Swarthmore's fortes

JER
Thu, 23 Mar 2006 13:07:10 +0000

As a fairly recent Swarthmore graduate ('03), I agree with most of what InterrestedDad said. I’d like to add a few personal comments:

a) I think ID overestimates the accessibility of Philadelphia. In my experience, going into the city was a bit of a pain and a relatively rare thing for students to do. I would definitely characterize Swarthmore as a “suburban” area, not an “urban” one.

b) ID is absolutely right about the intellectualism of the place. At Swarthmore, I was heavily involved with SWIL, the science fiction/geek club, and discussions with friends in that group (and other students) quickly devolved [sic] into discussions of intellectual issues. I’m at Stanford Law now, and many of my friends are undergrads in a similar science fiction/geek subculture, and “intellectual” discussions are much rarer among them than among my Swarthmore friends.

d) ID is absolutely right about the drinking culture, such as it is, and the absence of showyness. When I was there, wearing expensive designer clothing, or otherwise showing off your parents’ wealth, would have been a fairly serious faux paus (though I think it was more acceptable among the fraternity subculture).