Is Swarthmore for me? Need help URGENTLY!!

fhimas88888888
Mon, 21 Jan 2013 14:05:49 +0000

OP-

I had these same concerns when I decided to enroll. Indeed, reviews on Students Review, etc., sometimes make Swatties look like weirdos. It’s very important to keep in mind that these reviews you read online suffer from an extreme selection bias in that only those who had a sufficiently rough time at Swat will be motivated to write, whereas those who really enjoyed their time generally won’t write much online.

As an alumnus of Swat, and a student now at an Ivy, I can tell you that the undergraduate vibe at Swat is really nice, and better, in my view, than the vibes at the other top schools you might be considering. Students at Swat are ridiculously cooperative, and excited about helping each other. I contend this is desirable and observe that this seems to be unique to Swat. I don’t see much of this where I now go, or hear that this really happens at other top schools where some of my new friends went to school.

Re: sleeping, I don’t think you should worry about this. The intensity at Swat is on the high end on average (probably only exceeded by the tech schools like MIT, CalTech, etc.,), but the workload is not uniformly demanding, meaning that you can make it easier if you want to. Indeed, other schools are more chill, like the non-top Ivies (i.e., not MIT, Princeton, maybe Harvard) but I’d say that this chillness comes at a price of a less intense (and maybe less-“good”) education. If you want way less intensity than Swat, I say check out Pomona.