Transfer students

Colleges and Universities A-Z Swarthmore College
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<p>To everyone waitlisted and/or rejected,</p>

<p>Very sorry to hear that. I know it’s tough, I was rejected from Swat right out of high school. I’m glad for it though, because I may not have been able to hack it straight out of public high school. It is very difficult here, especially when you’re treated as a sophomore coming from a public high school and a year at community college.</p>

<p>But if you’re in a position to reapply and want to, do so. If not, you can get just as much out of your education elsewhere than at Swarthmore. The elitists here will tell you differently, but I met a lot of incredible, worthwhile, and intelligent people at community college, contrary to what Duhvinci seems to think about it. Sure, I’m not getting A’s at Swarthmore, but I was a worthwhile person before I got here, I’m a worthwhile person when I get B’s, and even the B’s improve me.</p>

<p>I know that this is a dream come true for a lot of people, and a dream never realized for a lot more. Maybe Swarthmore isn’t in the cards for you…but it is by no means the end of the world. But please believe me when I say that it is not education that makes the man. Just make the most out of your education, no matter where you get it. It’s possible to do great things at a state college, and to get nothing out of a prestigious college. You get out of something what you give, so keep giving no matter where you are.
-The Transfer Student</p>

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<p>Also, even though I sat through a class in which people suggested people who go to elite colleges get two votes, hearing Haverford referred to as “20 lb weights” is among the most pretentious things I have ever heard. They’re the 10th liberal arts school in the country, get over your damn self Duhvinci.</p>

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<p>Thank you so much Augusta for pointing out so many valid points. “I met a lot of incredible, worthwhile, and intelligent people at community college, contrary to what Duhvinci seems to think about it.” I, too, know many great, intelligent, and motivated people that are currently enrolled in community college. Family and friends that I know have experienced community college and are better for the experience. They are definitely living up to their potential and succeeding in life. And, of course, the lovely Augusta got into Swarthmore after attending one year of community college :). But do take heed and keep in mind what Augusta has said. She is right, one can go to a state school and achieve great things and get nothing out of a prestigious school. It’s all about, I think, having the motivation to do well, and where you go does not put you at a disadvantage. Name or prestige isn’t necessarily what will make you successful in life. It takes a lot of hard work and dedication no matter where you go if you truly want to succeed. </p>

<p>Little story: As my mom was consoling me after hearing about my rejection to Swarthmore, she kept saying in her lovely Spanish, “I know you will do well no matter where you go. All you have to do is put your mind to it and you can achieve great things in life.” Sounds a little like ‘mom talk,’ haha, but my mom is right. It just made me feel a whole lot better about my situation. To be honest, I will try one last time and will reapply next year to Swarthmore.</p>

<p>Claireishope, HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Hope you have a wonderful birthday, live it up and thank you for the wish :slight_smile: Keep me posted on your decision! :)</p>

<p>Oh one last thing. I don’t know if Duhvinci was joking about Haverford, labelling it “20 lbs weights,” but I hope you know that Haverford isn’t exactly a walk through the park. I have a friend who currently attends Haverford and she says it is a lot of hard work.</p>

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<p>amendez and others,
As I’m sure you have gathered by now, duhvinci likes to “stir the pot.” You can laugh at some of what he says, and be appalled at some of what he says. He represents only his point of view. Just remember that. His comments about Haverford are made in jest, I’m sure. Haverford and Swat have a “rivalry,” in sports and otherwise. Swat athletes have been known to chant “safety school” at their Haverford rivals during the heat of battle. It’s a joke. </p>

<p>Because of an extracurricular which my son (Swat class of '07) was involved in, I had the opportunity to host a number of Haverford students in my home. They were a great, intellectual, nice bunch of kids, just like the Swatties. There is truth in what duhvinci says about the intellectual rigor at Swat. It is hard to understand if you haven’t been a student there. But neither he nor anyone else can speculate with any degree of certainty who is likely to “succeed” at Swat. Best of luck with your college plans!</p>

