Swat '07 Will Try to Answer Q's

interesteddad
Wed, 11 Jan 2006 10:08:30 +0000

Which depts are the strongest? Weakest?



That is really subjective. For example, poli sci would be considered one of Swat’s stronger departments – many Swatties major in it, the professors are good, and so forth. However, there are Swatties who would rate it as one of the school’s “worst” departments because of its large size. By Swarthmore standards, the largest departments are viewed as being somewhat “impersonal” and “bureaucratic”.

Conversely, there are departments, like Art History, that would not be objectively described as Swarthmore strengths based on course offerings, size of faculty, etc. But, students who take courses in the department really rave about the professors and the courses.

Then, there are some departments that get mixed reviews. For example, I think it’s probably fair to say that the History department features one of the school’s most popular professors and one of the school’s least popular professors.

As far as demanding: Swarthmore is like every other college in the country. Engineering and the hard sciences are very demanding majors.