<p>Swarthmore’s post-admissions event is called Ride the Tide, I believe, held around the 3rd week of April.</p>
<p>I actually think Swarthmore and Vassar are much different places in many ways. Academically, most people wouldn’t put Vassar in the same category as Swarthmore. Vassar is also in a good deal of financial distress and is cutting, for example, its Creative Writing program and many of their tenured professors are now worried about making it to retirement.</p>
<p>Every college in America has its share of partiers. If you want to avoid this aspect completely, perhaps you might consider commuting to a nearby college and avoiding the social whirl altogether.</p>