Swarthmore is a great place to pursue your academic passions and push yourself to realize your full potential. It's not for everyone; the academics can be pretty intense, depending on your major and if you choose to enter the Honors Program, and the social scene can be subdued compared to other colleges.
Do you have any tips for prospective students?
Make sure you love to learn for the sake of learning. If you're more interested in college as a means to an end, you will probably be pretty unhappy at Swarthmore.
Do you find there’s enough academic rigor at your school?
Of course, a college education is what you make of it, and you can get through Swarthmore with less than five-star rigor, but if you push yourself, the expectations can be very high, especially when you take your honors exams senior year.
Describe the dorm life at your college.
Dorm life is essential to the social scene at Swat, and very few people live off campus. Study breaks, hall crawls, and random social events are a key part of campus life, even for upperclassmen.
Describe the food and dining at your college.
There is only one dining hall, Sharples, one snack bar, and two coffee bars. The selection is not fantastic compared to many other schools, but I found it met the needs of a busy student who just wanted to be fed without worrying about cooking. Having one dining hall actually makes Sharples a great place to run into people, and catch up with busy friends over a meal.
What’s there to do for fun at your college?
There are on-campus parties (almost nothing happens off campus, as Swarthmore is a dry town), which range from standard frat parties to pub nights to completely sober events, like SCCS video game events, or Parrish Parlor Parties (usually games and free food). The first floor of the main library or science libraries are places to socialize while still vaguely getting work done.
Swarthmore is a great place to pursue your academic passions and push yourself to realize your full potential. It's not for everyone; the academics can be pretty intense, depending on your major and if you choose to enter the Honors Program, and the social scene can be subdued compared to other colleges.
Make sure you love to learn for the sake of learning. If you're more interested in college as a means to an end, you will probably be pretty unhappy at Swarthmore.
Of course, a college education is what you make of it, and you can get through Swarthmore with less than five-star rigor, but if you push yourself, the expectations can be very high, especially when you take your honors exams senior year.
Dorm life is essential to the social scene at Swat, and very few people live off campus. Study breaks, hall crawls, and random social events are a key part of campus life, even for upperclassmen.
There is only one dining hall, Sharples, one snack bar, and two coffee bars. The selection is not fantastic compared to many other schools, but I found it met the needs of a busy student who just wanted to be fed without worrying about cooking. Having one dining hall actually makes Sharples a great place to run into people, and catch up with busy friends over a meal.
There are on-campus parties (almost nothing happens off campus, as Swarthmore is a dry town), which range from standard frat parties to pub nights to completely sober events, like SCCS video game events, or Parrish Parlor Parties (usually games and free food). The first floor of the main library or science libraries are places to socialize while still vaguely getting work done.