Haverford vs. Swarthmore

Dustyfeathers
Wed, 10 Jun 2020 10:29:06 +0000

I differ with the above comments in one way, and that is to carefully consider the “not overly competitive” aspect of Swarthmore. From everything I’ve heard, it’s on the “competitive” side of things–much, much more so than Haverford. Because tastes vary, I will leave it up to you and your assessment but I’d check that aspect carefully.

I have several anecdotes to point to from various people, none of whom know each other. The most striking is from someone who is one of the alumni interviewers. This person asked me “Should I tell them the truth?” And I was like: Truth about what? And this person confessed to me over lunch that s/he “never enjoyed” it, that Swat was great when s/he got there bc s/he’d come from a HS and family that didn’t value his/her intellect and everyone at Swat was very smart. That lasted for a short while and then s/he realized how relentless the academics and the students were about their (and this is my term but I feel I’m getting this person’s assessment fairly accurate) intellectual prowess. In the end that social and academic environment plus Swat’s relative isolation made life miserable for this person. Regarding the isolation, Swat students can go to Philly and the Tri-Co schools. There’s transportation etc. But they rarely do compared with H and BMC students.

H and BMC share values about how tests are taken, how they purposefully reduce tensions through communal governance, and so on. The schedules of BMC and H are meshed so that the students can take classes more easily between campuses. Buses run continually–although this year will be more challenging b/c COVID and they are only allowing few students per bus. They might use more buses during busy times. They share facilities, such that BMC students go to Haverford for art, and H students to to BMC for geology, the pool, etc. They agree on for example how to handle COVID issues and other major policy decisions that affect both campuses. They are practically two colleges for the price of one. Swat in contrast is just a little further out and it’s set where even finding the gate is challenging. And that seems to reflect somewhat a different culture. At H if you decide that you want to take classes at Swat, you can do so. That’s not an issue. You can also take classes at UPenn.

Other anecdotes are less colorful but all of them underline this same message about Swat’s relative competitiveness. None say the opposite. One is of a woman who attended and she said that freshman year, chemistry class, Day 1, the professor started on Chapter 3 and said blithely “You all should have had the first three chapters in HS.” Well not everyone had including her and she was lost immediately. That set the tone for her college career. Another person I know calls it “Sweatmore” for the workload. Another person who is still there was thrilled at first and now is not happy.

Maybe in my life I’ve only bumped into the people who found it this way. You should check it out thoroughly, but I’ve come to think of it as an LAC equivalent of U of Chicago, that relentless drive academically in the classroom combined with students who have fun being the cleverest or smartest person in the room. There are students for whom this atmosphere is wonderful (Full disclosure: I have several generations of family members including the present one who have attended U of Chicago.) And they do better socially and academically in this environment, if this indeed is the environment. Swat might be perfect for you. But check it thoroughly.