We know a NYC private school raised child who is miserable there.

I have noticed that Swarthmore'a reputation does appear to have fallen from the heights when Mike Dukakis went there. It just doesn't seem to have that special near ivy reputation any longer. At the same time, previously lesser-known liberal arts schools have become more attractive lately - as college generally becomes more competitive in admissions.

Anonymous wrote:
I briefly attended a near-Swarthmore SLAC. I think the rich kids go to places like S'more when they can't get in elsewhere (their admissions stats typically are based on the 80% of the class in "regular" admission, and development cases and selected minority candidates are excluded from the numbers), and when they want to spend four years not bathing, getting wasted, and hooking up. The academic seriousness that allegedly characterizes S'more is certainly not something I observed.

You are ridiculous. When Swarthmore has a butt-chugging scandal (hello, University of Tennessee) or is being investigated by the Feds for ignoring rape (Yale, Dartmouth and many more), come back and talk to us.

Swarthmore is highly competitive to get into. Its also very academically serious. the criticism I hear is that its cold and unfriendly, that the academics are competitive.

At my DD"s private school -- a girl went to Swarthmore even though she was accepted at Yale. We couldn't figure that one out because generally folks at Swarthmore were just below being "Ivy material". I have a bunch of neighbor girls from Swarthmore. They all seem like nice, normal, kind of nerdy/bookish girls to me.

Anonymous wrote:Can you imagine the reaction if a liberal was shouted down like that? Probably not likely because there are very few ultra conservative schools and there are probably no liberals at any such school. Liberals have no need to go to a school that challenges their orthodoxy, but conservatives have few options if they want to be surrounded by conservatives in college. As someone else noted, most educated people become less liberal with age and experience in the "real world"- college is the about as far removed from the real world as one can get.

I get so tired of conservatives telling us how "persecuted" they are. Hey, you guys control the House and you're using your power to try to take away all kinds of help to the poor.

Anonymous wrote:
I briefly attended a near-Swarthmore SLAC. I think the rich kids go to places like S'more when they can't get in elsewhere (their admissions stats typically are based on the 80% of the class in "regular" admission, and development cases and selected minority candidates are excluded from the numbers), and when they want to spend four years not bathing, getting wasted, and hooking up. The academic seriousness that allegedly characterizes S'more is certainly not something I observed.

This is simply not true. I have a SIL who teaches at Swarthmore today, which would make my intel a lot more reliable than your brief experience at a "near-Swarthmore SLAC" a decade or two ago combined with your dislike of the school's lefty bent (if you're the OP of this thread). Swarthmore takes something like 15% of applicants (Google it yourself) which means the kids who get in are serious students, often suck-ups. Maybe they like to party, but that would make them no different from almost every other school in the country.

As a different PP said: so don't send your kid there. But don't waste your time posting fiction on DCUM.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I graduated from Swarthmore quite a while ago, but I have to say these news items don't surprise me. I thought I was liberal as a teenager, and in fact have been a lifelong Democrat, but I was considered right of center at Swarthmore. For instance, in the '90s there was an angry debate on campus about whether or not there should be an American flag on top of the main campus building. A number of students felt that they could not support what an American flag represented.

It was not a good fit for me in the end, because of its *truly* excessive academic intensity and its failure to direct students to anything other than academia/med school after graduation. It had small classes and I made some good friends, but I can't say I would recommend it for my kids.

I went to a small liberal arts college where I felt like a republican too! But mine was not intensively academic. How did that play out at swart more? Amount of homework?

How can all these SLAC be so lefty when most of these kids come from and have been indoctrinated by their conservative parents. I work at a conservative private 3 - 12 and most of the parents AND kids skew pretty far right. I've also heard that the SLAC are preppy. How can you be preppy and crunchy at the same time? I don't know what to make of this.

