| The closest airport to Swarthmore is in Philadelphia, which is about 10-15 minutes away. The closest airport to Amherst is Bradley International in Hartford, which is 45 minutes away.
The Swarthmore campus is prettier than Amherst, and seems bigger because there's a lot of stretches of empty fields. They also have an arbortoreum (sp?) which is pretty cool. However, even though it's very close to Philly, it feels very isolated, more so than Amherst. The Amherst campus also feels like a bubble of it's own, but the buildings are located much closer together, and it connects to Amherst town really easily. It's also on a hill, which provides for some lovely views.
I don't know which school has better science programs. I think they're pretty equal; I know Amherst sends a lot of kids to good med and grad schools. Swarthmore does have engineering though, which most liberal arts colleges don't have.
Amherst does have parties going on every weekend, but I wouldn't say it's a crazy party school. There's definitely other things to do if you're not into partying. I don't know how the Swarthmore partying scene is at all; I've heard that there's less drinking there, but I really don't know. | 
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