<p>Right. Swarthmore isn’t pretentious.</p>
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<p>It’s not pretentious at all; just the opposite, in fact. The students, faculty, and administration are, with a few notable exceptions, as unpretentious as you can get. It’s part of the culture of the place. Good grief, it was founded by the Quakers. Hard to find a more unpretentious crew than a bunch of Quakers.</p>
<p>I’m with 1190’s recommendations in post #40. Those are the six schools that immediately came to mind for me as well, plus I would add all of the top women’s colleges for consideration.</p>
<p>Perhaps I have a different meaning of the word pretentious than you do. I’m thinking of the huge intellectual scene that Swarthmore revolves itself around. Kind of like how Oberlin and Reed are pretentious.</p>
<p>I’ll let Gawker take it away:</p>
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<p>[Swarthmore</a> College | News | Swarthmore In The News<br>August 16, 2007](<a href=“http://www.swarthmore.edu/x13989.xml]Swarthmore”>http://www.swarthmore.edu/x13989.xml)</p>
<p>Not everybody at Swarthmore is this way, obviously. But it has a pretty big influence on campus. A lot moreso than Grinnell or Carleton.</p>
<p>You are going to let the ultimate pretentious NYC humor blog tell you that Swarthmore is pretentious because it’s not preppy enough? Sheesh, what’s next? USNEWS & WORLD REPORT ranking colleges?</p>
<p>It is true that Swarthmore isn’t surrounded by cornfields, and I would agree that Grinnell and Carleton probably have a higher “aw, shucks, golly gee” quotient, but pretentious is pretty far wide of the mark for the student body I’ve seen – and I saw 364 of them at graduation last weekend. Actually, when you see 364 Swatties and their families in one place, the overwhelming impression is “diversity”. There’s no other conceivable first impression.</p>
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<p>Swarthmore is not anything like Oberlin or Reed.</p>
<p>BTW, the **First-Year Seminar: The Art of the Japanese Tea Ceremony **is an introductory art history course into Japanese art, in all of its forms. It’s a writing course, which means that it’s pretty rigorous in the amount of writing and the writing instruction built into the course. But, I doubt that Gawker bothered to look at that.</p>
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<p>Yes, but perhaps you didn’t see “White, female, Nevada.” Deep Springs is male-only.</p>
<p>Indeed. I didn’t see that. My bad.</p>
<p>I’m interested in whether or not others find Swarthmore pretentious. Between studying abroad and my first job, I’ve ran into my fair share of Swarthmore kids. This is just the general impression I have obtained from them sharing their college experiences.</p>
<p>I would agree that it less of a factor than at Reed or Oberlin. But it is up there on the LAC list.</p>
<p>Cayuga:</p>
<p>I would go with “geek” way before “pretentious” in describing Swarthmore students.</p>
<p>Just my opinion, but I visited Swarthmore, Williams, Midd, and Bowdoin, and found Bowdoin, which is a bit smaller, much less pretentious than the rest. People were just more accessible on campus, more talkative, etc. While there is a high academic standard, everyone told me that the competition between students is low, even though most go on to good grad schools. At both Swath. and Williams, I got the opposite feeling–tension, tension, and more tension. All of these schools are very competitive-- less than 20% acceptance rates. For safeties, I liked Bates and Colby for similar reasons to Bowdoin, and also Vassar, alot. Just my view, but thought it might help.</p>
<p>My daughter had some interesting feedback on Vassar, she has good friends there and has visited a number of times from Swarthmore. She said that she is a bit taken aback by the prevalence of “rich kids” and the popularity of cocaine…neither of which she has seen as notable at Swarthmore. I don’t think she means “rich kids” as absolute measure of family income (with 50% full-pay customers, Swarthmore obviously has its share), but more as a comment on lifestyle and attitude she saw.</p>
<p>One correction, Bowdoin is a bit larger than Swarthmore, 1710 full-time students last fall compared to 1480 at Swarthmore.</p>
<p>Oh. Thanks for the correction.</p>
<p>For the record, I don’t think any of the liberal arts colleges are particularly pretentious. Pretenious students want the brand name. </p>
<p>If you want pretentious, you’d go to Duke.</p>
<p>I actually visited Duke, and visiting it made me not want to go to it or any school like it. I also visited UNC Chapel Hill, and though I disliked it for other reasons (too big, mainly), I found it to be much, MUCH less pretentious than Duke.</p>
<p>The kids at Duke are smart, yes. But the school itself seems so… typical, and places such a ridiculous emphasis on two things: basketball, and nice facilities. During the information session, the admissions officer showed us a picture of people camping out in tents, for up to six weeks, in order to get basketball tickets. That’s just not my thing.</p>
<p>Just my two cents.</p>
<p>You should set some priorities for the search. Is size really No. 1? Or is it academics — having the neuroscience major or programs to connect students with research opportunities (esp in the pre-med sciences)? </p>
<p>Look for colleges — reaches and nonreaches — that first offer you your top priority and make a long list. Then reduce from that based on other factors, such as the fit and feel of the campus. Certain colleges do have more of a reputation than others for being nurturing as opposed to sink-or-swim and as a 16-year-old entering college, you may prefer the former. </p>
<p>You might also check out Pitzer in CA (and Pomona for that matter) and get the best of both worlds — a very small college connected to four others in a five-college consortium. Many choices, lots of variety, easy-going lifestyle, access to L.A. and the beaches. My two cents.</p>
<p>Yeah, Pitzer and Pomona do look interesting. I’m originally from SoCal and definitely like the weather there.</p>
<p>For me, I think size probably is my top priority. However, the colleges that I apply to will also have to offer sufficient research opportunities. I don’t necessarily need a college that’s all about the research or anything like that. I care more about the size, the environment, and the attitudes of the students and the professors.</p>
<p>Your interests would mesh well with Pomona College (1,500 students). And I agree you’d be competitive there. Probably the most laid-back and “unpretentious” of the top LACs (Amherst, Williams, Swarthmore, Pomona). Check out their video tour [url=<a href=“http://www.pomona.edu/admissions/]here[/url”>Admissions | Pomona College in Claremont, California - Pomona College]here[/url</a>] - it’s a good overview. And it’s strong in your intended areas of interest (Neuroscience/bio/biochem/environmental sci/English/psych/phil).</p>
<p>One of the best parts of the school, according to my D, is the sponsor groups - 10-15 freshmen living in the same dorm wing pre-selected by the school to have similar interests, led by 2 live-in sophomore ‘sponsors’. Good luck!</p>
<p>Lots of snow, but Lawrence university is worth a look/see. My son left a mediterranean climate and loves it: close faculty relationships, small classes, emphasis on academics, laid back accepting students, strong financial aid and more…</p>
<p>look at LACs, they typically seem to be pretty small</p>
<p>The OP would most likely qualify for major merit scholarships at Sweet Briar, Hollins, and Randolph College. All 3 are very small LACs in VA. SB and H are all-women, R just went coed from being singlesex female.</p>
<p>Washington and Lee only has 1800 students. While there is an active social scene, many students reject the band party side of Greek Life while focusing on their fraternities/sororities philanthropic endeavors.</p>
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What’s the connection between being intellectual and being pretentious? Or do Oberlin and Reed only pretend to be intellectual, and Swat is truly intellectual?</p>
<p>vossron, the more I think of the whole description, it makes no sense at all. Swarthmore students are the anti-thesis of pretentious. And, everything I know of Oberlin and Reed suggests the same thing.</p>
<p>I think it must be some of kind of association with sudents who can talk the academic jargon, I don’t know.</p>