<p>Yes! I’m going to Swat next year :D. Though I’m gonna go to some events at some other schools I was accepted to. I think that’s just so I can say to myself that I really explored all my options + i’m curious.</p>
<p>Uh, why are you torn? Swat is the obvious answer! 
Are you going to attend Ride the Tide?</p>
<p>I want to so badly but I can’t! I’m living in Hong Kong right now, and although it’s not too late to book flights etc. and make it, a) I have my IB exams soon (boo you IB) and b) I’d be traveling alone (which is fine, but a huge hassle). Definitely post your impressions here after RTT though!</p>
<p>@ witty:</p>
<p>as a recent swat grad I thought I’d address your question on political diversity (I think interesteddad glossed it over a bit). As a flaming massachusetts liberal, swarthmore’s liberal/activist bent was one of the things that drew me to the college, and based on the experiences of my friends at other universities and LACs, it is one of the most liberal you will find (maybe other than Smith or Wesleyan). however, I was still severely dissappointed by the lack of political diversity on campus. I’m still waiting for the day when an intelligent conservative will explain their viewpoint to me. I did have a few friends that identified as ‘moderate’ (although the college republicans club was recently resurrected, no sane person would come forward as a conservative at swat), and they often felt like they had to keep their mouths shut in order to avoid a vitriolic attack, whether in class or at the dining hall. also, interesteddad: I’m not exactly sure about coverage in the phoenix, but while I was on campus there were a few less than tolerant incidents, most memorably involving hateful graffiti on a palestinian student’s door.</p>
<p>I don’t want to scare you away from swat, I absolutely loved it and feel so grateful that I had the opportunity to go there, but just like any other institution it’s not perfect, and if you’re someone that identifies as moderate or conservative and wants to be around other conservatives in a setting where your views aren’t constantly challenged I’d consider another place.</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure the incident you are describing was determined to be self-inflicted “grafitti” designed to draw attention to an aggrieved “Palestinian cause” meeting the next day. Let’s just say that the timing was very convenient.</p>
<p>ID: Please. You don’t know enough about the facts of that case to make a judgment (neither do I, for that matter). You raise one possible cause of the event, which is a valid and acceptable thing to do, but convenient timing is hardly enough to justify being “pretty sure” about something like that (for instance, the timing also could have been due to an anti-Palestinian student’s reaction to the upcoming meeting…). I respect you a lot and understand where you’re coming from, but making these statements without sufficient evidence doesn’t help Swarthmore’s image at all.</p>
<p>…I’m confused. I thought that pro-Israeli = conservative and pro-Palestinian = liberal? Wasn’t there recently a pro-Palestinian demonstration that some objected to? As the objectors appeared vaguely to be in the minority, I thought that implied liberal sympathies.</p>
<p>(The statement of confusion is genuine, btw, coming from a self-proclaimed socialist who nevertheless disagrees with “liberal” ideas in certain key respects and who also has no clue about Israel vs. Palestine.)</p>
<p>Are you able to go to Swarthmore on an ROTC scholarship?</p>
<p>Keil, you couldn’t be more wrong in your simplistic analysis. Supporters of Israel run the gamut from lefty leaning bleeding heart liberals to super conservative born again christians. The history and politics of the middle east are extremely complicated, what you read in the press is often biased. You might want to do some more homework before weighing in on this issue.</p>
<p>nursekay, I direct you to reread parts of my second paragraph, quoted below:</p>
<p><a href=“%5Bb%5DThe%20statement%20of%20confusion%20is%20genuine%5B/b%5D,%20btw,%20coming%20from%20a%20self-proclaimed%20socialist%20who%20nevertheless%20disagrees%20with%20%22liberal%22%20ideas%20in%20certain%20key%20respects%20and%20%5Bb%5Dwho%20also%20has%20no%20clue%20about%20Israel%20vs.%20Palestine.%5B/b%5D”>quote=“Keilexandra”</a>
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I asked politely for an succinct explanation, not a condescending remark.</p>
<p>Keil: My intent was not to condescend. If anything, I was going for succinct. I am sorry if I offended you.</p>
<p>Apology fully accepted. Words are easy to misinterpret, and I’ve been on your side many times.</p>
<p>why should s/he need to apologizes?
don’t teach them at school?
how did you get high scores APs etc like that?
don’t have any friend/ family from the middle east who would tell you without you asking, then you’d be intrigued to hear other side of the story?
