Official Swarthmore Decisions: Class of 2012

<p>Accepted</p>

<p>Stats:[ul]
[<em>]SAT: 2250 (750 CR, 780 M, 720 W)
[</em>]SAT II: 800 Chem, 790 Bio M, 770 Math II
[<em>]ACT: 34
[</em>]GPA: 4.43 W, 3.93? UW
[<em>]Rank: 1/42
[</em>]Other Tests (AMC, AP, IB): 13 APs after Junior Year (ten 5s, three 4s)</p>

<p>[/ul]Subjective[ul]
[<em>]Essays: Good, it seems...I enjoyed writing them
[</em>]Teacher Recs: No idea, but heard one was stellar, and the other one had to have been halfway decent.
[<em>]Counselor Rec: Didn't read, but counselor likes me
[</em>]Supplementary Material: Er, some pretty artwork? Transcripts from CU and Stanford
[li]Hook(recruited athlete, legacy, Nobel Prize): None I know of</p>[/li]
<p>[/ul]Personal[ul]
[<em>]Location: Colorado
[</em>]High School Type: Private, unsure of competitiveness
[<em>]Ethnicity: Asian, Chinese
[</em>]Gender: Female
[li]Applied for Financial Aid: No</p>[/li]
<p>[/ul]Other[ul]
[<em>]Extracurriculars: Bland--varsity CC, piano, intern for Project PhET, Chinese school, translating anime/manga, assistant director/stage manager for theater productions...stuff like that.
[</em>]Awards: Some school awards (math and science), int'l Chinese essay award
[li]Advice? Commiserations? Feel like bragging?: I feel very fortunate to have been accepted--I'd sincerely tried my best. Congrats to all who were accepted! </p>[/li]
<p>[/ul]</p>

<p>Waitlisted</p>

<p>Stats:[ul]
[<em>]SAT: CR 740 M (cringe) 430 W 560
[</em>]SAT II: N/a
[<em>]ACT:
[</em>]GPA: N/a Homechooled and graded on P/F basis
[<em>]Rank:N/a
[</em>]Other Tests (AMC, AP, IB): None
[/ul]Subjective[ul]
[<em>]Essays: I thought they were pretty good - not superb - but good.
[</em>]Teacher Recs: OK- My dad wrote my Recs, but they weren't very personal or detailed.
[<em>]Counselor Rec: N/a
[</em>]Supplementary Material: Resume', Reading List, Description of Homeschool.
[<em>]Hook(recruited athlete, legacy, Nobel Prize):Taught myself throughout highschool? Minority/Low Income
[/ul]Personal[ul]
[</em>]Location:MO
[<em>]High School Type:Homeschool
[</em>]Ethnicity:African American
[<em>]Gender: F
[</em>]Applied for Financial Aid: Yes[/ul]Other[ul]
[<em>]Extracurriculars: Good, don't feel like typing them out right now.
[</em>]Awards: Volunteering, Speech, Science etc.
[*]Advice? Commiserations? Feel like bragging?:[/ul] Because of my stats, I'm surprised - and kinda happy - that I was even waitlisted.And um yeah, I'm not at all as arithmetically inept as my SAT math score suggests. :sob: I'm holding out hope that I get accepted from the waitlist in May. Good Luck to everyone!</p>

<p>I feel somewhat silly posting these after Dramatica's highly relevant tirade, but reading others' eased my anxiety. Furthermore my acceptance and several others' here on CC seems to indicate that--despite their assertions and requests to the contrary--mildly excessive supplemental materials can do one a considerable amount of good.</p>

