Pros and Cons of Swarthmore College in PA?

<p>see the topic...</p>

<p>Do a search and you'll find a lot of discussion by several of the parent-posters. Swat is a great, small LAC in a beautiful suburb of Phila. It is right on a train that takes you to center city Phila. Academics are great. Athletics are not a big deal, although the student-athletes that are there take their sports seriously.</p>

<p>There are not very many cons. It is one of the 3 or 4 best LACs in the country. I wouldn't go to Swarthmore for engineering or if I were a huge Div I sports fan. The cons have more to do with matters of size (it is on the small side) and location (suburb of a large city) and things that go along with being an LAC rather than a large university, all things that are weighed in your own personal cost-benefit analysis. I think it is also important to consider which major you are talking about. Swarthmore may not be the best school for studying agriculture or oceanography, for example.</p>

<p>It's not a prime choice if you are an art history, studio art, music, or theater major - the faculty is likely to be fine, but offerings are very limited (relatively to, say, Williams), and you might outgrow it very quickly. Great school, with lots of resources.</p>

<p>Tremendous school with exceptional campus and very smart students. Visit it, though, because it's not for everyone. But if it's for you, do everything you can to go there.</p>

<p>Neither pro nor con but has a rep for requiring more work than most</p>

<p>It is a Society of Friends school (Quaker), which makes for a very open, caring environment (I would know, I go to a friends school)</p>

<p>I am seriously considering Swarthmore. But other than Mama Cass, has anyone famous graduated from there?</p>

<p>Michael Dukakis '55</p>

<p>now that i think about it....i really dont know why I didnt apply there. actually i think it was because i heard it was a huge pot school, which in my mind was a huge no-no.</p>

<p>Mensa, are you old enough to remember Mama Cass? Thanks for reminding me about her!!</p>

<p>We don't know how old Mensa is. He / She never answered that question.
The persona (Mensa160) that has been created however, would probably fit in well at Swarthmore, with one major problem. It's not an ivy!</p>

<p>mensa160 ,</p>

<p>Edward Prescott, Nobel Prize in economics this year.</p>

<p>David Baltimore, the president of CalTech, Nobel Prize winner.</p>

<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Swarthmore_College_people%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Swarthmore_College_people&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>1sokkermom, about your comment about Swat not being an Ivy, while yes it's true that as a D-3 school, Swat can't join a D-1 athletic league, academically Swat is on a par with at least three Ivies: Dartmouth, Columbia and Brown -- and in certain circles, surpasses both Cornell and Penn. Same for its brethren schools, Amherst & Williams. While Ivy is a brand name, it doesn't mean that it offers the best.</p>

<p>Collegeparent,</p>

<p>I agree with you completely. I was being facetious. If you have followed any of the posts by Mensa, you would find that he/she has an obsession with the so-called ivy prestige or status.</p>

<p>(By the way, my kid goes to a great school which is also not in the ivy athletic league. LOL)</p>

<p>Advantage of Swat: Can take classes at Haverford, Bryn Mawr & Penn. Located in a corridor of LOTS of other colleges too.</p>

<p>My favorite "pseudo-compser" Peter Schieckle - I believe he might have been one of the first music majors. It is a very liberal, small LAC, with high quality academics, reputation of attracting more intellectual students, beautiful campus and good location in the old suburbs of Philadelphia. Most of the things I listed could be considered either pros or cons, depending on your viewpoint. Best interview my daughter had, only one she felt truly good about, also, not coincidentally I think, the only one she had with an actual admissions officer (not an alum or student intern). These people really care about picking students that are right for Swat. Biggest cons for DD/our family was the size, Swat was the smallest school she seriously considered, for example, minimal food choices on campus other than the cafeteria, some dorms in need of renovating (they are improving the dorms, and this is changing).</p>

