many ?s

Colleges and Universities A-Z Swarthmore College
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<p>sorry to add another "can i get in" post but if i'm going to spend 60 bucs to apply, might as well try and get some free info talk is cheap, but your knowledge will be richly valued</p>

<p>i'm a jr now</p>

<p>female 3.8 unweighted gpa on 4.33 scale all honors and ap classes. big competitive regional hs
extemporaneous speaking since frosh year. have competed in states tourney every year and have gone to harvard tourn twice. 8th in state last year, squat this year
mock trial since soph., best witness award last year, attorney this year
winter track 9 10 11 jv (throw shotput)
spring track 9 10 (throw shot and discus)
youth and gov (mock congress like activity) nominated to national conference last year and nominated as an alternate this year. ran and lost contest for youth governor
french math sci natl honor society
foiunder of young dems in my town
i played piano and clarinet up to this year, now I'm only in choir
got into governor's school of public issues
640m, 720w, 800 r on Sats (will retake)
just took french, lit, and us history satiis
and ap eng langcomp and ap us history
next year i'm taking ap gov pol, ap euro history, ap eng lit, ap french, honors global studies, choir, ap calc ab (i didn't get recommended for calc bc unfortunately)</p>

<p>i'm wondering
is the international studies program strong as i have heard
is the chance of going to georgetown, harv somewhere like that for grad work good if you are sucessful atswat
how are english, french programs
kind of unrelated-is comparative literature in any way a practical major</p>

<p>i have a great relationship with my speech and debate coach, he's also my eng teacher and a great person to turn to for guidance and or a laugh
will swat be full of teachers like these?</p>

<p>is it close enough to a train that you don't need a car to get there</p>

<p>thanx</p>

2

<p>From what I've heard, profs are good in terms of student involvement and Swat is VERY highly regarded by graduate school admissions folks. I don't know about comp. lit or international studies, but English is a very popular major. My sister (a sophomore at Swat) tells me the French program is underwhelming. </p>

<p>Swarthmore is practically on top of a commuter (R3) train station which runs directly into Philly's 30th St, which is the major terminal for Amtrak to Boston/Washington. From 30th St. you can take the R1 train to the airport as well. Basically, it couldn't be easier to get there. </p>

<p>Though of course we can give you zilch in the way of accurate information about admissions, my hunch would be that Swarthmore is a bit of a reach for you, but certainly not out of the question if you demonstrate interest and passion and kick donkey on the essays :) If you love the school it's worth your 60 bucks to apply, because at colleges like that it's impossible to predict anything.</p>

3

<p>Language is not Swarthmore's forte's, but you can take classes at Hav, Bryn Mawr and Penn. And Swarthmore is one of the top 10 best schools when it comes to getting undergrads into top Grad schools, even better by some estimates.</p>

4

<p>
[quote]
...is the international studies program strong as i have heard

[/quote]
</p>

<p>I could have a biased view from the courses my daughter has taken, but my strongest impression of Swarthmore is that the whole school is focused heavily on "international" studies. This emphasis extends across many departments: Sociology/Anthropology, History, Political Science, Economics, Linguistics, Languages, Religion, Art, Music, and so on. It also extends beyond the classroom. For example, Donna Jo Napoli of the Linguistics department writes childrens' books in her spare time, books that are published in many languages across the world. So you might get the opportunity to talk to her about her recent childrens' book tour of Iran. Virtually all of my daughters' Swat friends study overseas...not just for part of junior year, but often doing senior thesis research the summer before senior year. The school is the number one per capita producer of future PhDs in political science, in economics, and in the social sciences as a whole with much of the focus in all these areas on international interests. It's a topic of current conversation in this Swattie household as my daughter just got her travel itinerary for her study abroad next fall -- taking her to South America, China, and India. 65 hours on planes!</p>

<p>
[quote]
is the chance of going to georgetown, harv somewhere like that for grad work good if you are sucessful atswat

[/quote]
</p>

<p>The only two colleges or universities in the country that produced more PhDs per graduate that Swat over the most recent ten-year period were two tech schools -- CalTech and Harvey Mudd. 21.1% of all Swarthmore graduates got a PhD over that 10 year period -- and that does not include MDs, Law degrees, or MBAs. </p>

<p>Swat was #1 in per capita social science PhDs (7.1% of all Swat grads), #3 in per capita arts and humanities PhDs (5.2% of all Swat grads), and #6 in per capita science/math/engineering PhDs (8.3% of all Swat grads). It is a grad school factory and has been, going back at least half a century.</p>

<p>Here's the list of the graduate schools most often attended by Swat grads as reported to USNEWS. I think these are listed in order, starting with the most popular:</p>

<p>U. C. Berkeley
Univ. of Chicago
Harvard
M. I. T.
Univ. of Michigan
Univ. of Pennsylvania
Princeton
Stanford
Oxford
Duke
Columbia
Cornell
Yale
University of Wisconsin </p>

<p>
[quote]
how are english, french programs

[/quote]
</p>

<p>I've not really heard of a bad department at Swarthmore. English is a fairly popular department and, therefore, tends to be one of the departments where majors get preference over non-majors.</p>

<p>I disgree a bit that languages are not a forte at Swat. The language departments are small, but with the recent additions of Japanese and Arabic to French, German, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, and Linguistics, the languages are pretty comprehensive for a school with 1400 students. Swarthmore runs its own study abroad program in France.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.swarthmore.edu/Humanities/mll/french/abroad/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.swarthmore.edu/Humanities/mll/french/abroad/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>
[quote]
i have a great relationship with my speech and debate coach, he's also my eng teacher and a great person to turn to for guidance and or a laugh
will swat be full of teachers like these?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>That's what Swarthmore is all about. I don't think there is a college in the country that offers more of an emphasis on undergrad teaching and mentoring relationships between faculty and students -- and only a handful of colleges that are in the same league.</p>

<p>One of the things that has really caught my attention is the number of papers that my daughter writes in draft form and then gets comments/suggestions from her professor before making revisions for the final paper. </p>

<p>
[quote]
is it close enough to a train that you don't need a car to get there

[/quote]
</p>

<p>The train station is right on campus. The on-campus dorms are all between 200 and 500 yards away from the train station according to Google Earth. In addition to downtown Phila, you can also take a train directly to the terminals at the airport -- although most students sign up for the school's shuttle bus (20 minutes or so). Definitely do not need a car at Swarthmore.</p>