<p>Accepted</p>

<p>Stats:[ul]
[<em>]SAT: 2250 superscored. (740 V, 800 WR, 710 M)
[</em>]SAT II: 800 WH, 780 USH, 720 BIOM
[<em>]ACT: N/A
[</em>]GPA: 4.29 weighted; 3.96 uw
[<em>]Rank: 14/559
[</em>]Other Tests (AMC, AP, IB): 5's on Comp, WH, USH, Bio, and Lit and a 4 on Calc BC
[<em>]Highest Math: AP Calculus BC Junior year; presently taking AP Stats
[</em>]Highest Science: AP Biology Junior year; presently taking engineering physics
[<em>]Highest English: AP Lit Junior year; took advanced English course at Pomona College last semester and received an A+
[</em>]Highest other: Currently in AP French Language, AP American Government, took advanced art classes
[/ul]
Subjective[ul]
[<em>]Essays: Probably the strongest part of my application, if that accounts for anything—I deeply enjoy writing. One was about an exchange experience and political activism; I had to write another because of an alcohol citation on my record (it's a long story). I always suspected that the insufficient creativity in my Why Swarthmore essay might have explained my deferral, though the writing itself was decent.
[</em>]Teacher Recs: Confidential
[<em>]Counselor Rec: Also confidential, but she mentioned that she included a quote from a professor at the DU Summer Program about my writing.
[</em>]Supplementary Material: As a deferred ED applicant, I interpreted the adcomm's invitation to send supplemental materials rather liberally—I sent in two extra recommendations, one from my college professor and another from a Pomona Emeritus professor who has read a lot of my writing, and also mailed a paper from my course and a letter explaining how the course and my other experiences illuminated Swarthmore's perfection.
[<em>]Hook(recruited athlete, legacy, Nobel Prize): Nothing notable
[/ul]Personal[ul]
[</em>]Location: Southern California
[<em>]High School Type: Public, college town
[</em>]Ethnicity: White
[<em>]Gender: Female
[</em>]Applied for Financial Aid: Unsuccessfully
[/ul]Other[ul]
[<em>]Extracurriculars: Leadership in Speech and Debate, president of Amnesty International, Young Democrats, and environmental clubs, two political internships, volunteering with a unique nonprofit
[</em>]Awards: Excessive debate-related commendations, American Association of University Women honor of female juniors excelling in math, science, and technology, various school awards
[*]Advice? Commiserations? Feel like bragging?:[/ul] I wish everyone could share the swooping ventral sensation I felt when I opened the mailbox and saw “this is the fat one” on the back of my envelope. But I suppose, then, Swarthmore wouldn't be Swarthmore. I'm not positive that I'm going to Swarthmore but I think it's hard to say no to this level of happiness. I think Swarthmore knows I felt this way—I don't think my application could have indicated otherwise if I'd tried.</p>

<p>see, there can be more than one white female debater.
lol
congratulations!</p>

<p>evidently! thankfully I was almost entirely kidding before. not that it really matters now.</p>

<p>congratulations to everyone on all acceptances everywhere!</p>

<p>glad to see my white female debater counterpart got in :) </p>

<p>too bad swarthmore doesn't have a debate team....</p>

<p>treesnogger: Congratulations!!!</p>

<p>What are the other schools that you are considering, and how will you make the decision? Were you as happy at other acceptances, or is it the finances?</p>

<p>

It's even more ignorant to suggest there is no correlation between SAT and academic/intellectual capacity. Yes, there are going to be people who get an 1800 on the SATs who are "more talented" or "more worthy of being admitted" than some of those who get a 2400, but there are going to be more cases of it being the other way around. Many, many more cases. And it isn't like the example I cited of the student who got a 2400 and three perfect SAT IIs did that and nothing else; she had a lot more qualifications as well. Most people at Swarthmore could not get a perfect score on the SAT (in one shot) and on three SAT IIs no matter how much tutoring you gave them. Most people at Swarthmore do not have that level of academic or intellectual capacity. While the SAT/SAT IIs are in no way the be all and end all of what makes a student worthy of acceptance at an elite college, they're still an important factor. Someone who absolutely can't perform well on them probably shouldn't be admitted to Swarthmore, much like how someone with a four sentence essay or no extracurriculars or a class rank of dead last in a class of 400 should not be admitted.</p>

<p>Maybe it is, at long last, time for Swarthmore to join the ranks of the White Female Debate League of America.</p>

<p>hey, they can get down.</p>

<p>Swarthmore most certainly has a debate team, the Amos J. Peaslee Debate Society, which has its own endowment and vans, and some of the best parties on campus.</p>

<p>really? wow my tour guide there told me there wasn't one haha....would you by any chance happen to know what kind of debate swat competes in or in which league?</p>

<p><a href="http://www.swarthmore.edu/x11039.xml%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.swarthmore.edu/x11039.xml&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p><a href="http://www.sccs.swarthmore.edu/org/debate/why/openletter.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.sccs.swarthmore.edu/org/debate/why/openletter.html&lt;/a>

