<p>Harriet: I actually have also stated that these posts recently have helped me put some issues about Swarthmore into perspective. In addition, some PMs with AE have been extremely helpful. I think his perspective is invaluable, and I have resloved some issues about swarthmore as a result.</p>
<p>mythmom: this forum was about 3 schools and since your child has a current affiliation with one of them, your contributions seemed valuable.</p>
<p>nngmm: I believe that HCAlum is older and is not a recent alum. I find his contributions to be inappropriate because he claims to be knowledgable but he has no DIRECT relationship to the school. Any of the posters who attend Swarthmore or are recent alums and are kind enough to contribute to this forum are the most credible. Next come parents. Then are all of the rest of the interlopers who have their own agenda as to why they are posting or just have too much time on their hands. Someone who has no direct relationship with Swarthmore has no credibility in my opinion to try to make comments. I think his contributions FOR ME have been speculative and have some type of underlying agenda that does not appeal to me. You, of course, are welcome to your own opinion.</p>
<p>"I’m sorry you feel that way, but I think a conversation exclusive to only a small group is what I consider “inbred and incestuous” and experiences from other places can often be a good sounding board to frame ones’ perspective."</p>
<p>I think if the "small group" are actually people who have a direct and recent connection to the school, there is credibility. Why don't you send the brother who actually went to Swarthmore this way, if he has kept in touch with the school over the past 10 years?</p>
<p>As to what I experienced in college, consortium or not, I will judge what is important to comment upon. I would not go comment on my university forum, because I am not a current student or recent alum. I certainly would not comment on colleges that were nearby or where my sibs attended, as I would not have credibility.</p>
<p>I hope the fact that you have been a primary cause of interesteddad leaving this forum, after all of his incredibly helpful posts, might make you consider who would be most valuable for future students to hear from, interesteddad who has great recent knowledge of the place and a current direct link, or yourself, with an old peripheral contact of a sib and attending a college down the road.</p>
<p>I do hope he will return. Your getting into an online spat with him was unnecessary, in my opinion, and counter to a productive dialogue by interested parties. I personally would take him over you any day, if that is the choice.</p>
<p>I don't know, I'm a high school senior (done with applying to Swat but I've still helped out a lot of other specs, so I think I've earned my place to post) and I've gleaned information from everyone's posts. Some more than others, but you know.</p>
<p>And basically all the fighting is getting pretty nuts... Swat had a really amazingly fun forum during ED time (we had Haverford people coming over to talk with us, we were that great). The cons thread just started, and it began relatively well so most of us had an idea of what we were getting ourselves into. But now a lot of the posts aren't really helpful (or you have to search through tons of bickering to find the information). It makes the forum look bad.</p>
<p>I don't think we should vote people out like in Survivor (haha but that would be pretty great? Last CCer standing) but this is crazy.</p>
<p>Note: No names added.... I'm not addressing anyone in particular.</p>
<p>Whatever. It's a public forum. You can start a Facebook group for the people you want to hand-pick. Or join a fraternity or sorority (but there are no sororities at Swarthmore, so then you woull be out of luck.).</p>
<p>I am sorry but those threearenot the best liberal arts colleges in my mind i have visited all three , and they all left me inellectually wanting. I think the best are Middlebury , Pomona , and Harvey Mudd( though heavily engineering ).</p>
<p>They're going by ranking and such, not really the personal opinions of people. Amherst, Williams, and Swat tend to be in the top three LACs out of any others. Of course everyone will have different opinions to which are the best and which are the best for them...</p>
<p>It's hard to judge with one/a couple visits too.</p>
<p>hey mav, i'm not sure that you have the creds to be calling anyplace intellectually wanting. also hc is posting because his nose is bent out of shape because his beloved haverford wasn't included (and deservedly so) in the headline discussion.</p>
<p>when i was applying to swat, interesteddad was very helpful to me and i appreciated all the insight he could provide. his leaving this forum and being stuck with a swarthmore wannabe (having a swat girl going out on pity dates hardly qualifies one to be a swat expert) would certainly be a loss for all the applicants who frequent this board. </p>
<p>here's something special about swarthmore: i'm home on spring break and none of my high school friends are home because their spring break schedule is different. i'm home on spring break and not in cabo because, i'm too tired to do anything but just sit home this week. i am kind of acclimated to the volume of work and the pacing of projects now, but that really doesn't make it any easier. at least a bunch of my swat buddies are coming to hang with me later in the week.</p>
<p>The scheduling of break at Swat is fairly unfortunate--the vast majority of my HS friends return next week. At least Vassar/RPI/Bently are out now, so some folks are around in my area.</p>