<p>I read through a good number of the student reviews on the ***** site. In general, I think someone who read a reasonable selection of the reviews would get a fair picture of what Swarthmore is like. Swarthmore is definitely not for everyone, but that is fine, because the school doesn’t have room for “everyone.” For those who are a good fit for Swarthmore, though, it does provide a “world class” liberal arts education.</p>
<p>As to OP’s review, I did not take his reference to the question of “corruption” in the financial aid office to be his personal view, but rather his take on what other students felt, based on their postings in Parrish. I have read some of those posts, too, as well as having read the coverage in the Daily Gazette and The Phoenix. There does seem to be an undercurrent of suspicion of the financial aid office on the part of at least some students. Some of this may be due to the lack of transparency in how they make their decisions on what “need” is.</p>
<p>Given that most families would want to keep their financial situation private there is probably no way to achieve transparency in the financial aid decisions. My sense is, though, that the financial aid office does have not only a methodology they use to make these decisions but also a reasonable amount of flexibility in interpreting the methodology if there are specific issues or reasons why a particular family’s financial aid award should be adjusted.</p>
<p>Given the cost of delivering the educational services that Swarthmore provides relative to most family’s incomes and other expense commitments, there will always be some families who feel that the expected family contribution that the financial aid office calculates is more than they can afford. There is no such thing as a free lunch, but even full-fare students and their families are getting a reduced price lunch, as I-Dad has often pointed out in his calculation of per-student spending versus fees charged.</p>