Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not a Swarthmore parent/student, but the interviewer's comment seems accurate.

If you're not a parent or student - how would you have any basis to know whether the comment is accurate?

Know several students & their families. I trust their observations & comments regarding their experiences at this school.

Anonymous wrote:A post in another thread mentioned that Bucknell isn't quite as intellectually rigorous as Swarthmore but tends to produce better outcomes. Would this be an accurate statement?

Candidate for "understatement of the year" award.

Anonymous wrote:A post in another thread mentioned that Bucknell isn't quite as intellectually rigorous as Swarthmore but tends to produce better outcomes. Would this be an accurate statement?

The intellectually rigorous part, yes. As for outcomes, depends on what outcomes you're seeking. For grad schools, S'more is top tier. For a job in finance, sure Bucknell.

Anonymous wrote:Interviewers can be really weird. I wouldn’t take it seriously. Maybe they got in over their heads and barely skated by.
Swarthmore is a great school and will not cause a good student to “die from work”.

This. My kid had a Dartmouth interviewer (3 weeks) ago who completely trashed the school. If he/she gets in, I'm going to contact admissions. No way should this interviewer be representing the school--they clearly had major issues fitting in during college and are using interviewing to get back at the school.

I think it’s known to be a school with a heavy workload. The kids who choose it are high achievers not dissuaded by that.

Years ago I did a Swarthmore-run study abroad program and the workload was extremely heavy compared to the Ivy I attended. The students were great and also quite intense. I came away feeling like the coursework expectations at Swar were significantly different.

Anonymous wrote:This interaction would give me pause, but since she is applying RD, I wouldn’t worry too much. If she needs to do a little extra research to find another school she likes or to go visit a couple more schools, I would probably do that, if you have capacity. Then, if she is admitted, go to the admitted students events and do more research.

Right. And given the chances of acceptance are minuscule for everyone anyway, just apply to a well rounded set of schools and then see what happens. You never know how this will play out at schools with low acceptance rates, so it is good not to get too set on any particular outcome…

This interaction would give me pause, but since she is applying RD, I wouldn’t worry too much. If she needs to do a little extra research to find another school she likes or to go visit a couple more schools, I would probably do that, if you have capacity. Then, if she is admitted, go to the admitted students events and do more research.

A post in another thread mentioned that Bucknell isn't quite as intellectually rigorous as Swarthmore but tends to produce better outcomes. Would this be an accurate statement?

If I had a weird interview like that it would prompt me to do more digging of current students, but I wouldn’t give it too much concern. It’s really hard to make sense of a comment from a student 30 years ago and knowing what level of preparedness they came in with, work habits, and lifestyle impacts on schoolwork. I mean it’s hard to even glean from current students to compare, all kids are different.

That was a strange thing for the interviewer (any interviewer) to say — maybe it was meant to sound facetious?
Anyway, I have a freshman there now and one who graduated several years ago. They’ve both had plenty of time for fun — intramural sports, trips into Philly (all Swarthmore students are given free septa passes), on-campus activities.
My son is happy and is doing well in his classes. He also works hard — but he was expecting that, and his friends there have work to do too. They don’t seem to have trouble finding time for both work and play.

I’ll play devil’s advocate. A friend’s child transferred to another slac for exactly this reason, and the kid was no slacker. Went on to get a masters in physics from a T10 university.

Interviewers can be really weird. I wouldn’t take it seriously. Maybe they got in over their heads and barely skated by.
Swarthmore is a great school and will not cause a good student to “die from work”.

OP here - thank you all! I appreciate the feedback so much. It’s awfully late in the process to get cold feet, regardless of the reason. I am reassured that our impression of the school was accurate and hopefully she will be, too.

My daughter is a current student and this has not been her experience. She is maintaining very high grades, participating in the school orchestra as well as the dance program and performances, has plenty of time for friends and homework and is getting full nights of sleep. She’s having a blast, to be honest. It’s really the perfect school for her. She is high achieving with a lot of good skills and able to do it all there

The interviewer is weird and this is exactly why 99% of interviews have no value or weight in process. There is no vetting or training or and reason to know if their opinion has any value.