Swatty or Haverford?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I'm stuck between these two LAC's, and I was wondering if you guys could tell me a little more about them (since I'm unable to visit either).</p>

<p>Here is what I am looking for in a college.</p>

<p>Size: Small to medium. 1,000-8,000 would be best.</p>

<p>Location: medium to large city nearby. I would prefer a city that's at least 50,000+ people (Philly meets this)</p>

<p>Surroundings: Beautiful, with lots of green and trees (or in other words, at least a pretty town). Weather isn't an issue, except I don't really want it really hot (i.e. not Texas/Cally) . I love winters. Want to be able to at least drive someplace (i.e. within 1 hour) to go camping,fishing, etc.</p>

<p>People: Prefer a socioeconomic and ethnic mix of people. I come from a public school of 500 where there are literally about 6 non-white people...so I'm looking for some variety (maybe lots of international students).</p>

<p>Academics: I want a school more focused on academics than on when the next party is. Also, I'm looking to major in Physics or Astronomy, with the eventual goal of going to dental school (pretty weird, huh?)</p>

<p>If you can offer any advice, info, or have any other questions, feel free to post. Thanks again!</p>

2

<p>Well, I'll be honest, being a swattie myself, i am going to probably be a bit biased. Swarthmore has a total of no more than 1500 undergrads, Philadelphia is a city with over 1,000,000 people inhabiting it, Swarthmore is a beautiful campus as it is in fact located at the heart of a national arboretum, the weather here is great. Nice breazy spring and autumn days, and cold but enjoyable winter days. Summer here is also great. As far as diversity is concerned, i found these statistics on the swarthmore website: 15.3% Asian American
8.3% Latino/a American
7.3% African American
0.9% Native American
0.4% Multiracial American
As far as international students is concernend, there are more than enough of them at our school, in fact, my roomate was an international student herself and i would say i have at least 17 close friends who are international students as well. Now, yes what you here about Swarthmore is true; it is really academically speaking, demanding. The thing is that once you get to Swarthmore, you may want to do anything and everything and perhaps it can get very stressful at times. Natural Sciences at Swarthmore are not joke, but if it is something that you are interested in, you'll find professors that are passionate about their work and always willing to have a very interested student help them out with their research. But it isn't just academics, believe it or not. Academics is a large part here at Swarthmore but the college also makes it a point to have activities outside of the academia every weekend with parties, dance shows, newly released movie screenings, plays, musicals, speakers etc. for the enjoynment of its student body. The students here are friendly although a bit quirky and perhaps strange but it is a great place to study at.</p>

3

<p>My sister went to Swat and I think it fits your requirements the best of the two, probably. That's a great choice to make though, both fantastic schools.</p>

4

<p>both Swat and Haverford fit your ideals pretty well. Swat is more prestigious, of course, but it will not be hard to visit both in a half a day! Get on campus and feel it out. Swat is tough to beat for what you are looking for, but give Haverford a good look.</p>

5

<p>I don't think you will get much of a socioECONOMIC mix at either school; but for a dose of reality, Swarthmore is near to Chester, PA, a poor and downtrodden small city and home to Widener U. which will have a much broader economic (& academic) range of students. Haverford is located on the well-to-do Main Line so not much economic diversity near there.</p>

6

<p>I'm personally more a fan of Haverford. It's just a matter of getting a better vibe from it, though. However, because of the Tri-Co program, if you get into one, you can take classes at the other plus Bryn Mawr.</p>

7

<p>There are many similarities between Haverford and Swarthmore, but here are the differences:</p>

<p>Swarthmore is considerably more diverse, both ethnic and socio-economic.</p>

<p>Swarthmore was co-ed from the start; Haverford was an all-male school.</p>

<p>Haverford is somewhat more "preppy"; Swarthmore a bit more "intellectual" or "quirky". This is not an extreme difference, but it's signficant.</p>

<p>Haverford has a somewhat heavier drinking scene. Again, not extreme difference, but signficant.</p>

<p>Swarthmore integrates freshman students into upper class dorms; Haverford isolates freshmen into their own dorms.</p>

<p>Swarthmore has a much larger endowment; three times larger. Thus, significantly higher per student spending.</p>

8

<p>i visited both last summer and i liked haverford more. swarthmore was just too isolated for my liking. it took us forever to find...it was in the middle of a neighborhood. swat's campus, while BEAUTIFUL like a country club, was pretty dead socially. although i got a bad impression, it's probably only because it was summer so no one was there and the one student guide person was pretty damn boring. i got a friendlier vibe from the haverford students and the campus has more of a town around it. you should definitely try to visit (during the school year) the schools you're accepted to.</p>

9

<p>I would add, as a difference between the two, that at Swat it's not unusual to commiserate about your workload and how much time you have to spend on this class or that class, while at Haverford it's more typical to downplay how hard you work and appear relaxed rather than stressed/driven. This is a social difference that's independent of any difference in workload (i.e., even 'Fords who are taking a crazy schedule of very tough classes often won't complain or talk about it very much).</p>

