i am deciding whether to apply to a school in which i wouldn’t receive support or apply to a school which has a “better rank” on paper but must swim for the team. i like swimming, but don’t know whether or not i should pursue it in college. Thoughts? Personal experience? i need to make this decision ASAP and i am really stressed out! 
If you only like swimming, you might find the time commitment not worth it. It is a huge time commitment.
Did you do an overnight recruiting trip with the swim team? That might help make your decision one way or the other.
It also depends on your major. If you have a tough major like engineering, you might want to forgo sports in college other than intramurals.
It’s pretty clear to us now that it would have been very difficult for my son to play his sport in college and do well in his engineering classes. A few kids can manage, but one of the “poster children” for being an engineer and playing sports at a high level is now in his fifth year of college (neither that program nor my son’s is funded though).
By “must swim for the team” do you mean you would be receiving athletic $$ (i.e Div 1 or 2 or NAIA), and without it you definitely could not attend the school? If you are not committed to the sport, then 4 years is a lot of time to stare at a black line on the bottom of the pool. If you are not receiving athletic $$ (i.e. Ivy or Division 3), then you have a moral obligation not to lie to the coach, if asked about your intentions, and to at least swim the first year (I think), but many people drop sports in Ivys and Div 3 after the first or second year. College swimming may be more fun than you give it credit for, too. Many Div 3 schools only swim from late September until February.
My daughter is an engineering student and an athlete. She just dropped a class (sophomore year) so went from 18 to 15 credits. She may have to go an extra semester or a summer and I will have to pay for that, but in the long run it will be cheaper for me to pay for an extra semester than for the entire 4 years, and playing her sport makes her happy and keeps her healthy.
She goes to an engineering school (55% are in engineering, another 30% in STEM majors). There are many athletes since there are 25 or so teams fielded at the school.