<p>When it comes to sink or swim some colleges mean that literally. </p>
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...The swim test was once as common on college and university campuses as Freshman Comp. But most schools have thrown in the towel. In an age of multiple fitness options, swimming is no longer viewed as that essential finishing stroke for college graduates.</p>
<p>Besides Swarthmore, the holdouts include Bryn Mawr (freshmen will take their dips today), Notre Dame (which used to require students to be in the buff), Cornell, Columbia, Dartmouth, Washington & Lee, and the military academies...</p>
<p>...Swarthmore and others instituted the policy in response to an American Red Cross effort to promote swimming as a way to stay fit, a concern during wartime.</p>
<p>Bryn Mawr, where the practice began in the 1909-10 school year, will ask freshmen to swim continuously for 10 minutes demonstrating two strokes, tread water for one minute, and float motionless for one minute.</p>
<p>The ability to swim remains a graduation requirement "because we're promoting well-balanced students here," said Nikki Whitlock, head swim coach and aquatics director at Bryn Mawr. "It's a life skill."</p>
<p>Invariably, some wait until senior year to get tested. "We had a whole mess of those last year," Whitlock said. "It becomes a panic moment."....
<p>Swim test is a vestige of old privilege and should be abolished. If you have doubt look up what happened to Gerald Perry, class of 1977, at Amherst College.</p>
<p>The University of Chicago has a swim test. You need to swim 4 pool lengths--any stroke with no time limit. You just need to keep moving the whole time. You can opt out of it if you know you can't swim and then you must take swim classes for PE. Life guards surround the pool the entire time, and they do help students get out of the water and stop the test who stop moving, are struggling, coughing, or appear overly exhausted.</p>
<p>The PE requirement is 3 PE classes including 2 "physical fitness" courses, which include jogging, weight training, conditioning, and similar classes. Your other PE course can be dance, archery, CPR, tennis, or whatever else you choose. You take a PE placement test during orientation which can place you out of 1, 2, or all 3 PE courses. If you fail the swim test, your PE course must be the learn to swim class. You have to take it even if you passed out of all PE requirements. </p>
<p>I know you can take the PE and swim tests at a later date if you have an injury or illness that prohibits you from participating. I'm assuming that if you have a permanent condition that makes swimming difficult for impossible you can bypass the requirement.</p>
<p>My view is that colleges can require whatever they want (within reason), including a swim test. Many colleges have goals and missions that reach beyond pure academics, and a swim test may very well fall under that umbrella. As long as schools require PE or health courses or anything else non-academic, then I don't have a problem with a swim requirement. I would of course expect rare exceptions for students who have a documented physical or mental disability that would make the swim requirement unreasonable.</p>
<p>30-odd years ago, the swim test was the most dreaded test there was during freshman orientation. Most of my friends did not pass, and had to take a swim class.</p>
<p>I on the other hand, passed the swim test as well as tested out of Freshman English Comp, all of my language requirements and Health!</p>
<p>My daughter would never pass. She can swim but she cannot float at all. We tried again this summer while on vacation, the poor thing sinks like a rock.</p>
<p>cmbmom, your daughter and others who have trouble in the water should not be reluctant to apply to Cornell because of the swim test.</p>
<p>It is true that those who fail the test (or don't attempt it because they don't relish the thought of having to be rescued by the lifeguards) have to take beginning swimming, but they don't have to pass the swimming course to graduate. They just have to take it and show up regularly for two semesters. Cornell figures that if the university can't teach a person to swim in two semesters, it's Cornell's fault, not the student's.</p>
<p>So your daughter would be able to graduate. </p>
<p>The same may not be true at other colleges that still have swim tests.</p>
<p>Yes, I remember Cornell's swim test 30-ish years ago, which I think we had to take during freshman orientation. Two year PE requirement too, on top of all that hill climbing.</p>
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Yes, I remember Cornell's swim test 30-ish years ago, which I think we had to take during freshman orientation. Two year PE requirement too, on top of all that hill climbing.
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<p>The test is still given during Orientation (my daughter took it on move-in day two weeks ago). PE requirement is down to one year. Sex discrimination in the swim test has been eliminated (it used to be that women had to do four lengths of the pool while men did two; when somebody pointed this out, the requirement was changed to three lengths for everybody). Also, unlike in the 1970s, when the men's test was conducted in the nude (and nobody seemed to mind), both sexes now wear bathing suits.</p>
<p>There is still a swim test requirement at MIT. Students have told me stories of graduating seniors arriving at graduation ceremonies with wet hair, but I suspect those are urban legends. ;)</p>
<p>I have a feeling the U of C used to do it in the nude for men too, but it's possible I'm thinking of something I heard about a different school.</p>
<p>At Columbia, you can take it any time in your four years. So, naturally my senior S hasn't taken it yet. He says that many seniors take it together at some point during the last semester, and it turns into a big party. You just have to do two laps, I think, at any pace and stroke (even doggy paddle will do.)</p>
<p>S says there's a story that the class val a few years ago waited and then failed the test, and the school had to give him quick remedial swimming to make sure he passed before graduation. Don't know if that's true or not.</p>
<p>Interestingly, the Columbia College students need to take it, but the Engineering School ones don't. Story is, since they're on an island, they need to be able to swim in case of attack, but the engineers don't, because they can build a bridge! :)</p>
<p>30 years ago NJIT had the test. The guys had to wear speedos. I was one of two girls in the class. We also had to demonstrate lifesaving skills. We needed to work in pairs, wearing pants & long sleeved shirts, righting a flipped canoe & climbing back in. We also needed to show we could fashion a makeshift life jacket out of a button down shirt. </p>
<p>Padad: Why is it a vestige of privlege? Knowing how to swim, at least well enough to save onself, is an important life skill. If the college just flunked non-swimmers out, that would be a problem. But every school requiring the test also provides swimming instruction to those who can't.</p>
<p>I've been told that the reason you have to pass a swim test at Notre Dame is because there are two lakes on campus, and at least one dorm is one the other side of the lake. So the test is given for safety reasons.</p>