<p>Is anyone attending this? Know someone that attended before?</p>
<p>(I know a few things about Swarthmore.. but it's always good to learn more.. what do you guys know about it... pros and cons?)</p>
<p>I take it attending this "Discovery Weekend" progam does not relate in any way to the actual admissions process.</p>
<p>Actually, usually people who get selected for those kind of weekends have a much better than average chance of being accepted to the schools that fly them in. Why would the college spend the $ to fly someone in unless there was a good chance that the college would accept the student? Colleges don't like to waste their $ or time.</p>
<p>Well, I guess that's good news then.</p>
<p>Now.. I am (of course) very concerned with financial aid.. etc. Even though I wish I did not have to consider this on my college selection process.. I really have to. Is Swarthmore pretty generous with need based aid?</p>
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Is Swarthmore pretty generous with need based aid?
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<p>Yes. </p>
<p>All financial aid at Swarthmore is need-based with the exception of two freshmen each year who receive non need-based four-year scholarships from a special endowment for students from local communities.</p>
<p>Swarthmore guarantees to meet 100% of established need for all students for all four years and students seem to feel that the financial aid office bends over backwards to keep them going.</p>
<p>Last year, 48% of the students (53% of the freshmen) qualified for financial aid. That's at the high end of schools with Swarthmore's average SATs.</p>
<p>The average total aid package was $27,421.</p>
<p>Of that, outright grants or scholarships averaged $23, 604. The remaining $3817 was a combination of loans and/or work-study (paid library jobs, paid writing tutor jobs, paid lab assistant jobs, paid admissions tour guide jobs, etc.)</p>
<p>Only 35% of the graduating seniors had college loans to repay, which means that a little over a quarter of the financial aid packages had no loan component at all. This no-loan group would roughly correspond to the Pell Grant recepients on campus -- family incomes under $40,000 per year.</p>
<p>For those who did have need-based loans, the average amount was $3061 per year for the entire school and $2047 per year for the freshman class. Those are low numbers.</p>
<p>Having said all that, it is impossible to predict what anyone's financial aid package will be. Schools compute need differently and merit-aid (stated or hidden) can change the cost dramatically. All you can really do is wait 'til your are accepted and compare the aid packages. Swat will review your info if you get a better aid package somewhere else.</p>
<p>Generally speaking, if you are really rich, you don't care. If you are really poor, then places like Swarthmore provide fantastic need-based aid. If you are somewhere in the middle, you might get a bigger discount at a merit-aid school, although that will usually require going down a notch or two on selectivity since merit aid goes to students a college wants really, really badly.</p>
<p>As for diversity weekend....check it out if you don't mind a school where people study hard. Swarthmore is one of the most diverse schools on the east coast. Overall, 38% of the students are non-white or international. This year's freshman class is 44% non-white/non-US:</p>
<p>7% Af-Am
12% Latino/a
17% Asian-American
1% Native American
7% International</p>
<p>I believe that Swarthmore has the highest percentage of minority faculty of the top tier LACs in the country.</p>
<p>If you do go, please post about your experience on CC! I'm very interested in Swarthmore but I can't visit because I live overseas. I'd love to hear about what you thought of the school (if you end up going for the weekend).</p>
<p>I did it in the fall of 03, and it was awesome.! I would suggest you go, just to get a feel for the campus, people, and academics. Also, I was admitted to Swat, if that makes any difference.</p>
<p>Anything else I should know?</p>
<p>BTW (do you have to provide your own transportation for the way back?)</p>
<p>Fly-ins provide roundtrip transportation. They don't want to leave you stranded. :)</p>
<p>Good = -), thanks.</p>