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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Haverford and Swarthmore  are both selective…but different communities. Haverford has Quaker roots. It is small and tight knit.  Swarthmore is very intense, in a way that my DC did not like. [/quote]

+1000

Though they are often compared to each other (and are in the same consortium so students can cross register for classes), they have very different vibes.  Swarthmore feels more like U Chicago/Hopkins...very intense/hyper intellectual...Haverford feels more like Brown/Wesleyan/Carleton.  Both great schools but they tend to appeal to different types.

[/quote]

We visited Haverford, Swarthmore and Penn in one visit. DC expected to like Haverford the most because we had heard the same as above. However, Haverford was so quiet it was unnerving. The tour guide (which I know is luck of the draw) was bland and her enthusiasms for Haverford (if they could even be called that) were so generic. Not only were DC and we turned off on the school for him personally after the visit, I’d say we left feeling like the college has no identity. Versus Swarthmore had a lot more students out and about on campus (the visits were on the same day of the week) and the tour guide was really passionate and specific about what she loved about Swarthmore, the different things her friends are passionate about there, etc.  DC wound up not even applying to Haverford which I still wonder if was a mistake based on all of the great things we had read about Haverford but the in person visit was a bust. [/quote]

So funny...we had the opposite experience regarding which schools' tour guides making good vs not-so-good impressions)...at Swarthmore, our tour guide spent a good chunk of time talking about how hard it was and how stressed out the students were...which is definitely the reputation of the school but an odd thing to stress to prospective students.  It is a beautiful campus but we left feeling like the "identity" of the school was mostly kids feeling stressed (or liking to talk about how stressed they are).  At Haverford (also quite beautiful but in a more understated way), we had a lovely tour guide who spoke quite passionately about the school's honor code, why he had chosen Haverford (he wanted to purse a career in mediation and thought the Quaker roots of the school and its commitment to making decisions by consensus, combined with a specific social justice program made it a good fit)...Overall, we left feeling like we understood the school's identity as being firmly rooted in its Quakerism, even if there was nothing overtly religious about the place.

I think the takeaway-- as the PP alluded to--is that the tour guides are luck of the draw to some extent (on the other hand, it's hard for kids to NOT let the tours influence them, right?)  I will say that I have heard that many SLACs (I'm guessing Haverford is among them because it is very small) are quite quiet over the summer and during school breaks because there aren't many students on campus so take that into consideration when you plan visits.  Good luck.[/quote]

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