never care to read papers or publication you get so easy on internet nowadays like, 10=20 minutes homework s/he meant before posting?
or I am wrong to think that normal human teenagers only do what count as points and learn and do the talk about only what they like and care?</p>
<p>you can only love what you know
you can only love what you are taught</p>
<p>something like that I forgot who said, but if one of the most selective college bound kids are all like that it is kind of worrisome.
how and when would they learn?</p>
<p>For in the end, we will conserve only what we love. We will love only what we understand. We will understand only what we are taught. -Baba Dioum.</p>
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<p>ID–normally I agree with you, but I think this isn’t true. At least not at Swarthmore. I had classes with Kurth, Schuldenfrei, Tierney, and other professors who–while certainly not Bush-style conservatives–would identify as strong conservatives. Sure, I had classes with Judson, Vallely, and others clear liberals, but the above is a bit ridiculous. Swarthmore was a lot less flaming-liberal than i expected. I even moved to the right (though still far left of current-US-center) during my time there.</p>
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<p>I was really surprised at how not-liberal the campus is. If you are expecting 60s-era craziness, you won’t find it. The worst thing about Swarthmore’s political culture is that people assume you are far left until disabused of that notion. Most of the time its right. But it does meant that people will sometimes say statements that (to a conservative) could be seen as very debatable without being prepared to defend that point.</p>
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<p>I’ve mentioned it before, but I was/am friends with a young-earth-creationist. I had other friends who were passionate pro-lifers. So I don’t think the above statement is accurate. That said, a lot of the members of the “Republican” organization at Swarthmore would have qualified as liberals most anywhere else in the country.</p>
<p>The biggest issue I had, politically, with Swarthmore is that, within the Swarthmore community, there are groups (and usually only a handful of members in these groups) that act as if the tiny number of conservatives at the school have them under siege. On the one hand, its understandable because conservatives <em>have</em> laid siege to the identities represented by these groups outside of Swarthmore. But it can sometimes result in the Swarthmore conservatives becoming a besieged minority, which hurts the school’s political diversity.</p>
<p>Does Swarthmore take legacy into any particular consideration? Also, do you feel limited by the small campus size? I’ve been to the campus; it seems like there aren’t many large food markets nearby.</p>
<p>How would a socially conservative person fit into Swarthmore’s largely liberal student body?</p>
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<p>Arador:</p>
<p>That’s good to hear. I will gladly stand corrected on that one. I’m actually not surprised. There’s a certain “old-school” foundation in Swarthmore’s culture and a lot of Swatties seem way too iconoclastic to be textbook liberals.</p>
<p>BTW, I didn’t find Vallely’s book on the history of voting rights to be oppressively partisan. It was pretty dense reading for a Williams guy, but quite interesting. He gave pretty equal treatment to both parties. When each needed the black vote in the south, they supported black voting rights; when they didn’t need the votes, they didn’t.</p>
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<p>Yes. I would say quite particular consideration.</p>
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<p>There’s every kind of shopping imaginable a half mile from campus – a large mall, Target, Best Buy, and your typical huge grocery store. It’s an easy walk or there is a city bus route that runs right through campus and down the major shopping route all day and most of the night. It’s like 4 minutes ont the bus. Or, if taking the bus isn’t your thing, Swarthmore runs a shopping shuttle a couple days a week.</p>
<p>To me, the best thing about Swarthmore is that you get the quaint fairytale arboretum campus, but you have a mall a ten minute walk away, restaurants in Media one train stop away, Philadelphia in 20 minutes, New York in a couple hours, and abundant discount airfares from the airport 20 minutes from campus.</p>
<p>Legacy not a guarantee of admission. Just heard of a boy who was a legacy; was rejected by Swat and admitted to Stanford.</p>
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Will you be comfortable with socially liberal ideas dominating campus conversation? For example, many (maybe half?) of Swarthmore’s cultural groups are “closed” to allow only self-identifying members, to create a “safe space”–this can also encourage self-segregation, though I hope/believe that Swatties restrain themselves from doing so. I was also impressed by the amount of support for queer life, including the vibrant banner hung from outside Upper Tarble for RTT and attendance at the queer-related RTT events.</p>
<p>While I would not be surprised to find fiscal conservatives at Swat, I do think it would be more difficult for social conservatives. Not impossible, but difficult. Kind of like Richard Dawkins attending an evangelical church and keeping his mouth shut.</p>