<p>Can anyone tell me about religions at Swat? Does it look at religions as artifacts or as with a primarily social cohesiveness function or as places to go for metaphysical depth? Are all the major traditions taught, along with their major mystical/metaphysical proponents? Such as Eckhart, Nagarjuna, Sankara, Ibn al'Arabi, etc...</p>
<p>Secondarily, how is the writing program at Swat, writing fiction and poetry?</p>
<p>Thanks much ahead of time!</p>
<p>Writing is integral to many courses at Swat, needless to say including the English department. Suffice it to say that a remarkable number of pre-eminent authors attended Swat (Jonathan Franzen one of the most recent stars, James Michener in the past). The religion department is one of many standouts at the College, but at a school with 1500 students, the variety/number of course offerings can’t match those at a large university; that said, the depth and quality does.</p>
<p>[Swarthmore</a> College :: Religion :: Why Study Religion?](<a href=“http://www.swarthmore.edu/religion.xml]Swarthmore”>Religion :: Swarthmore College) should answer many of your questions. Take a look at the course offerings, both in the course catalog (for an idea of what will be available over the course of four years) and in the current course schedule (for an idea of how many courses are taught in a typical semester). The religion majors that I know are generally pretty happy with the department, but you should feel free to contact the department with more specific questions if you have them. </p>
<p>The English department offers several courses which have both a literary analysis component and a creative writing component, as well as several writing workshops per semester. The poetry and fiction workshops are selective: every student who wishes to enroll must submit a portfolio of work, and it is by no means guaranteed that you will get in. But people I know who’ve taken the workshops say this is a great thing: it means the group is small and everyone there is dedicated to and serious about writing. More information is available at the English department website: [Swarthmore</a> College :: English Literature :: Creative Writing](<a href=“http://www.swarthmore.edu/x10041.xml]Swarthmore”>http://www.swarthmore.edu/x10041.xml).</p>
<p>I’m in Fiction Workshop right now, and was accepted into Poetry Workshop as well for this semester (you can only take one per semester, in fairness). It is definitely geared toward experienced and talented writers; I’ve been very happy with the quality of work presented in class. It’s a good mix of all four class years and many different majors. There are also half-and-half courses which don’t require portfolio submission and are geared more towards beginning creative writers.</p>
<p>Religion at Swat is a diverse department with a LOT of flexibility in planning the major/minor. I’ve only ever heard good things, but in general it caters to people who want to study religion for its humanistic methods of analysis, rather than people who want intensive preparation for divinity school. (However, I also know someone who is an Engineering/Religion double major and going to rabbinical grad school.) For example, compared to the religion department of a more conservative school like Rhodes, Swarthmore’s program places much less emphasis on the Bible.</p>
<p>Thank you all who replied to my queries. I appreciate your input very much.</p>
<p>estura</p>