So I went back to original post, it says 4 years tuition free. Without input from OP, I assume the student received one of the Merit scholarships. Financial aid is given out by year, not 4 years. The McCabe scholarships are given out for all 4 years.
Again, I think a degree from Swarthmore tuition free trumps a hypothetically “better program” from most other schools that aren’t for free any day and honestly would beat most other offers of free tuition too.
As for how good they are, well it looks like in 2021 at the International Collegiate Programming Competition (ICPC) the team from Swarthmore finished well above UIUC (barely registered in 41st place out of 48 schools) Purdue in 12th and Swarthmore in 4th for a Bronze medal just behind Georgia Tech and MIT.
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At Swat, you can combine them if you dare. Get a BS in Engineering and a BA in Comp Sci through the honors program.
Best of all…you get to walk twice in the same graduation ceremony…once to pick up your BA…the other to get your BS. Only Engineers at Swat get BS degrees…so you get twice the graduation for the same price!
Last year’s graduation awards…scroll down to the McCabe Engineering Award.
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@AnonDad2026 where are you seeing that? That was the North American finals you’re referring to Standings – Kattis, ICPC North America Championship 2021, the world finals had MIT at 9, UIUC at 11, Harvard 16, UCF, 17 were US’s top-20, Purdue was 83.
https://pc2.ecs.baylor.edu/scoreboard/
Hi All,
Thanks so much for all the inputs! Really appreciate it! Sorry for not realizing there are still many answers since I posted days ago! We just back from Swarthmore visit today, and very happy and satisfied about everything the school did for the students and their families! Especially feel he is a very lucky boy that can receive the full ride from such an amazing school, 4 years of 160K savings is huge amount, and we will let him make his own decision in the next few days.
Again, thank you very much for your time and the help!
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Hi All,
Just want to let you know that my son accepted Swarthmore’s offer last night! Thank you so much for all your inputs that helped him make his decision! Yes, he is one of the National McCabe Merit Scholarship receiver who is granted for 4 years tuition free among the 1021 admitted students. Personally, I can’t find a reason for giving up such a recognition and I believe he will have more opportunities to grow in Swarthmore community. And I am glad that he follows his heart and has a happy ending on his college application process.
Thank you again for all your time and kindness helping a 17 year old boy to figure out where to start his next 4 years journey!
From a lucky mom
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How exciting! Congratulations!