<p>What is Swarthmore good at? Why is it one of the best LAC's in the country? (sorry, I'm clueless about the school, and I want to know more information before I make my decision)</p>
<p>The campus is stunningly gorgeous. I'm awfully superficial, so that was enough for me to add Swarthmore to my list of schools I'm interested in. LOL.</p>
<p>Just curious. How did you pull off the "Why Swat?" essay if you are clueless about the school?</p>
<p>Do you mean me, Cami? I'm just a junior and haven't applied yet.</p>
<p>Well, there are two kinds of answers to your question. The first kind of answer is 'what departments are especially strong at swarthmore?' It is hard to say exactly, but commen answers would probably include political science, biology, economics, engineerings... I don't know of any notably week departments. The other kind of answer has to do with what makes Swarthmore different from other places. Like other leading liberal arts colleges (amherst, williams, etc) it has a lot of money, small classes, amazing professors who care, lots of resources for students, etc. To differentiate itself from others - I think Swarthmore attracts students who want to be there not to drink in the snow, not to meet the children of the rich and famous, but merely because they want the most stimulating - intellectually and socially - experiance that they can get. If you go to the CC boards of other top LACs, I think that you will find a slightly different tone - equally brilliant students, but students who are a little more interested in the who than the what of college. Swarthmore students are known, much more than students at other equally prestigious colleges, for being passionate about changing the world - that may be naive - but they generally see education as a means to making the world a better place. Sorry if this is all too vague or not what you are looking for.</p>
<p>So are you saying that kids who go to Vassar or Amherst are there to "drink in the snow" and meet "children of the rich and famous," not to learn? I think there are some of all kinds at any school.</p>
<p>You are right, what I said may have come across as really annoyingly condescending. I did NOT mean to say that all of the kids at any other school go just to drink and meat rich and famous people. I think part of what I'm saying is that pretty much NO kids come to swat to do that (not that you couldn't if you wanted, but there isn't really that much snow in philly). Eek. And I think the slightly different tone at the different board captures a little bit the differences between the schools. I should add that I think all liberal arts colleges pretty much rock, and there are very few people who couldn't have an amazing experiance at amherst, williams, swat, vassar, wherever. The differences lie in the little things, which is what I was trying, and failing, to capture. I was trying to pain in broad strokes for someone who claimed he/she knew NOTHING about swat. I was not in any way trying to demean any other school>>>>> I guess send me a message if you want me to explain myself better, or be more specific about actual experiances.</p>
<p>hellohowareyou: are you a Swat student or planning to go there? You seem to know about many of the schools!</p>
<p>Cami215: I also do not know much about Swarthmore as well (and I basically applied because of my parents), but I was accepted this year to the class of 2010. My "Why Swat?" essay was only one paragraph long and basically discussed how I was looking for a college where I could balance the time between my academic and social life. To say the least, I was surprised I was accepted considering how important the essays supposedly are for the Swarthmore admissions process. But now that I am researching Swarthmore since I was accepted, I am growing to really like the school.</p>
<p>recent alum. sister is applying to college this year - thus i'm here, and knowledgable about schools.</p>
<p>what other school do I seem to know a lot about?</p>
<p>Just the other LACs that you mentioned above, but you must know students from various schools that you went to HS with or met during college. Where is your sister going to go, does she know yet?</p>
<p>She doesn't know! she hasn't heard from anywhere! I know people who went to those schools, and most other LACs, and big schools that draw nationally. has your kid heard from swat yet? does he/she have a first choice?</p>
<p>I'll take a stab at what makes Swarthmore unique.</p>
<p>First, I'm going to assume that you already know the advantages of a small liberal arts college (small classes, professors who focus on teaching more than research contracts, etc.). So starting with that baseline:</p>
<p>a) Swarthmore is one of the few liberal arts colleges that is located in a large urban area instead of out in the middle of nowhere. The location is the best of both worlds. The actual campus is tucked away in a heavily wooded neighborhood, but walk half a mile and you find yourself at shopping mall. Or, take a 20 minute trainride from a station on campus to downtown Phila. Thus, Swarthmore tends to attract kids that like the option of city stuff from time to time mixed in with their picturebook bucolic campus.</p>
