<p>Hi Jaimie17,
When I asked my S about his impressions of Swarthmore he said, “I like it. It’s a good school. (S)he should go there.” Now, that may not sound like much to you, but it is high praise coming from him! He said that if you give me an idea of what you might like to study and what type of extracurriculars you are interested in, he can be much more helpful. That being said, I can tell you that in his first two years he took such an interesting load of courses, showing in my mind what a true liberal arts education is all about. Everything from Discreet Math, to Harmony & Counterpoint, to Economics, to Beijing & Shanghai, to Comparative Politics, to Hebrew for Text Study! He had courses with 6 students in them, courses with 30 students, and everything in between. You can’t go to Swarthmore and hide! He sings with an a capella group, is involved with a number of political causes and does volunteer work, among other things. He is surviving quite nicely. He thinks he has been challenged there (a first in his academic career) and says that the professors are generally very accessible. I asked him about the stereotype of Swat being a campus of “quirky intellectuals.” He said that’s true to some extent, but he would put himself in the normal 50% range. (That’s normal for Swarthmore!)Some people would be considered more normal than he is is and as for “really” quirky people, maybe 10% would fall into that category. He describes the campus as being very tolerant. Anyway, I’m rambling on here, so give us more specifics about your interests if you care to and maybe he can be more helpful.</p>