***** Review

[dchow08]

<p>Hey guys,</p>

<p>I just did a review on a website (U N I G O .com) which has surveys that allow college students to do reviews of their colleges. I just did one for Swarthmore, and I thought it might help some people out, so here it is:</p>

<p>Okay, so I just wrote a review on <a href="http://www.*****.com%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.*****.com&lt;/a>, which is a great website where you can find out a lot about what students who go to college think about their own college. Here’s mine, copied and pasted:
What are some stereotypes about Swarthmore students?
They are nerdy, a bit (or sometimes very) anti-social, they were probably never popular in high school, they’re very smart (the smart one in the class), they’re very liberal and hippy-ish.
Are the stereotypes accurate?
For the most part, yes. You can definitely see a bit of these stereotypes in most people here. I don’t consider myself a hippie, but they are here if you look long enough. Students here tend to be very smart and take their work very seriously. Some people here are very social, and some aren’t. I think that compared to the students at my high school, students here are on average less social. That partly has to do with having to do a lot of work and that also has to do with the fact that many people here probably never really partied or drank or got out much. I can definitely imagine most people here not being popular in high school. Although there are some who probably were popular–it’s not that easy to generalize. There are a lot of liberals here, and a lot of people who claim to be liberals but really don’t know what they’re talking about.</p>

<p>Swarthmore: The Big Picture
I was drawn to Swarthmore in part for its small size, which was supposed to mean close interaction between students and professors, and a sense of community. I do get those here. But after a while I think most people here daydream about having just one day when they can experience going to a big university, or at least a bigger school than Swarthmore. I’ve certainly thought about it. Swarthmore’s smaller than my high school in population–that might be one reason why I wonder what it’d feel like. You do see the same people over and over, which is both good and bad–bad because you might get sick of it and just want to see more new people from time to time, and good because you do get a sense that you’re in a family, or at least a community. So, sometimes I wish the school had more people just for a few weeks, but since that can’t happen, I’m satisfied with the size of the school.</p>

<p>I think Swarthmore’s more well-known in the East Coast than in the West Coast, where I’m from. Many students and teachers in my high school in Seattle had never heard of Swarthmore. Some have, though. When I tell someone I go to Swarthmore, I usually get, “Oh, cool! Where is that?” from someone who’s never heard of it.</p>

<p>I spend most of my time in my dorm, I think. It’s probably close between my dorm, the library, and the science center. I usually go from place to place all the time, so often I go from my dorm (when I wake up) to class, then to breakfast, then back to my dorm to take a shower or brush my teeth, then back to class, then to lunch, then back to class for a lab if I have one, and then back to my dorm, where I do homework and check e-mail for an hour or so, and then head to dinner, and then from there I do homework wherever I feel like it.</p>

<p>Swarthmore is NOT A COLLEGE TOWN. It is not! There’s very little in the borough of Swarthmore. I usually only go to the bank there. But there is everything you need–a Wal-Mart, a Target, a sort of quiet mall, a grocery store, a crappy Chinese restaurant, and a good pizza place. Actually, to get to Wal-Mart or Target you should take a van. So it really isn’t a college town at all, which is rather unfortunate, because it would be great to have a cool town.</p>

<p>I don’t have much of an opinion about Swarthmore’s administration. I just have the pleasure of not having to deal with it.l</p>

<p>There haven’t been any huge controversies on campus so far–I guess the most recent one was this: a few weeks ago, there were a lot of events on campus from various student groups about the economic state of the country, and Swarthmore’s financial aid policy. In Parrish Hall, which is where the administrative offices are, students put pieces of paper all over the common area detailing students’s experiences with the financial aid here, which is generally considered to be excellent. That, I think, captures much of my general impression of Swarthmore students, which I’ll get to later.</p>

<p>There really isn’t much school pride here–I’ve been to a few soccer games, and basically people watch if they don’t have much else to do, but nobody really cares that much about the sports teams here, except the athletes. Lots of people probably aren’t screaming out loud, “Yes! I go to Swarthmore!!!” but I think most of them like it here.</p>

<p>Swarthmore has some quirky (admissions office has really adopted this word and is trying to really associate that word with the school when they talk about Swarthmore to high school students and to parents) traditions, like the Pterodactyl Hunt, which is basically a sci-fi but reality game. It was actually pretty cool. There’s also events like Dash for Cash and Sager, which I won’t go into now. Swarthmore’s a very liberal school–I don’t think any review of Swat can be acceptable without mentioning this.</p>

