<p>I heard in another thread that there are no grades at Swarthmore. That doesn't make sense because you all talked about how there's grade deflation there, but nobody challenged that statement, so... can someone clear that up? Thanks!</p>
<p>First semester is pass/fail. You get the grades from your professors via e-mail, but they are not kept on your record. After that you get normal grades.</p>
<p>In addition to the pass/fail first semester, you can take up to three (?) more courses pass fail. Many students use those extra pass/fails when they are taking an extra course in a semester, especially if it's a course where they are dabbling in something interesting, but out of their comfort zone or in a new department.</p>
<p>Up until about ten years ago, students in the Honors Program did not receive grades in their honors seminars. They simply graduated Highest Honors, High Honors, or Honors as determined by their outside examiners. Now they receive regular grades, but the "honors" are still awarded by the outside examiners. </p>
<p>There has never been grade deflation at Swarthmore that I'm aware of. Certainly not in the last 30 years. The average GPA is right around a B+.</p>
<p>Correction. There is the option of four more pass/fail courses.</p>
<p>Pass/fail is a great thing. It helped a lot of freshmen get acclimated to college life. This past semester was the first time a lot of my bretheren have been away from home and experiencing life on their own without parent supervision and guidelines. I, for one, timeshifted my sleep hours from about 12AM to 7AM at home to 4:30AM to 7:45 AM at Swarthmore. I am proud to say that I was able to accomplish this without increasing my daily intake of amphetamines. As it turns out I didn't need P/F, but it was touch and go for a while last semester. Tomorrow '10 flies without a net for the first time.</p>
<p>duhvinci--</p>
<p>just curious, what exactly consumes your other hours besides 4:30-7:45 am?
i mean, i knew swatties were sleep-deprived but not THAT sleep-deprived. i'm just worried because my health is so-so and i basically can't function normally on anything less than 7-8 hrs..</p>
<p>don't worry. I did sufficiently well at Swat and I was able to get 8-12 hours a night. It all has to do with priorities. I was also working a 30-40 hour work week on top of a full course load.</p>
<p>"It all has to do with priorities." - very true... You can do well, sleep enough, and have a life if you choose to.</p>
<p>ilovefish,
Not to worry. There's no way that my senior Swattie lives on sleeping from 4:30-7:45 a.m. I'm betting he gets 7-10 hours a night. Perhaps Duhvinci was exaggerating a bit to make a point.</p>
<p>Yeah. Eight hours a night is probably on the high side, because you'd have to miss late night fun time in the dorm. But, you make up for it sleeping til noon two or three days a week.</p>
<p>I will give Duhvinci credit for noting that first semester pass/fail is a great thing. For some students, it's the first time in their lives they've ever taken a course without worrying about the grade. Can be an eye-opening experience.</p>
<p>I think my daughter is going to take a course pass/fail this semester. She's taking five because she really couldn't prune her list down to four. One is in a department where she's never taken a course and on a subject that may require a different kind of BS on the papers, so pass/fail is the perfect option.</p>
<p>Or perhaps Duhvinci is playing solitaire misery poker.</p>
<p>Sorry to revive this old thread.. i don't want to start another thread just to ask one question.. Does courses taken as P/F fulfil the distribution requirements?</p>
<p>Yes. Credit/No Credit courses count for distribution requirements as far as I've ever seen.</p>
<p>Obviously the four courses you take CR/NC first semester count for everything. After that, there are some limitations about not counting CR/NC courses towards your major. There are also some "highly recommended" considerations like not taking pre-med courses CR/NC. Check with the specific program or department.</p>
<p>The other four CR/NC courses that I take after the first semester can be used for fulfilling the distribution requirements too?</p>
<p>Hmm.. can we take 4.5/5 credits during the first semester?</p>
<p>They really discourage you from taking more than 4 credits your first semester - I don't know anyone who did it, and it's really not a good idea for most people. But if you can talk your advisor into it...</p>
<p>As for whether past-first-semester-classes taken pass/fail can be used for dist. requirements, it hasn't been a problem for me - I'm pretty sure that it works. While it might be an issue for getting credit towards a major in a particular department with a pass/fail class (and that depends on the department), it shouldn't be an issue to fulfill some of your 3 human/sci/soch classes pass/fail. It's certainly what I'm doing. :]</p>
<p>I would strongly recommend against 5 courses first semester, even if you can talk your faculty advisor into signing off on it. I did it first semester freshman year and always felt it was a mistake. I always felt like the guy trying to run after the bus.</p>
<p>One of the ways Swarthmore students get in trouble is trying to do too much, always taking a fifth course, and so forth even as it becomes obvious the work-load is burying them. Get your feet on the ground first semester. College level work is a big adjustment. College is a big adjustment. Figure out where you stand.</p>
<p>Later on, if you decide to take five, you at least know what to expect from each course and, presumably, would only take courses you enjoy. First semester freshman year you will be sampling a variety of courses and there will probably be a department or course that simply doesn't suit you at the college level and/or is unexpectedly challenging. For example, the last worry on the face of the earth going into Swarthmore for my daughter was that the advanced calc class she placed into, no sweat, with a 5 on the AP would be the course that kicked her butt the hardest in four years at Swarthmore. If she had been counting on that as a "piece of cake" while signing up for a fifth course first-semester, she would have been in for a rude surprise.</p>
<p>The Orientation Schedule is up:</p>
<p>Swarthmore</a> College :: New Students :: Orientation Schedule</p>
<p>As is detailed first year registration info:</p>
<p>Swarthmore</a> Registrar</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice.. I think 5 would be too much.. I'll max at 4.5 I think.. the first semester engineering course is 0.5 credits.. so 4.5 credits would set things up nicely I think.. </p>
<p>It's kinda daunting looking at the courses/seminars schedule.. thinking about not having clashed classes and all the stuffs..</p>
<p>Forgetmenots, so the P/F courses AFTER the first semester can be used to fulfill the dist req?</p>
<p>YOU:
Yes, any P/F course can be used for a distribution requirement. That's honestly half the reason they exist. :)</p>
<p>^Thanks a lot!!</p>
<p>Is it even possible to take foreign languages P/F?</p>