Selectivity of LACs

marlgirl
Thu, 25 Nov 2004 21:44:56 +0000

First of all, I’m no expert. I spent a weekend there in September and my mentor at UCLA used to teach there, so I’d like to think I have some idea what kind of student they want. The students I met there really loved to learn. Some people think that most high achieving students love to learn, but I’d disagree. If given the choice between a work day and another lesson, which would they choose? Students who really love to learn would usually go for the next lesson. Swat students are known for being the type of students who, if the teacher briefly mentions a book in passing in a lecture, will go out and read that book and maybe bring it up in class the next week (according to my mentor at UCLA). They just all had a lot of passion for what they did and enjoyed studying and working together. They were all pretty friendly, which kinda surprised me actually. I think the #1 thing Swat looks for are students who hav excelled (especially in an academic setting) and who just have a real passion for what they do. Here’s a story that just seemed typical Swarthmore to me:
When at Swat, I asked this one guy what the best part of Swarthmore is.
“You know how they say that it’s really tough?” he asked.
I nodded.
“Well,” he smiled “it’s true.”
Hopefully that answers your question.