<p>I haven’t had too many memorable experiences yet, as it’s just nearing the end of my first semester here, but one memorable experience would be the Pterodactyl hunt.</p>

<p>Most frequent student complaints: too much work to do, not getting enough sleep, Sharples food sucks, town of Swarthmore sucks. We have something called misery poker, which is when you start off by saying how much work you have to do and other people go around trying to beat you by trying to tell you that they have more work than you. We do it in math class every week.</p>

<p>Academics at Swarthmore
All my professors except my biology professors know my name. We have four biology professors in Introduction to Biology, each one specializing in a different section of biology. My favorite class is probably Linear Algebra honors seminar, which is a first-year seminar (FYS). A first-year seminar is a seminar specifically for first-year students, and it’s meant to give freshmen a sense of what upper-level seminar courses will feel like. It’s really a great opportunity to take a class other than lecture. FYS’s are capped at 12 students, and my math seminar (28S) has only 11 students, and it’s great because we all (11 students and the professor) really get to know each other much better. We sit around a giant table and we basically discuss math problems, and the classroom walls are all made up of just blackboard, which is cool. It’s great to have that close interaction–I think it makes class much more special than just going to a lecture and taking notes. The math seminar lasts twice as long as other classes–6 hours a week instead of 3. Every Wednesday we meet for those 3 additional hours, and our professor always brings snacks. He actually invited the whole class to his house for dinner, and the dinner will be held in a few weeks, during finals, so that’ll be awesome.</p>

<p>My least favorite class is Intro to Biology. I’m really not that interested in the subject material–I was mainly looking for a general background in biology, and I suppose I did get that, but it is a big lecture course (over 100 students) and quite frankly, I find it to be pretty boring. Also, the quality of the professor matters–we have 4 profs in Bio 1, and the boring professors make the lectures boring, and the lively professors who have almost a tangible excitement about the subject make the lectures lively. It’s also a very big time commitment, and assignments in Bio 1 take much longer to complete than assigments in my other classes.</p>

<p>Swatties really do have intellectual discussions outside of class, but they’re not ubiquitous, I don’t think, and I think a lot of people don’t want intellectual discussions outside of class to be ubiquitous. Some people (including me) just want a break from academics during meals, and they prefer to talk about their day, and how class has been, and stuff like that. But most of my friends make some kind of intellectual reference at some point during the day.</p>

<p>Students aren’t competitive–in fact, it’s quite the opposite. You see a lot of collaboration here. Example: students get together to do math homework. Another example: students get together in study group meetings for biology. Students here are very friendly, and they’re generally willing to help struggling students. None of my classes so far curve grades, so it really doesn’t help your grade if others do worse (which may be the case in classes where exam grades are curved). Students here keep their grades to themselves, and in fact grades are almost never mentioned–I’ve barely mentioned grades at all here. The unwillingness of students to discuss grades (it’s not because they have bad grades, but more because it’s a personal thing, and quite frankly, nobody here really cares about your grade) is a welcome improvement in maturity level from high school.</p>

<p>Education here is definitely geared to learning for its own sake. You don’t learn things that are really practical for jobs, necessarily. It’s important to try to get work experience outside of class, and to seek internships and externships. Career Services helps you with that, but you need to really work to find good work experience. Many Swatties end up going to graduate school. I think many people here are just afraid of going off into the work world and “abandoning” school–I am. I don’t want to work a boring 9-5 job, where I won’t really be contributing that much to the world. I think many people enjoy learning so much that they really don’t want to leave it behind.</p>

<p>Swarthmore’s Student Body
Swarthmore’s very open to racial, religious, LGBT, and socio-economic groups on campus. I write for the campus newspaper, and sometimes I interview students who have started organizations and groups. So, students are interested in exploring issues and trying to effect positive change in society. Now I should probably bring up again the fliers that were posted in Parrish Hall commenting on the financial aid here. That, I think, is sort of representative of much of the student body. (1) Students are trying to fix problems that they see. (2) But they sometimes try to do this in not the best way. It’s certainly good to raise awareness, but the messages have an accusatory tone–they see the financial aid office as somewhat corrupt, unkind to students, and uncaring to students, which might be the case, but you get this sense of ignorance from a lot of students. In other words, I think a lot of students don’t really reach out and listen to the other side–they may see themselves as superior and therefore think that other opinions shouldn’t really matter as much. The same goes with politics here–a lot of students claim to be liberal, but they aren’t open to considering lots of different views–you don’t have to accept them, but you should think about them. A lot of students are politically aware, but a lot of them also really don’t know what they’re talking about. In other words, you see a lot of people supporting Obama but without many clear-cut reasons why. Now, I think most people would have clear-cut reasons, but I want to get the point across that a few people here are annoying and ignorant and really don’t know what they’re talking about.</p>