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<p>I don’t understand the hostility toward Duhvinci, because he seemed to be genuinely trying to give good advice, not merely being a gadfly of sorts. I think there are some merits to what he’s saying. When I first went to college, I was absolutely crushed… Coming from a public high school, it was difficult for me to engage productively in seminars, to close-read texts, to actually HAVE IDEAS that I could claim for myself. I went into the Directed Studies program at Yale, and it was traumatic…many of my classmates had already read Plato, Augustine, Homer, and what not…I was so behind, and it took me forever to get used to it.</p>

<p>That said, after a semester, Yale became very easy… I have a 3.5 GPA, and the workload isn’t too heavy for me. That said, I don’t have a lot of free time (which works out, because there’s nothing to do in New Haven), but I wouldn’t say I’m in the grind. Duhvinci might have a different experience, but I think the weight-lifting analogy is ridiculous. I know a friend who couldn’t afford Princeton, so he’s going to Ole Miss. As far as I’m concerned, he’s at least as intelligent as I am, but he’s working his ass off compared to myself.</p>

<p>At Yale, and probably at Swarthmore, your institution, your professors…they actually care about you. They actually want you to succeed. At state schools, at community colleges, you’re on your own. Nobody is going to walk you through to graduation. Duhvinci, having been sequestered inside this little hermetic space known as Swarthmore, probably does not see that what s/he THINKS is 100 lbs. is actually 10 lbs.</p>

<p>There are people at Yale who screw around and get decent grades. And no, they are not the “intellectual cream-of-the-crop.” College is as easy or as hard as you make it.</p>

<p>Fragmented arguments, but whatever.</p>

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<p>hey, i just got a letter in the mail saying “this is the fat one” - accepted!
hope everything goes well for the rest of you</p>

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<p>aubeardely: thank you for your half hearted defense. that aside, your posting was rather irrelevant in that it missed the point of my earlier posting. your anecdotal references to your public school experience as the causal factor for your lack of preparedness at yale is unfair to everyone who attended public school and has done well and gone on to achieve great things. it is my opinion that public schools provide just a strong an educational foundation as private schools albeit with less personal interaction with educators and staff. certainly, plato, homer and the greek classics are not reserved just for private schools. </p>

<p>your comment regarding your friend at ole miss totally miss the central theme of my argument. assuming your ole miss friend did get accepted to princeton, i will assume that she or he had the superior gpa and sat scores that got him/her in. the fact that financial issues prevented attendance at princeton is a far cry from the “b” student at community college trying to reach for the brass ring. even assuming that the “b” student can somehow grasp the brass ring, will they be able to lift it? a “b” at a sixth tier school is not going to survive intellectually or socially, either yale or swat whether in the classroom or outside. although i have never experienced casual intellectual discourse outside of class except when actually discussing class, the quality of language and analysis in discussing even mundane topics at swat will socially isolate, unintentionally of course, a student with the intellectual shortcomings that come with a “b” at community college. that is not so much as to denigrate students at community colleges, however, i believe that, in most instances, gpa’s and sat’s slot kids where they belong and if you have demonstrated “b” ability at a community college, you are not ready for prime time. this is a far cry from your friend at ole miss. </p>

<p>the fact that you fail to comprehend the weightlifting analogy does not make it ridiculous. it is apparent that the poster with the “b” at the local college is barely lifting the metaphoric ten pounds. well, i can tell you that swat is educationally at least 100 lbs. i don’t recommend someone barely lifting ten pounds, idolizing the one who can lift 100 lbs, try doing it themselves without some intermediate training. the 100 lbs will crush them. that aside, not having attended swat, you have no clue as to the level of intensity here at swat. i have taken classes at columbia and other lac’s and have sleptwalked through them and gotten "a"s while struggling to get "b"s at swat. so when i say swat is the 100 lbs, i know what i am talking about. </p>

