Tell me about your happy Swarthmore student or recent alum?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Next week? Have they moved up the response date? My child applied ED and we are anticipating a decision around Dec 11-13.

Yes - that would be next week given today is Sunday, we're assuming Friday the 12th.

[Anonymous]

My kid, too, is hoping for good news on the 12th. She talked to some HS alum who are at Swat now - all said students are very busy but bc they are involved in many different activities in addition to studying.
Good luck to everyone!!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DD is a senior. She has had a good experience there, but she will be the first to tell you that the academics are intense and can be overwhelming if you let them. She also says that athletes are much more social than the rest of the student body.

Our tour guide said the athletes sort of run the on campus party scene. Sounded like others tend to go into city or to Haverford frats or study.

Swarthmore doesn't have on campus fraternities anymore. Apparently, they were in the habit of sexually assaulting women in their "rape attic" then bragging about it.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/30/us/swarthmore-college-phi-psi-fraternities.html

I'd advise your daughter to steer clear of any off campus fraternity parties. The same group has likely just moved off campus under a different name. If she needs a fraternity party scene, she chose the wrong school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I'd advise your daughter to steer clear of any off campus fraternity parties. The same group has likely just moved off campus under a different name. If she needs a fraternity party scene, she chose the wrong school.

The few parties at Haverford that Swatties go to are tame affairs, these are not frat parties. Swarthmore banned frats in 2019. Haverford hasn't had Greek Life for decades.

[Anonymous]

Can we please drop the term “Swatties”? It’s SO cringe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can we please drop the term “Swatties”? It’s SO cringe.

lol no - that would require me to change my group chat name of 10-plus years, so hard pass.

[Anonymous]

We know a kid who doesn’t love it much. He realized that his life doesn’t revolve around school work and it took burning out a bit at Swat to figure that out. He, however, does love Philly.

[Anonymous]

My hopeful admit knows a number of kids who have taken advantage of tri-co and Quaker consortium to get out of the bubble there.

[Anonymous]

Have several close friends who went there. It’s a tight community where everyone usually finds their people, and a terrific alumni network. That really helps during the course of your career.
Intense academics, and you’re more likely to find students double majoring in say engineering and drama or some such interesting combination.
The location is much better than a lot of SLACs too.

[Anonymous]

I looked at this thread last week and I swear there were a whole bunch more posts, some very helpful. What happened? Did someone edit this with a machete?

[Anonymous]

What is “ tri-co and Quaker consortium”

[Anonymous]

Your headline only asked for happy students to respond.

That seems like an odd way to research something.

Do you know that UNIGO publishes responses to a range of questions from students at each school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Have several close friends who went there. It’s a tight community where everyone usually finds their people, and a terrific alumni network. That really helps during the course of your career.
Intense academics, and you’re more likely to find students double majoring in say engineering and drama or some such interesting combination.
The location is much better than a lot of SLACs too.

We got the impression it was intense in an unhealthy way (from our tour guide).

My DD also noticed that people seemed less likely to walk across campus talking to friends, than other campuses we had visited .

[Anonymous]

Tri-co = swat, Haverford, Bryn Mawr. Students can take classes at all 3 schools. A bus runs among them all throughout the day. Apparently Bryn mawr has the best food and kids take the bus over there for dinner (according to our tour guide). Also, the 3 schools share some resources for clubs (eg a literary club).

Quaker cons. = the tri schools + UPenn. Swat has a Septa station right at the edge of campus- 25 min into center city. Kids can take classes at Penn as well. This takes more work but doable.