My son is looking at liberal arts colleges. He is considering Haverford, Swarthmore, and Wesleyan

College Search & Selection
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Haverford is located in a very affluent suburb of Philly. Bigger than Swarthmore and more populous. The “towns” along the main line are literally in a line along Lancaster Avenue starting in Malvern and continuing all the way to City Line Avenue. There are upscale shops and restaurants in Haverford. The next town over, Ardmore, has a great outdoor area with lots of shops and restaurants too. The train station to go to Philly is walkable from campus.

Swarthmore is smaller both in population and area, a bit more artsy, has a number of art galleries, as well as restaurants and a showcase comics (also one in Bryn Mawr next to Haverford).

Villanova University is a couple miles west of Haverford. Also on Lancaster Avenue. There are a lot of college kids in the area.

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They are about 20 mins apart. A van runs every hour between the schools (and Bryn Mawr).

As for activism, I would suggest that the students are very similar regarding activism. The biggest difference (IMO) is that Swarthmore has Val Smith as President…and she is an incredible leader.

To get to 30th street station in Philly…it takes 20 mins from Haverford and 30 mins from Swat. The towns are very different.

Swat is more like a college town with a small downtown…coffee shop, a few restaurants…with a LOT of food and shopping within a 10 minute drive (including Media, which is the county seat).

Haverford is on the Main Line…which has a ton of high end shopping, good restaurants, bars, theaters. Villanova and Bryn Mawr at within 5 miles…it’s a lot more suburban.

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I live near Middletown and I’m in and out of there all the time. It’s a small city of almost 50,000 people. It has a bustling Main Street a few blocks from Wesleyan withe tons of restaurants, a multiplex movie theater, and a small live music venue, The Buttonwood Tree. There’s not much in the way of museums, but there are museums in Hartford, New Haven, and up and down the Connecticut Valley. You said that your son likes restaurants, movies, and museums. If you can be more specific about what else he likes, I can tell you what’s available.

I should note that Wesleyan has a student run farm if he likes that sort of thing. Students also volunteer in various ways in the community if he’s looking for that. There’s community theater in addition to what’s available on campus. There’s the best children’s museum anywhere where I’ve seen psych students doing research with children who have willing parents. There’s an active soup kitchen that’s always seeking volunteers. For a history buff, central Connecticut reeks with colonial and pre-colonial history. It’s also been home to writers like Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Daniel Webster. It’s where Samuel Colt manufactured rifles and where modern aircraft engines are designed. Across the CT River in Portland are the old brownstone quarries where 90% of the brownstone for NYC, Boston, and Philadelphia was quarried. It’s now a zip line, rock climbing and water sport action and adventure park. Portland is also where the Airline Trail begins, a rails to trails project 25 years in the making, which runs across Eastern Connecticut for more than 60 miles and is shared by walkers, joggers, bikers, and horseback riders alike - basically any means of getting around as long as it’s not motorized. Portland is accessible by a short ride on local bus service.

There really is a lot happening in Middletown right now and there are lots of ways to get involved. The energy is coming from Ben Florsheim, the barely 29-year-old mayor who was elected just 2 years ago. He is bubbling with ideas and looking for ways to make them happen. Covid has changed things, closing some restaurants as it has everywhere, but Ben has convinced the city to buy one of them, an historic building on the river, and is turning it into a waterfront food court with plans for more to follow as one example of his efforts to keep the city thriving.

Ben is a 2014 graduate of Wesleyan and has mostly lived in Middletown since graduation except for a short stint in New Haven. You say that your son’s academic interests include government. Im sure that Ben will be very accessible to a Wesleyan student who is interested in getting some hands on experience with city government. Ben also worked with Sen. Chris Murphy for 5 years, so I expect that he has connections with that office for more experiences at that level as well. The senator maintains an office in nearby Hartford.

One example of Middletown’s community spirit is O’Rourke’s Diner, a vintage landmark going back 80 years. The O’Rourke family has run the diner the entire time. About 7 years ago the diner was devastated by fire. The O’Rourkes didn’t have to go to a bank to finance a rebuild. The community wasn’t going to let a beloved landmark die. Local citizen rallied and raised the necessary funds with donations from ordinary citizens. Be sure to stop and have a bite to eat there when you’re in town.

Really, lots happening and lots to do.

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Thank you for the information.
Would you say that Middletown was less lively prior to Florsheim’s mayoralty?

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No. It’s just that he’s facing the Covid challenges head on when another politician might have just left things to the private sector. His youth and energy has brought a new dynamic to the current circumstances. Seems to be the right man at the right time.

