Two Questions about Swarthmore

Colleges and Universities A-Z Swarthmore College
1

<p>I’m a senior, very interested in applying to Swarthmore in the upcoming weeks. However, I wanted to get some clarification about some things I’ve heard about the school.</p>

<li>In my research, I’ve gotten mixed messages about Swarthmore students. Some negative things I’ve read (or inferred from what I’ve read) is that they are over-stressed, sleep-deprived, unhappy (some even sound miserable), slightly unfriendly, singularly focussed on academics, and passive-aggressively competitive with one another. This last one particularly disturbs me. Do most people at Swarthmore really fit the description above, or are they in the minority (if so, how much of a minority?)? Are people really obsessively working to beat other students, or is that only a few disillusioned students? I’ve also heard reports that Swarthmore students are completely happy, have a lot of time for non-academics, and are not competitive. Obviously, these conflicting reports have been the source of much confusion.</li>
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<p>And my second question:</p>

<li>How is Jewish life at Swarthmore? I know Swarthmore has A LOT of Jews, but are they Jewish just because of their last name and because their parents forced them to go to Hebrew school, or are they actually involved in their culture and their faith? Is there a strong Hillel/Jewish Student Union? How many people attend Shabbat services/dinner? If I can’t go home for the holidays, will I be able to find a significant number of practicing Jews on campus with whom to spend them?</li>
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<p>Thanks!</p>

2

<ol>
<li><p>Those students are definitely in the minority. No question about it. Swarthmore students work a lot, but they are by-and-large NOT competitive about it, and they find plenty of time for other things (like friends, sleep and activities). You get to set your own priorities, but for most people it's manageable. </p></li>
<li><p>There are both kinds of Jews--many, many who are Jewish in name/heritage but not in practice, and a subset who are really active in their faith. I'm the former sort. But from what I know about Jewish life on campus, it's definitely there--not huge, but there are Shabbat dinners and services on a regular basis, high holiday services, a Jewish women's group, etc. I wish I could give you numbers, but I've never been. In many organizations at Swarthmore, strength and size are not necessarily related--the Hillel may be small in numbers, but that can create a tight-knit community feeling. </p></li>
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<p>Best of luck with your application!</p>

3

<p>sst,</p>

<p>Swarthmore is a Hillel "small and mighty" campus." (See: SMALL</a> AND MIGHTY ) The Jewish student body is about 19%. </p>

<p>Jake Ruvin, the Hillel student advisor on campus, can probably answer some of your questions. He is very warm and friendly. We met him when we dropped off our daughter. You can find his contact information, as well as "official" Swarthmore Jewish life info at Swarthmore</a> College :: Religious and Spiritual Life :: Jewish life at Swarthmore </p>

<p>As far as the negative comments about the students, it seems that a vocal, embittered minority spread rumors awhile back, (some have suggested it had to do with football being discontinued) but thus far my D's experience has been quite the opposite from some of the horror stories that we had heard.</p>

<p>Hope this helps</p>

<p>(Did you receive my answer to your PM?)</p>

4

<p>There are times when the students are stressed and/or sleep deprived. This usually happens at the end of the semester when all the final papers and projects are due about at the same time. This is by no means unique to Swarthmore.</p>

<p>Over my daughter's 4 years at Swarthmore I've never heard of any students that are passive-aggressively competitive with one another. The general atmosphere is of cooperation and help, with official (mandatory) and unofficial study groups, paper exchanges and discussions on-going.</p>

<p>There is always an active Jewish community on campus. The type of groups and activities depend on what currently enrolled students are looking for and bring in.</p>

5

<p>

[/quote]
Over my daughter's 4 years at Swarthmore I've never heard of any students that are passive-aggressively competitive with one another. The general atmosphere is of cooperation and help, with official (mandatory) and unofficial study groups, paper exchanges and discussions on-going.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>I'm with you. I've never heard of students competing with each other. Quite the contrary, my daugther and her friends took courses together, studied with each other in the library at night, did art history flash cards together prepping for exams, recommended senior thesis source materials to each other, and so forth.</p>

<p>My daughter once mentioned that she figured out within days at Swarthmore that every student there most likely had some area of accomplishment or talent, perhaps that she wouldn't even learn about unless it came up in conversation some how. If anything, Swarthmore taught her not to try to "compete" with the other 1450 students. She had her talents, they had theirs. This even showed up academically where one student would cruise through a particular course while a friend had to bust butt and, then the tables would be turned 180 degrees for a different course.</p>