I briefly attended a near-Swarthmore SLAC. I think the rich kids go to places like S'more when they can't get in elsewhere (their admissions stats typically are based on the 80% of the class in "regular" admission, and development cases and selected minority candidates are excluded from the numbers), and when they want to spend four years not bathing, getting wasted, and hooking up. The academic seriousness that allegedly characterizes S'more is certainly not something I observed.

Can you imagine the reaction if a liberal was shouted down like that? Probably not likely because there are very few ultra conservative schools and there are probably no liberals at any such school. Liberals have no need to go to a school that challenges their orthodoxy, but conservatives have few options if they want to be surrounded by conservatives in college. As someone else noted, most educated people become less liberal with age and experience in the "real world"- college is the about as far removed from the real world as one can get.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I graduated from Swarthmore quite a while ago, but I have to say these news items don't surprise me. I thought I was liberal as a teenager, and in fact have been a lifelong Democrat, but I was considered right of center at Swarthmore. For instance, in the '90s there was an angry debate on campus about whether or not there should be an American flag on top of the main campus building. A number of students felt that they could not support what an American flag represented.

It was not a good fit for me in the end, because of its *truly* excessive academic intensity and its failure to direct students to anything other than academia/med school after graduation. It had small classes and I made some good friends, but I can't say I would recommend it for my kids.

I went to a small liberal arts college where I felt like a republican too! But mine was not intensively academic. How did that play out at swart more? Amount of homework?

How can all these SLAC be so lefty when most of these kids come from and have been indoctrinated by their conservative parents. I work at a conservative private 3 - 12 and most of the parents AND kids skew pretty far right. I've also heard that the SLAC are preppy. How can you be preppy and crunchy at the same time? I don't know what to make of this.

Because most of the kids don't come from conservative private school families. They take kids from all over the country and from public schools. It sounds like you work in a bubble. there's a wider world out there full of people who are different than the ones at your school. Not to mention that just because the parents are conservative, and the students are conservative in high school, that they stay conservative when they get to college. I can't tell you the number of people I know who rejected their parents' politics once they got to college.

Most of the country is not conservative. Conservatives tend to be concentrated in certain areas, such as the south (where I suspect you will find colleges brimming with conservatives) and parts of the big sky west. Most SLACs draw their students from the coasts and/or major urban areas. Obviously, they have students from the south and west, but they also have conservatives so you can't be absolute bout anything.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I graduated from Swarthmore quite a while ago, but I have to say these news items don't surprise me. I thought I was liberal as a teenager, and in fact have been a lifelong Democrat, but I was considered right of center at Swarthmore. For instance, in the '90s there was an angry debate on campus about whether or not there should be an American flag on top of the main campus building. A number of students felt that they could not support what an American flag represented.

It was not a good fit for me in the end, because of its *truly* excessive academic intensity and its failure to direct students to anything other than academia/med school after graduation. It had small classes and I made some good friends, but I can't say I would recommend it for my kids.

I went to a small liberal arts college where I felt like a republican too! But mine was not intensively academic. How did that play out at swart more? Amount of homework?

How can all these SLAC be so lefty when most of these kids come from and have been indoctrinated by their conservative parents. I work at a conservative private 3 - 12 and most of the parents AND kids skew pretty far right. I've also heard that the SLAC are preppy. How can you be preppy and crunchy at the same time? I don't know what to make of this.

sibling goes there (last year for her) and they publish the campus 'crimes' on something called th 'swatter' (swarthmore crime blotter)....

I peruse it time to time and there seems to be a hell of a lot of reported assaults and public drunkeness issues.

Looks like this school is in the headlines....again.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/14/swarthmore-sexual-assault-investigation_n_3592893.html?ref=topbar

What is the point of this thread? OP is clearly going to forbid his kid from applying, end of story. So why drag us into it? Does OP think he can make us all tea-baggers by stirring up outrage against Swarthmore? Not gonna happen. Yawn

Anonymous wrote:Swarthmore does not tolerate diversity of thought/opinions or freedom of speech:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324216004578483080076663720.html

And again, no one is forcing anyone to attend.