I mentioned Florsheim primarily because of his connection to Wesleyan and because of your son’s interest in government. It seems like it could be a good match.

Their vibrant restaurant scene is one of the things that has brought people into Middletown from around the region. In the past year, a number of popular restaurants have closed, starting with Forbidden City, an Asian Fusion restaurant which was the best of its kind. They had recently expanded to a larger facility and the hit from Covid was apparently more than their finances could take. The Canoe Club, a waterfront restaurant which dates back to the late 1800’s in various iterations is the one I mentioned which the city bought. Herd, an innovative farm-to-table restaurant just a few years old, was another victim after making every effort to keep things going. Others have closed temporarily and we’ll see if they ever come back. Despite these losses, there are still a plethora of good dining spots in Middletown.

What makes Florsheim so savvy is that he gets it. The restaurant scene is at the core of Middletown’s appeal these days. The outpouring of support for O’Rourke’s alone shows how the community feels. Florsheim showed that he’s a man of action and isn’t just going to sit back when the core of his city is threatened, so he’s formed a unique public-private partnership with other existing food vendors to preserve an anchor for the city’s waterfront park and to make the city a stop for boaters on the river. Over the centuries communities everywhere have had to rise to overcome various obstacles and other challenges. This is one step in that direction that this city has taken.

Middletown has long had a lively entrepreneurial spirit. It’s the place where the Bob’s Stores chain began, originally catering to college students. Baldwin Furniture, a yard and lawn furniture company now sells all over the world, based on one kid’s project in a middle school shop class decades ago. The city worked with the private sector to move colonial homes to Main Street for professional office space with a colonial character. Together with the conversion of an old armory into an appealing downtown hotel, these projects revitalized the South Green end of Main Street over the years. Old factories overlooking a mill pond have been converted into attractive condos. Entrepreneurs moved a house and converted another one to create Kids’ City, a “museum” which draws children, parents, and grandparents from all over the region. Immediately across the River, entrepreneurs took over the old brownstone quarry which had been abandoned for almost 60 years and converted it into a unique action and adventure park. Wesleyan has done its share. One project was to collaborate in the development of “Wesleyan Hills”, a housing development with unique features like a neighborhood theater ti help build a sense of community. More recently they bought an abandoned state facility and created a solar farm.

I hope this helps to give you a feel for the place.

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IIRC, Wesleyan was also a key investor in the downtown hotel. Not enough credit is given to the late president, Douglas Bennet and ex-mayor Monique Thornton in forging the first really effective town/gown partnership between Wesleyan and Middletown. The state-brokered land transfer that occurred under their watch effectively doubled the size of Wesleyan’s campus and enabled it to redesign its central quadrangle.

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You didn’t ask me, but no, I wouldn’t. We made our first trip to Middletown in 2014. Middletown is not a sleepy place. We’ve been to Wes during every season, including in the dead of summer. Their July 4th day parade gets PACKED. And they host an annual run (forget the distance) and other activities.
And when Wes is in session, downtown is especially busy. You have to pay to park on Main Street, which is an indication. My hometown would pay YOU to park on its Main Street, if you can call it that.

One other thing that hasn’t been mentioned is the level of sophistication of food services in relation to food allergy/sensitivity. I have two Celiacs in the family. In some towns, you get a blank stare. In Middletown, all the restaurants but one “get it” and are careful with procedures, etc. Best gluten-free pizza we’ve ever had is in Middletown (Krust). The Thai restaurant on Main Street is the real deal in Thai.

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Good point about the authenticity of the restaurants. Two Mexican restaurants run by people from Mexico. Food is authentic, not Tex-Mex. a Tibetan restaurant run by people from Tibet. You mentioned the Thai place. So many are like that.

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I give Roth a lot of credit for following in Bennet’s footsteps in terms of making nice with Middletown. Look at the tennis facility remake, where Middletown footed a good chunk of the bill and saved Wesleyan considerable $$ in exchange for very little. In return Wes put the new bookstore right on Main Street. Roth is fun to dislike because he’s a bit of a personality and no question doesn’t suffer from self-esteem issues. But he’s smart and he loves Wesleyan and I think he’s spot on in terms of what it is he needs to deliver for the school at this point in its history. Focus on the endowment, build when you can and take care with the things that aren’t broken. Hiring Anne Martin to run the Investments Office (and suing that jackass/thief who was running it before) is a good example of this. Not a lot of fan fare for that move, but they’ve done very well in terms of managing and growing the endowment. IMO Roth is doing a lot of dirty work for Wesleyan to position it well for the future. In terms of town & gown, he really seemed to get it early on.

