DARTMOUTH/Duke/Swarthmore/Midd

momrath
Sat, 02 Apr 2005 22:01:53 +0000

Silver_osiris, Congratulations on getting into a fine group of schools. You will get a wonderful education at all four so there’s really no wrong answer.

We are an American family living in Southeast Asia and our son goes to Williams. Consequently I’m quite biased toward the small liberal arts colleges, like Swarthmore and Middlebury (and Williams of course) for kids who are traveling far from home. The LAC atmosphere is friendly and nurturing and it’s easy to make friends from day one. The faculty and administration are accessible and supportive and it’s easy to ask for help when you need it. Adjusting to life in America can be overwhelming and larger universities like Duke can be bewildering for people not familiar with the culture.

Dartmouth, Duke and Swarthmore are all highly prestigious in the US. The first two are better known internationally (especially Dartmouth because it is Ivy League) but Swarthmore has an impeccable reputation among graduate and professional schools and the admit rate to Harvard, Yale and all the other top grad schools is high. Middlebury is a great school but not much known outside the Northeast United States.

Dartmouth and Middlebury are definitely in the snow belt. We know many Asians from tropical climates who have reveled in the sheer novelty of winter. The kids have fun in the snow but it does help if you are an outdoorsy kind of person as it’s a long time to hibernate.

There are very smart kids at all of these schools and topnotch academics. Swarthmore kids have a reputation of being exceedingly brainy; to some this is exhilarating, to some intimidating. The pressure is definitely high but so are the rewards. The Adcom knows what they are looking for. If they accepted you, they believe you can do the work.

I can’t resist giving a plug for Williams – which seems to be a good combination of Dartmouth and Swarthmore. Why don’t you pursue the waitlist at least until mid-May? If you decide to do this, you need to write to them (or have your high school counselor intervene on your behalf) to let them know that you’re still interested.