Swarthmore's fortes

hellohowareyou
Fri, 24 Mar 2006 07:51:57 +0000

A response to what JER said…

I agree with ID - philly is very easy to get to. Even if you do not go into the city every week (which at some times I did), it makes a big difference to ME that I could, on the spur of the moment go to a sixers game, an experimental puppet show, a huge club, a free talk by hell hooks, a mozart concert, a roots concert, or the free entrance times at the PMA to look at suits of armor (and to run up the rocky steps). The difference between living 20 minutes from a huge city, and an hour or so from a more minor city is BIG, in terms of ease of transportation and variety of things to do once you get there. That said, the Swarthmore area itself is fairly dull, meaning at most times, most people choose to stay on campus - which means there is ALWAYS stuff going on on campus. And it must be said, the Swarthmore area is not too bad - there are quite a wide variety of diner/cafe/ resteurants within easy walking distance, and some of them can be quite fun in a kitchy way.

Re drinking culture:
There are pockets, at swarthmore, of the classical, fraternity style drinking culture. There are pockets of people who never drink, and never go anywhere where drinks will be served. What is much more commen at swarthmore, and what, I think, is more unique to swarthmore, is that most students fall somewhere on a line between these extremes, AND one any given night may choose activities anywhere on the line between these two extremes, AND have a variety of friends who fall in a variety of places on this spectrum. So it would not be unusual for a group of friends to get totally trashed at pub night on a thursday, and then spend Sat. night together watching disney movies. At other schools, I think you are more likely to find large groups of people from whom every night is get trashed night, or every night is disney night (which is fine too!).