Troubling Swarthmore visit - is that what its really like?

<p>i know nothing about Swarthmore but I am a big believer in first impressions…sometimes a college is great for 80 people and terrible for the other 20, ya know? And it could simply be that your daughter (who sounds like she will be in high demand) needs to be somewhere else. a fun thread to read is the “colleges my kid rejected after the visit” one because there will literally be one kid dismissing X college for X reason and - not two posts later - another student endorsing it for that very reason.</p>

<p>Ruby789,
I’ve had one child graduate from Swarthmore and one who is currently in attendance, so I’ve had a fairly long affiliation with the school. These two children are really different in personality. The graduate would fit into that brilliant, quirky, some would say “weird” mold. The younger is not at all like that. Very, very smart and socially very normal by any interpretation. My impression is that Swarthmore has gone out of its way in the last 5 years or so to change the perception of “weird” that some have noted. The academics are extraordinary and the workload is extraordinarily difficult. Students have to be ready for that.</p>

<p>By the way, my son has been involved with a high level club sport and is a double major in a science field and a humanities field.</p>

<p>Eyeveee may not have an affiliation with Swarthmore but the comments are absolutely accurate. My daughter is a Swat grad (2012). I’ve heard her say things virtually identical to what Eyeveee has said many times in the past two years. My daughter could have written the post herself, except that she is now in med school and barely has time to eat, let alone post on College Confidential. </p>

<p>My sister’s daughter went to Swarthmore so I know a little about it. One challenge is its size. On the plus side, nobody gets lost in the shuffle. It’s a good place for students who are excited about the prospect of being challenged and learning. Opportunities that are usually available to grad students. But it is not a hugely active busy place. It is a better place for thinkers than do-ers. At least that is how it seems.</p>

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<p>It never ceases to amaze that people will draw (and offer) strong conclusions based on so little evidence. Over the years I have met many dozens of Swarthmore students and alums. Perhaps my sample is biased, but most of them were certainly “do-ers.” Almost all were very involved in some extracurricular activity or other, with many being varsity athletes. As one poster noted above, the admissions committee has been looking increasingly for well-rounded students, so Swarthmore is an excellent place for do-ers (and thinkers). </p>

<p>It is good competitive practice to discourage other people from having interest in Swarthmore.</p>

<p>This thread is over three years old and stale. </p>

<p>Sockittoum - can you define active? When I read your application of “thinker” tag for your niece I’m left wondering if it isn’t a passive aggressive way to protect your children, yourself, or others? Doer, in my experience (of which I’d sadly have to classify myself compared to my family members), is code for academic underachiever. The terms doer and thinker are not mutually exclusive, and I would suggest are likely both attributable to high performers (of which Swarthmore and all “most selective” schools’ students definitely fit).</p>

<p>I went there a couple of months ago with my dd and we both really liked it.</p>

<p>The visits and the research are to see what you like best. Consider yourself lucky. There are so many excellent schools that you cannot possibly apply to but a small fraction of them. </p>

<p>Skip this one and not give it a second thought. </p>

<p>I read this thread because I took my junior daughter to visit Swarthmore, thinking it could be a great fit for her. The quirkiness would be attractive not offputting to her so that’s a non-issue. </p>

<p>It’s not fair to discount an entire school based on a single visit or even two but wow, what an awful impression the school made. Despite the fact that D had registered for the visit in advance and that it was a busy break week, the school did nothing to prepare for the influx of prospective students. There was a single tour guide for what seemed to be nearly one hundred visitors (maybe more). The guide did a great job but it was impossible to hear her and the tour was clearly abbreviated. We were not taken inside anywhere. </p>

<p>You’d think the info session that followed would be better, right? Wrong. It was awful. One of the worst I’ve ever witnessed. The guy who presented was confusing and odd and inarticulate. There was a plant in the audience who had to cue him to move on, he was that disorganized and incomprehensible. I overheard the person who’d been doing the cueing complain about a woman in the audience who had been reading the paper during the presentation. I’m not sure how she missed that group after group of people left the info session before it ended. It might have helped her to see that the fault lay not in the audience but in the presenter. We left with a bad feeling and my daughter is underwhelmed.</p>

<p>We visited the school some years ago with an older child and had a better run but not particularly good visit that time too. During the info session, a parent asked how the school would deal with a brilliant but lopsided kid (I’m paraphrasing, I don’t remember exactly how it was phrased but something along those lines). The presenter responded by saying that the school wouldn’t be interested in a kid like this because there were distribution requirements that had to be fulfilled across the disciplines and they could find lots of kids who were brilliant across the board. I think everyone in the audience was taken aback at that. I can’t even imagine that anyone would provide such an answer today! Obviously it made an impression on me. </p>

<p>All you Swatties out there, don’t get defensive. Swarthmore is an amazing, wonderful school with a lot to offer. I have good friends who attended and are intensely loyal and still involved in the school. My friends’ children have attended and had wonderful, enriching experiences. I’m thinking that it may just be that they aren’t good at the info session/tour thing. </p>

