Swarthmore? Chances?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Swarthmore College
1

<p>Wow, so today I just kind of discovered Swarthmore.
Of course I've known of Swarthmore, but I had never considered it as a possible college choice for myself.</p>

<p>It looks beautiful, and it seems to be a very good school in the Social Sciences area, which is what I plan to study.
Is this true?</p>

<p>And why is it always missing from lists of national college rankings?
It seems to only appear on lists of liberal arts colleges.</p>

<p>Anyway, I was wondering if I have a chance at getting accepted to Swarthmore this year (Class of 2011). Candid assessments are appreciated.</p>

<p>Academics:
GPA: Overall- 96.5/100.0 (Freshman- 94.9 / Sophomore- 97.1 / Junior- 97.4)
Rank: 13/368
SAT I: 2290 (Critical Reading- 700, Math- 790, Writing- 800)
SAT II: Biology-E- 690, Math Level 1- 740</p>

<p>ECs/Awards:
Math Club - Officer, Vice-President, President
Mathlete Team - Captain
Merit Certificate - New York Math League
Silver - County Interscholastic Math League
Spanish Club - President
School Newspaper - Feature Editor, Culture Corner Editor
Local Youth Football Clinic - Volunteer Assistant Coach
General Student Organization volunteer
Volunteered at Special Olympics
Studio Art course (will send supplemental slides)
2nd Place, schoolwide Art Contest
National Honor Society
Honor Roll every semester
National Merit Semi-Finalist
Published by The America Library of Poetry
1st Place, school Biology Fair
Brown University Summer Program
Babysitting job</p>

<p>Location: Long Island, NY
School Type: Private (Catholic)
Ethnicity: Caucasian
Gender: Male</p>

2

<p>Your stats are certainly good enough to apply. </p>

<p>But to have a realistic shot at getting in, you will have to create an application that has some personality, and actually shows what do you care about, what "floats your boat" (unlike the list you posted above).</p>

3

<p>um, in lists that seperate national universities from liberal arts colleges, Swarthmore will only appear on the liberal arts list because it has no graduate programs.</p>

4

<p>Gotcha.</p>

<p>And nngmm, certainly one has to convey personality through the application. That's what the essays are for. I'm nearly done with mine already, and they really do tell about who I am. My favorite talks about how the American Museum of Natural History inspired me to take a summer course dealing with anthropology, what I learned from that summer course (both in and outside of the classroom), and how now I know that anthropology and related fields are areas that I want to pursue in college.</p>

5

<p>That sounds like a very "Swarthmore" essay. I once read a really good essay about an interest in astronomy that started with seeing a famous painting of the night sky the Chicago Museum of Art and ended with a conversation about "looking for little green men" through the telescope at an astronomy club open house. It was clever, funny, and personal -- all while tying curiously into academic learning. Here's a tip: make it personal. Take the reader with you into the museum.</p>

<p>To answer your other question: yes, Swarthmore has always been notably strong across the social sciences. It produces more future social science PhDs per graduate than any other college or unversity in the country. 1st in Econ. 1st in political science. 3rd in Sociology/Anthropology. The Soc/An department requires fewer courses for a major than some departments, so there is room to take related courses from the History, Poli Sci, Art, Econ, and language departments. A lot of Soc/An majors study abroad and get funding for summer senior thesis research overseas: the department requires a two-semester senior thesis. Almost every course in the department is a small seminar with no more than a dozen students.</p>

6

<p>Thanks! That helps a lot =)</p>

7

<p>swarthmore is a beautiful place. it's one of the reasons i applied. whether you actual want my other reasons or not, i have some time to kill and will list some of them and maybe they will help others who read this thread. in no particular order, here goes: it is ranked high on usn&wr. this isn't the main reason for applying, if it were, i would have attended the no.1 lac or harvard or yale or mit (although i'm not certain i would have gotten in to harvard or yale, i'm pretty certain i would have gotten into mit, i was in their rsi program). it has been stated ad nauseum that where one goes to school is not an indicator of how well one will perform in life, however, it is just my personal belief that the more prestigious a school one attends, the better the quality of contacts one leaves the school with and the higher the level of alumni contacts as well, which leads to more open doors and so on and so forth. prestige is important, but i reiterate that prestige was not the sole criteria for my selection of swat. next, i liked the concept of the honors program which gives the feel of graduate school studies at the undergrad level (i havn't experienced it yet, but that's what i hear). next is the lack of a "jock" type atmosphere on campus. places such as williams and amherst has an undercurrent of sports competition all around that wasn't my thing (if one likes that, then that's cool too). I didn't get that feeling at brown or harvard or yale (forget about mit), but then they are larger schools and i guess the jock thing is dispersed throughout the student populace. </p>

<p>swarthmore is lovely, everyone says it, but i also like the area around swarthmore. i didn't realize that there were so many malls and such so close to campus when i visited swat as a hs junior and senior. the balt pike has all kinds of stores and restaurants, some accessible by foot others by shuttle. although i don't see a "town" per se, i know that i can get whatever i need if i really needed it. </p>

<p>proximity: forget swat's proximity to philly, everyone knows that, but if you live on long island, it's only a two and a half hour drive home, close enough to go home, have mom do your laundry and still be back at sharples for happy hour in a nicely pressed t shirt and slacks. </p>

<p>lastly (for now anyway), there are some really cute girls at the school. no, they don't look like socal chicks (who i find to be mostly vapid, hot, but vapid), but swat girls could be just as hot if they spent as much time looking in the mirror as the laguna beach girls do. i think that is why swarthmore gets such low grades in college ******* in the looks department. the girls here have much more on their minds than trying to emanate paris hilton. i can't speak so much for the guys, but now that i am here, i imagine the college ******* ranking for guys can't help but move up as well.</p>