Schools: swarthmore vs bowdoin ( i have not received my financial aid offers for both schools. so i am comparing in the assumption that the price is equal)
Intended major: psychology, specifically industrial-organizational psychology
Similarities: good weather, prestigious lac school, great graduate admissions outcomes
Swarthmore
School 1 Pros:
First semester (pass or fail to explore interests)
Various internship and job opportunities that are listed numerous times on the website
Seems very supportive of people who are considering going into grad school
Tri-college consortium (meaning i can take courses at Bryn Mawr, Haverford, and UPenn)
no greek culture
School 1 Cons:
Notorious for harsh course rigor
bad food?
Bowdoin
School 2 Pros:
providing every student a 13-inch MacBook Pro, iPad mini, and Apple Pencil
Thrive program that supports low-income and first gen students like me
great peer and alumni mentoring
School 2 Cons:
students with title 9s?
lots of drinking?
overemphasized athletics?
sketchy area?
Tiebreaking considerations:
grad outcomes at both unis for psychology
how easy it is to make friends and avoid people who you dont like
Have you visited both schools? The vibes are definitely different between these two.
What do you mean by title 9s as a Bowdoin con?
Bowdoin is not in a sketchy area at all, Brunswick downtown is an easy walk, with a number of interesting shops and restaurants.
Regarding athletics, Equity in Athletics shows a higher proportion of student athletes at Bowdoin as compared to Swat, and agree that there might be more school spirit/interest in athletics there. But, I wouldn’t call it an overemphasis. Equity in Athletics
For Swat I agree the academics/rigor may be relatively more difficult, but definitely not a cake walk at Bowdoin, nor is there grade inflation there.
Both will prepare you well for the next steps, be it grad school or a job. Bowdoin had the most Fulbright scholars this year than any other baccalaureate institution.
I would also wait to see your fin aid packages, have you run the NPCs at both schools? How do they compare?
I am planning on going to both schools’ virtual tours!
title 9s are sexual assault offenses. i have heard from several Bowdoin students that couple of people in Bowdoin carry these titles (not sure why they haven’t been kicked out yet)
I definitely need to run NPC as financial aid is probably going to be the main factor in my decision
If you are really motivated to dig into details you could pull each school’s Clery report and look at number of sex offenses (as well as drug and alcohol violations) for each school. To compare these numbers you would have to calculate a per thousand rate, as the schools don’t have the same number of students.
ETA: Just eyeballing the numbers it looks like Swat had more sex offenses the last several years compared to Bowdoin, and has fewer students.
Well…the weather at these schools is very different, in my opinion. If you like longer and colder winters, Bowdoin wins. Spring and warmer weather arrive earlier at Swat…and winter starts a tad later.
Clery reports are not always accurate. Swartmore claims to have a very active Title IX office.
OP: Try to visit as these schools have different cultures. Swartmore is among the most liberal colleges in the country. Whether or not that appeals to you is a matter of personal preference.
Agree with @Mwfan1921. You should try to visit in person, if you can. The place is beautiful - stunning, really. Can’t imagine where you heard the place was sketchy.
Look deeper into the practicality of this. Bryn Mawr and Haverford seem easier to cross-register at and they are a bit closer to Swarthmore (and close to each other - just off RT 30). Cross-registering for a Penn class is more restrictive. And probably a 30 minute ride each way.
Here are resources via the schools (not stats). There’s info out there. We all know and see many crimes relate to alcohol / drugs and no matter where one is in society they need to be careful - if they drink, know where it’s coming from, only drink from previously sealed drinks, etc.
If you have concerns, you might also ask each school to speak to a student ambassador - or if you’re an athlete (sounds like it), some future teammates so you can ask about safety on campus.
As a parent I have visited both schools recently and I walked away with being so impressed by Bowdoin. Their ethos for lack of a better term just seemed different from the other similar liberal arts schools. Brunswick didn’t seem sketchy at all and looks like a great town. Bowdoin emphasized that they have a good relationship with the city and pointed out that there were no gates around campus and the school and students are involved in the community. Bowdoin also has an amazing endowment-one of the highest and they don’t seem shy about spending it on students. They provide funding to every club on campus and on our tour, the tour guide emphasized thus point. If you are outdoorsy they have a great outing club where they have organized events to hike, ski etc and they make sure that those that don’t have resources have access to all the gear and they provide what you need. They also have their own island where kids can do research etc. although snow in both places, both schools are very different campuses and vibes. There are a lot of kids that are athletes at Bowdoin but it seemed to me there was something for everyone. Congratulations again.
