<p>Swarthmore is seen as a “pretty good school” by most people who are in-the-know when it comes to top-notch academics. Swarthmore is a very liberal school on the whole. If you’re not socially liberal at Swat then I would say that you probably should reconsider… but given that you are that’s fine. Being economically conservative will raise some eyebrows and people will be interested in hearing your opinion because on the whole people assume everyone around them is liberal and a faulty/lacking pro-conservatism argument will result in a lot of criticism and attack. A lot. It seems pretty contradictory that such liberal people can be so close-minded but that’s the way it goes. Anyway it’s not like you’re going to be talking politics at breakfast, lunch and dinner. As long as you can make reasonably well-founded arguments for your beliefs people won’t give you too much of the problem (as well they shouldn’t).
Slight political deviation from the norm shouldn’t be what deters you from Swat. I too identify as socially liberal and economically conservative and i find that when i can make a cogent argument for the latter ideology people are pretty open. </p>
<p>From what I’ve heard about the economics department it leaves a LOT to be desired in terms of being “real world” applicable, so keep that in mind. Most economics departments from what I hear are like that though (as opposed to Finance which is more ‘real world.’)</p>