[quote]
TOP 10 REASONS TO DEBATE AT SWAT:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>You can exact your revenge on the preppy schools back East that didn't give you a generous enough financial aid package.</p></li>
<li><p>If you ever decide to sell-out to the Corporate Man, being able to BS, by which I mean wax eloquently, of course, will come in handy when it comes time to ask for more stock options printed in the blood of anemic 3rd-World children.</p></li>
<li><p>A chance to get off campus on the weekends. Not only will this prove be mucho importante when you discover that you hate frat parties (or in rare cases, love frat parties but hate Swatties), but also, and I'm guessing that admissions neglected to tell you this, each weekend, Swat is napalmed by the US Air Force in order to control the rampant squirrel population on campus, and man, does that stuff sting like a mother. Just wanted to let you know.</p></li>
<li><p>The annual all-expenses-paid debate ski trip to the Swiss Alps.</p></li>
<li><p>Actually, just the Pennsylvanian Alps, but there's plenty of Swiss Miss, if you know what I mean (wink, wink)...</p></li>
<li><p>... By which I mean, the chalky-tasting hot chocolate mix. I can't believe you even thought I meant...</p></li>
<li><p>...Babes and Debate Studs. Okay, so we're just a little bit hotter than the average Swat guy or gal. But it's not like we talk about it that much...</p></li>
<li><p>Damn we're hot.</p></li>
<li><p>If you are like most Swatties, you will probably think you are intellectually superior to every other person on the face of the earth. Debate will give you a chance to prove it. Of course, it is a moot question anyway since I am the most intellectually superior person on the face of the earth...</p></li>
<li><p>Your Mom.

[/quote]
</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Ohh, debate sounds so wonderful. I've done some work at CMC, which runs a healthy parli program, and am very excited to experience it myself--although Swarthmore's workload makes it a little more daunting.</p>

<p>I got into Pomona, Carleton, Wesleyan, the University of Chicago, Reed, Haverford, and American University, and was waitlisted from Amherst and rejected from Yale and Stanford--remarkably the only three I didn't really want to go to. (Or, at least, this is what we tell ourselves afterwards.)</p>

<p>If I didn't go to Swarthmore I'd pick one of the first four, but Swarthmore has been my first choice as long as I can remember. Any other preference might be out of fears that Swarthmore students are a little socially awkward, but I can't imagine I would fit in anywhere much more suave. </p>

<p>Unusual financial circumstances led to my receiving no need-based aid from anywhere (though I did receive a very generous "presidential scholarship" to AU). This is extremely unfortunate, but hopefully next year when our financial position becomes more clear the FA offices will be accommodating. If worst comes to worst I can take on some loans. Ultimately I am fairly certain that the $$$ would be worth a Swarthmore (or Carleton or Wesleyan or Pomona) education. Wes and U Chicago are the most expensive schools on my list...given my location Pomona would probably be cheapest. However, I hear that Swarthmore awards stipends for travel expenses and doesn't nickel-and-dime students on campus, so that all makes a world of difference.</p>

<p>Forgive my rambling.</p>

<p>I know something about the academic debate world from other contacts outside of Swarthmore, and it is known as a highly regarded team that actively participates in tournaments (and parties.)</p>

<p>The admissions office needs to brief the tour guides, interviewers and admissions counselors about this, as the school doesn't want to miss any debaters applying or attending to keep the program strong. Maybe hellohowareyou or another student can let them know?</p>

<p>Treesnogger, congrats on your admissions results. The carnage amongst many has been bad this year!
You mentioned your parent is a professor at Pomona. That means you get half tuition at any college, no?</p>

<p>I am so lucky!! I'd trade it all for Swat if I needed to, though--and thankfully I do not.</p>

<p>Indeed! Otherwise I would be grudgingly scowling my way through a cal state or uc. I'm not surprised that they decided that our need fell below or at Pomona's $17k, although the absent father element always complicates.</p>

<p>whats so bad about cal state or a uc?</p>

<p>I want to be at a liberal arts college. That wasn't intended as a snub; I know many brilliant people who attend everything from UCLA and UC Berkeley to CSUSF and CSU Channel Islands.</p>