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Regarding your son’s concern about the prevalence of athletes at Haverford, he might find this article of interest. The featured student is a lacrosse player who’s very academically accomplished. I think this is fairly common at Haverford and Swat. I’m less familiar with Wes in that regard. What They Learned: Joseph Weisberg ’21 | Haverblog

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I’m a big Roth fan. I’m old enough to be able to claim some personal observation of every Wesleyan president from Butterfield onward and he’s right up there. The biggest difference is that he’s dealing with a much, much more complicated institution than any of his predecessors ever did. By the time Butterfield left in 1967, he’d handed off not only one of the wealthiest colleges in the country, but one that was also 95% white and where a typical financial aid recipient might have been the son of a professor or secondary school teacher. Whereas, this last incoming class, is only 60% white and about 11% of the matriculating students (representing something of a low for recent years) come from families where they are the first to attend college at all. That’s a lot of need-based financial aid to supply year after year and unlike most of his predecessors, Roth has had to do it the old-fashioned way - through fund-raising.

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As am I. There have been a few “foot in mouth” moments. But you can’t deny that he has love for his alma mater and that he always acts in Wes’ best interests.

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Vassar, which, as with other posters, I’d recommend for your son, could make an excellent choice for a course of study that includes economics: Economics rankings: US Economics Departments at Liberal Arts Colleges | IDEAS/RePEc.

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S1 was offered a spot on a Swarthmore team, but turned it down. He liked the people on the team, but felt that there was an antipathy towards athletes on campus. He also was not comfortable with the very vocal and visible far left minority. He is left of Center himself, but the stuff he was seeing and hearing seemed like strident nonsense to him that he didn’t want to put up with for 4 years. He also had a few other choices that he preferred, so he could afford to be choosy. Bottom line is that Swarthmore is nowhere near a “jocky”, athletic school. It is an intellectual, very left leaning (even for a LAC), very rigorous school with great funding. Think of it as a mini University of Chicago surrounded by suburban PHI rather than the South Side of Chicago.

He was also offered at Wesleyan, but didn’t pursue it. We briefly saw the town, and he couldn’t see choosing it over the other things he had on the table. As a midwesterner, he didn’t see the charm of the town.

I know less about Haverford. I know there were some student led demonstrations that shut the school down a year or two ago. Very good school.

Macalester is quite good for Econ/gov. Located in a nice part of St.Paul, and very close to about 4-5 other colleges. Academics are there, but do not dominate. Public transport is easily available. Not a "party’ school. More of a cramped, city style campus. functional, but not beautiful like Swarthmore.

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Was going to say the same about Vassar. Less rural than the others, no Greek life, open curriculum, very smart and collaborative students.

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Haverford’s varsity athletes make up about 40% of the student body, and there is at least a perceived gap between athletes and NARPs, but it is not really a rah-rah type of school. Also, their PE requirements can be met in a variety of ways, including volunteering on the Haverfarm and the ping-pong club in addition to other ways already mentioned.

Swat may be bucolic but is definitely not rural. From what I know they are at least as left-leaning as Haverford, last year’s strike not withstanding.

Swat is typically considered more competitive/cutthroat whereas Haverford is more collaborative (talking about grades is not a thing, nor is there a Dean’s List). No Greek life but parties abound at both.

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Having grads from both schools…neither Swat nor Haverford is internally competitive, and our Swat grad had infinitely more collaborative experiences with students and professors than did our Haverford grad.

There is a social gap (at both schools) between athletes and others, but a great deal of that comes from having schedules that force them to eat together (small school…fewer dining hall hours…post-practice rush to eat before DH closes). The one major “force” on campus (Haverford) is the baseball team. They have commandeered a dorm (Drinker), and it is a social hub. In general, the athletes at these schools interact with everyone as much or more so than at other schools. Athletics in the NESCAC for example are a bigger focus.

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It’s true that athletes in NESCAC are a bigger deal than within the Quaker schools. NESCAC has done a better job at branding their conference games (“the biggest little game in America”; “the battle of the birds”; “the Maine games”; etc…); they have a greater number of the traditional male “helmet sports” (football, wrestling, lacrosse, etc…) And, let’s face it, they rely very heavily on prepping them (the guys, especially) for jobs on Wall Street (@cquin85 does an excellent job of describing how that works at Wesleyan, probably the least sports focused of the NESCACs: What companies recruit from Wesleyan University? - #3 by cquin85)

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Funny to read about Drinker. It was similar back in my day when dinosaurs roamed the earth. It’s worth noting that Drinker is a house, not a large dorm, that has 18 residents.

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So the party dorm, or house, is named Drinker. You couldn’t make it up…