I believe the reports are accurately based on what has been reported to the authorities. At some schools, there can be a reluctance to report sexual offenses (and in some cases pressure to not report said offenses). I do not believe this to be the case at either Bowdoin or Swat.
No one is really addressing the elephant in the room. And, that is that Bowdoin is a NESCAC college and Swarthmore is almost the epitome of the opposite of a NESCAC college. What that means is that Bowdoin athletics are much more competitive; it fields more male helmet sports than Swarthmore (the latter famously eliminated both football and wrestling about 20 years ago) and a higher proportion of the men and women are recruited athletes. Personally, I think NESCAC makes room for intellectually-minded kids to engage in school spirit without feeling like outliers. Swarthmore probably has something equivalent, but much more likely along the lines of an edge-of-your-seat episode of College Jeopardy. YMMV.
Congrats, two awesome choices. Can’t go wrong. Seriously, more alike than not so don’t over-sweat it.
My son graduated from Bowdoin recently and I know a bunch of other grads there. I also live an hour from Swarthmore, have visited many times, know the kids or parents of many kids there and one of my other kids spent a summer there. Still, no question I more more about Bowdoin…
A few things relative to your list:
I don’t consider Brunswick a “sketchy” area. It’s actually pretty nice and is a popular summer vacation destination. And it’s convenience to Portland, which is a nice smaller urban city with a great waterfront area. I’m not trying to sell Brunswick, just saying it shouldn’t be a con.
Swarthmore ended Greek life three years ago. Bowdoin hasn’t had it in decades. At best, that’s a tie rather than pro either way.
I’m confident the drinking culture is on par between the two schools, so also a tie. It’s pretty easy to find your scene if you’re not a drinker at Bowdoin. They have entire dorms (or floors in Freshman dorms) dedicated to “substance free.” Some people also opt into those even if they are moderate drinkers just to avoid the party scene and find a crowd that is less into it. I am pretty sure Swarthmore has the same.
My son was worried about Bowdoin (and other NESCAC) athlete culture when he was picking a school. Turned out to not be a thing. Not even slightly. He has a ton fo friends (still, his post college roommates are all Bowdoin grads, despite being 500 miles from campus in a different region) and not a single one of them was a Bowdoin athlete. And there wasn’t the slightest whiff of them getting special privileged or ruling the scene. Again, he was worried about this so was sensitized to it and was pleasantly surprised.
Something not on your list but worth noting. Bowdoin virtually guarantees paid undergraduate research projects if you want one. My son didn’t even seek them out. Sophomore year two different professors approached him about summer research opportunities. Full stipend and free housing on campus. His favorite summer to this day, because a ton of kids did it and used the extra time to explore Maine and get to know each other. He doesn’t know anyone who sought funding and didn’t get something. Across all fields of STEM, humanities, social sciences. A friend was given a grant to work on her idea for a fictional story. He worked directly with CS professors.
Along the same lines, it’s impossible to not get paid work at Bowdoin if you seek it, regardless of your financial aid status. And not just the grunt jobs like cafeteria. He got paid to stage manage theater and dance productions or work crew or run sound in the student lounge. Many activities you probably did for free in HS are typically paid by the college. My daughter goes to another highly ranked LAC and that is definitely not the case there. Almost all the student jobs are reserved for financial aid work study and she was shut out of many fun things she would have done for free because they filed them with FA work study.
That was my take-away too. Swarthmore is not nearly as convenient to each other as the other two. They run shuttles but it would be a bigger hassle. On the plus side, there’s a train station at Swarth that could get you close to PENN.
Not to derail the thread, could you say which school that is? As we are looking to several of these, it would be relevant for us. We don’t qualify for FA but I fully expect my student to earn some spending money. This is actually a question we ask at every info session.
Davidson. Not dissing the college overall – it’s been a great experience. But she was a little salty about that issue after her brothers experience at Bowdoin. Different endowment size mostly likely is the root issue. I would always look at endowment size (relative to student pop) when considering a school. She applied to several jobs at Davidson and was initially told she was hired only to then hear they had to pull her offer because she wasn’t on FA, including all the paid theater jobs. In the end there were only two campus jobs they offered to non FA students as a Freshman: food service or calling alum to ask for money (she chose the latter).
That said, it did not stop her from being a stage manager or tech crew – it just wasn’t a paid position like at Bowdoin. And they did offer her and help secure funded summer research like at Bowdoin. It didn’t seem as sure thing as at Bowdoin but it worked out in the end. Both schools also have some kind of stipend program if your summer internships aren’t paid also.