<p>Just like the title says... did anyone else get a postcard from Swat offering a fee waiver and deadline extension? </p>
<p>I was interested in the school beforehand, but this made me take another look at it.
However I'm not sure if I really have a chance of getting in- Chance me? </p>
<p>If I don't get in, it would be sad, but not the end of the world. I've already been accepted at one school that I've applied to, and still waiting on results from two others. </p>
<p>My Stats </p>
<p>ACT- English(27), Mathematics(18), Reading(34), Science(26), Timed Essay(8/12)
UW GPA- 2.92
Weighted- 3.7 (96.5 on 120 scale)
Class Rank 192/751
URM
Nat'l Hispanic Scholar
Taken several AP's-
AP World-4
APUSH-4
AP Lang/Lit-3
And, taking more in the spring! :)
EC's-
Speech and Debate- Prose and Poetry Interp. (3 years)
Academic Decathlon- Varsity Member and Team President (2 years)
University Interscholastic League "UIL"-Current Events (2 years) </p>
<p>I'm also an excellent creative writer and was thinking of submitting a Creative Writing Supplement. </p>
<p>Your unweighted GPA and your ACT score are both below the range – your GPA especially. That’s not to say that getting in is impossible but you’d better be one hell of a writer. The AP scores look okay but a 2.92 unweighted GPA (even though GPAs are a really crude way of viewing academics) anywhere is… not a good sign; not only for admission to Swarthmore but you’re being able to handle the work at Swarthmore. You didn’t have an interview so that’s another subjective aspect of the application that wouldn’t count in your favor; I’m also assuming you haven’t visited (will you?) which is also going to count against you.</p>
<p>It might be admissions recruiting to get more applicants to boost the number of applicants but that would seem a little strange coming out of Swarthmore’s admissions… Granted there are some new people working in there so I don’t know what their deal is.</p>
<p>Apply if it’s free and if it won’t hurt your pride – it’s always worth a shot; and congrats on your acceptance!</p>
<p>Yeah, I kind of knew that beforehand, but it never hurts to get an opinion from others… </p>
<p>Yes, I’m an excellent writer </p>
<p>To be honest my GPA is a terrible representation of who I am as a person, and how hard I’ve worked over the past four years. In my “OMG I NEED TO TAKE EVERY AP AND PREAP CLASS!!!BBBQ***” stage I made the mistake of taking a class I never should have taken (Pre-AP Chem.- I’m not exactly a math whiz…) instead of focusing on my core competencies in the Social Sciences and English. </p>
<p>I’d love to visit, but I’m just a tad too far to make the trip feasible (Texas, and it would ridiculously expensive!). </p>
<p>Quite honestly I am as stymied as you are as to why I received the postcard from them. It is from the “Assistant Deans of Admissions,” “Co-Directors of Multicultural Recruitment”, maybe it’s a new part of their office? (Any Swatties want to chime in here?) </p>
<p>Yeah, it’s free- the main reason that piqued my interest again. I don’t have the kind of money to throw around at a school that I’m likely to be rejected from…
Pride, however is a different matter; although I’m sure I’d survive. Afterall, I did take Amherst’s DIVOH rejection fairly well. (IMHO.)
Eh, maybe I’ll give it a shot.</p>
<p>Thanks, it’s always nice to know that I have somewhere to fall back on if my other schools fall through! :)</p>
<p>I got a postcard too. What a surprise! Does anyone know if we can apply through common app online and then send in the postcard for the fee waiver and extension?</p>
<p>I thought it was because of DiscoSwat, but I think they probably sent them out to everyone who has CommonApp online perhaps. Unless it was to URMs?</p>
<p>Swarthmore was on my common app about a month ago, but it’s been removed since then. I’m a QuestBridge Finalist, so that might have something to do with it.</p>
<p>Swarthmore is very aggressive in its minority outreach admissions priority. It is one of, if not the, most diverse elite colleges or universities on the east coast. I believe this kind of mailing is part of their effort.</p>
<p>Here are the current Fall 2010 diversity statistics (counting “unknown” in the “white” category). As you can see, Swarthmore is 46% non-white or non-US citizen – extremely diverse:</p>
<p>7.4% Temporary Resident
9.6% Black, Non-Hispanic
0.6% American Indian or Alaskan Native
17.1% Asian or Pacific Islander
11.1% Hispanic
54.2% White, Non-Hispanic</p>
<p>Thanks for the share, interesteddad. This is a very attractive feature, & along with it’s academic reputation–is one of the prime reasons why my daughter is applying to Swat. She visited this fall & has completed & sent her supplements. Will see how it turns out? :)</p>
<p>Its not a URM thing! I got one and I’m 100% ‘white’ and I’ve NEVER been truly interested in applying to Swarthmore (not on CommonAPP or Naviance or mailing list), but I’ve done a bunch of research and now I’m actually going to apply!</p>
<p>I’m Asian, but I didn’t get questbridge finalist.
I already submitted my common app, but not the supplement.
I had my interview about a week ago.
I’m on their mailing list; they already had sent me their application/financial aid stuff.</p>
<p>So who knows?</p>
<p>What I’m afraid of is that I send it, it gets lost in the mail (or something similar), they don’t get it, and then my supplement and payment are late. </p>
<p>Do you think they just count it for everyone, regardless of whether or not they get it back?</p>
<p>FWIW, my son keeps getting stuff from Swat; big things that don’t even get opened (edit; oops! That big thing that didn’t get opened was from Amherst). I’ve suspected it’s a URM+SAT thing. Son is the kind of kid that’s never heard of it. To be honest, I hadn’t either, until I came here. I think the outreach is a good idea for that reason. I wonder what they would mail if they also had his GPA.</p>
<p>I don’t know all the details, but clearly Swarthmore (and other colleges) are buying mailing lists for targeted student groups. The College Board will sell you lists filtered by test score, ethnic profile, zip code, etc. So, if you were, for example, targeting a lower income/high score applicant pool, you could filter zip codes or even particular high schools.</p>
<p>@dogdogcatcat
I’m sure they know they sent the postcard to you. If it gets lost (unlikely) I’m sure they’ll understand. I’d use the fee waiver for sure if I were you.</p>
</p>