<p>Some of my high school friends really would feel out of place here–among them, pretty much all the popular kids in high school. You’ve really got to enjoy learning and be willing to work very hard to like it here, I think, because that’s largely what Swarthmore’s about, based on my not-even-one semester here. Most students dress relatively poorly to class and don’t care. Today, I woke up late and I just woke up, changed, put on a sweatshirt and flip-flops (because putting on socks and shoes would take too long), grabbed my backpack, and was out the door in like 30 seconds. Some dress nicely though, but not many.</p>

<p>I don’t think different types of students really interact that much, but it’s a bit hard to avoid because you see them all the time…I think most people just stick to their friends, and your friends tend to be similar to you.</p>

<p>Swarthmore Activities + Social Life
Some groups on campus: The Phoenix, Swarthmore Asian Organization, Enlace, and the fraternity, DU. None of these are that big–they tend to be sort of like familial groups that you go to during meetings. I’m involved in The Phoenix, the campus newspaper, and I got started in it because I had never written for a newspaper before and thought that it would be cool to try something new and know how it was like, so I joined. Groups here are generally very inclusive.</p>

<p>We often get guest speakers here. One of the most interesting guest speakers I spoke to (I interviewed for The Phoenix) was involved in an organization called Food Not Bombs, which calls for redirecting military expenses toward feeding the hungry, with the idea that providing food for all is more important than war. He was really amazing because he was taught by Howard Zinn and went all over Europe to see Food Not Bombs groups starting up, and it was amazing to see how a small idea that he and his friends had would become a global thing. Other guest lectures I’ve attended: a professor from MIT talked about the effect of climate change on economics, and Michael Dukakis spoke about the 2008 election.</p>

<p>Parties are usually Thursday nights and Saturday nights. On Sunday most people get to work and do stuff for Monday.</p>

<p>Lots of people here drink, but if you’re not into that (I’m not), there are often movies showing every week, dances (in other words, party but just don’t drink), and of course there’s Philadelphia. I think a lot of people might find this boring, but I think a lot of people are fine with it–I usually watch a movie during the weekend, hang out with friends, do a bit of work (sometimes a lot), and just relax. It’s really low-key.</p>

<p>No Holds Barred
Swarthmore’s a great place but there are a lot of negatives. I think it’s important to visit and try to spend the night over, and walk all around campus and talk to people and see basically what a typical day is like here.</p>

<p>I really don’t like the weather here–it’s too sunny, and it’s almost winter. I just really like the cloudy days back in Seattle. People here are really nice, but I find a few of them arrogant and self-righteous, and these people seem to think that they’re smarter, and just superior to their friends, and that really sucks. People here should be more willing to listen to different perspectives and should get a reality check that they’re still students.</p>

<p>I really like the close interaction between students and faculty–I think it’s really special to know that professors really care that you learn. I sometimes get the feeling that I’m not getting a ‘world-class education,’ but I think that really has to do with the fact that we’re not in a big university, and a lot of people associate ‘world-class education’ with famous universities, and we’re not a famous university. We’re a small college, Swarthmore, dedicated to learning in an academic, close-knit community, where students often try to make the world a better place and have fun while they’re at it. I think that’s what Swarthmore’s about.</p>

<p>In Closing …</p>

<p>What’s the worst thing about Swarthmore? The town of Swarthmore</p>

<p>What’s the best thing about Swarthmore? That professors care that students learn and that the students enjoy learning</p>

[interesteddad]

<p>I don't know if it was your intent, but that reads like an extremely negative review. Are you planning to transfer?</p>

[dchow08]

<p>Oh, no, absolutely not! I really love it here. Maybe I'll read over the review and take a closer look.</p>

[dramatica]

<p>dchow</p>

<p>I had the same reaction and was puzzled because I knew from some of your other posts that you are happy there. I think that you tried to be so objective that you did not let your positive feelings show.</p>

[involved_mom]

