Swarthmore vs. Penn

interesteddad
Wed, 11 Jun 2008 04:01:00 +0000

For my money, it’s not even close between Penn and Swarthmore. The only reason I would even consider Penn over Swarthmore would be if I were majoring in some esoteric niche field or a language Swarthmore doesn’t offer. But, for the departments you mention, Swarthmore by a mile. Or, if I were lookin’ for a party school.

You can always take courses at Penn. It’s a 20 minute door to door train ride and Swarthmore will pay for the transportation. Very few Swatties take courses at Penn and those who do are sometimes disappointed.

Nothing you describe about yourself would change my opinion for you.



Also, I hear that Swarthmore’s academics are excessively rigorous, and that many students there feel that they are in a pressure cooker.



I can only speak for my daughter. She’s a contientious student. She worked hard at Swarthmore. She did fine and never worried about grades (except for Advanced Calc freshmen year, which was pass/fail anyway).

Her least favorite courses and professors were “OK” and she had several courses every semester that she loved and it was easy to hear the excitement when she talked about them.

She never complained about being in a pressure cooker. The only times she ever said anything about having a lot of work was during finals weeks, but that’s pretty universal for all college students. She didn’t pull her first all-nighter until a month ago, the night before her senior thesis was due.