10

<p>So which do you think is perhaps a better school to attend for physics/astronomy? Is there really that much difference in the academics? Is the endowment difference quite noticable?</p>

11

<p>Also, remember Haverford's roots are Quaker.</p>

12

<p>swarthmore's roots are also quacker, hence, we have no gpas (at least none that are told to the students) and no class rankings.</p>

13

<p>"swarthmore's roots are also quacker"- Many ducks on campus? (sorry, couldn't resist)</p>

14

<p>wait, no GPA's period, or none that are posted? You still get a GPA on your transcripts right?</p>

15

<p>haverford was quaker too, but we have GPAs - they're on our transcripts. we don't talk about our grades though, and we're not ranked either. and we do have ducks...well a duckpond at least.lol
come to haverford - swat sucks. </p>

<p>mycow08</p>

<p>p.s. there's a healthy rivalry going on between our two schools, in case you couldn't tell. i get the feeling it means more at haverford than it does at swat though. no offense intended towards the swat kids frequenting these boards. :)</p>

<p>edit: p.p.s. : if you want more details about haverford, i'd be happy to help. feel free to ask whatever. i didn't feel like there was enough of a haverford contingent on this thread, so i'm ready to take on the swatties by myself. ;)</p>

16

<p>Two tough schools to choose between. If it matters to you, I think Swat has the bigger national rep. Personally, I got a better "vibe" from Haverford and, if I recall, it's closer to Bryn Mawr and you can eat at their dining halls, which I hear have far better food, as far as such mundane issues matter.</p>

<p>Both have reps as being pretty tough and studious places. Again, just got the vibe that Haverford was a little "warmer and fuzzier" of the two and gotta love the duck pond there.</p>

<p>I'd strongly suggest an overnight visit at both. Couldn't go wrong at either. And if you really want to confuse yourself and consider the West Coast, Pomona is supposed to be very similar to the two, with much better weather. Best of luck.</p>

17

<p>It all depends on what you want. I had to visit both campuses to decide I liked Swarthmore more. Swarthmore on campus station that takes you to UPenn and downtown Philly is one of the pluses for me.</p>

<p>I felt that Swarthmore just had a lot more to offer to me, but I'm applying to both. </p>

<p>Personally, I know that Swarthmore has made one of the best environments for black students. It's on the Black Enterprise Top 50 list, 10th best liberal arst school for African Americans.</p>

18

<p>That's great to hear, because I'm sick and tired of the lack of diversity over here (it's about 99.5% white in my community...), though I know that most LAC's don't have a HUGE minority population.</p>

19

<p>UPENN student perspective,</p>

<p>ohk, i got to know about this site from my freinds. i like to tell something about haverford and swarthmore, and what makes them different. </p>

<p>Swarthmore is highly competitive school with highly competitive student body. You will challenge yourself and with others. Haverford in the other hand is also very competitive school, as competetive as Swarthmore, but differs from Swat. Student body at Haverford is non-competitive, where you 'not even once' talk about grade, and Haverford is a one of the few place where talking about grade is discouraged to the point that others leave conversations when you start talking about grades. I wanna talk more about Haverford first and then come back to swartmore again, and express my views on how this competitive-noncompetive enviroment plays a huge part in separating these two excellent schools on completely other side of the pond (academics wise). </p>

<p>In Haverford, as i told you before discussiong grade is highly discouraged; Apart from this, you wont ALSO find that much of people at Haverford disscussing how hard the class is and how hard you have to work. When i took a class at haverford, I found that I was not forced to work hard and do well. Classes were indeed tougher (you can compare physics courses at upenn and haverford;aslo the gradutation requirement, if that is a point of your interest) than that of Upenn, and its harded to get an A in haverford than in upenn; but never in my whole semester did I feet over-stressed or overwhelmed. </p>

<p>In Swarthmore, I also found that classes were tougher, and grade inflation was outrageous. Nevertheless, I got a feeling that people really cared about how well I was doing in my exams and quizzes (I also found that grade disscussion is not really discouraged). This might be the reason why I was more stressed due to Swarthmore class than haveford class although they were equally tough. Personally, I have a deep respect of Swarthmore, and its an amaging college; but this (competitive enviroment) is the only thing that i didnt like of Swarthmore (and Upenn).</p>

<p>Swarthomore has Honor's Course whereas Haverford doesnt although both have honor programs; but haverford provides honor in a very unusual way from what i have heard (from the depth of your senior thesis). </p>

<p>You, prospective students, might have heard how notoriously hard the classes at Swarthmore are, and nothing about haverford classes. So did I. And this is just because of the competitive swarthmore enviroment and non-competitive haverford community.</p>

20

<p>I have no idea about Haverford, but grade discussion at Swarthmore is culturally taboo. It is, in fact, a very collaborative school.</p>

<p>My D's theory is that the first semester pass/fail policy is the reason. That it breaks the obssession with grades for a lot of students. Darlin' D had another theory -- that students who cannot let go of internal or external pressure to get "all A's" are one of the two types of students who probably shouldn't go to Swarthmore. The other type is students who just don't enjoy doing the work for classes.</p>