Campus Culture

mominwashington
Sun, 16 Jun 2019 16:29:41 +0000

I’d be careful of the source you rely on for opinion. From first hand experience at several NESCAC schools with my kids, we’ve seen a significantly more prevalent party scene at the smaller schools. My son (who is neither an athlete nor an arts major) has a very large group of friends who are not part of these party scenes at Wes yet are super engaged, involved and whipsmart. They are never excluded from social events, and never pressured. And there are lots more like him. Sure, there are parties and there is drug use at Wes. However, our experience with my daughter at other NESCAC schools (she’s an athlete) is that the party culture is significantly more pervasive - maybe because they’re smaller and more remote. Also, Swarthmore has it’s share of social issues too: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/30/us/swarthmore-college-phi-psi-fraternities.html. I think fit is very important and if your daughter is telling you that she feels her fit at Wes, then I’d listen to her.