achat

Thanks, Interesteddad for posting about the Washington event. My son wanted to be there (he's a 2008 graduate) but did not get time off from work. I forwarded the link to him.

My son (I have only 1 point of comparision and I haven't talked to anyone else) noticed the sharp difference between a small college like Swat and a big University pretty soon after graduation. He is taking classes at Columbia this year and plans to go back full time in 2010 for a PhD. He's getting great advice on grad school admissions from his old professors as well.

Corbett

I glanced at the latest USN&WR ratings. There do not appear to be a lot of striking deficiencies at Swat relative to Amherst or Williams, as far as USN&WR criteria are concerned.

USN&WR apparently dings Swat for an underperforming 6-year graduation rate. It's not clear how USN&WR calculates the "predicted" graduation rate, so I don't know if this is realistic. Swat students are often perceived as "quirkier" than those at Amherst or Williams, so maybe they are in fact more likely to leave college without a degree. If so, I'm not sure what the administration could do to change this.

It also appears that Swat gets dinged for a low alumni giving rate, relative to Amherst or Williams. Not sure what the administration can do to change this either.

vossron

"USN&WR apparently dings Swat for an underperforming 6-year graduation rate."

Isn't Swat one of the hardest schools in the country? That alone would lower graduation rate.

johnwesley

absolutely. everyone knows Reed and Swarthmore vie for the Most Overcaffeinated Student Body in the Country award. A favorite t-shirt from not so long ago, read "Anywhere Else It Would Have Been An A" to denote the degree of grade deflation at Swarthmore. Speaking of degrees, Swarthmore regularly appears at the top of lists (are you reading this, Hawkette?) for highest per capita production of PhD degrees in the country. Some people believe that this phenomenon is related to the intense faculty/student mentoring fostered by the absence of grad students on its 1,300 student campus. There's also a persistent rumor that Swarthmore is the favorite destination of children whose parents are themselves college professors.

If Swarthmore has an "Achilles heel" it is that it is essentially landlocked by a densely populated Philadelphia suburb; it's always going to be boxed in on three sides by parkways and a protected woods. Its own long-range campus plan includes the probable cannibalization of nearby playing fields in the all but inevitable event that Swarthmore should require more students.