I found this to be an interesting article. Swarthmore has a lovely campus. But I donât think of ârelaxedâ or âunpluggedâ as part of the Swat culture, either.
Other LACs with arboretums: Carleton, Connecticut College, Davidson, Haverford
@intparent -since I donât believe that you have a child who has attended Swarthmore, but did have a child who applied and chose another wonderful school, why do you persist on coming on the Swarthmore forum and throwing out snarky comments? You have no reference point as to whether students think of the campus as a place to âunplugâ or ârelax?â
Swat has a reputation for intensity â typically one of the most intense schools in the nation. It has had that reputation for a long time â I have adult cousins who went there, and they sure think it did. They still are a couple of the most intellectual and intense people I know, too. We did not see anything different on our visits to campus (including accepted student weekends). My kid didnât turn Swat down due to the intensity â in fact, she applied BECAUSE of it, and is at one of the other colleges in the US that usually turns up on those intensity âshort listsâ. Swat has a beautiful campus, no doubt about it. But you just really canât say that the average Swat student has a lot of time to relax during the semester. These forums donât just belong to parents and students who chose to attend a given school, either. I donât watch the Swat forum specifically, but if something comes up on latest posts, there is no reason not to read it or post.
I guess we just have a difference of opinion then, on whether itâs appropriate to make blanket statements about specific colleges we have no direct knowledge of. I would never go on the, letâs take the Harvey Mudd forum as an example, and post on there, even though I have worked with two students who currently attend Mudd. Just one momâs opinion. 
@momof3sons: Prof. Barry Schwartzâs address at the 2016 Last Collection is germane. It reads in part:
http://www.swarthmore.edu/commencement-2016/barry-schwartz-last-collection
Worrying that one may have made a mistake can be overwhelming if you let it; his advice is to let it go. When D1 applied to college, she was accepted by all 10 schools to which she applied (Brown, Carnegie Mellon (SCS), Chicago, etc.) Naturally, she could choose only one, but I never felt the need to validate her decision (nor did she). As a consequence, I never spent time on those schoolsâ CC threads denigrating them. D2 was an ED1 applicant to Swarthmore, but I never felt the need to denigrate the other schools that recruited her. Once oneâs child makes her decision, it is imperative to let it go.
I just reread the article but did not find any form of ârelax,â nor did I find any claim about Swat culture. (Yes, I see that you used single quotes.) I am hardly averse to criticism of things Swarthmore, having been critical of Rebecca Chopp and certain campus groups for their actions, but there is no need to create opportunities for gratuitous cuts out of whole cloth.
People turn down colleges all the time that they still have knowledge of. My guess is that you have never set foot on the Mudd campus. I wasnât actually criticizing Swat culture â as I said, at least in my D2âs book, the intensity is a plus.
You are absolutely correct, intparent. I have never set foot on the Mudd campus. I donât know enough about Mudd to comment on anything specific about it. Your implication must be that since you have set foot on the Swarthmore campus, you have valid points and information to offer about all things Swarthmore based on one or two visits to campus. If this post was your first comment about Swat I most certainly would have ignored it, but you have spent the last couple of years âcontributingâ to this forum.
If any students read this thread, I apologize for the tone and for keeping it going, but Iâm done. I am sure that intparent will have the last word.
Limiting the subforums to those posters with any particular perspective would not seem to be a good idea.