<p>We are planning to visit Swarthmore on Monday. Has anyone toured the campus during winter months? This is our D's first visit to a small LAC and we want to give Swarthmore a fair chance to make a good impression on her.</p>
<p>We enjoyed visits in July and snowy January. The “arboretum-campus” was beautiful both times. It is a special place. I remarked to my son that it is quiet. He replied,“I like quiet”. We wants to read poetry in the amphitheater some day. Perfect place for him…hope he gets in. His older brother has a big campus, big city personality and would be not happy there. </p>
<p>It’s beautiful all year, but no place looks quite the same in the winter. You can’t appreciate the plants and trees this time of year. you might need to come back later…</p>
<p>I can tell you that they are prepared for lots of visitors on Monday, but it has snowed down there a lot! School was officially “closed” today, but professors made the decision on whether to hold individual classes. The place looks gorgeous covered in snow, but even better in the spring. I can answer almost any question that you have about Swat. I have one graduated child and one currently in residence. :)</p>
<p>@momof3sons,</p>
<p>We’re really looking forward to the visit. We are visiting Haverford also. We’ve never set foot on a campus so small. All of our previous tours are of large research universities. We have no idea what to expect from a college that is smaller than our D’s high school.</p>
<p>This presents our main concern. We do not have experience visiting small liberal arts colleges and can’t imagine attending a school so small. Knowing everyone can be a blessing or a curse. Great student-teacher ratios but potentially having everyone know your business and not having a diverse student body.</p>
<p>Our daughter is also AA. With only 1500 students, we’re concerned about the potential lack of diversity (i.e. other AAs, diverse socioeconomic student body) and exposure to international students. My wife and I attended large universities (+12,000) with significant asian, european and middle eastern students. It’s important to meet people from different cultures and world perspectives. </p>
<p>Should be a memorable day!</p>
<p>Our swattie describes Swarthmore as “the most diverse and accepting place I have been.” This is from a student whose high school was majority minority. </p>
<p>As Coase says, Swarthmore is very diverse - probably the most diverse of the Liberal Arts Colleges. While Swarthmore may look more like Carleton than usual with all this snow, I’m sure the college will be ready for visitors. A LAC is not for everyone, but for those for whom a LAC is a good fit, Swarthmore is one of the very best.</p>
<p>Coase…interesting comment on diversity. Are you looking for “diversity” because you want a large Asian population or because you believe it would be a good thing for your child to experience multiple cultures and points of view? I would suggest to you that large university’s may have larger populations, true diversity is more likely within a smaller college. The limited number of Asian students ( based on published statistics, approximately 225 Asian / Pacific percentages ~14%) should provide comfort that your child is not a strict minority, while simultaneously allowing her to experience numerous other backgrounds. </p>
<p>As for socio-economic, the fact that Swat is always listed as a “best value” reinforces the commitment to all students, regardless of financial ability. With over 50% of the students getting aid, and the average aid being ~$38k per year, there are plenty of kids from all points of the financial spectrum.</p>
<p>If you’re looking for Asian populations, all largers schools will have bigger numbers. If you’re looking for diversity, Swarthmore has that.</p>
<p>We are looking for diversity because I feel you learn more from people who think and view the world differently than Americans. We travel frequently to Europe and enjoy the views other countries have on world affairs. To elaborate would take us off topic. </p>
<p>She is an AA student from an upper income family so being around students with some shared experiences would be great. Diversity to us means that there are a lot of students from different backgrounds so everyone has a chance to find a group that is their culture base while allowing them to enjoy and embrace people with different views and values.</p>
<p>Wherezwallace - I appreciate the perspective and would agree with your objective. Swarthmore (in my opinion) has infinitely more divergent opinions than nearly any school I’ve visited…large or small. </p>
<p>@wherezwallace The Swarthmore campus isn’t so physically small. I believe it is about 350 acres including the woodsy area. Both of my kids would tell you that there is no way that you will personally know everyone on campus, although you might get to a point when you recognize almost everyone. Swarthmore is really quite diverse, although when you have a student body of ~1500, there aren’t too many of any one “anything.” 
The beautiful thing about attending a Quaker heritage institution is that every activity on campus is free for everyone. So, you don’t get the type of situation where a student on a campus can’t afford to go to a concert, a movie, a theatre production, an a cappella concert because everyone is treated equally when it comes to that. Students at Swat rarely carry any money on campus, so my current student tells me, because it doesn’t cost any money to get into anything! Enjoy your snowy visit and ask the questions you want to ask about AA student representation.</p>
<p>Wherezwallace:
Take a look at the institutional research pages on Swarthmore’s website: <a href=“Fact Book :: Institutional Effectiveness, Research & Assessment :: Swarthmore College”>http://www.swarthmore.edu/institutional-research/fact-book.xml</a> As you’ll see, the majority of the student body is not US white, and 163 students are from other countries. </p>
<p>Lots of other good facts there that may help to give you a sense of the varieties of diversities at Swarthmore. Some diversity can’t be quantified, as we all know: This student is a cellist, a tennis player, a physics major, and writes short stories while that student is working in a literacy project, is researching turtles, sings in the acapella group, studied abroad, is vegan, and is on the debate team.</p>
<p>Enjoy your visit!</p>
<p>Final Update:</p>
<p>Thanks to everyone who provided feedback on what to expect at Swarthmore yesterday.</p>
<p>We started the day at the 11am information session. I mention the time because I want to commend the two guys who led the information session. The advisor was a recent college graduate and he was joined by a sophomore student. This was the first time we have seen a student be an active participant in an information session.</p>
<p>Swarthmore faculty and alumni were served very well by these two presenters. Here’s one example. We’ve read about the first semester being pass/no-pass. You can find that on a website. But the admissions counselor explained the value not by talking about the high school to college transition and how this helps with the adjustment. Instead he asked the audience, “what classes would you take if you weren’t worried about grades?” The student, who is a currently a sophomore, mentioned how he took a difficult chemistry class and was freed from worrying about how this would affect his grade and focused on learning. </p>
<p>Learning and not worrying about grades, now there’s a concept! :)</p>
<p>The student also commented after the advisor talked about the school’s diversity. The student, who is muslim american, talked about his personal encounter with Swarthmore diversity. He mentioned that at a much larger school, he would probably have twenty or thirty students who were muslims. At Swarthmore, paraphrasing his thought, that number may be as low as five or six so it forces you to get out of your comfort zone and talk with people from other cultures. </p>
<p>The campus was snow covered but it was beautiful. After the tour ended, I recalled that there is a “Discover Swarthmore” program for URMs and low income students in the fall. Our daughter went to the admissions office and was given the business card for the multicultural recruitment advisor. She will be following up to ensure she is aware of deadlines.</p>
<p>This is a long email but I wanted to thank everyone for their perspective. Swarthmore was a treat and it’s easy to understand how the college produces a very close and loyal student and alumni.</p>
<p>DiscoSwat sealed the deal for my D! She was already thinking this was her #1 but really liked the opportunity to meet possible classmates and to explore classes… The essay for DiscoSwat should reflect who she is and why she sees Swarthmore as a place she would want to be. I think the essay had asked something about diversity. Also have your D spend a lot of time on her application essay that reflects why she sees Swarthmore as a fit for her assuming she liked what she experienced. </p>