Hi,
I’m a prospective student looking to apply to Swarthmore as an Economics and Computer Science Major. Through reading various online posts, I’ve heard that Swat does not place well into the Finance and/or consulting industry out of undergrad, compared to other top LACs. Rather, Swat is more focused toward graduate school placement. But attending Swarthmore would technically be the best financial option, as if I get in I would have to pay $15k less than most other colleges( Williams,Amherst,Dartmouth,Brown ). So could anyone give any insight on the rigor and placement of Swarthmore economics students compared to other Top LACs and Ivy-league schools.
My sister went to Swat many years ago so my experience is second hand and old and may not be relevant to your situation.
That said, she did a semester at London School of Economics and said that the classes there were fun but a little easy compared to Swat. She got a good job straight out of college, left that to be an early employee at a startup with some other Swat alumni. The startup went big (can’t say much more for privacy reasons).
Econ and CS is the best combination for WS. True Midd and Williams do better, but my little WallStreeters never met kids from those schools. But aside from college choice it is your ability to network that matters most. One son’s WS orientation class includer the usual suspects, UVA and Cornell. Alleghany College and UMiss were also there. Anything is possible if you network like h_ll. Careful what you wish for. One son got a mini depression after a winter of 16 hour days and 30 day months. He’s okay now and there is no place he’d rather be.
A couple more thoughts.
1.Study the fates of alumni on LinkedIn. Swatties favor education career tracks, but many are on the finance track.
2.One son graduated among 500 business school classmates. Another son is a Swattie. Guess who got more genuine network replies replies. Yep. Swatties may be fewer in number but they return phone calls.
3.When interview season comes, Swatties are a 15 minute taxi ride from a major airport and a 60 minute train ride from NYC. Williams?Midd?Amherst?..eh … we enjoyed the nice car rides there in July. In any event be prepared to miss lots of classes because of interviews.
4. Oh did i mention network like h_ll?