<p>Cangel,</p>

<p>My daughter had the same experience; she was on top of the world all the way home from Pennsylvania. She ended up walking around campus with Jim Bock, who I believe was the head of admissions, discussing religion and philosophy--he was a religion major, my daughter is a Sufi so they had a lot to talk about. Swat was her first choice for a while, but unfortunately, swat does not treat Canadians the same as Americans in admissions/fin aid and the difference in price would have been 40,000. He told her they would try to work out other financial scenarios, but she loved D equally well and could not pass on ed. If she had not have gotten into D we told her she could apply to swat and we would pay. Ultimately, she convinced herself that she preferred D in any case and went ed with enthusiasm.</p>

<p>Just a few comments:</p>

<p>a) Swarthmore is a great place to go for engineering. It is one of the few small colleges with an Engineering Department, a department that has been around since the 1800s. You major in Engineering, but still get the benefits of a well-rounded liberal arts education. Very strong placement into Engineering grad school programs. </p>

<p>b) I agree with Mini about arts, music, and theater, but with a caveat. It depends how serious you are about these areas. If your interest is to major in Biology, but take a some art history courses "for fun", then Swarthmore would be great for that. If your career ambition is to be a museum curator, then a place like Williams would be the better bet. I don't think you can really view these kinds of issues with simplistic questions like, "is the art department any good?"</p>

<p>c) Swarthmore no longer has any formal affiliation with the Society of Friends. However, it was founded by the Quakers and many aspects of the Quaker "style" dominate the campus culture. For example, the college is very much governed by concensus rather than edict. There is a strong sense of inclusive community with an unusually small degree of self-segregation (by race, by graduating class, etc.).</p>

<p>d) Other famous Swatties include women's movement leaders Alice Paul and Molly Yard Garrett. Nancy Grace Roman, who led the development of the Hubbell telescope for NASA. Senator Carl Levin from Michigan. Novelist James Michener. Philanthrophist Eugene Lang. Weather Underground terrorist Cathy Wilkerson. Patrick Awuah, ex-Microsoft exec and founder of Ashesi Univerity in Ghana. And a blue-million academics, including the first woman to receive a PhD in the US, the first woman professor at MIT's Sloan School, Nancy Bekavac (Pres of Scripps College), and so on and so forth.</p>

<p>Lots of pros; great school. I was particularly impressed with their Honors program, in which students seem to have preparation comparable to most grad schools. Complete with comprehensive oral exams by outside faculty. I always check out the bookstore textbooks in the fields I know something about, and the ones at Swarthmore were consistent with the most challenging high-level courses in those fields.</p>

<p>After seeing it, I'd like to have gone there myself.</p>

<p>As for cons, we'd been given the impression from my daughter's college adviser that the place is a major grind school, with a brutal workload, and students did little but study 24/7. Subsequently, we came across virtually the same observation in various materials we read. Finally, when we were there, my daughter was not satisfied during her visit that this impression was not correct. She wound up not applying, since though she is serious about her schoolwork she also wants to have some small semblance of a life.</p>

<p>Hopefully the insiders here will tell us that this impression is false. All I can say to them is, where were you when my daughter was checking out schools? Other insiders we spoke with at the time did not dispell the notion. </p>

<p>Whether true or not, this view of the school is out there, and you should check it out for yourself if that's a potential issue for you.</p>

<p>It wouldn't have been an issue for me, by the way. But I'm used to working/ studying 24/7 anyway; I sort of expect to do that.</p>

<p>A couple of other nits:</p>

<ul>
<li><p>The town of Swarthmore, on appearance, has nothing but a train station stop. The towns around Haverford & Bryn Mawr seem to have more to them.</p></li>
<li><p>We were told that Swarthmore is actually not that convenient to Haverford & Bryn Mawr. Though the latter two schools are closely intertwined with each other, their relationship to Swarthmore is more remote. Not that many students from Swarthmore take classes at Haverford/ Bryn Mawr, and vice versa.</p></li>
</ul>

<p>That's what we were told, or at least what I remember.</p>

<p>But these are indeed nits. My overall impression of the place was very positive; A great school. Beautiful campus, too, and being able to take the train to Philly is a great asset.</p>