<p>I did not see dchow's review as negative - just an evenhanded perspective on Swarthmore from a current student. Despite Swat's vaunted endowment, spending per student, and student body diversity, it still has much in common with other colleges - areas needing improvement. Dchow's review was an accurate reflection of my daughter's experience - both the positive and negative - and, hopefully, will add useful information for those prospective students interested in more than the "party line".</p>

[interesteddad]

<p>Doesn't like the weather because it's "too sunny". The financial aid office might be "corrupt" (that's a pretty serious charge).</p>

<p>After reading a review like dchow's from students, I would recommend that they transfer to a larger university. Doesn't like the location. Doesn't like the students. Doesn't think the education is "world class". I am shocked that dchow "loves" Swarthmore after reading that review.</p>

[dadx3]

<p>I read through a good number of the student reviews on the ***** site. In general, I think someone who read a reasonable selection of the reviews would get a fair picture of what Swarthmore is like. Swarthmore is definitely not for everyone, but that is fine, because the school doesn't have room for "everyone." For those who are a good fit for Swarthmore, though, it does provide a "world class" liberal arts education.</p>

<p>As to OP's review, I did not take his reference to the question of "corruption" in the financial aid office to be his personal view, but rather his take on what other students felt, based on their postings in Parrish. I have read some of those posts, too, as well as having read the coverage in the Daily Gazette and The Phoenix. There does seem to be an undercurrent of suspicion of the financial aid office on the part of at least some students. Some of this may be due to the lack of transparency in how they make their decisions on what "need" is.</p>

<p>Given that most families would want to keep their financial situation private there is probably no way to achieve transparency in the financial aid decisions. My sense is, though, that the financial aid office does have not only a methodology they use to make these decisions but also a reasonable amount of flexibility in interpreting the methodology if there are specific issues or reasons why a particular family's financial aid award should be adjusted.</p>

<p>Given the cost of delivering the educational services that Swarthmore provides relative to most family's incomes and other expense commitments, there will always be some families who feel that the expected family contribution that the financial aid office calculates is more than they can afford. There is no such thing as a free lunch, but even full-fare students and their families are getting a reduced price lunch, as I-Dad has often pointed out in his calculation of per-student spending versus fees charged.</p>

[FauxNom]

<p>Thanks for that even-handed review. I found it very helpful because it goes beyond generalities about the quirky intellectual students and heavy work load. From my perspective, the most disturbing statement in the review is that kids who were popular in high school wouldn't like it there or fit in. Does anyone else have thoughts on that? My D is very social and popular (in a good way ;)) but also has an intellectual bent that I had thought made Swarthmore a good fit for her. So where SHOULD a popular brainiac go?</p>

[interesteddad]

<p>My daughter was extremely social in high school, organizing stuff every weekend with a large group of friends. That continued in college at Swarthmore. For example, she organized a little impromptu party for a dozen friends and their parents the day before graduation.</p>

<p>She was not a drinker or doper in high school, so maybe that's what dchow meant by "popular" students. I'm really not sure.</p>

<p>I don't believe my daughter was unusual. She has very social friends and Swarthmore and the recent grad housemate now knows everyone in Washington, DC. The whole group of Swatties there is very social in terms of parties all over town.</p>

[dadx3]

<p>I think it will depend on what kind of "popular" your D or any other prospective Swarthmore student has been in high school. High school popularity can often come from being part of the "right" crowd or participating in the "right" activities. Being a star athlete or having high socio-economic status are often keys to popularity in high school. Those attributes will have little relevance at a college like Swarthmore. I have a friend who was a cheerleader in high school. She loved Swarthmore, but the cheerleader aspect of high school was something she left behind.</p>

<p>I think it is probably accurate to some extent that Swarthmore students generally spent less time on socializing in high school than many of their high school classmates. To get in to Swarthmore most students have to both spend a lot of time on academics, but then also spend time on some extracurricular passion. In my experience there is often not much time left over.</p>

<p>On the other hand, my S said that the biggest surprise for him after he got to Swarthmore was that there were about 5 times as many social opportunities as he had expected.</p>

[interesteddad]

<p>
[quote]
On the other hand, my S said that the biggest surprise for him after he got to Swarthmore was that there were about 5 times as many social opportunities as he had expected.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>My daughter wasn't surprised by the social scene when she got to Swarthmore. She had spent Ride the Tide in the Lodges with some sophmores who pooled their "spec" money and set up a keg out on the lawn courtyard of the Worth/Lodges dorm complex. She got to meet pretty much the entire school as they stopped by to hang out on a nice spring afternoon/evening.</p>

