<p>My daughter transferred to Swarthmore as a sophomore this year and she loves it so far (it is not pass fail for first semester tranfers though :( ) She thinks the people are great, and told me that no one is arrogant or stuck-up at all. Apparently she hasn't met Duhvinci yet!</p>
<p>Did she transfer from a large university or another LAC? What was her reason for transferring, if you don't mind my asking?</p>
<p>Actually, if you check out Duhvinci's most recent posts in "Freshman taking questions..." it seems as if the work load has finally tempered him a bit. Don't worry, most people are not at all like that. But there is still a vibe that is different at Swat, I cannot put my finger on it, but it's not for everyone.</p>
<p>Who would you say it is for? My son seems to fit in so well, but I can see that his friends from HS who are the rah-rah football types would not be so happy at Swat (the obvious reason being that there is no football.) </p>
<p>Other than that, it is hard for me to make any generalizations. Swarthmore does seem to know how to pick their students, as very few transfer, and they have a very high graduation rate. Although the application pool is also self-selective.</p>
<p>I read this section of CC with interest as I am a mother of a freshman daughter at Swat. From what she tells me and from some of the pictures she's shared with us, the students here are very down-to-earth, nice and friendly. As for workload--she has her ups and downs but some of it comes from her main EC which she loves but is also demanding. Socially, this has been the best year of her life so far, though she has had a pretty good high school experience in a small academically intense environment, not unlike Swat. I also hope the original poster hasn't been scared away, though an anonymous discussion board should never be the final source of information for anyone applying to colleges.</p>
<p>collegialmom - </p>
<p>She transferred from another LAC which was similar in size to Swarthmore but which is in a much more rural location. She loved her classes and professors at her old school and made some good friends, but felt out of place in the social environment which revolved quite heavily around drinking. Also, she has been enjoying going into Philadelphia quite often for different activities since she started at Swarthmore, and this type of thing was not possible at her old school, since it was so rural. The school she transferred from was an excellent one, but not as highly ranked or as competitive for admissions as Swarthmore. She earned excellent grades there, and, I assume, received very good recommendations for her transfer applications from her professors. She applied ED to her first school, and, to be honest, I am not sure that she would have been admitted to Swarthmore if she had applied while in high school (her Math SAT is quite low by Swarthmore standards, but math is not relevant to her areas of study), but all's well that ends well :) </p>
<p>By the way, Swarthmore is increasing its transfer program, as described in an article which I posted in another thread a while ago - <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=248414%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=248414</a> (The link I posted no longer links to the article, but the article is copied in my thread.) As new Swarthmore parents, we received a copy of "The Cygnet" facebook, which shows that this year there are transfer students from Berkshsire Community College, Mount Holyoke, Des Moines Area Community College, U. of Wisconsin, William and Mary, University of Pennsylvania, Queens College (CUNY), Barnard, Brown, Kenyon, Williams, Wesleyan, Tulane, Loyola, and Harvey Mudd (I may have missed some). Quite a variety of schools!</p>
<p>"Actually, if you check out Duhvinci's most recent posts in "Freshman taking questions..." it seems as if the work load has finally tempered him a bit"</p>
<p>Yeah, I thought so too. He now sounds a bit more humble...</p>
<p>there has definately been a lot going on at swat, so i don't really get on here as much as i would like. since i do have a few minutes, i will respond to some of the statements thrown in my direction.</p>
<p>orangetree: don't apply if i scare you. i couldn't care less. if you are too sensitive to handle the truth on an internet bulletin board, you probable couldn't hack it here anyway. might i suggest a community college where you and your intellectually deficient friends can hold hands and sing kumbaya in a circle? also, it's not 3 or 4 more correct answers on the sat. try 20 more correct answers on the sat. it's those 20 that make all the difference.</p>
<p>momof3sons: you are correct, all the kids here are very nice, as am i.</p>
<p>collegialmom: you are partly correct and partly incorrect. yes, the students here are not pretentious. you are incorrect when you say that the kids here are not obsessed with grades. the kids here are very obsessed with grades. it's just that we are not obsessed with the grades of our friends, just our own. also, you shouldn't deify the students at swat. frankly, you don't have a clue as to what really happens here.</p>
<p>interesteddad: swat, like all colleges on its level, count their sat and gpa beans. if you don't have enough beans, your file gets placed in the circular filing cabinet. i will also say that if swat didn't count the beans, a lot of the parents here wouldn't have encouraged their kids to apply to swat. i will say that swat may be more willing to allow kids in with less beans if they bring other qualities to the dinner table, but even with that, those kids still have to have more beans than comparable kids in their circumstance. </p>
<p>in reading all the parent comments, i wonder if any of you have ever visited the campus or have spoken with your kids at all? everyone here knows what swat is and where swat stands in the educational universe. there isn't any class elitism here, but there is certainly institutional and maybe, intellectual elitism here...and lots of it. we know where swarthmore is (figuratively) and we all have an idea of where our clasmates and hallmates applied, got accepted to and rejected (it's not as taboo a subject as some guidebooks said it was on campus.)</p>
