer earnings of financial-aid students by about $600 a year per aided studetnt on average. For comparison purpusoses, Amherst’s new budget calls for $1.5 million in additional summer earnings or about $1650 per aided student.</p>
<p>There is no need to speculate on these issues. Swarthmore College and many of its peers have been transparent in making budget documents available publicly. Swarthmore’s June 30, 2009 year end audited financial report and the comprehensive budget document approved by the Board are available for any alumni interested learning the facts:</p>
<p>The percentage of Swarthmore students and first-year students receiving need-based aid each year is also publicly available in the Common Data Sets for any alumni interested the facts.</p>
<p>Here is the percentage of first year students qualifying for need-based financial aid at Swarthmore College:</p>
<p>The expectation in all of the budget planning discussion in fireside chats with Admissions and Financial Aid is that this percentage is likely to increase (and certainly not decline) as 2009 tax returns show diminished family incomes.</p>
<p>I agree with you in part, but I’d like to see any data regarding the percentage of ED students who require financial aid vs. the percentage of RD students who require financial aid. Do you have a source for this information?</p>
<p>I don’t think this quite paints the whole picture. Yes, financial aid increased, but did it increase enough to offset the massive hit the economy took since 10/07? I’m not suggesting that it’s realistic to expect that it should, but if Swarthmore can’t pump out enough financial aid to make up for a ~26% drop in the market between then and now and a US dollar that has been in decline, then what? Also, I see from the financial reports you linked that the average Swarthmore scholarship as a percentage of average need is up to 89% (up from 80% in 2008). But, again, I don’t know if this is sufficient to offset the downturn in the economy.</p>
<p>I also disagree with these claims of Swarthmore being need-blind. It is my understanding that Swarthmore is need-blind for domestic students but not need-blind for international students. That said, a surge in the number of international students would be easy to detect, so if the college decided to grant a bunch of wealthy international students admission during ED, I guess we’d know about it soon enough. Though we may not know the whole story in terms of what fraction of those students received aid and what fraction did not.</p>
<p>I really wonder what’s going on when, in 2007, 51% of students received need-based scholarships at Swarthmore and, in 2008 and 2009, this figure dropped to 49%, despite a global economic meltdown. If anything, if Swarthmore were truly need-blind, this number should have risen. What possible explanation is there for this? Will the numbers not tell the story until the 2010 report comes out next June? You say that this percentage will “certainly not decline” in the next report, but why did it decline in the last two?</p>
<p>That is the impact of going no-loan for all Swarthmore students beginning in Fall 2008. That move instantly shifted $2000 to $4000 in loans to increased Swarthmore grants.</p>
<p>Without loans, the entire aid packages are Swarthmore grants except for a small percentage of:</p>
<p>Federal grants (Pell grants, etc.)
State grants
Outside scholarships (National Merit, Kiwanis, etc)
Federal work-study earnings</p>
<p>This is not state college admission, this is selective college admission. It is highly objective. Sometimes that will work to your advantage, and sometimes it will not. </p>
<p>Keep in mind that just because you “know” someone on these boards, does not mean you know the whole picture. You haven’t read their essays (and if you have…have you read others as well? How many and for which schools?), and most importantly you have not read their teacher recs and school counselor recs. Everyone typically thinks their recs are great, but many are surprisingly lukewarm. And lukewarm doesn’t get anyone excited. And then, there are the recs that include a couple of telling clues that confirm potentially negative themes the admission officer might have read elsewhere (in essays or teacher recs). What are the negatives? Pushy, obsessive, insensitivity to others in classroom settings (i.e.: those not quite as smart as you), need to dominate, overly competitive, grade-obsessed, and don’t think the teachers don’t know when they are being “played” by kids who think they are savvy. Again, not saying this is the case for any of the applicants here, but let’s not kid ourselves and think that we know all. The only ones who know all are the ones who read the folders, front to back.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that Swarthmore is a VERY small school. They have to reject many, many qualified students simply because 1. there is no room at the inn and 2. they have to create a diversified campus. If you happen to be a lefthanded tuba player and that’s what they need, you’re in. If they already have five, you’re out. No reflection on you, just the luck of the draw.</p>
<p>I think Buddy75 is completely right. When I visited Swarthmore for Discover Swarthmore (a minority fly in program), I was stunned by just how varied and diverse (not just racially) Swarthmore was. Given that they are a small, elite LAC and have such an emphasis on sculpting an ideal class, it’s hard to say what got you in or what didn’t. Obviously, good scores and grades and EC’s help you out, but in the end you might not be the (insert a couple of adjectives here) student that they are looking for.</p>
<p>I know from my friend that goes to Thomas Jefferson (#1 public school in the nation) that Swarthmore is the HARDEST school to get into for them, even though they send huge numbers of kids to the Ivies/MIT/CalTech/Stanford. Maybe they aren’t the kind of students Swarthmore is looking for, but they sure as hell are qualified.</p>
<p>To A.E.'s point — how can any school claiming to be “need blind” show a decline in the percentage of students on aid in a recession. More than that, however, how in the world is one able to project any budget reduction (the $457k cited by interesteddad) in the coming year? If one is need blind, one would have no clue what the final overall budget will be until all the students are offered admission and then the chips fall they as do (that is, who chooses to attend). A school can say it is raising the work component of an aid package and expects to save from what the total FA cost would be, but if truly need blind, it would never be able to predict any kind of accurate savings over the previous year for it would not know who its students will be and how needy.</p>