[dchow08]

<p>Hi guys,</p>

<p>I just thought I'd respond to some of the comments here so far:
- I still do not think my review was extremely negative; I think it's pretty much as accurate as I can make it, given my less than one semester here. My review 3 years from now probably won't be the same as it is now.
- Yes, I still think the weather is too sunny (It's November, gosh darn it!).
- I don't necessarily think the financial aid people here are corrupt--I mentioned in the review that I've never really talked to the administration. My point was that the students who are active in this kind of stuff--Students for a Democratic Society, for instance--might. You can sort of get a sense of this when you read the fliers that have been posted on Parrish Hall--a lot of them say stuff like, "I can't afford their financial aid," or "It's really upsetting to see people much smarter than I am having to leave Swat because they can't afford it," or "The financial aid office made me want to cry." In other words, a lot of the fliers paint the picture that the financial aid office is cruel to students--you didn't see many positive remarks about the financial aid office. But, haven't the students considered that this is a private college, and private colleges and universities are generally more expensive than public ones? Or the fact that the average student aid package per year is somewhere like $30,000 (something like that)? Or just consider that they should be grateful that Swarthmore, for its being the 3rd-highest ranked liberal arts college in the country according to USNWR, and 4th best college/university according to Forbes (both of which aren't necessarily accurate), generally is more generous than a lot of other schools? In other words, a lot of students have to face the reality--just because you get accepted doesn't mean that your family can afford it. So, the point was not that I thought the financial aid office was corrupt (in fact, I am grateful that the financial aid this first year was so generous), but that the students who do such things might paint a picture that basically shows them as the good guys and the financial aid people as the bad guys, rather than listening and absorbing what the financial aid people have to say about it, and going from there.
Or the people who basically just listen to Obama's speeches and not McCain's--in other words, people who don't consider both sides.</p>

<ul>
<li><p>I don't think I ever said in my review that I don't like the students. There are students here whom I don't like--that'll happen at wherever I go, even if I transfer. It's not a huge population yet. It's more that I don't like those students' approach to solving problems, e.g. the fliers in Parrish. I don't know these students personally. There are people who think they're superior to pretty much everyone in the school, however; I tend not to like them very much.</p></li>
<li><p>About the "world class education": I'm not sure whether I'm getting a world class education, but I think I'm close to getting one, if I am not. I said in the review that other students might not think that they're getting a world class education, and I was referencing one of the reviewers on the website, who said that he/she didn't think he/she was getting a world class education. And I said that that opinion may have arisen because lots of people tend to associate world class education with a big university, or somewhere like UCLA, or Harvard, or Yale, of the University of Chicago, or Oxford, or Cambridge. My point was that the education people get at Swarthmore might be the same, might even be better than what they're getting at the other places, but students might not feel that way because they're not in a big university setting, and so it doesn't feel like they're getting a really outstanding education.</p></li>
<li><p>About the popularity: Yes, perhaps I should have gone into more detail about that. One of the suggested questions on the website was "What kind of people wouldn't fit in at Swarthmore?", and I thought about some people in my high school who probably wouldn't fit in here, and most of the people I thought of were popular in my high school. Not because they were popular, but because
(a) they generally didn't care that much about learning--for example, they were perfectly willing to cheat, and cared more about their grade in calculus than learning the Fundamental Theorem of it,
(b) they weren't as hard working as people here tend to be--in other words, they'd probably get sick of all the work that's required (provided they take a standard course load), and would want to transfer,
(c) they probably would not want to be in the Swarthmore bubble; they'd really like to hang out all over the city during the weekends, which is possible, but not all the time, especially if you have lots of work,
(d) they wouldn't like the small size of the school, and are probably looking for a much larger university, and it is true that a lot of the popular people at my high school did end up going to places like the Univ. of Washington, Northeastern University, a UC school, Western Washington University, places like that. </p></li>
</ul>

<p>And so I was making a gross generalization, which was that popular people in generally are like the people I described above--what I really meant was the popular people in my high school probably wouldn't like Swarthmore. If your kids are popular but are smart and love learning (braniac), then Swat might be fine, but I do want to mention that a lot of people here probably weren't that popular (the popular ones would not be at Swarthmore), and that on average, people here probably don't know how to interact with other people as much. That's why I said, "Some of my high school friends really would feel out of place here–among them, pretty much all the popular kids in high school. You’ve really got to enjoy learning and be willing to work very hard to like it here, I think, because that’s largely what Swarthmore’s about, based on my not-even-one semester here."</p>

