OK, I'm visiting Swarthmore on the 8th/9th/10th of April. What should I do?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Swarthmore College
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<p>I have basic plans to tour, sit in on classes, talk to students if possible, and most of all to figure out whether Swarthmore ought to retain its unconditional position as my top school. Possible issues include location, stress, size, and its questionable willingness to accept yet another altruistic poli sci prospie...particularly one whose previously disturbingly pristine academic record was wrenched apart by a slightly excusable B in her high school's impossible Calc BC class (she was in another country for three weeks of the semester! and her teacher is an ice queen) and a horrifying, demeaning, tragic, Sylvia Plath/Ernest Hemingway/Virginia Woolf/any of the other disturbed artists (whose complaints obviously pale in comparison to those of intentionally overstressed high school juniors) imitation-worthy B in AP Lit...</p>

<p>Does anyone have any particular recommendations, based upon tours, alumni status, or present student experiences?</p>

<p>Also! Do you ever have time to go to Philadelphia? I have a (necessary) weird obsession with lindy hop swing dance and would like to dapple in Philly's reasonable scene but have heard--to my considerable chagrin--the horror stories of students unable to ever escape campus.</p>

<p>Thank you in advance!</p>

2

<p>Haha. Why wouldn't they accept another altruistic Poli Sci person? I'm definitely yet another altruistic Poli Sci possible-major, and I think it'll be okay. ;) If you're already in (early write), you should plan to go to Ride the Tide (if you're not, I'm confused about why you're already planning a visit, but it's all good!).</p>

<p>Ah...go to Sharples and try out the food? Talk to students or a tour guide about dorms/dorm life...I'm not sure what else. If you think it's your top school, then you have already done your research...there aren't going to be many things that'll be new. :P</p>

<p>It's really easy to get to Philly from Swat (I'm an ED1 for the class of '11, I'll be a freshman next year, so I'm technically not there, but I live in Philly and know it's insanely easy to get downtown) - you can make time for anything if you want it, just like in any other high-workload school. :]</p>

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<p>They have a wonderful poli.sci. department. Foreign Policy magazine just named Swarthmore as one of the top schools in the country to study International Relations (within the poli.sci. department). My son is a senior majoring in poli. sci and has had an excellent experience with the department. He will be going on to Ph.D studies in the fall in Political Science
You should try to sit in on one of the introductory poli. sci. classes.</p>

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<p>
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Foreign Policy magazine just named Swarthmore as one of the top schools in the country to study International Relations (within the poli.sci. department).

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<p>Actually, the Foreign Policy report named Swarthmore the top international relations program among liberal arts colleges (the first time LACs were included in their listings). </p>

<p>treesnogger: give up a little more info. Are you a junior? Are you staying on campus during your visit? Are you dragging your parents along?</p>

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<p>Actually, no, it would be second among LACs (since Dartmouth is technically a liberal arts college) but it's up there. :]</p>

<p>I'm not sure why I assumed you'd be a senior - if you're a junior, don't worry about the few B's you've gotten, and don't worry about being a Poli Sci major. ;) I still haven't thought of more things to do besides what you're already doing. You'll probably find plenty to do regardless - Swat's a busy place. Definitely get the academic angle, but try to see if the social atmosphere is right for you too. :]</p>

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<p>Dartmouth isn't a liberal arts college. It's a small to mid-size university.</p>

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"Graduate programs include the study of global markets at the Tuck School of Business, 19 graduate programs in the Arts and Sciences, the Dartmouth Medical School, and the Thayer School of Engineering."

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<p>What about a school like wesleyan? It has grad programs but still falls under the category of "liberal arts college" Obviously this is to a lesser extent than dartmouth, and wesleyan is more universally accepted as a lac but still, "Liberal Arts College" can have a broad definition</p>

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<p>What I like about Dartmouth is that they, unlike virtually every other college in the Ivy League, have no pretense whatsoever that they are ever going to catch up to Harvard as far as graduate programs are concerned. They were once a part of the Pentagonal Conference along with Amherst, Williams, Wesleyan and Bowdoin (which has never formally been disbanded) and they frequently mention themselves in the same breath with other New England LACs. But, yea, according to the Carnegie Foundation definition, they are a research university.</p>

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<p>I just meant in this case, ID, about having a grad program in Int. Relations - I didn't mean it had no programs at all. :] You're right in that context, of course. I wasn't trying to put Swat down - I'm going there, after all!</p>

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<p>Treesnogger:</p>

<p>You can get a list of all the classes on a given day in a given department from this website:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.trico.haverford.edu/cgi-bin/courseguide/cgi-bin/search.cgi%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.trico.haverford.edu/cgi-bin/courseguide/cgi-bin/search.cgi&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Just select Swarthmore and Spring 2007 and the department and the day. If you get no classes in your search, make sure that you have the proper name for the Department at Swarthmore. For example, to check sociology classes, you would have to select Sociology and Anthropology.</p>

<p>Generally, Swarthmore professors recommend visiting freshman level courses as the upper level courses are sometimes way over the head of visiting high school students. In the Poli Sci department, I think those are the 00X numbered courses.</p>

<p>If you pick out a few courses to visit, it's not a bad idea to e-mail the professor ahead of time. One professor in a lit course gave my daughter the reading assignment so she could read the short novel ahead of time and follow the discussion.</p>

<p>There will be listing of lectures and/or other events posted on the Swat website closer to the date of your visit, although Sunday and Monday nights may be not be big "event" nights. If you are staying in a dorm, take some high school work with you as Sunday and Monday are definitely "homework" nights at Swarthmore. If you are staying in a dorm, you should feel free to hang out in the dorm lounge and strike up conversations as you see fit.</p>

<p>The train into Phila is a piece of cake, a straight 25 minute shot from the train station on campus to any of three stations downtown (with an intermediate stop at UPenn).</p>

<p>There are a ton of restaurants on the Baltimore Pike about a half mile due north of Swarthmore's campus. So, if you are dragging your parents around, that's a likely spot. We like Bertucci's Brick Oven Pizza for a casual meal.</p>

<p>You can pay cash and eat at Sharples dining hall. Other gathering places include the snack bar (in Clothier/Tarble), the Kolhberg coffee shop (in Kohlberg), and the Science Center "sushi bar" in the Science Center commons.</p>

<p>Sunday mornings at Swat will be a ghost town until noon or so -- college kids are nocturnal creatures, especially on weekends.</p>

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<p>I go to Philly nearly every weekend nowadays - either to see the Philadelphia Orchestra in concert ($10 orchestra seat tickets at the door!) or just to sit in a coffee shop and do some reading... or both in the same day :)</p>

<p>as someone said, there is an online course schedule - but make sure you're looking at the Spring 2007 schedule (it's actually an easy mistake to make, since the default is now Fall 2007). glancing at the poli sci schedule... if you can drag yourself out of bed on Tuesday at 8:30 AM, try International Politics - it's a really popular class and I hear the professor is great.</p>

<p>(by the way, the word is "spec" here, not "prospie" ;))</p>

<p>also I'll probably be the only person on campus up early on Sunday morning - we're doing an animal observation bio lab and I have to watch robins eating in the morning :)</p>