Only at Swarthmore

Phun99 · 10-27-2009, 04:36 PM

What do current or former students think Swarthmore has to offer that no other college does?
What specific events have made you think "I could only get this at Swarthmore?

srrinath · 11-03-2009, 10:39 PM

Stop trying to derive your "Why X?" school essays from these forums. I notice you do that for several other schools. If you aren't at least somewhat sure why it is that you want to go to Swarthmore, you probably shouldn't be considering it in the first place.

dancedance1220 · 11-11-2009, 03:40 PM

I concur, but if the OP is willing to use online posts as his/her main points on the essay, I doubt Swarthmore will be impressed. I do not think this question should not be answered, however. There are people who are genuinely interested in what Swarthmore is like, and considering the lack of numerous amounts of threads under the Swarthmore section, any information would be helpful. Do not let a seemingly lazy applicant eradicate chances for others to acquire information.

feinyNY · 11-11-2009, 03:43 PM

srrinath plz be quiet. your completely missing the point of this website. go cry somewhere else.

A.E. · 11-17-2009, 04:26 AM

Quote:

What specific events have made you think "I could only get this at Swarthmore?

Nothing. The elite liberal arts experience is quite standard from campus to campus; any differences are mostly just window dressing.

thebigcheese121 · 11-17-2009, 04:32 AM

^^^And this guy/gal wants to go to swarthmore^^^

johnwesley · 11-17-2009, 07:22 AM

^^^he's a recent grad^^^

A.E. · 11-17-2009, 08:51 PM

^^^"recent"^^^

dchow08 · 11-18-2009, 02:16 AM

I don't think there's anything that you can only get at Swarthmore and nowhere else. Basically at the top schools the level of instruction is very good and the students are smart. I think there are some things that make Swarthmore stand out, but I think it would be awfully invidious to say that you can only find such a thing at Swarthmore -- that sounds too extreme to me. For example, Swarthmore is a very liberal campus, and I think that draws certain types, but so are a lot of colleges. My advice would be to pick colleges that you think you'd enjoy staying at for four years, and then apply to them and pick one that's not unaffordable and that you like.

Duhvinci · 11-18-2009, 05:11 PM

where did the op's question come from? is it this years common app question? the question posed is a layup. i could, off the top of my head, write an essay addressing the question for each of the schools the op wants to apply to that would make the adcoms send me the fat one before they are halfway through reading it. the truth is that in style and substance all the schools are the same except for size but each place carries something unique in its persona whether it be something physical or esoteric. so it wouldn't take a 2400 to answer the basic thrust of the question, it may however take a 2400 to make your essay soar and be believable at the same time. one could approach this most pedantic of questions head on and get run over by it as if it were a freight train or one could attack the question and wrestle it to its knees by approaching it from different angles. the op by requesting the most generic of responses indicates to me that the op has very little imagination and is therefore unworthy and should look into a trade school of sorts. invidious? seems like a word one tosses out there to make themselves seem smarter than they actually are (was it used in the right context?). that's even more obnoxious than just saying obnoxious stuff.