I’ve been accepted to both Swarthmore and Amherst and I’m trying to choose which school to attend in the fall. I’m not at all athletic, and I know Amherst has more significant sports culture. However, I’m worried that Swarthmore is going to be too academically intense. I like going out and I want to have a social life in college. What are the main differences between these two schools, particularly with regards to the student body makeup (nerdy, sporty, introvert, party culture, cliches, etc.) and the social scene? I know both of these schools are amazing and I am so grateful to be in this position. Thank you for any help you can give! (cross-posted to Swarthmore)
Swarthmore does have a reputation for being relatively intense, which of course is a draw for some.
They apparently have almost as high a percentage of athletes as Amherst, but reportedly more of the social scene is centered on teams at Amherst.
Out of curiosity, are these your only two offers?
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I would expect both of these schools to be academically quite demanding.
I do not know how a student can judge ahead of time how much academic intensity is right for them. At a minimum, admissions staff at two different very good LACs felt that you were up for it!
Congratulations on these two acceptances to two very good colleges.
I think that I will mention something that I remember from graduate school, that might just give you something to think about. I had a homework assignment with I think with five or six problems. One was really tough. I spent six hours on a Saturday working one problem (from somewhere around about 10 or 11 am to about 4 or 5 pm). I successfully completed the problem, and then went out to dinner with my girlfriend. Suppose that you did the same thing. Would you be thrilled that you were able to solve a really tough problem, or would you feel like you just wasted a Saturday afternoon? If you would be thrilled that you could solve it, then I would not worry about the academic intensity pretty much anywhere. At the time I was older and in graduate school, and I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it. I was thrilled that I could solve it.
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A teammate of DS attended Swat. He loved it, in part because “if I want to stay in and study on a Fridaynight, lots of other people are doing that too.” Swat was/is a popular choice for kids from our school, and that comment captured that. It doesn’t mean that everyone stays in and studies on the weekends, but studiousness/intensity is common and normalized.
It also doesn’t mean kids at Amherst won’t crack the books on a Friday night, but it may be less the norm.
If your concern is that you can’t do the work at Swarthmore, that’s probably unfounded. But if you want to be somewhere where the grind is less normalized (even if many students are out having fun), Amherst’s vibe may suit you better.
It can be a little harder to find your social groove at the outset when you don’t have the immediate cohort a team provides, but realitistically, more than half the student body does it successfully every year. This feels like something you can overcome without excessive effort.
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What fabulous options!! Congrats!!! Have you looked at some of the other aspects of the schools— i.e. the tri college consortium Swat has with Haverford and Bryn Mawr and the 5 college consortium Amherst has with Hampshire, Holyoke, Smith and UMass Amherst? Would you have interest in/take advantage of either of these? Do you know what you plan to study? Have you had an opportunity to talk to faculty at either/both schools? Have you visited both? Spoken with students? Assuming there is no financial issue to discuss, you can’t go wrong with either of these, and clearly you can handle the academics given these acceptances.
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Perhaps the academic intensity difference may be due to Swarthmore having significant general education requirements, which may require taking courses in areas that are more difficult for you.
In contrast, Amherst requires only a major among the selection of a sufficient number of courses:
https://www.amherst.edu/academiclife/registrar/faculty/academic-policies/degree-requirements
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Have you visited these schools? I would think that would be the best way to decide.
I really like the town of Amherst and Northampton as well, next door. The 5 college consortium is a plus (and yes Swarthmore has 3). For me, the relative freedom of the curriculum at Amherst would be a major draw.
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I’m not gonna lie. The idea of a college having its own train stop is kind of cool. OTOH, I’m not sure I could deal with a college even smaller than Amherst. I’d be too afraid of running out of people; I’ve read too many instances of first-year students arriving in the belief they fit a particular LAC’s “vibe” only to discover they didn’t. Has nothing to do with whether they have friends or love their studies. Just vibe. 
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If Swat is too intense, why did you apply? You don’t think Amherst will be intense?
You applied to top LACs - so I would expect that.
Amherst (the town) is known for music and Swat has a train.
Why not visit - and stop kids on campus and talk to them. Ask about workloads. Walk the surrounds. Eat in a dining hall.
If you can’t make it, ask to speak to student ambassadors at each.
But now is not the time to wonder about academic intensity. You applied to these schools - you could have to others.
There will be studious at all schools and partiers at most too.
Good luck.
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I also support taking visits to these schools if you haven’t, and visits are possible.
IMO both schools are academically intense, unless one attended both, it’s impossible to discern if there might be a difference.
Overall I would expect there is more of an athlete/non-athlete divide at Amherst. You should work to find out how this impacts the social scene. Are athlete parties closed to non-athletes? Or do they open up to all at some point in the evening?
Visiting and/or talking with current/former students will give you the best information. Good luck and congrats on having two great choices.
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Both my nephew and niece attended Amherst and we visited Amherst.
All confirmed - sports teams dominate the social scene.
Tour guide: If your’e not an athlete (or friends with athletes), then maybe you can sneak into the parties at midnight.
Each athletic team is in charge of a different party and they rotate.
Also, according to my sister, there seems to be a clear wealth dichotomy between affluent kids vs the less affluent. According to them, there are definite cliques (which may be common at small LACs).
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By accident, I came across a ■■■■■■■■■■■■■ report that found Swarthmore College to be among the least safest (#787 out of 791 schools) colleges. Union College in New York was also among the 5 least safe schools at #787 out of 791 colleges. Check out the sources & methodology:
https://■■■■■■■■■■■■■/edu/e/college-rankings/40750
Personally, I find this hard to believe having spent a good amount of time in North Philly near Temple University, but another regular poster shared this survey so I’ll pass it along.
Unfortunately, CC has blocked access even though I first read this report a few days ago on this site.
Eh? The very same website says this about Swarthmore: “Finally, Swarthmore has a very safe campus, with virtually nonexistent crime.”
I find it hard to believe that either Swarthmore or Union would rank among the least safe colleges.
FWIW, I was able to use the link once but not twice.
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I can understand Union, but not Swarthmore. However, that website is often cited by frequent CC posters.
Just checked that website. Ranks Swarthmore College the least safe among 72 LACs and Union College at 70/72 regarding safety in its 2026 rankings.
My guess is that Swarthmore College campus police are tough on possession which gets lumped into the category of “disciplinary actions”.
If I am looking at the right site, there is a massive tie for the worst on-campus safety rating of 0.5, which has a large impact on highly residential colleges.
I’m not familiar with that database, but that feels like a scaling issue of some sort. Like I don’t believe all those colleges have twice the actual crime as the next big tie at 1.0, three times as much as 1.5, and so on.
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These posts include a few brief comments:
And