<p>in fact, before you belittle the intellectual quality of swat, let’s analyze what comprises a typical yale class. once we dispense with the volume of recruited athletes in the major sports such as football and baseball and with the other recruited athletes in the minor sports such as swimming and lacrosse and the others, then leave out the legacies of which yale seems to have more of than other universities of its ilk, then dismiss the students soley accepted to populate less popular courses of study, such as directed studies, you will be left with about 200 students in each entering class actually deserving to be at yale for intellectual reasons and capable of acceptance into your typical swat entering class. although i cannot confirm, but where there is smoke, there usually is fire, i hear that the toughest part of yale is actually getting in, whereas the hardest part of swat (although getting in is not that easy either) is graduating. in summation, no, swat is not actually 10 lbs and i would confidently and happily pit the cream of the swat crop against the top group from any other university especially a harvard wannabe institution that fiddles while the entire city around it crumbles.</p>

<p>lastly, based upon the analysis displayed in your discourse and cohesiveness of argument, yes, you are correct, it is fragmented. but whatever? no not whatever, embarassing? yes.</p>

<p>kmg: did you read any of the immediate postings before yours? maybe you should have kept your posting to yourself.</p>

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<p>Duhvinci - I always look forward to your posts as they usually give me something to think about. You state above that the hardest part of Swarthmore is graduating. I took the time to look up the statistics on this and they do not back up your arguement. In fact, according to USNWR, Swarthmore has the second highest graduation percentage of any college in America (unless I am reading it incorrectly) at 91% after four years. Only some nursing school has a higher rate. While I know it is hard there, obviously, they do a great job of picking the right students to come to Swarthmore. 91% is an incredibly high percentage of kids who graduate after four years! I wonder what the rate is of students who are actually there (didn’t quit or transfer) after four years. I bet it is approaching 100%.</p>

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<p>Duhvinci, your opinion on public schooling makes me curious as to whether or not you have ever set foot in one. It is certainly possible to get into Swarthmore from a public school, and to do great things at public high schools. But the fact is that kids with private school educations are by and large more prepared for college. If this weren’t true, there would be no advantage to sending kids to private schools, and no one would waste their money.</p>

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<p>Alright, I’ll bite.</p>

<p>Duhvinci, is your snobbishness and condescension reflective of Swarthmore’s zeitgeist as a whole? Some of your points do have merit, but your obnoxious tone, penchant for hyperbole, and other absurd notions make it hard to think you’re not just ■■■■■■■■ for a response like this one.</p>

<p>Sure it’s pretty hard to believe that you’d be able to get into Swat without having an A average in either high school or college, but there is no harm in amendez shooting for the stars, and it would not have been difficult to convey your point more nicely. Don’t delude yourself into thinking that you’re just being blunt and saying it how it is; you’re just mean.</p>

<p>For a smart guy, you can’t honestly think that you can categorically stereotype and dismiss most of the yale incoming class that easily. I assure you very few legacies at yale these days are trust fund kids. Being both a good student and legacy, while it might get you into brown, won’t necessarily get you into yale. If you are a privileged white kid from the east coast at a public school, you probably need to be a 4.0 student, legacy, and have remarkable extracurriculars, athletic or otherwise, to get into yale. I don’t know where you get your ideas from, but yale has a reputation for academic rigor in comparison to the other ivies; it certainly does not have a history of rampant grade inflation like harvard. i have no affiliation with the school, didn’t apply, w/e; i just think you’re out of touch.</p>

<p>And momof3sons, I think you give Duhvinci too much credit saying that his metaphor is really just a good ole’ sporty jab at HC. I just went and read his preconceptions of Wesleyan, they are equally sensational. Wesleyan is many things, but a Swarthmore reject school it is not.</p>

<p>Duhvinci, I don’t think anybody disputes the rigor of a Swarthmore education, but life is going to be tough for you if you write off anybody who didn’t go to your college as a bonehead. </p>

<p>Flame away.</p>

<p>EDIT: oh and btw, i was accepted, if that lends me more legitimacy in your eyes…</p>

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<p>Duhvinci says:</p>

<p>“although i have never experienced casual intellectual discourse outside of class except when actually discussing class, the quality of language and analysis in discussing even mundane topics at swat will socially isolate, unintentionally of course, a student with the intellectual shortcomings that come with a “b” at community college.”</p>

<p>If the kind of “language and analysis” displayed in Mr. Duhvinci’s latest post is indicative of the level of student discourse at Swarthmore, either he overrates the institution, or he himself isn’t quite the wordsmith he believes.</p>

