I’m thinking about applying as a transfer for Fall 2015. Responses from government/poli-sci majors, especially desired, though I’d like to hear from everyone.
Probably not helpful, but I vaguely know a couple stories of people who decided between Swat and other top schools. One person chose Swat over Columbia because they lived in NYC and wanted a different environment for a change. Another chose Swarthmore over Brown because of financial aid, and another chose Swat over UChicago for fear of seasonal depression & for the more supportive learning environment. Another who chose Swat over Dartmouth and UPenn because they believed the education they’d receive at Swarthmore would be superior, and the distinct intellectual-supportive culture at Swarthmore resonated with them.
Probably not helpful, either, but 45 years ago I chose Swarthmore over Stanford because too many of my high school classmates were going to Stanford and I wanted to go to a Liberal Arts College and all that meant. If I thought about it at all, I probably figured I could go to a place like Stanford for graduate school. Which is what I did.
I chose swat over Williams, Yale, Penn and a few others. I liked the proximity to the city, the emphasis on intellectualism, and also its success in graduate placements. I always knew I was gonna get a doctorate, and swat prepared me really well for that.
I am a Swat parent (and an Ivy alum). The kid chose Swat over Ivies out of a desire to have easier access to faculty, a more personalized, if you will, education, a focus on learning, and a smaller community. The kid chose Swat over other LACs because of its quirkiness and its Quaker roots and subsequent emphasis on kindness. In some discussions comparing the TriCo schools, Swat is described as being more cutthroat than Haverford and Bryn Mawr, but the kid has found that kindness and open-mindedness are encouraged. We visited many schools, and Swat was the school that felt like home.
The kid plans to pursue graduate work, so Swat’s reputation for preparing students for graduate school was a major factor, too.
When it comes to choosing between the top-tier LACs, the quality of the education available at Amherst, Swarthmore and Williams, as at HYPS, should be more or less equivalent. But, culturally, Amherst and Swat are different places, so for many applicants it boils down to a question of fit. E.g., Amherst is an excellent school, but my child would not have been happy there.
Chose over Cal, Ivies, other LACs. Great community, nice people, quirky, pretty decent networking, and I feel challenged everyday.