<p>Ok, I think I'm a pretty liberal person. But I think there is a limit to the amount of liberalness I can handle. Some people just overdo it, you know? So by reading their website to prepare for their essay, I am sort of having bad vibes return that I thought would go away after I visited the campus. </p>
<p>The thing is, I simply don't want to go to a school where people will complain that Disney movies promotes "rape culture" or that male abuse is OK because men are the patriarchy or something like that. Given their size, a lot of colleges will probably have some people who say things like that, and I can handle that. But considering that Swarthmore is so small and tight-knit, I simply can't go to a school where those sorts of attitudes are entrenched among a significant amount of the population. Are the rumors accurate about Swatties being so liberal or am I just worrying too much?</p>
<p>I have similar concerns regarding some of the colleges my kid is considering. However, I just read the section on Swarthmore in a college guidebook I have that was written by actual students, and the write-up does not indicate that Swarthmore is “wacko”-liberal, just liberal Other schools discussed in this guidebook would indeed seem to fit that definition.
So I think you are OK.</p>
<p>Swat is a liberal place but is way too diverse to be rigid about anything, including any brand of liberalism. There are so many international students and students from every state in the US that no one looks at the world exactly the same way. Daughter is a Swat senior. She did a summer research fellowship at another university and a number of the other students there were evangelical Christian, purity ring, College Republican types - and brilliant. She found them very interesting because she had never met anyone like that at Swat. So Swat is liberal. But, in four years, she’s only mentioned one rabidly obnoxious student in a writing workshop who was really nasty about meat eating. My daughter was proud to say that not only does she eat meat, she’s from Iowa after all, but also that she helps haul the deer in from the woods behind our house after her dad has shot them. She explained that deer are marauding menaces - not Bambi. The only student in class who even blinked was the girl who had been pontificating about vegetarianism. She was left momentarily speechless. A couple of my daughter’s friends have had Disney movie parties - and not to diagnose rape culture. My daughter doesn’t go – Disney is not her thing–but she doesn’t have issues with the idea. What my daughter would say if she were writing this is that Swat students are quirky. There is just something a little off kilter about every single one of them, including her. She’d shake her head and say, “Swat students, gotta love them.” She also would say that because they are studying their tails off, no one has any energy left to be the cultural police for anyone else.</p>
<p>As an economically conservative student writing opinion for the paper, I got quite a bit of hate. Some students presumed that, because of my viewpoints, I must have had to be a rotten person to write such things. Of course, these people were those who didn’t know me; my friends who disagreed talked with me about the articles I wrote and we had more or less productive conversation. [Now I’ve become <em>much</em> less political, for various reasons.]</p>
<p>But if you want to be actively conservative on campus, you’ll have to be ready to put up with <em>a lot</em> of insidious hate from non-friends. And there’s a lot of lefty activism on campus. Perhaps you’ll find that politics is so intrinsically subjective that it’s not worth your time. Anyway, the political vibe on campus shouldn’t be a deterrent to go, because most top colleges have a contingent of highly lefty students. Swat’s pretty diverse, so you’ll be sure to find friends, even if they don’t agree with your viewpoints.</p>
<p>It’s funny because I worry about the exact opposite. (Someone complaining about how “politically correct” a college is? Let me add it to my list!)</p>
<p>If I’m accepted, you will have at least one classmate willing to discuss rape culture in Disney films (and there’s much to be said about classism, racism, and heterosexism in The Lion King if you want to go there), but the thing is: it would be an intellectually stimulating discussion with people interested in the topic. I would never complain how problematic X or Y is out of nowhere. Most radical liberals (I use the word loosely because its meaning has become quite malleable) speak out when real oppression is being perpetuated (see also the white woman using the n word on a sign at SW NYC as an example), and even then may become burnt out by how often their concerns are met with "You’re too sensitive"s. Just now, you have both people in favor and people against the queer sidewalk chalkings at Swarthmore.</p>
<p>That said, I know absolutely no one who condones male abuse simply because we live in a patriarchal world (and would be absolutely disgusted by anyone who did). I think you might have some askew views on what “too liberal” means.</p>
<p>TL;DR - I wouldn’t worry unless you were really conservative.</p>
<p>Sorry, but you are too sensitive. So-called social justice activists are terrible and I don’t want to stay in a place for four years feeling abused because I don’t want to follow a radical and oftentimes nonsensical dogma. I am not male and and I am not white, nor am I even conservative, I am just a sensible person.</p>
<p>And yes, there are really people out there I’ve seen who do condone male abuse and male rape simply because the victims are male. Open your eyes and realize that your side of the equation is not always perfect.</p>
<p>I’m writing this post as a member of Swarthmore Feminists. Swarthmore is not an environment of man-hating, crazy, vengeful, angry second wave feminists. Swatties are generally socially liberal, but most aren’t interested in the nitty gritty details of social justice like I am. Your perception of feminism is terribly flanderized and offensive to me, but nonetheless, let me assure you that you won’t be assailed for your discontent toward social justice movements. Most students are like you: they generally like the idea of social fairness, but they are aren’t radical. In fact, in my conversations about feminism, I’ve more than once had to defend feminism against the stereotypes that you are propagating. There are Swatties who think just like you do.</p>
<p>Um, I never said that my example was representative of all feminists, or even most. Obviously, you took it as an insult onto yourself. I’ve just had the misfortune of meeting some people who think that way. Like you, I personally consider myself a feminist, but there are some people who identify the same way and have said that men getting raped was perfectly ok. I’m guess I’m glad that you haven’t had the misfortune of hearing such terrible rhetoric.</p>
<p>I don’t consider myself a radical, a liberal, a social activist, or a feminist (for reasons I don’t care to explain in a forum about college admissions), so I am in no side of the “equation,” but okay. I just wanted to reassure you that most people think like you do.</p>
<p>When one says swatties are really into social activism, does that mean lots of protests, straight up community service, academic research regarding policy, etc? I just need a bit more clarification.</p>
<p>Personally, Im a very data-driven person and love analyzing how this policy affects that metric. It annoys the hell out of me when someone makes are argument for less or more welfare based on a single sob story about a single mother she heard on the radio.</p>
<p>When one says swatties are really into social activism, does that mean lots of protests, straight up community service, academic research regarding policy, etc? I just need a bit more clarification.</p>
<p>Swatties do all of these things. What you’re interest in sounds like a public policy major, sociology/anthropology major, or a statistics major. Swarthmore has the resources for you to do what you want, plus everything else.</p>
<p>^ Just to add on to that - there are Swatties who go to protests, perform community service, do academic research about policy, and many other forms of social activism. There are also Swatties who are totally disengaged from social activism. For example, what’s happening right now with our [General</a> Assembly protest movement](<a href=“daily.swarthmore.edu domain has changed”>daily.swarthmore.edu domain has changed) is limited to only part of the student body.</p>