English Major at Haverford

newengland8
Thu, 16 Apr 2009 20:08:01 +0000

Thanks for your insight. It is hard to imagine an English department that is not on par with the rest of the school, but the sciences are really talked about everywhere. I am going to admitted students’ day on Sunday, and hope that I am able to see the English department to which you refer.

HC Alum - I read some of your posts regarding Swarthmore vs Haverford. As a high school senior from a high pressured high school in New England, I am sick to death of hearing the ongoing hair-splitting among the many excellent LAC’s out there. Around the lunch table, with the Middlebury vs Wesleyan vs Amherst vs Williams vs Wellesley vs Bowdoin vs Colby vs Hamilton vs Haverford vs Swarthmore, etc., you’d think that we were discussing living on different planets. It is fostered by our inane college admission process which gives the valedictorian admission to almost every Ivy while the salutatorian, who got an A- in Honors Geometry, admission to none. Same 2350 SAT’s. This process has caused me to feel a sense of loss - burnout - regarding the college admission process and learning in general. If all goes well on Sunday, Haverford will be my choice of colleges. The hair-splitting between it and my other choices is that it appears that at Haverford, my classmates will not be looking over my shoulder to see what grade I got on a recent paper or where I stand in class rank. I hope that everything I have read about the intense academic nature of the school (which I enjoy) without the nasty competitiveness of my high school (which I despise) really holds true.

Let me do well (or not) due to my own work ethic and desire to learn. This was what separates Haverford from the others for me.