<p>lastly, everyone, if truthful would know that the original poster doesn't have the credentials to get into swat, yes, he did some debate and he runs a little, but so what. he didn't have enough beans to warrant a place at the dinner table. yes, he should apply, but that would only help reduce swarthmore acceptance rate for the class of 2011.</p>
<p>To those prospective applicants out there, please remember this is an anonymous message board and go with your gut for applying. I have not heard of the Swarthmore Dean of Admissions or any of his representatives posting here. As much as a random poster may claim to know everyone's stats and statistics, and what Swat is looking for, please take it on good faith that there are a wide range of applicants accepted and if it seems like a good fit, then it is worth a try.</p>
<p>Thank you, collegialmom. If my daughter had read Duhvinci's "authoritative" posts and listened to his advice, she would not be at Swarthmore right now. And I do not think most people at Swarthmore have Duhvinci's arrogant attitude either - perhaps he has found some friends like himself, though. As the saying goes, "Birds of a feather flock together."</p>
<p>there's too much buzz on campus to get anything done, so here's a quick response to the mom's.</p>
<p>first off, is there a poster here who claims to know everyone's stats and statistics? that would be amazing since most of us only have an idea of where we each applied to, got accepted to and rejected from. maybe that random poster who has all the stats is the swarthmore dean of admissions or one of his representatives? also, whose good faith shall we rely upon concerning a wide range of applicants? are there admittees with 1500's on the sats? i know of at least one swat freshman with close to 2400. that would be a wide range. is there an admittee with a 2.3 gpa? i know of at least one swat freshman with close to a 4.0, that would also be a wide range. or is the range slightly tighter than that? hmmm.</p>
<p>motheroftwo: how do you know your daughter isn't just like me and is one of my closest friends? maybe birds of a feather do flock together and you just don't know what kind of bird you actually have. also, noone here has ever referred to me as arrogant. think about it.</p>
<p>I would think that a mother knows more about her bird's feathers than an arrogant blogger whom I would assume not to be a mother?</p>
<p>P.S. So do you believe that all 2380s find themselves singing kumbaya at community college? (Think again beanboy!)</p>
<p>orangetree: </p>
<p>first, beanboy, i like that. second, regarding your p.s., i'm just not understanding it. also, where did you get the 2380? did i mention that somewhere? if i did, then i guess i am arrogant or at least lacking in discretion for which i am truly sorry. third, noone would call me a mother in the literal sense so your assumption would be correct and lastly, yes, a mother should know their bird better than an arrogant blogger (whoever you may be referring to) but people have different personalities in different settings and trust me when i say that stuff happens here that many of the moms can't concieve of their kids doing and would probably not want to know.</p>
<p>From Duvinci: "trust me when i say that stuff happens here that many of the moms can't concieve of their kids doing and would probably not want to know" (Anyhow, back to the books, it is spelled "conceive.")</p>
<p>Duhvinci: Maybe you are speaking for your own Mom's experience, but in my line of work, and I am sure in many other females' work, we see a lot of things happen with people that I actually would never post about in this forum. </p>
<p>However, if we confine this discussion to who gets into Swarthmore, it is not as predictable as you may think. I think that the parents and students on this thread are just trying to tell you that there is a broad range in admissions. Although you may purport to know exactly what that range is, it is not as predictable as you would think. Thus, the students who may say that they were "surprised" to get into Swarthmore!</p>
<p>from collegialmom: " Duhvinci: Maybe you are speaking for your own Mom's experience, but in my line of work, and I am sure in many other females' work, we see a lot of things happen with people that I actually would never post about in this forum." without sounding cavalier, who really cares what you see in your line of work? unless you work at swarthmore, how would anything in your line of work or other females' line of work have any relevance to anything that is posted on a college forum? i may not know how to spell conceive but maybe you should look up the definition of 'relevance.'</p>
<p>aside from all the personal attacks against me (which is fine) i have tried to keep, as best i could to the framework of this chances thread. i would appreciate if you would refrain from statements of absolutes you attribute to me that i have not made, such as, knowing exactly what the admissions range is. i do not know exactly what the admissions range is, but i do know that it is not as broad and encompassing as you try to make it out to be. if your intention is to rope kids with mediocre (the original op) stats or even with below normal stats in an effort to get them to apply, get rejected and thus lower swats acceptance rate, then that is fine. not every applicant to swat or any extremely exclusive school is viewed equally. even if one were to think that the sat range for swat is broad, a careful analysis would probably (i say probably because i only have anecdotal evidence as a backup), the lower sat ranges would tend toward urms. so if one were not a urm, the admissions range is a lot tighter and higher. urm's bring other things to the table and swats allegience to those goals are wonderful, but lets not even try claim that swats admissions policies are broad. they may be broader for a certain group (and that includes legacies, lest anyone tries to place more false labels on me), but they are certainly not a range that applies to everyone. swarthmore is still an elitist institution (i am all for that too) where the non urm population tend toward the highest ranges of the hs graduation populace and the urm population also tend toward the highest ranges of the urm hs graduation populace. broad would be many students with 4.0, 2300 and many students with 3.0 and 1600. that is so not what we have at swat.</p>
<p>i hope i spelled relevance correctly, i am such a poor speller, guilty. how does the saying go? i'm a lover not a speller.</p>