<p>b) Swarthmore differentiated itself from other schools in the 1920's with the implementation of a very unique honors program involving very small seminars and examinations by outside experts. This program set Swarthmore on a course of being notably rigorous in its academics. The Honors program still exists, but the impact is more far-reaching. Students attend Swarthmore prepared to (and looking forward to) work hard -- actually go to their classes, do (most of) their assignments, participate in discussions, etc. This, in turn, is highly motivating to the professors. The end result is an atmosphere where a higher than average percentage of students and faculty really enjoy the process of learning. It's not that Swarthmore has the market cornered on engaged students and faculty, just that a higher percentage of the campus leans that direction, which makes the classroom more stimulating. A sidenote to that campus culture is that Swarthmore produces more PhDs per graduate than any college or university in the country except Harvey Mudd and CalTech -- and produces future PhDs across the board (in the social sciences, in the hard sciences, and in humanities).</p>
<p>c) Looking at a school's mission statement can tell you a lot. In Swarthmore's case, the Quaker roots of the college show up as a clearly stated belief that education should not only teach you stuff, but should prepare you to think about the world's problems and be a responsible citizen. Here is what the mission statement has to say about that:</p>
<p>
[quote]
The purpose of Swarthmore College is to make its students more valuable human beings and more useful members of society. Although it shares this purpose with other educational institutions, each school, college, and university seeks to realize that purpose in its own way. Swarthmore seeks to help its students realize their fullest intellectual and personal potential combined with a deep sense of ethical and social concern.
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</p>
<p>I think you will find that Swarthmore students and faculty tend to be unusually interested in different cultures around the globe, in diversity, in politics to a degree, and in issues of social justice. It's not a place where Jerry Falwell or Rush Limbaugh would send their kids, but neither is it a place with super radical trappings these days. Probably more debating of political ideas than marching around with banners or whatever.</p>
<p>d) Socially, Swarthmore is below average in the amount of blotto-style drinking, although it's by no means a convent as far as parties go. The student body, while it certainly includes its share of wealthy students, is the antithesis of "showy" or pretentious. You won't see a lot of designer handbags, popped collars, or BMWs in the student parking lots. Students of different ethnicities tend to get along and intermingle. There are no segregated theme dorms. It's an accepting college for gay students, international students, etc. It's not cliquish or competitive and most Swatties tend to make friends pretty quickly from everything I have heard. One fairly unique policy that impacts the campus community in many ways is the lack of freshmen dorms. First year students are housed in regular dorms with upperclass students and, thus, are integrated into a tight Swarthmore community and culture from day one. IMO, this is a very significant, and very positive, policy. A lot of informal "mentoring" by upperclass students goes on in the dorms and each succeeding class assumes some responsibility for returning the favor to the "newbies".</p>
<p>e) Unlike most elite colleges and universities which were male-only (or in a few cases, female-only) until very recently, Swarthmore was coed from the day it opened its doors. In fact, one of the founders of the college Lucretia Coffin Mott, basically started the woman's rights movement in the US. A member of Swarthmore's first graduating class was the first woman to get a PhD in the US. Another alum, Alice Paul, led the suffrage movement that gave women the right to vote in the United States. The College's bylaws have always required an equal number of men and women on the Board of Managers. IMO, this has shaped Swarthmore's history and culture in significant ways.</p>
<p>f) Not to be crass, but in higher education, just like anything else, you can usually "follow the money". Swarthmore's per student endowment ($800,000 per student) is 3rd among liberal arts colleges (behind Grinnell and Pomona) and among the top dozen or so universities and colleges in the United States. Because of the enormous endowment, Swarthmore currently spends about $69,000 per student per year (not including financial aid of another $11,000 per student). This spending shows up in literally thousands of ways -- from tiny classes, to money for travel, to an absolutely stunning campus, to research opportunities, and on and on and on.</p>
