<p>I've been browsing the swat website but I haven't seen anything on this topic. For those who currently attend Swat or recent Alums, what support systems does Swarthmore have (including profs and thier office hours) and, if you took advantage of them, how helpful were they? Were they judgemental (oh omg this is easy, why doesnt she get this, im tired of explaining the same thing...)? </p>
<p>Tutoring? Writing Workshops? Math Help? High School to Swat (Summer bridge or any bridge), seminars...?</p>
<p>There’s a lot of student support. There actually is quite a bit, I think on the Swarthmore website. Look into the Writing Associates program. I’ve only used WA’s when I had to, but I’m sure they will help you with your writing if you need help. There are also designated writing courses where developing writing skills is emphasized. I think some of them don’t really deserve to be called writing courses (especially the ones in math), but I have taken an English course in my freshman year where we wrote drafts, edited, etc. I think it really helped my writing skills, especially because there were no SparkNotes for the books we were reading and it forced me to think on my own and carefully construct an argument.</p>
<p>In many departments there are students who are paid to help other students on homework. For example, most weeknights there are math clinicians who are available to help you. There are student helpers in biology, engineering, chemistry, and physics. I myself am one of the math homework helpers. I think the students who provide help try not to be judgmental–it’s their job to be helpful. There are also student academic mentors (SAMs), who are willing to offer you advice about study habits, etc. if you ask.</p>
<p>I’m a parent of a Swat grad and also have a current Swat student. In addition to what murmillo described, the professors do have office hours which you should take advantage of. My current Swat student had class time conflicts with one of his professor’s office hours, so the professor just made up another time to meet with him. My kids would tell you that most of the professors are extremely helpful.</p>
<p>Swarthmore is a recognized leader in academic support. </p>
<p>The Writing Associates program was one of the first in the country to develop and implement the “writing across the curriculum” model. It was actually developed by a Swarthmore grad at Brown who worked simulatenously with her old English prof at Swarthmore who started a similar program at Swarthmore. Today, the resources Swarthmore throws at its Writing Associates program is beyond what any other liberal arts college invests. A tenured professor has full-time responsibility for the writing program – unheard of. It’s usually a part-time side assignment (at best) or a post-doc postion. The student mentors complete a full-semester, full-credit seminar in writing pedagogy. It’s basically a graduate level seminar in writing instruction. Again, unheard of. The number of courses that have assigned writing mentors and mandatory review/revision is very unusual. This includes all the section of the intro bio course, where WA’s help teach writing lab reports. Swarthmore has been recognized as a leader and it often cited by faculty studies at other top schools as a model.</p>
<p>Swarthmore has a multi-million dollar HHMI grant to develop a similar peer mentoring progam in the sciences. That’s been underway for several years now, basically a program of training students to serve as peer mentors in formal study group format.</p>
<p>I believe that one of the defining characteristics of the Swarthmore undergrad program is that it is both highly demanding and highly collaborative. My daughter experienced this right away with a first semester physics seminar that revolved around student presentation of problem sets each week. Her weekly schedule included the three hour seminar, a Sunday night study group where students gathered to work on the problem sets together. And, then meetings with the professor before presenting her problem set.</p>
<p>She used the WA writing review program frequently throughout her four years at Swarthmore and I think gained a lot from bouncing her papers off another student for comment and suggestions.</p>
<p>Here’s a paper presented by the head of Swarthmore’s Writing Associates program that goes into detail about the mentoring in Intro Bio. It’s a good example of Swarthmore’s leadership in this field:</p>
<p>[Gladstein</a>, Conducting Research in the Gray Space](<a href=“http://wac.colostate.edu/atd/fellows/gladstein.cfm]Gladstein”>http://wac.colostate.edu/atd/fellows/gladstein.cfm)</p>
<p>My daughter is a Junior biology major at Swat and has never felt alone in her studies. The study groups led by majors, as described in previous posts, have been extremely helpful resources. She has also found the professors present during office hours and very willing to answer questions and offer assistance. The lab instructors are all exceptionally helpful and supportive of student learning. The accessibility of the science professors is outstanding. They are in the labs at all hours of the day and night as well as weekends doing their own research or preparing for classes and they do not mind being interrupted to offer assistance. Sometimes they will actually initiate the contact to ask how things are going in the lab. My daughter has had more contact with her professors at 11 p.m. in a lab or on a Sunday afternoon in the science center than during their “official” office hours. E-mails are also answered promptly. In sum, my daughter has felt fully supported by her professors throughout her time at Swarthmore.</p>
<p>An example of professor access is the fact that all science and engineering lab sections at Swarhtmore are conducted by professors in the various departments.</p>
<p>It seems to me that the entire school, with a lot of financial resources, is focused entirely on the undergrad student experience and supporting students to succeed in an enviroment where students and faculty set high academic standards. The degree of academic engagement across the entire campus (faculty, administration, students) is unusually widespread. I don’t believe there is a better undergrad academic program in the country. The one caveat: it’s hard to hide, so a student who is not looking for active academic engagement can probably find a less demanding challenge.</p>
<p>My D, a junior, is a WA (Writing Associate) and also a WAM (Writing Associate Mentor), a WA who is assigned to mentor a specific student in all things written throughout a semester or year. They meet weekly and go over whatever it is in written form that the student needs to produce for a class. It is a wonderful service! I did want to make a point about all the academic support that is available. It is a given, on campus, that the community is diverse in terms of background and ability: one student may be especially good at writing while the next is especially good at science; the kid sitting next to you who can’t translate a line of hebrew just built a robot in 2 hours. Nobody looks down on anyone who asks for help or advice in any area, because everyone knows that what got them into Swat is some special gift, in outlook, personality, or ability, that adds greatness to the community. My D also has her own papers WA’d as a matter of course, and goes to the WA center for pre-writing insights from other WAs. Being part of the program, she has recognized just how invaluable the program is. A final plug for professors’ office hours – not like the obligatory office hours my own undergrad profs used to offer, by contract, back in the day: Swat professors seem to really enjoy having students come by to talk about paper topics or for problem-solving help. As students, it’s important to get over the feeling that asking for any sort of outside help is admitting some sort of failure. It’s a terrific resource, and the options are very highly developed at Swat.</p>