<p>Let’s parse this gem of a discourse, shall we?</p>

<p>First off, “half hearted” should actually read “half-hearted,” given that it is being used adjectively.</p>

<p>The odd turn of phrase “That is not so much as to denigrate” smacks of someone who “sleptwalked” his way through tenth-grade English class. Likewise, Duhvinci’s belief that “however” can be used as a conjunction equally illustrates a lack of ability to use “language… in discussing even [ridiculous nonsense]”. </p>

<p>I would assume that most students at Swarthmore would be able to discern between pluralization and indication of possession. But hey, maybe they do things differently there. </p>

<p>Mr. Duhvinci also says:</p>

<p>“i don’t recommend someone barely lifting ten pounds, idolizing the one who can lift 100 lbs, try doing it themselves without some intermediate training. the 100 lbs will crush them.” </p>

<p>The word “someone” is plural. “Themselves” is not. Usually, speakers of English (especially speakers of English who attend elite liberal arts colleges and look down upon anyone who doesn’t) try to be consistent with person and number.</p>

<p>Again, he edifies with his brilliance:</p>

<p>"i have taken classes at columbia and other lac’s and have sleptwalked through them and gotten "a"s while struggling to get “b"s at swat. so when i say swat is the 100 lbs, i know what i am talking about.”</p>

<p>And, again, he amazes with his inability to pluralize correctly. Tsk tsk.</p>

<p>One more for fun:</p>

<p>“lastly, based upon the analysis displayed in your discourse and cohesiveness of argument, yes, you are correct, it is fragmented. but whatever? no not whatever, embarassing? yes.”</p>

<p>I sincerely hope English is not your first language, Duhvinci. Wow. That last… sentence is stupefying. Embarrassing? Yes.</p>

<p>Look, I know that this is all incredibly pedantic and picky. The point I’m trying to make is that Duhvinci thinks he’s a lot smarter and eloquent than he actually is. And I haven’t even addressed the logical fallacies and internal contradictions found in his post. </p>

<p>Maybe those who live in glass houses shouldn’t cast stones.</p>

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<p>here we go:</p>

<p>collegedad3x: to clarify, i said the hardest part of swat was graduating. what i was getting at was that the rigors of each class make it tough to reach the finish line, but most of us do. </p>

<p>thetransfer: yes, i’m not sure that private high schools prepare its students any better that public schools. i believe that the makeup of the private school populace puts them in a better position to be prepared. the family dynamic of the kids in private school are different than in public school. the ones that choose to succeed in public school will gravitate to the special programs such as honors and the such that will prepare them just as well as a private school. i could go more on this but i want to get to other topics, such as:</p>

<p>elkjkb: i would never suggest that anyone not “shoot for the stars” to make their dreams come true. that is why we have lotto and scratch off cards. that is not to say that they shouldn’t be prepared to face the fact that their six numbers don’t match the ones on the little balls that pop up in the air tubes. people can wax as rhapsodic as much as they want, but they need to know that the “intellectual nirvana” they perceive to exist at swat is a result of hard work, not just at the college level, but at the elementary, middle school and high school level. if you didn’t put in that hard work then, baby, you’re in for a world of hurt when you get here. you’ll find out, trust me.</p>

<p>ok, you attack me for goofing on yale, but then you throw brown under the bus, real nice. now about that academic rigor at yale, it may exist, but i have friends at yale who tell me that they’re glad they didn’t choose swat. they see what i do in the same science class they take at yale and they are frightened. you accuse me of hyperbole, yet you claim yale “certainly does not have a history of rampant grade inflation like harvard. i have no affiliation with the school, didn’t apply, w/e; i just think you’re out of touch.” well, how the heck would you know? you have no affiliation with the school, didn’t apply and you say i’m out of touch?</p>

<p>also, i never ever said that wesleyan was a swat reject school. i said it was a “safety” school for schools such as swat and i still believe it to be so (sorry.) to answer someone from another thread, i believe the reason wes had a bump in applications was because of the plummeting acceptance rates at williams, amherst and swat, so applicants to those three had to throw in an app to wes, just in case. add those apps to the ones that are properly slotted for wes and you get the bump up. </p>