<p>Okay, I hope that clarifies some things.</p>

<p>Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!</p>

[interesteddad]

<p>
[quote]
Some of my high school friends really would feel out of place here

[/quote]
</p>

<p>From a typical high school, there might only be one or two students who would even have a shot of getting admitted to Swathmore academically. It kind of goes without saying that most high school students don't belong at Swarthmore.</p>

<p>Here's an example of where I think you are incredibly harsh:</p>

<p>
[quote]
I don’t have much of an opinion about Swarthmore’s administration. I just have the pleasure of not having to deal with it.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>The implication is that the administration at Swarthmore is so awful that you consider yourself lucky to not have to deal with them. In reality, the relationship of the administration and the students and the faculty is one of the most widely noted positive qualities of the school. For example, the President, the Dean of Financial Aid, and the Dean of the College just spent two hours chatting with students. The Dean has a goal of having every single Swarthmore student over for dinner during their four years.</p>

<p>Given that the administration is more accessible and responsive and student-centered that about 99.9% of the colleges and universities, one would think that a review from a student who likes the college would not include a harsh comment about the administration.</p>

<p>The Swatties I know had to "deal with" the administration -- on search committees for hiring a new dean, and so forth. My sense is that they not only found dealing with the administration tolerable, but enjoyable.</p>

[dchow08]

<p>I thought it was perfectly clear that I did not think the administration at Swarthmore is so awful that I don't have to deal with them--that should have been clear when I said, "I don't have much of an opinion about Swarthmore's administration." And I would not want to have the displeasure of, for example, getting not enough financial aid and having to try to convince the Financial Aid Office to give me more. Sure, some people are into talking to the administration, but I'd much rather prefer just doing my own thing and letting them do theirs, and going to them only when I really need to or really want to. It should be clear that I haven't really talked to administrative people here. But I don't have any major issues yet, for example if they didn't award me AP credit I would have to go talk to them, which I wouldn't want to do. Okay, if what I said was incredibly harsh (which it really wasn't because I said as clearly as I could that I don't have much of an opinion of Swarthmore's administration), then let me rephrase it: I've had the pleasure of not having any problems that I had to go talk to the administration to get resolved.</p>

[involved_mom]

<p>It is refreshing to read dchow's perspective. Many of the postings on this site are so focused on college numbers - rankings, prestige, size of endowment, and student body diversity - it may be challenging for a prospective student or family to learn more about what it is really like to be a student at Swarthmore. It seems that ID's daughter had a perfect or near-perfect Swat experience; obviously, Swarthmore was a good fit for her. I think it would be beneficial for prospective students and their families to read many different student perspectives in order to gauge "fit". So, dchow and other students, please keep those opinions/perspectives coming! Swarthmore prides itself on the diversity of its student body; let's start fostering diverse viewpoints.</p>

[A.E]

<p>If you really want a different viewpoint, you could always go check out the Daily Jolt. I'm not saying I think it's great or anything, but it definitely casts things in a different light. Or you could check out publications such as The Phoenix or The Daily Gazette, where plenty of navel-gazing occurs, so student opinions about Swarthmore aren't very hard to come by. </p>

<p>This Swarthmore section of this site is about 70% parents, 25% prospective students, and about 4% actual Swat students/alums (with the remainder being other LAC interlopers), so don't expect a lot in the way of diversity of student opinion here.</p>

<p>My opinion, as an alum, is the same as it always has been: The alleged excellence of Swarthmore is vastly overstated. Furthermore, I don't think dchow was being negative in his review.</p>

[LaMariposaAzul]

<p>I appreciate your honesty, dchow. Swarthmore has been on my list for a long time now, but lately I've been feeling that it might be too intense and the people would be so much smarter and more involved than I ever could be...anyway, it was great to just hear one person's very balanced, no-excessive-praise review on the school. Very comforting, thank you.</p>

[interesteddad]

<p>Here's the Daily Jolt loser site that AE is recommending. At least it will give you a good sense of where he is coming from.</p>

<p>Daily</a> Jolt</p>

<p>99% of Swatties wouldn't be caught dead on the Jolt.</p>

[circumlocution2]

<p>this isn't really related, but what is the site? can you put spaces in between letters so it doesn't go ******?</p>

[dchow08]

<p>I told you the name of the website on the review. U N I G O.</p>