<p>What are the students at Swarthmore like? Do many people drink? Thanks</p>
<p>I heard around 30% drink heavily.</p>
<p>The students are quirky, intellectual, and for the most part quite liberal. Of around 1500 students, people estimate that 1/3 belong to the "party crowd," and drinking is there if you want it but definitely not a must. Pot also seems to be popular-ish.</p>
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I heard around 30% drink heavily.
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<p>That's a bit vague and perhaps misleading when stated in a vaccuum. </p>
<p>Approximately 30% reported having 5 drinks in one sitting at least once in the two weeks prior to the survey. The national average for that question is about 44%. Conversely, 44% of freshmen, 30% of sophmores/juniors, and 22% of seniors at Swarthmore reported drinking no alcohol in the prior month. </p>
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<p>Qualities shared by many Swarthmore students:</p>
<p>-- more geeky than preppy</p>
<p>-- above average engagement in academics and willingness to study hard. More cooperative than competitive among students.</p>
<p>-- unpretentious, considered to be uncool to flaunt wealth or status</p>
<p>-- below average interest in athletics (20% to 22% play varsity athletics, the academic requirements make recruiting tough).</p>
<p>-- hard to quantify, but maybe average interest in the arts. Certainly not an "artsy" school, but there are reasonable numbers of music, art, dance, and theater majors.</p>
<p>-- Very high ethnic/racial diversity. Little de facto segregation on campus -- none in housing. Decent socio-economic diversity for a school with very high median SAT scores (50% on financial aid, 12% Pell Grants).</p>
<p>-- quirky humor</p>
<p>-- below average drinking</p>
<p>-- liberal, with an above average interest in "social responsibility", public interest, and academic careers</p>
<p>-- very high med school rates, off the top of the charts in PhD production percentage (behind only CalTech and Harvey Mudd), slighly lower law and MBA rates compared to more "pre-professsionally" oriented schools with similar SATs</p>
<p>Definitely quirky, intelligent, thoughtful, liberal, even radical.</p>
<p>Actually, "radical" would be an erroneous description of Swarthmore students of this era. There is little in the way of extreme dress, radical causes, radical political views (except perhaps in the eyes of Rush Limbaugh who would probably view Joe Lieberman as radical).</p>
<p>If anything, those who have been around the school for a very long time (Dean Gross being a good example) believe that students of this generation tend to be much less rebellious and more interested in working within the system than, for example, in the 1960s. He and President Bloom actually highlighted this as the number one change in college students.</p>
<p>There are some students on campus that could be considered "radical". I think chalking your preferred sex acts on the campus sidewalks is in your face and radical and a little extreme. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Didn't you write at one time that you thought Swarthmore was too liberal?</p>
<p>from the Swarthmore board - "Difference b/w Swarthmore and Haverford"</p>
<p>" d) As for Swarthmore specific weaknesses, I think the school is too "liberal". But, remember, I'm a 50+ year old geezer who went through my radical phase and am now registered as an independent, consider myself a centrist (moderate democrats would be my prefered flavor, if there were any) and am constantly amazed at how out of touch the base of both political parties is with the centrist mood of the country. This is one of those "positive and negative" things. I don't have any problem with the school being liberal or socially conscious because, by and large, I think young people today are too darn career-oriented from middle school on and that colleges. It kind of scares me thinking where they will end up as they get "more conservative" with age."</p>
<p>"radical: marked by a considerable departure from the usual or traditional" (Merriam-Webster dictionary)</p>
<p>If you did not persist in being so obstinate in your jihad, you would take the time to do an internet search for "+gay +chalking" plus the name of any college of your choice and find that such activities, jarring though they may be, are both usual and traditional at colleges and have been for many years now. </p>
<p>A quick search for Yale (I picked it because many of us are hopeful that's where you will matriculate) turned up articles discussing such chalkings on the New Haven campus as far back as the mid 1990s. Similar articles are easy to find as far back as 1997 for Tufts, a scheduled chalking as an organized activity for Coming Out Week at Columbia in 1996, etc.</p>
<p>For example, here's link to a 1994 gay chalking incident at that bastion of radicalism, Michigan Tech:</p>
<p>Some schools have attempted to ban chalkings. Others have erased selected chalkings. Most of those efforts have created an even bigger rukus. Swarthmore, taking the political conservatives' position that freedom of speech on campus should never be stifled, has opted not to limit expression, even when the speech is unpopular or offensive to the administration and students.</p>
<p>I think your perception of politics at any particular school has a great deal to do with your background. Coming from the midwest, most NE schools seem very liberal when it comes to sex, and probably other things too (and I love NE liberalism, b/c for once I feel mainstream rather than radical in my politics)</p>
<p>Thanks for the link!!!!!</p>