<p>Dartmouth does, as NorCalDad said, have a swim test, but it's really only about 2 laps in a fairly small pool. As for PE classes, you have to take 3, and they don't count as classes as A2Wolves said. However, you can get out of them by being on a sports team, leading a DOC trip, being in a dance group, taking a health class, etc. If you do decide to take PE, there are lots of really great options - skiing and snowboarding at the Dartmouth skiway, canoeing / kayaking / etc. on the Connecticut River, forestry (chopping wood and throwing axes and such), weekend-long hiking trips, all sorts of things.</p>
<p>Yeah, the MIT swim test is not that hard. You either have to do a 50 or a 100, I'm not quite sure. But either way, it will take a good swimmer maybe a minute, and a not so good swimmer about two. Plus the swim test, you have to take a certain number of PE requirements by sophomore year, I believe.</p>
<p>"Columbia University's undergraduate P.E. requirement famously includes a 75-yard swim test (at one time and maybe still does)."</p>
<p>It still does. Plus two semesters of PE courses, though one could kill two birds with one stone by taking a swim course. I've only taken one PE, fencing, so far; my teacher was the US Olympic Coach, a charismatic Hungarian who had defected from the Soviet bloc in the 1980s! Next semester I'm doing floor hockey. There are endless options, including weekend hikes in the Catskills and even scuba diving in the Atlantic...</p>
<p>Even if you're the kind of person who didn't like PE in high school, you'll like it in college. There are usually many options, involving all kinds of sports and activities -- even some that aren't physically testing, like bowling.</p>