To Swat students/grads or parents,
How does Course Selection for incoming freshman work at Swarthmore? I am undecided what I want to major in. My main interests are English, the humanities, and math. Would like to hear about how you went about it your first year. If you knew then what you know now, would you do anything different in terms of picking your classes. I welcome any and all advice. Thanks
Current Swarthmore freshman here. So, you don’t have to worry about picking your classes until you physically get to campus. During orientation, which is a week long time during which only freshmen and RAs are on campus, the registrar will hold workshops on course selection, explaining the process completely. Then they give you a complete schedule for the Fall semester. Most courses that allow freshman will have saved a certain number of seats so that you can (hopefully) get into all the classes you want. Once you have a list of courses, you’ll meet one-on-one with your advisor, who will be assigned to you based on what major you say you’re considering in an online questionnaire filled out earlier in the summer. Then you’ll select all your courses using an online program.
The majority of students at Swarthmore only take four classes per semester. Trust me, that will be more than enough work. Your first semester of freshman year will be entirely pass/fail, and the grades you get won’t affect your cumulative GPA at the end of your Swarthmore experience. Since it’s pass/fail, most freshman take that time to load up on classes they’re not confident about taking. At Swarthmore, you have to take three science/math classes, including one lab science course, by the time you’re a senior, so a ton of students get one or two of those done during the P/F semester.
Personally, I took Intro to Computer Science to get rid of the lab requirement, an intro language course, and two history courses. All the courses were engaging and interesting, though all were quite difficult. My main advice, especially if you don’t want to limit yourself to intro-level courses, would be to email professors if you see a course that you’re not sure you’re qualified for. I am a prospective history major, and saw an upper-level history class that only had two spots left. I emailed the professor about it, and he welcomed me to the class wholeheartedly. It ended up being my most enjoyable and fascinating class.
Thanks @readinglts for the excellent insight. Now I have a general idea of what to expect at orientation in terms of course selection. Thanks for the advice about taking science/math courses during the first semester when it is P/F. Very informative and helpful post.
Hi! I’m also a current freshman at Swat and figured I’d give my input too. readinglts did a good job of explaining the basics, so my answer will be a bit more anecdotal. Hopefully it’s of some help to you!
At Orientation, they gave all freshmen a big red book of all current courses. I still haven’t touched it. I found what classes I wanted to take by using the TriCo course guide (google “trico haverford course guide” and it should be the first result) in combination with each discipline’s course descriptions on the Swarthmore website. I then wrote down all the courses that seemed interesting.
At some point during Orientation, there was an academics fair, in which each discipline had a little booth with course descriptions and professors there to answer any questions. It helped me out a lot! For example, both the linguistics department and the computer science department wrote down for me an outline of what courses I should take from them if I’m interested in natural language processing. I was even able to make a few friends who would end up being in my classes, as well!
I then met with my academic advisor. Unfortunately, I thought I was going to be an engineer when I filled out the advising form at the beginning of the summer, and then changed my mind about a month later. So my experience with my academic advisor wasn’t great, but that’s not her fault at all. She even told me that, since she doesn’t know much about non-engineering fields, to email the Dean of Academic Affairs, Liz Derickson, and get a meeting. Ms. Derickson responded right away, and I met with her the next day.
Ms. Derickson was really helpful. I was pretty homesick at the beginning of the year, and she even helped me pick a schedule that wouldn’t be too stressful in addition to the stress I was already feeling. She help me put together a basic structure for the semester and beyond, and I’m still grateful for that.
The last thing I did to choose my classes was meet with the SAMs. In addition to RAs, almost every hall with freshmen in it has a SAM, Student Academic Mentor, who’s always willing to help. In addition, during Orientation week, about ten or so SAMs were on call in the library each night to offer advice. We even received an email telling us what majors would be there when. I met with some premed students who helped me choose which premed classes to take (even though, surprise, I’m not premed anymore…) and even met with a linguistics major who gave me some advice on who the good professors were.
I ended up taking Intro Japanese, Intro to Computer Science, Advanced Topics in Single Variable Calculus, and a linguistics seminar in Taboo and Slang. There are 17 people in Japanese (though two sections, so there’s 10 or 7 people per class), 90-something in CS (but three sections - there were 35 in my class), 24 in my math class, and 14 in my linguistics class. I truly enjoyed each of those classes… with the exception of math, but that’s math’s fault, not the professor’s.
One thing I feel is worth mentioning is Swarthmore’s First Year Seminars. My linguistics class was one of these. They are generally capped at 12 people, though most professors don’t mind letting another student or two in if they really want it. Although all your classes will probably be small at Swat, they are great ways to guarantee a small, intimate class setting, and all the course material is geared towards freshmen, so it’s a really fun atmosphere. My linguistics professor had class at her house twice during the semester - we went in her hot tub both times!
Also, to expand on what readinglts said, you can always get into a class. Almost all class spots are lotteried, except for Intro Econ, so if you’re interested in that, make sure you get your computer ready when it’s time to sign up for classes (which also happens during Orientation). PEs are also first-come-first-serve, but those are, for whatever reason, vicious to get into. (Probably because you have to take four PE classes at Swat.) But even then, when it comes to classes, if you email a professor and show that you truly are interested in their class, they’ll definitely let you in. A senior in my hall told me that when he didn’t get into Statistics, and the professor insisted that there wasn’t any room, he just showed up to class each day, sat on the floor, took notes, and by the end of the week the professor just laughed and let him in.
Hope I could help! I don’t know if you can tell from this post, but I really love Swat, and hope you join us there soon!
Thanks for sharing your interesting experiences @ch20youk, that’s quite helpful. I’m psyched for Orientation.
I also have a question for anyone familiar with how first year students are assigned dorms. I’ve heard that Mary Lyon is quite far from the center of campus and I’m hoping to get assigned to a dorm closer to the campus. Can I request that I not be assigned to ML when I get my dorm survey? Are there other ways to increase my chances of being assigned a dorm closer to the center of campus? Thanks.
You’ll get a housing questionnaire to fill out online at the beginning of summer. It pretty much only asks about living habits - dorms are randomly assigned for freshmen, so you don’t get any say. However, there is one section with room for anything else you’d like the housing board to know. I know plenty of people who put “Please, not ML”, and actually were listened to. Myself, I’ve had problems with homesickness in the past, and I have no shame, so I put a little tragic plea to be placed in the “most homey” dorm possible, and ended up getting Wharton, which is probably the best dorm on campus! So don’t let my trick get too well-known!
Freshman at Swarthmore. Took an English seminar, Poly Sci, Art History, Math. More than enough to take up ALL my time. And honestly, each class was amazing. Explore! I’m an econ major most likely but every class I took was awesome. Milk that pass fail. Don’t stress out 
I live on campus but ML is actually really nice.
Parent of current junior. Kid is a science major, but raved about the art history first year seminar. Assigned to ML first year and fell in love with the community found there. Has been there ever since by choice.
I am keen to know from an existing engineering or comp sci or cognitive science majors [who are now sophomore or juniors or seniors] as to what courses he/she took in the two freshman semesters? Much appreciate examples of what others did in their first year at swarthmore. Thanks.