<p>On several occasions, I heard my daughter and her friends praise a particularly "brilliant" student in their classes. I got the sense there was a real appreciation, not resentment, for a student who could stand out in that crowd.</p>

6

<p>sstGO27,
My son is a recent Swarthmore grad. I'll handle your first point just by saying that the negative description you provide is opposite everything I know about Swarthmore students. My son was only stressed for a couple of days a semester leading up to finals. He was heavily involved in two extracurricular activities. I never heard him say anything about competition among students. </p>

<p>As to Jewish life at Swarthmore, my son was quite involved as an officer. There is Shabbat dinner every Friday evening, and he would say that the attendance would depend on who was cooking! (Since the students prepare the dinners, you can imagine that some "chefs" would develop a better reputation. ;)) The dinners would always draw a bigger crowd than the services. There might be up to 40 people at a dinner. There might be 20. Just so you know, the Hillel is vegetarian, since there isn't enough room/sinks to have both meat and dairy. As for the holidays, sometimes he would come home and sometimes he would stay. There are some High Holiday services on campus, but often he would walk to the local Conservative synagogue. (It's a bit of a hike, but he doesn't mind walking.) They put up a Sukkah near the campus dining hall every year he was there. For Passover, the students change over the Hillel kitchen and they offer kosher for Passover food for the whole week. If I remember correctly, they have the first Seder on campus. (They do bring in meat from a caterer for that occasion.) One of the courses my son took in the Religion department was Hebrew for Text Study.</p>

<p>I am providing you with a link to the Swarthmore page on the Hillel web site.
Swarthmore</a> College</p>

<p>I don't want to give the impression that Jewish life on campus is "perfect" by any means.
Since Swarthmore is a fairly small school, it stands to reason that there is a small critical mass of practicing Jewish students. However, I would characterize my son as observant and he got very involved with Jewish life at Swarthmore and it served him well. If you have any more specific questions, I can call him and ask. Best wishes.</p>

7

<p>I have 2 kids at Swarthmore -- my son is a senior and he has never complained of overwork or lack of sleep, in fact, had plenty of time for naps early on but now uses his non-study time in intensive involvement in extra-curriculars. Also, gets to Philly regularly and travels to other east coast cities several times a semester for extra-curriculars. My daughter is a freshman and while admittedly maybe the work hasn't yet ramped up to the max it will be by junior year, she's working hard, but says she gets more sleep than in HS. She takes all of Saturday off (by design) to do fun stuff with her friends, and works half-day on Sunday. She's been into Philly twice already and is loving every minute of it! And no, she is decidedly NOT competitive. Just committed to giving her college experience what her HS experience lacked: perspective and FUN! All that being said, she is well-organized and uses her non-class time during the week well.</p>

8

<p>S is a recent Swat grad who did not find the workload overwhelming ( he had a rule that he didn't work from Fri night until Sun afternoon/evening -- a rule he successfully maintained with very few exceptions). Students at Swat are not competitive & don't discuss grades. S was in a small department & really had no idea how all the other majors were doing until right before graduation when he saw the honors & Phi Beta Kappa lists.
S is not especially religious but did try to keep Passover by picking and choosing what he'd eat at Sharples for the 8 days. He attended a Seder at a friend's parents for a couple of years & senior year had friends who lived off campus who had a Seder.</p>

9

<p>"In my research, I've gotten mixed messages about Swarthmore students. Some negative things I've read (or inferred from what I've read) is that they are over-stressed,"</p>

<p>You get to choose what courses you take. So, for instance, if you decide to take four writing classes and are very stressed out, it's your fault. You make the decisions for yourself. So far into the school year not that many people are very stressed.</p>

<p>"sleep-deprived,"</p>

<p>Similar to what I said above. I was incredibly sleep-deprived last night, mainly because I didn't start my biology write-up that was due a few hours ago until last night! And I kind of crammed for my Chinese test I had today. So, like Dr. Phil said, "You choose the behavior, you choose the consequences." You don't have to be sleep-deprived if you keep up with your academics and manage your time well.</p>

