<p>Hey, I really liked haverford when I visited, but was a little disappointed that they didn't have a pool (even the community colleges in my area have pools). Since swimming is my main sport, I was just wondering if anyone knew why haverford doesn't have a pool and if there are options for guys in swimming. I know that you can swim at Bryn Mawr's pool, but is that it? Thanks.</p>
<p>My school (about 5 mins from HC) has a community pool that i THINK is olympic size? You'd be fine to swim there.</p>
<p>HC doesn't have a pool for the following reasons.. HC once had the largest endowment per student out of any LAC in the country in the 1960-70's but with increased enrollment, new construction and bad investments, dropped out of the top 20 for a while in the 1980's. I think I read somewhere that HC is now somewhere #5-10. While much improved, HC still needs to be frugal to get the most "bang for its buck" to compete with some of its peers and concentrates its spending on stellar academics and to have an economically/ racially diverse student body. Also, a needs assessment was done in the 1990's via student survey and a pool was not in the top 10 on a student "wish list". With heavy work loads, jobs, extracurriculars, and leisure time, only a tiny fraction of students said they would use any remaining time to go swimming.. and this is before HC got its nice new gym as another diversion for students. </p>
<p>Like all surveys, however, there are inherent biases, so students who really feel that a pool is something important would choose to not attend HC and so would not have filled out the survey.</p>
<p>If swimming will be an important part of your college experience, you shouldn't probably go to HC. For everyone else, I'm not sure how big of a deal it is. For example, many professionals who live in NYC, Philly, LA, ect, have to walk or drive 15-20 min to go to a gym and swim. Is it then much to ask for college students to do the same, especially when there's an available pool (usually empty) only a Blue Bus ride away and the money can be more effectively spent elsewhere?</p>