Swarthmore Class of 2018 Regular Decision Thread

<p>wistful, there were 20 students taken off the wait list last year and 8 the year before, BUT, I do not know how many students were on the wait list originally. If your son has received any new awards or honors since submitting his original application, have him submit those. In any case, he should send a letter of continuing interest, stating that Swarthmore remains his first choice (only if that is true) and that he will attend if admitted (only if that is true.) Whatever else he would like to include in that letter about why he really wants to attend Swarthmore-what he will be able to bring to the school in terms of his talents, etc.</p>

<p>International decisions were just emailed! </p>

<p>Acceptance package arrived by FEDEX in the UK this morning!</p>

<p>Rejected via email. </p>

<p>Son was admitted. Significantly worse financial aid than other schools (Wash U, Middlebury and Kenyon are all better by at least 10K). </p>

<p>DS14 from AZ admitted, but Fin Aid not even close to Wes & Vassar offers. </p>

<p>I have to believe that Swarthmore shot themselves in the foot on this, sending out decisions (by Mail) last Thursday but only arriving 4 days later (March 31st), when we have had decisions from Ivy’s and LAC for days, students have already in their minds decided where there preferences are, Swat has, I believe, missed out on alot of great students by leaving notifications and being the last to notify, anyone agree? </p>

<p>I completely agree Englishman. S is excited to be admitted but he has had a lot of time to get attached to other schools while waiting. And for my part I was expecting slightly better FA not significantly worse. S will go to admitted student weekend still and give it fair consideration. He has never visited but loves all he has heard/read about the school.</p>

<p>Waitlisted…won’t stay on the list.</p>

<p>I (perhaps mistakenly, but I’m like 70% sure that I’m right) recall an article that a read perhaps a year ago about how different colleges calculate home value differently. Some will consider their entire value as they would cash assets, and others cap home value at X times of parent income. Swarthmore considers entire home value. Perhaps this is why everyone’s financial aid packages differ from other colleges. </p>

<p>edit: here’s the article <a href=“Will Your Home Equity Hurt Financial Aid Chances? A Case Study”>http://www.thecollegesolution.com/will-your-home-equity-hurt-financial-aid-chances-a-case-study/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>That is definitely not the issue for us as we have very near 0 equity in our home (lost over 40% of its value since we bought it).</p>

<p>I got no financial aid as well, though our EFC is 15,000 and my parents don’t own a house. </p>

<p>@tomatosprouts It sounds to me like you should appeal unless there’s some reason you can attribute such a high Swat EFC. </p>

<p>@nhdmaniac We listed my father’s employee benefits and that my grandparents are planning to contribute some to the tuition, but Swat still expects us to pay more than double our EFC, which just isn’t feasible. </p>

<p>@tomatosprouts I’d still recommend giving them a call. When I appealed for Bowdoin, they told us why there was such a big difference between the NPC and what they were expecting, and we got to lower the price by a few grand by clarifying on some stuff (but still not enough to make it financially feasible). The worst they can do is keep your package the way it is, and knowing would probably give you some closure, in a way.</p>

<p>I totally feel you about financial aid, though. I’m going to appeal a couple of packages that gave me absolutely nothing (and our EFC is not 65k) in at least hopes of understanding why it’s that way. It looks like I’m headed to a safety college despite some awesome acceptances. I’m a believer in the idea that people who get into Swarthmore (and other elite colleges) can do well no matter where they end up matriculating, be it Harvard or a state university (within reason, of course): that it’s not the school that produces great graduates, but the students who are capable of achieving great things that make great graduates.</p>

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<p>The good news is that Jim Bock may be listening. </p>

<p>

<a href=“http://www.swarthmorephoenix.com/2014/04/03/admissions-decisions-released-for-class-of-2018/”>http://www.swarthmorephoenix.com/2014/04/03/admissions-decisions-released-for-class-of-2018/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>@Coase Good point, more alarming to me as an accepted student with a number of other offers, not only was the late notification (annoying) added to the significant drop of over 1000 applications (troubling), but I hear alot of students turned off Swarthmore for the issues noted here. I have acceptance from Williams, Amherst and Wesleyan and Vassar, even after being courted by admissions at Swarthmore and a rubbish fin adi package, also the accepted students days are a week after all the others, I think Swarthmore has really @#$%&* up this year. </p>

<p>I wont be attending admitted students day or Swat, but I will be going to another highly selective LAC which had more apps this year, offered me full aid, serves decent food and helps me get a decent job.</p>

<p>Wow, I am very surprised by students experiences with financial aid. Our experience was quite different. Swarthmore’s aid package was significantly better than numerous excellent LACs. It was slightly better than Williams and Williams also required some loans where Swarthmore has no required loan component. Also, we found Swarthmore’s Ride the Tide’s date helpful and coordinated with other schools. For example, this year a prospective could go to Williams April 17 & 18, Swarthmore April 24 & 25, and Harvard April 26-28. My son’s experience at Ride the Tide, with extremely friendly and continually questioning students, led him to attend Swarthmore. Williams tempted him with an early write, but Swarthmore was his choice in the end. </p>

<p>I can’t believe that Swat had such a significant drop in applications! Do you guys no why?</p>

<p>

In the article cited above, the Dean of Admissions offers some answers.<br>

<a href=“http://www.swarthmorephoenix.com/2014/04/03/admissions-decisions-released-for-class-of-2018/”>http://www.swarthmorephoenix.com/2014/04/03/admissions-decisions-released-for-class-of-2018/&lt;/a&gt;
The bad press last year did not help, either. </p>

<p>1000 applicants still sounds like a huge drop though…</p>