<p>@3girls3cats sounds like you indeed had awful experiences. I have to say that our Swat tours were among the best we had (visiting some 20 schools between our two kids); I certainly had some bad ones over busy break weeks (as I recall Williams we couldn’t hear a word the tour guide said because it was a massive crowd, and a similar experience at Brown. The roll of the dice can be random.</p>

<p>This is why you should never visit a college until after you have been accepted.</p>

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<p>Having been on a couple of Swarthmore tours, and having met several current tour guides, this suggestion baffles me. Be that as it may, I agree with donnaleighg that spring break can make for unsatisfying tours. We, too, had the experience of being sardines at Brown when our older one was looking. The information session was standing room only, the tour groups were huge, and we could barely hear the tour guide. But our student looked past all of that and decided Brown was the place for her. In hindsight, it clearly was the right choice, just as Swarthmore was the right choice for our younger one. </p>

<p>@LurkerDad, I’m starting to come around to your way of thinking. You run the risk of turning a kid off to a potential great fit. If you’re lucky, you have kids like coase’s and they can see past the presentations.</p>

<p>We are not near most of the schools D would like to visit and that means she’s stuck with school breaks which means standing room only auditoriums and tours. I’m seeing more and more that the info session and tour really aren’t all that worthwhile on their own anyway. The info session often feels like an infomercial and the tours this round have been much less involved. I think it can be worthwhile if a student can do some research in advance and arrange to attend a class, meet with a high school friend now attending the school, or ask a professor some specific questions about a major (if applicable). </p>

<p>3girls3cats: Sorry you had such a bad experience. As I’ve pointed out on this board before, my son and I had the opposite experience. Our presenter was a student and her presentation was the best one we had of all the visits we made (including visits at 3 Ivies, top LAC’s, Duke, Vandy). After the presentation the tour was good, not great. Still all in all a very impressive visit. Sorry yours was underwhelming. I think you are right, it’s hard to judge the school totally on one visit, but it would have been nice if the visit had gone the other way for you!</p>

<p>Wow, I am sorry to hear that the visit experience was so bad. Funny because S and I had the opposite experience. Our visit (last August) was one of the best of 30+ visits (we are on round two, D is happily matriculated at a private college). The info session was impressive but the tour guide was exceptional, the best of all the schools we have visited. He was earnest, brilliant and open (personally).</p>

<p>Not to say that we haven’t been impressed at many many other schools and I am sure there are better and worse tour guides everywhere. Then again, they had S in the info session when they said that for senior projects they often bring in outside experts in the field…and for just one kid, they flew in someone from the Louvre.</p>

<p>As others have said, it’s a beautiful thing that – if you can get accepted! – there are so many schools to choose from! </p>

<p>On the brilliant but lopsided question, the answer may sound harsh but may also be more or less accurate. There are lots of applicants who are very strong in all areas and applicants who are brilliant in one area but not strong in other areas will be competing in the applicant pool with applicants who appear brilliant, or at least very strong, in all areas.</p>

<p>I have been doing this circuit for so many years now, and I can tell you that it’s very easy to have a bad visit, bad day at any school. We’ve had some in our visits and I think it’s a danged shame when it happens because it often has nothing to do with how the everyday life at the school is. The thing is, something everyone should bear in mind, is that the Admissions office and staff are not going to be in your student’s college life or yours once they are there. To be taking into account a terrible tour guide, a terrible tour, horrible jokes and comments that the Admissions Director makes, in you decision is not a very good idea. Yeah, it could be a sign of sloppiness in a college, but really, it usually is not. I have a kid that hated Syracuse because we had the visit FROM hell, not TO it and he couldn’t get that out of his mind. The tour guides at CMU were horrible, yes, those gals were bad. and not in the right way, trying to make that place sound fun, hunh… Construction, noise, an argument with one son that I got into ruined the visits. SOmetimes I feel like throwing this whole visit thing out. First time I set foot or laid eyes on my school was when I showed up to move into the dorms and so it was with many of us students from the Dark Ages. </p>

<p>We’re like those proverbial blindmen checking out an elephant and some of those admissions offices are the place beneath the tail interms of a lot of things/ Yes, it can be important but keep your perspective. </p>

<p>I knew a kid who fell in love with a school because of the visit, went there ED, and I KNOW he likely would have gotten a bunch of merit offers from other schools that were being considered, but instead went as a full pay because this was the perfect place for him He came home at winter break with all of his packed and shipped home as he was not returning. No troubles, no reason other than he hated the place. He transferred successfully and is a doctor these days, 15 years later, but that was not a very good holiday season for my friend and her husband. Son transferred to a school which then would have paid half tuition at least had he applied from the onset but as a transfer full pay. All because of a wonderful visit. </p>

<p>I’m at a point where I nearly prefer BAD visits so that we can then assess the other parts of the school with a cold sense of pragmatism instead of with the glowy warm feeling that a good admissions office can give you, which lasts only until after orientation, maybe not even till then. </p>