<p>canary: </p>
<p>Kudos for figuring out what you want in a college. Your top three choices have an enormous amount in common and tend to draw a similar group of applicants. Regarding each specific question:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>FA: Swat and Carleton will generally offer very generous packages. Discontentment with FA is rare. Chicago will be more hit or miss. You may do just as well there, but there have been more individual complaints with offerings.</p></li>
<li><p>Political science will be very strong at each school. For linguistics and classics, mostly by virtue of these department’s much smaller, more niche draw, Chicago will have more depth. </p></li>
<li><p>Study abroad offerings will be strong at all three but statistically Carleton is much more likely to see participation (at around 70% of the student body). Chicago’s numbers have typically been much lower, at around 35%, possibly related to significant core requirements (though some study abroad programs fulfill part of the core). Swarthmore’s has also been much lower, possibly due to requirements tied to Honor’s participation.
[Best</a> Colleges - Education - US News and World Report](<a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/most-study-abroad]Best”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/most-study-abroad)</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Costs involved with going abroad at Carleton and Chicago have been very reasonable. FA transfers well. Main out of pocket costs are flights and upcharges for room and board (especially in Europe given the weak dollar). </p>
<ol>
<li><p>Hipsters, yeah, in small numbers at all three. None are schools that draw this crowd in large numbers.</p></li>
<li><p>Law schools will look upon all three very well. All are similarly academically challenging. It will come down to your LSATs in the end. Don’t think this should be a factor in making a decision.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>So I’ll add a final point. The three schools have much in common but there are clear differences. My take at the risk of over-generalizing:</p>
<p>Carleton: Small town buccolic location 45 minutes from Minneapolis. Rigorous curriculum and significant intellectualism but kids very happy, lots of offbeat/quirky fun, with serious studies not translating to taking other things in their lives too seriously.</p>
<p>Chicago: Deeply urban, large city, Hyde Park/Chicago. Greater resources of a university while sharing prof’s attention with grad students. Kids take themselves and their studies/intellectualism generally very seriously. More darkly edgy, having fun while taking sarcastic pride in “the place where fun comes to die” (and doesn’t). </p>
<p>Swat: An in-between suburban location on a pretty campus with easy access to Philly. Students take their studies most seriously of the three but intellectualism a little less so than Chicago. </p>
<p>Again, lots of overlap in student body with some measurable variations in tenor of experience after four years. Location differences are the most glaring. These are three great schools.</p>