My daughter attends Swarthmore (Class of 2022), and I’ve often wondered what tipped the scales in her favor. She applied regular decision, and submitted her Common Application right at the January deadline.
She was ranked top of her class in her public high school, the only high school in our small, rural town in California (Bishop, pop. 3,800). She’s always gotten good grades (never earned less than an A from kindergarten through her senior year), but so many applicants seem to have achieved that. She took just about every AP course she could, but didn’t take a single math class her senior year, since she didn’t really enjoy math. But, she is passionate about many other things - theatre (roles in just about any production our local playhouse has ever done - her high school has no drama dept.), music (sings in our church choir, but high school choir was recently dropped in her high school), and writing - she brought authors to our town for book signings, and started a creative writing club at her high school, and earned her Girl Scouts Gold award for her ongoing efforts putting on creative writing story competitions for kids who also love creative writing (her high school does not offer creative writing/composition courses - only one AP English course for juniors/seniors).
She applied to Swarthmore because of their clever and silly mailings, which struck her fancy. She did do a Skype interview with a Swarthmore alumna. When she received her acceptance, she did go to Swatstruck, since none of us had ever been there, and she thought it would be a good idea to visit in person before she decided where to go to college. Thankfully, they paid for the flight - it was from Los Angeles, a 6-hour drive from our town, but I’m glad we were able to get her there. When she got back from Swatstruck, the words “What did you think?” were barely out of my mouth when she said, “Dad, I’m going to Swarthmore.”
I think when Swarthmore admissions say they do a holistic evaluation, you should take them at their word. They seem to want passionate people who have worked hard throughout their young lives at things they care deeply about. That certainly describes the young people who make up her classmates so far this year. They all seem to be deeply passionate about so many things!
If you think that you are that type of person - someone who has worked hard at things they care deeply about, and maintained good grades while doing those things, I suspect Swarthmore will be to your liking. My daughter loves it so far, although they’ve only just begun their new year. She has already joined an a cappella group, the campus choir, and has tried out for plays, and a sketch comedy group. She is definitely not eschewing any opportunities, since she never had that many chances to explore her talents here in our rural town, with an average public high school. She is concerned about the homework, which is significant. We’ll see her in a couple of weeks for Fall break, so I suppose we’ll find out what she thinks about the course load then. Best of luck to you on admission to Swarthmore. If it ends up not being Swarthmore, I hope whatever school you attend after high school is one you love, too.