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Do any of you guys who are at Swarthmore or who have already graduated from Swarthmore want to share some tips, or other information, that entering freshmen might find useful?
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My tip to incoming freshmen: if you don't already speak Spanish, use college as an opportunity to learn it.</p>
<p>Hmmm... I was thinking of using college as an opportunity to learn Mandarin.</p>
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I was thinking of using college as an opportunity to learn Mandarin.
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<p>You and everybody else! According to Pres. Bloom, Chinese courses are now the most popular language at Swarthmore (which I'm sure makes the europhiles at ISI practically apoplectic).</p>
<p>Interesteddad and AE, honestly, I think it's more helpful in the context of this particular thread (i.e., a thread with tips for incoming first-years) for an incoming student to know that at least several study abroad programs and grad schools may ask to see these shadow grades, than to think that
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those grades will never be seen by anyone
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- or to argue about precisely how many exceptions there might be.</p>
<p>Interesteddad, if youre honestly curious, and not just feeling contentious, email Steve Piker and ask. Why on earth would I make something like that up? And why would you think that just because your daughters program didnt ask to see them, that this meant all others would not either? Your guess is on the right track - not just Oxbridge but most UK programs require those shadow grades, not only to get into the program, but also for admittance to individual courses at the host institution.</p>
<p>Seriously, though, why is it something to argue about? Pass/fall first semester is a really wonderful thing.</p>
<p>Forgetmenots, I am emphatically not mocking you by pulling out your quote; I just wanted to get the wording right. I think if you go back and read my post following yours, you'll see that I'm endorsing your main point wholeheartedly. Your tip is the best one an incoming student could get, and your overall enthusiasm is just terrific, as always.</p>
<p>So, I should take a class that I want to explore, that I'm sure I'll pass but won't necessarily get a good grade in? That makes sense. I just want to get it straight--what extra freedom I have in first semester freshman year.</p>
<p>-join the frisbee team, they don't cut anybody and will gladly accept you as cool if you can learn to throw a flick in your first semester</p>
<p>-a flick is like holding a frisbee with two fingers together on the bottom against the rim and making the same motion your wrist makes when you turn a door knob. This is very important and thus qualifies as its own tip.</p>
<p>-don't be surprised when you find out that so much of the student body is queer. your roommate may even be queer. might be queer at first but you'll get used to it.</p>
<p>-upper-classmen tell freshmen to take advantage of pass/fail semester because they themselves (and myself as well) did not (in terms of not trying hard in class). We took the opportunity to get accustomed to the swat way of life including work loads and only wish we hadn't because of grass is always greener syndrome. so I guess the tip here is do whatever.</p>
<p>-be aware that as a freshman you will likely view swat the same way a newly dating couple views each other. I don't discourage this at all, you should view swat like this while you still can, just be aware that upper-classmen view swat as their spouse of 12 years with four kids. We also view you view of swat as that of the new couple, and a lot of times that feeling is resentment. We love swat but in a different way then you probably first will.</p>
<p>-do a lot of different stuff freshman year because you have the power to. As you get older stop doing the stuff that you don't like as much and focus on those things that you really do like. One of the latter better be frisbee.</p>
<p>-because of the unique student body at swat, I at least find that I like a lot more people for who they are as well as dislike a lot more people for who they are. that's a good thing, because at my high school everybody was too similar that I really was indifferent. so yeah I guess expect that.</p>
<p>-Go to philly ideally with somebody who kind of knows it. After seeing it you'll appreciate swat even more.</p>
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Hmmm... I was thinking of using college as an opportunity to learn Mandarin.
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Yeah, that would be a good choice, too.</p>
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Interesteddad and AE, honestly, I think it's more helpful in the context of this particular thread (i.e., a thread with tips for incoming first-years) for an incoming student to know that at least several study abroad programs and grad schools may ask to see these shadow grades, than to think that those grades will never be seen by anyone - or to argue about precisely how many exceptions there might be.
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Please don't try to throw a straw man at me. It's insulting. If I am to believe what you said -- and I have no reason not to -- then I'm of the opinion that the pass/fail first semester isn't a really wonderful thing. In fact, it isn't much of anything; that's what I was saying. My response was merely to your 30 years comment, because I wasn't informed of the shadow grades being relevant for grad school when I was there and, in my case, they weren't.</p>
<p>If you're right and a good number of grad schools and professional schools (beyond just med school) and also study abroad programs look at shadow grades, then my advice to incoming freshman who are considering continuing on in school beyond Swarthmore would be to treat the pass/fail semester just like any other semester. Like it or not, your college GPA is a big part of what gets you into the graduate programs you want, so if the shadow grades count... they count.</p>
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Seriously, though, why is it something to argue about?
