Haverford
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Anonymous
| DD, a HS junior is interested in Haverford, and we would welcome perspectives from those with first-hand experience -- i.e., alumni and parents of current students or recent grads. DD is interested in math or computer science (might also take some engineering courses at Swarthmore), athletic (currently being recruited for a varsity sport), and ultimately would like to pursue some kind of public service (e.g., Peace Corps). She is friendly and sociable (bubbly personality), but not a hard-core partier. She attends a small independent school and likes the close-knit feeling of a small school, but she also loves city life, so we are a little concerned that she might find the Main Line a little dull. Thoughts? |
Anonymous
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shitty dorms but strong school. my sister was a swat grad who cross registered for a couple of courses at haverford in math and spoke highly of the profs there. 20 minute train ride access to philly but i don't know how often haverford kids go into philly.
swat uses the proximity to philly as a selling point but in reality most students don't go into the city often. |
Anonymous
| I was going to start a Haverford thread, too! DS is very interested. He is very reserved, a serious student, and looking for an intellectual experience that is more collaborative than competitive. He is interested in government/ public policy if anyone can comment on those programs. And at the risk of fanning the flames, can anyone comment on how liberal it is? We are a moderately conservative Catholic family open to quality education that is the best fit for DS. He is already very progressive in his views, and we would rather have him challenged to think for himself by being exposed to a range of viewpoints in the classroom and from the student body. Thanks. |
Anonymous
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Recent swat grad I know found the computer science a little limited,. Don't know how much Haverford has, but it didn't sound like Swat could beef that up lot. None the less, he is currently working in IT.
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Anonymous
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OP,
I would contact the school directly. Many schools will have an alumni network whom you can speak with directly. |
Anonymous
my sister's good friend was a cs student at swat who now is in a very strong cs phd program at a top university that has many fans on these boards. Swat CS is very theoretical and gives you a great foundation in algos, data structures, etc. Her friend readily admits there are undergrads that he TA's that could program circles around him, however the theoretical underpinnings of CS are taught well at swat. Swat just expanded their CS department as well. It does a good job for a slac in placing grads at places like goog, msft, or amzn as well. That said, it's never going to compete with a CS department in terms of breadth or research like the traditional CS powerhouses, however many students at places like that can be overwhelmed by places like that which turns them off from the subject. |
Anonymous
Isn't this thread supposed to be about Haverford? |
Anonymous
| I went there briefly. I found it suffocating. It is tiny, smaller than a decent public middle school. There is tremendous social-conformity pressure. There's an honor code that I recall was used from time to time to beat somebody up, because the accused seemed to automatically be found guilty. Students sat on academic standing committees and they basically voted according to personal preferences (forget the Buckley Amendment at Haverford -- nothing is private). They made a big deal about the allegedly stellar academics, but the academics seemed to be all about a handful of profs; so you take a popular course and write a paper and take an exam and pick up your B+ or A- on the way out. The place was very insular; think Salem's Lot. Yes, I transferred out. |
Anonymous
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I went there and thought academics were quite challenging and other students exceptionally bright. It is quite small and definitely not for everyone but for many students they were awkward in high school but blossomed at Haverford. Many classes were small and I had several that were five students or less so it can be intense. I did find it collaborative where others would encourage or even help you. I got great assistance in my research for a higher level seminar class from someone I did not know that well at the time. Another example is that when I was in law school and contacted law school alums and Haverford alums who were lawyers to network nearly everyone from Haverford responded. Not a single alum from law school did. They do pride themselves on honor code as it covers both social and academics and student run. I never had a problem with it and loved the amount of trust afforded by it such as self scheduled non proctored exams.
Main line can be a bit dull and not much of a party school. Philly is short train ride away but we never really went much. I would suggest you look into prospective student weekends so your child can stay on campus overnight and get a feel for the school and the students. |
Anonymous
| Harverford just made 43 on the Forbes top 100 colleges. |
Anonymous
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I went there decades ago and really loved it. It is very small (I am not sure what 23:18 means by smaller than a decent middle school -- last I checked, there's no relationship between size and quality). I liked that -- I liked knowing a lot of my fellow students, I liked having the connection to the professors and administration.
When I was having a hard time as I planned my life after graduation, I went to talk to my dean. I meant to act like a mature adult, ready to launch. I started talking and burst into tears. My dean took her phone off the hook, calmed me down, and helped me formulate a plan. That, in essence, is what I loved about Haverford: It provided support, but it also gave me the skills I needed and people who could appreciate my strengths (that dean knew what I was good at and helped me see how I could use those skills to get where I wanted to be). |