<p>"unhappy (some even sound miserable),"</p>

<p>I don't know anyone who's miserable here</p>

<p>"slightly unfriendly,"</p>

<p>You will get people who are slightly unfriendly everywhere. I know of no college where everyone is always nice. Actually, I think Swatties are as a whole a lot nicer than at most schools. My biology professor mentioned that she taught at many schools but she was impressed that people here were very nice and there wasn't much arrogance. Pretty much everyone here is very nice. People tend to be less nice when they've been really stressed out, though, like staying up really late finishing an exam. Usually when you stay up all night studying for something you aren't in the cheeriest mood.</p>

<p>"singularly focussed on academics,"</p>

<p>Whoever said this is just wrong. Yes, people are focused on academics--that's the priority here. There might be a couple people who don't have a life but study all the time, but everyone I know here participates in extracurricular activities and hangs out with friends and has fun. But academics are the priority, and frankly, I wouldn't have it any other way.</p>

<p>"and passive-aggressively competitive with one another."</p>

<p>Wrong again. People really like to help others who are struggling with something. I don't know where this idea of being "passive-aggressively competitive" came from.</p>

10

<p>Thank you all so much for your thorough responses! I'm so glad to have gotten many accounts that contradict any negative perceptions of Swarthmore that I may have had.</p>

11

<p>I also am thanking you as these concerns were also my concerns for S2. Swarthmore seems like an incredible place and I thought the students were friendlier than any campus I have ever been on.</p>

12

<p>Yeah, almost everyone I know is friendly and uncompetitive. There certainly are some disillusioned students, like there are everywhere, but they tend to be the same ones who you never see because they're those few who also "always study" (which I find impossible). I'd say it's certainly there, but a pretty small minority - most people have plenty of time to juggle academics, clubs, jobs, sports, whatever. There are enough hours in the day for everything as long as you have good time-management skills.</p>

<p>A lot of my friends are actively involved in Jewish life - I am to an extent. There are both kinds of Jews at Swarthmore, but there is an active contingent that goes every week - it's usually much closer to 10 than 20, but someone will always be there. Lately there's been a big surge in more Jewish events that are more open and better advertised, so we've had some huge catered dinners with lots of people! We do all the holidays, and a lot of people stay here for them (I do). We have a lot of different groups to cater to a lot of different needs - so you'll definitely find what you want here...or start it!</p>

13

<p>I have a quick question: is Swarthmore like in the suburbs outside of Philly or a little bit further out than that?</p>

14

<p>'Burb. 11 miles away.</p>

15

<p>I just graduated this year from Swarthmore. The description that you've heard takes the downsides of Swarthmore and exaggerates them greatly. People at Swat really do work very hard, and the workload tends to build up over the four years, but people are certainly not unhappy. I have met a couple of miserable students at Swarthmore, but really only about 2 or 3 out of hundreds. Swatties also have plenty of time for extra-curriculars, and often cram as many as they can into the time that they do have. My advice on the workload is this: if you are someone who really enjoys being active and productive all the time or almost all the time, you will thrive under Swat's workload. I loved my four years, and although my final spring was by far the most crammed of my eight semesters, it was also my favorite one. The one truly inaccurate part of your description was the competitive part. Everyone's working really hard to do well in class, but not to beat each other. Even people planning on applying to med school and have to focus on getting good grades are competitive with themselves, not each other.</p>

16

<p>yeah baby, fall break! i was just wondering....how can swarthmore be overly competitive with each other when noone knows anyone elses grades? on that issue, i don't believe it. </p>

<p>in terms of difficulty at swat, let's not mince words, this place is not like others. i've taken classes at other universities and their classes are a yawner compared to the courses here. the pace of the classes are incredibly fast. </p>

<p>there is no grade deflation here, however because of the degree of difficulty of the classes (partly brought on by the caliber of the student body), whatever you get in a grade is what you deserve, however, if i were to take the same class at another school, the class would be a lot easier and thus easier for me to get a higher grade. </p>

<p>but that's all behind me now, i've got a week video games ahead.</p>

17

<p>I want to second what everyone said about the character of students and their competitiveness with each other. I really, really enjoy the company of the people here, and I was never a social person before I came here. Everyone's, for the most part, friendly, helpful, and interested in talking to any and all of their peers.</p>

<p>As for Jewish life, I'm friends with someone who's very involved with coordinating various Jewish activities and events on campus and I could definitely put you in touch with them if you had any questions. They'd be more than happy to answer, I'm sure (especially while there's all this free time over break). Just send me a PM.</p>