<p>lastly for elkjkb, i never write off anyone as a bonehead, whether they attended swat or not, they usually have to earn that distinction from me.</p>

<p>illest: what an incredible waste of time to correct my grammar on a posting that came off the top of my head and written in a spoken style in about ten minutes? on forums such as this, it is the content that stirs debate and discussion. it is laughable and somewhat childish to think that such a form of attack would sway any of the populace on this site regarding the content of my postings. had you actually tried to address any percieved “logical fallacies and internal contradictions” in my post, you would have furthered the discussion. also, what if it is true that english is not my first language? are you then attacking and mocking all individuals whose native language is not english? i think the true embarassment here is your character.</p>

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<p>apps that “are properly slotted to wes”? As opposed to what, the ones that were <em>improperly</em> slotted to wes? can you spell, E<em>N</em>T<em>I</em>T<em>L</em>E<em>M</em>E<em>N</em>T*?</p>

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<p>i had a feeling that using the phrase “propery slotted” was a bit obtuse. what was meant was that kids who have a great chance of getting into the top three lac, because of bery low admit rates have to hedge their bets and toss in an app to wesleyan, just in case. add those toss away apps to the kids that have no chance at the top three, but are capable of and want to get into wes, you get your app bump up. its nothing against the kids that attend wes, its just how the system is. its rare (although it happens once in a while) that someone that gets into swat would choose to attend wes. just as someone getting into harvard would choose swat, although it does happen occasionally. entitlement? (did i spell that correctly?) no, just the way it is.</p>

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<p>There are plenty of reasons why students who would be very competitive applicants at any/every top school make Wesleyan (a top school itself) their first choice. Wesleyan’s applicant pool is not primarily made up of kids who

It’s primarily made up of students who want to go to Wes.</p>

<p>Similarly, Swat isn’t populated by kids who didn’t think they could get into HYP (which, whether you realize it or not, is what your comparison suggests). Maybe you’re an Ivy wannabe yourself, but most of your classmates, most of the kids graduating at the end of next week, most of the rising juniors and sophomores and most of the entering class is made up of kids for whom Swarthmore was a first or top choice. And that’s been the case for a long time.</p>

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<p>harrietmwelsch: yes, there are plenty of reasons why competitive students at any of the super elite schools would choose wes as their first choice, but the majority of students end up where they really belong. i don’t really want to limit my opinions just to wes, it was that wes was a convenient example, but i don’t believe it is improper to opine that the majority of college kids belong where they are. it seems to be a process of natural selection (and the selection is not made by the students.) yes, there will always be the elite qualified that don’t have any interest in leaving their town, yes, there are the elite qualified that don’t want to deal with the bloodthirsty atmosphere at some of these places and are happier at a more laid back place. but if you were to peruse this entire forum, it seems the majority are striving to reach a little higher, which is an admirable trait, but when we get right down to it, the adcoms will put us all in our place. </p>

<p>regarding myself, i was an ed admit. that itself may indicate that swat was my top choice and for me, it was, however, there is a lot of gamesmanship involved with ed as i am sure you know. ed does not mean the school was the first or top choice, but maybe the best chance choice. there are a lot of (although not as many as at tufts) kids with tufts syndrome here. anyway, i will end it here for now. i am beat and will only be able to play with you kids here for a few more days. i am starting a really cool summer placement i got through the placement office and have been spending 14 plus hours a day preparing so i won’t look like a doof when i start next week at which point i will disappear as i do during the semesters. until then, please keep the cards and letters coming.</p>

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<p>I think the primary reason ppl choose Wesleyan over Swarthmore is a desire for a larger college. Simple as that. Sometimes a bigger cigar is just a bigger cigar.</p>

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<p>Haven’t posted here in a while! How is everyone? :)</p>

<p>I was just wondering if anyone would like to share if they have been accepted, waitlisted, rejected, or taken off the waitlist. It doesn’t seem like many have posted of their acceptance besides kmg and elkjkb. I hope you all are doing well and finally have decided where you will be going this coming fall. So with that, I bid you all adieu. :)</p>