<p>I was just curious, but can any of you guys give me a quick comparison between Swarthmore, Wesleyan, Tufts, and Boston College? I'm posting this on other boards as well, but I want to hear the opinions of people from Swarthmore.</p>
<p>It would be almost impossible to compare Swarthmore and Boston College. I honestly would have a hard time coming up with less similar schools. Maybe BYU or Notre Dame would be less similar. Boston College and Swarthmore are both located in really nice suburbs, that's about the only similarity.</p>
<p>Swarthmore and Wesleyan have some similarities: they are both highly selective old liberal arts colleges. But, there are significant differences as well. Wesleyan was a boys school that started accepting girls quite recently. Swarthmore was founded as a co-ed school. Swarthmore is considerably smaller -- 1500 undergrads versus 2700. Swarthmore has three times the per student endowment of Wesleyan and, therefore, spends considerably more per student (on everything).</p>
<p>Interesteddad is really good at this kind of thing. I generally agree with his comments. Personally, I think that Swarthmore has a far better location (pretty near Philly) and is a much prettier school as well. Wesleyan is know for its fairly crazily activist student body, which I suspect is a bit more extreme (but not more passionate) than Swarthmore's. </p>
<p>Tufts is also very different. Much closer to a city, much bigger (both in student population and in building size, it seemed to me) but otherwise I can't say much—I visited once two years ago.</p>
<p>Before I go home for break, I want to try to answer this one. BC is a catholic jock school known for producing great offensive linemen. Tufts is filled with kids who start each sentence with "I could have gone to Harvard but...." Wes is filled with far left radicals that once bombed their own administrative offices. Swarthmore? Isn't that a girls school in upstate New York?</p>
<p>Those are the stereotypes, one can only tell the differences by actually visiting and getting a feel of the campus.</p>
<p>Don't joke.</p>
<p>My cousin did think that Swat was a "girl's school".</p>
<p>Swarthmore has been confused with Skidmore for more than 30 years. Those whose opinions really matter know the difference. Those who don't know the difference don't really matter.</p>
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My cousin did think that Swat was a "girl's school".
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<p>There are two reasons for that:</p>
<p>1) Between WW1 and 1970 (when most of these schools' current reputations were made), a smart woman who wanted to attend a super hoity-toit school in the Northeast (where most hoity-toit families lived) had exactly eight choices: the Seven Sisters and Swarthmore (coed). Since coed was unthinkable, a lot of people probably assumed Swarthmore must have been all-female.</p>
<p>2) Skidmore (which was all girls) sounds like Swarthmore.</p>
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<p>The presence of women from the day Swarthmore was founded played a major role in defining Swarthmore's campus culture as something different than most of the hoity-toit northeast colleges and universities.</p>