<p>Hmm, I haven't heard of that statistic.
40 percent of students may be athletes, but that doesn't mean that all of them compete formally on sports teams or join fraternities. On the other hand, 70/439 and 70/535 of Amherst and Williams' respective enrolling classes are recruited athletes, to give you some perspective.</p>
<p>Haverford isn't more laid back. It just seems like that's the prevailing mood because the students are low-key about how hard they work (that is, until prospective students make jabs at them, comparing them negatively to Swatties), and, as you say, there is little emphasis on grades, so there's not so much open competition.</p>
<p>Many of the people I spoke to who had been considering Haverford told me that the rigors of the Honor Code frightened them: it didn't bother me in the least. I liked the idea of being honest for the sake of self-respect and respect for others... because honesty and trust are important in a tiny community like that. They are also good virtues to live by =P</p>
<p>My beef with Haverford was the size. That, and the most common fear students expressed to me was that of being "unprepared for the real world" -- not academically. In the sense that Haverford seems to be a Quaker utopia, and the real world is far more ruthless place.</p>
<p>The Haverford "bubble" bothered me deeply, as much as I was fond of it.</p>
<p>I don't disagree with kwu, but as a product of the "Haverbubble" I think it was a great thing. It is not so disconnected from the real world that people are naive or unprepared for the real world. My roommates and I (10 people total) went on to graduate from Harvard Law, Harvard Business (2), Harvard Kennedy, Yale Med, UPenn Med (2), Yale Ph.D (2), Berkeley Business, Columbia Law, and Harvard Education. We all managed to "survive" in the real world.</p>
<p>I'd like to comment on kwu's comments. First, let me say that we're both speculating and coming up with reasonable guesses. Neither of us knows whether UChicago is tougher than Swarthmore or Haverford, even though I have the feeling that UChicago is about equally tough academically as Swarthmore is. UChicago, although it's a large university, does care about its undergraduates overall, based on what some people at UChicago have told me, and I've read some reviews and it seems like people get a great education there. I think Swarthmore, because it has a bit fewer than 1,500 students, does foster closer relationships between students and faculty. Swarthmore students, like Haverford's don't discuss grades much. At Swarthmore, grades really aren't discussed at all. I do wish Swarthmore had an Honor Code like Haverford's. Some people at Swarthmore do steal things, and I was quite disappointed when I found out. Then again, a lot of people don't, and they report it to the people at the daily bulletin so they can announce it to the whole campus. I don't know where kwu heard that students at Haverford tend to be more intellectual than students at Swarthmore.</p>