What makes Swarthmore so popular?

dchow08
Tue, 21 Oct 2008 09:42:10 +0000

I would think that the students attracted to Swarthmore are often attracted to Reed as well. I certainly was. The main reasons why I picked Swarthmore over Reed was that Reed seemed too small when I visited, it wasn’t secluded enough, I didn’t really like Portland when I visited, it wasn’t really ethnically diverse, and it seemed more on the radical side of things–“Atheism, Communism, Free Love” kind of suggested that that school wasn’t for me. Another major reason was that they didn’t give me sufficient financial aid, and Swarthmore cost a lot less than Reed did. In the end, I think how much aid you get does matter in your final decision.