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<p>You are the one who just undercut the entire premise of the pass/fail semester by "warning" incoming freshmen that graduate schools and study abroad programs will routinely ask for their shadow grades.</p>
<p>You may be right. I'm asking for more information because what you are suggesting runs counter to EVERYTHING I've read in Swarthmore's detailed grad school and study abroad advising documentation.</p>
<p>My advice would be to take advantage of the pass/fail semester to sample as many departments as you can, while preserving as many potentially interesting majors as you can. Don't use pass/fail as an excuse to slack off, but rather as an opportunity to get your feet wet, step up your academic game, and get a sense of where you stand viz-a-viz study skills. Take stuff that interests you, make a good faith effort to do the work and contribute in class, and the grades at Swarthmore will take care of themselves.</p>
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My advice would be to take advantage of the pass/fail semester to sample as many departments as you can, while preserving as many potentially interesting majors as you can. Don't use pass/fail as an excuse to slack off, but rather as an opportunity to get your feet wet, step up your academic game, and get a sense of where you stand viz-a-viz study skills. Take stuff that interests you, make a good faith effort to do the work and contribute in class, and the grades at Swarthmore will take care of themselves.
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</p>
<p>I agree. Particularly with this phrase - "Don't use pass/fail as an excuse to slack off." Explore, knowing that the grades will not be part of your GPA at Swat, ever. </p>
<p>But there is nothing unhelpful about pointing out the fact that you still might be asked at some point to produce them. If there were, the course guide (and other places) would not do so. (see below)</p>
<p>AE, I wish I'd thought of clarifying the GPA distinction . That was murky on my part. Asking to see your shadow grades (evaluations) is not the same as factoring them into your Swarthmore GPA, which remains unchanged.</p>
<p>Again, the situations I mentioned do not render pass/fail worthless. I don't think they diminish the system's worth in any way. And pointing them out doesn't undercut the whole premise. Why would I cheerlead for CR/NC, when I do know about these other scenarios, if I thought it undercut the blessings of the system in any way? It's just a piece of information that makes a student wiser.</p>
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Shadow Grades</p>
<p>Unofficial letter equivalencies for Credit/No Credit courses, also called "shadow grades," are not a part of the official grade record (transcript), and have no impact on Swarthmore GPA.
...<br>
Instructors are asked to provide the student and the faculty adviser with an evaluation of the student's CR/NC work. The evaluation for first-semester first-year students includes a letter-grade equivalent. For other students, the evaluation may be either a letter-grade equivalent or a comment. Such evaluations are not a part of the student's official grade record. If available, letter-grade equivalents for first-semester first-year students may be provided to other institutions only if requested by the student and absolutely required by the other institution. Students should save their copies of these evaluations for their records.
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</p>
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AE, I wish I'd thought of clarifying the GPA distinction . That was murky on my part. Asking to see your shadow grades (evaluations) is not the same as factoring them into your Swarthmore GPA, which remains unchanged.
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It seems questionable that there is a distinction at all between your GPA and someone asking to see your shadow grades and (in all likelihood) adjusting your GPA accordingly. For instance, if two identical applicants from Swarthmore were trying to get into the same graduate school and only one spot was left, and the only difference was that one had straight As as shadow grades his freshman year and the other had straight Ds as shadow grades, would that be the deciding factor? I don't know, but it seems that if an institution is asking to see the shadow grades, they're taking them into account in some way.</p>
<p>I think CR/NC is still a great thing to sample different courses.. first it won't affect your swarthmore GPA.. secondly for eg. if you're applying to chemistry grad school.. would they care that you got a shadow C in first semester political sci? I don't think so.. </p>
<p>I think the reason why the grad schools want to see the shadow grades is just to know how you did your first semester in the subject you're applying.. which in this case is chemistry.. (just my 2 cents, and speaking logically)</p>
<p>But, do law schools care about shadow grades?</p>
<p>the one time that shadow grades were ever problematic for me was when I applied to a Middlebury language school during the spring semester of my freshman year. Since the shadow grades were the only grades on my transcript at that point, I got hassled a bit by the Middlebury language school administration and asked for an "official transcript," which is what I had sent them. There is a notice on the back of transcripts explaining what these "CR" entries are, but just as a heads up, sometimes you have to explain matters to other schools.</p>
<p>Pass/fail grades (but not the written evals) are recorded in mySwarthmore too, just in case you no longer have the original emails.</p>