<p>g) Academic departments are good pretty much across the board -- even the smaller departments. The three largest departments are Economics, Poli Sci, and Biology. Swarthmore is incredibly strong in the social sciences, producing more future Poli Sci and Econ PhDs per capita than any other college or university in the country, but it is also very strong in the hard sciences and many of the humanities. Swarthmore is unusual among LACs in having an ABET-accredited Engineering Department, which was founded about 120 years ago. Historically, it's not been an "arts" oriented school; however, it has excellent music, dance, and theater facilities and solid small departments across the arts. </p>
<p>Is Swarthmore the right school for you? Honestly, the best way to find out is to visit. I think that most kids who visit just know in their bones -- one way or the other. I would say that Swarthmore probably doesn't make sense if the idea of studying and being academically challenged in college doesn't sound like (at least some) fun. Not that you can't coast through Swarthmore (to some degree) because you can. But, what would be the point? There are easier places to go goof off for four years! To go to Swarthmore and blow off the classes would be such a waste. When I listen to my daughter and her friends talk about their classes, I'd almost swear they enjoy them -- which is kind of a cool thing.</p>
<p>What an amazing "stab" at it, Interesteddad, for someone who isn't at all associated with the Admissions or Public Relations Offices at Swarthmore.</p>
<p>How do you know all this information? I even read one of your posts where you commented on WHEN work-study students are present and work in the Admissions Office, and you even mentioned some of their duties. How do you know all the inner workings of the Admissions Office? Is that information available on the school's website?</p>
<p>awesome post interesteddad, it is really helpful</p>
<p>oh
um
honestly, I used most of the spoon-fed college pros and wrote an interesting essay about my counselor and me. It was mainly about how I convinced her why a Liberal Arts education was right for me (I'm pretty serious about science, but I really enjoy humanities too)</p>
<p>
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How do you know all this information?
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</p>
<p>Kelley: Since you remain interested in Swarthmore, I would recommend to you a book called "Swarthmore College: An Informal History" by Richard Walton. Published in the 1980s, it is now out of print, but can sometimes be found in used book stores or on E-bay (my wife recently bought a copy). It provides a tremendous amount of historical perspective on key events: the founding of the College, the implementation of the Honors Program, the student vote to banish sororities, "The Crisis" in 1969 when the Afro-American Students Society's takeover of the Admissions Office ended with the College's President dying of heart attack during negotiations, etc. A good bit of that history, in timeline form, is available on the Swat website.</p>
<p>The introduction to the book was written by novelist James A. Michner (Class of '29) who later left his estate, including his publishing rights, to Swarthmore. He details four key elements that he saw as defining characteristics of the school. Among those was a convincing case that the respect paid to women students, the presence of women faculty, and the strength of the women on the board played key roles in shaping the culture of the college. He attended at a time when co-education was dismissed by the education elite, but points out that all the single-sex colleges going co-ed en mass in the 1970s confirmed that Swarthmore had it right from the start.</p>
<p>In addition, he gives some personal observations about the role the Honors Program played in his intellectual development. This paragraph, written by Michner, does a pretty good job of summarizing Swarthmore:</p>
<p>"I can't right now think of very much that Swarthmore contributed to me other than a supreme dedication to service and an intellectual approach to the solution of a problem. What Swarthmore taught me was not as important as how Swarthmore taught me. The tangibles were not worth a damn; the intangibles have been the core of my life. My college degree was the passport into a wild and vivid life of the mind and into a full participation in the problems of my civilization."</p>
<p>It seems to me that those observations are as fundamentally accurate about a Swarthmore education in the Class of 2009 as they were for the Class of 1929. The "how Swarthmore taught me" is the key thing I notice about my daughter's education. The "how" is shared by many liberal arts colleges, but taken to an unusual degree at Swarthmore due to the convergence of students who enjoy taking classes and professors who enjoy teaching them.</p>
<p>That was an incredible summary, interestedad (much better than my "I think they drink less there and the classes are good" observations). I printed this out for later reference, and to show my son!</p>
<p>Thank you very much, you are an unbelievably good resource for Swarthmore applicants, students and their parents.</p>
<p>"What an amazing "stab" at it, Interesteddad, for someone who isn't at all associated with the Admissions or Public Relations Offices at Swarthmore."</p>
<p>I'd also like to note that while the admissions dept. does occasionally read these boards, they aren't related to ID. Jim Bock basically told me as much, Kelly.</p>