<p>I applied early decision at Swarthmore, but now I'm starting to regret that. Most likely my regrets are just the result of committing myself to the school, and that I'd feel the same way once I made my final decision no matter what school.
But also I've made the mistake of reading too many Swarthmore forums, which scared me. So now I'm afraid Swarthmore is either entirely populated by super nerds or by hipsters. I consider myself a fairly normal fairly middle of the road person, at least in terms of not identifying myself with any kind of subgroup. Would you say that Swarthmore students are mostly in that category of being generally normal people, weird in their own ways but not in the way that can be defined as a hipster or a hippie or what not?
More importantly, are people nice and friendly?
Thanks a lot, I just really need to ease my mind.</p>
<p>Most of the Swatties I know seem pretty down to earth and “normal”. They read Cosmo. Go to Harry Potter premieres at the first midnight showing, and so forth. They just happen to be really smart and, for the most part, interesting.</p>
<p>As far as I can tell, they are mostly quite friendly and accepting. I think that’s a bit of hallmark of Swarthmore. Maybe she was the exception, but my daughter fell instantly into a group of friends. She told me in her first phone call home after three or four days that “I feel like I’ve known the kids on my hall for years…”</p>
<p>Thank you! I think I’m just getting irrationally nervous, I have a tendency to do that. If Swarthmore is anything close to what you described I should be fine.</p>
<p>If you were to read the Swarthmore newspaper you would actually find a pretty normal group of people; indeed, writers praise and are supportive of the athletes at the school and features are done on classic stuff like dining halls. A a counter to this, Swarthmore sends out a DVD (maybe you have it) with people talking about their Swarthmore experience–some of THOSE people look a bit strange. I would have preferred the DVD to have shown classwork, fun, and athletics. For the most part, when I read the newspaper, I don’t see many hippies.</p>
<p>Romulus-I think it is pretty common to have a “buyer’s remorse” sort of reaction, especially if you are prone to reading multiple forums. I can tell you honestly that my son who is a freshman there is extremely normal ;), very smart, but extremely normal. He’s on an athletic team, sings in an a cappella group, plays in the orchestra, will be a tour guide starting this semester, etc. He was also extremely concerned about whether there were many normal students at Swat when he was accepted, but any fears he had have vanished. He went skiing last week with a small group of Swarthmore friends, and one came to visit him this week. She was really nice and seemed very “normal” to me.</p>
<p>Now, in all honesty, my older son also went there, and I wouldn’t exactly call him totally normal. Maybe “next to normal.” ;)</p>
<p>Excellent post, Momof3sons! LOL!</p>
<p>My daughter is a junior at Swarthmore. She is VERY normal. She loves pop culture via magazines, TV shows, movies, and books. She wears makeup and cares about her appearance. She is also very smart, bubbly, outgoing and happy! One of the things she loves most about Swarthmore is the friendliness of the students and professors. She constantly talks about the warm, nurturing environment that she experiences regularly. Her fellow students are also very smart, eager to learn, non-competitive and always excited to help one another. Swarthmore is also a very excepting place. Kids from all walks of life seem to fit in just fine. The kids work hard, but have tons of fun too! My daughter stays very busy as she is a tour guide, sings in the choir and several music ensembles, is involved in theatre and is a RA, but she wouldn’t have it any other way. It’s “good” busy she says. Somehow, she falls more in love with Swarthmore every day she is there!</p>
<p>I could talk in circles about normal kids at Swarthmore, but if you really want to see what normal is like at Swarthmore, go to the athletics page and play the garnet video. You will see a basketball player who talks about video games, food, classes,and his favorite book - “pass”. He is a “normal” kid who is just a down to earth country boy who fell in love with Swarthmore. Feel free to laugh, mock, giggle, or whatever, but this is the type of kid at Swarthmore. And before you pass judgement on me, he is my kid. =)</p>
<p>I don’t know if the average Swattie is exactly normal, but he or she will be really interesting in or talented at at least one thing. They work SO hard, but then they all seem to do a million other things as well. Last night, my son and his friends were playing midnight rugby in the snow!</p>