Swarthmore College

Date: Jan 04 2005
Major: Undecided (This Major's Salary over time)
Swarthmore is absolutly fabulous for me. It is not the best place for everybody however. If you are not either slightly quirky or very intellectually curious you might be slighty uncomfortable or depressed for your four year stay. Not to scare you off… academics are excellent, the student body is so friendly they grow teddy-bear fuzz, the campus is gorgeous, ect. Teachers practically beg you to come and ask questions outside of class.

What you hear about the workload is more or less true. It can be overwhelming for those who, like me, have normal intelligence levels. Math and science classes tend to be more challenging than the humanities. You do a lot of writing. But the work is never frivolous and is often enjoyable. One criticism of academics that I have heard is that it is more theoretical than practical (example - I think that they have a major called intrepretation theory which is about as anti-preprofessional as they come).

The social atmosphere is more sedate than most schools… though there is NEVER a lack of things to do on the weekends. You will meet an interesting bunch here. It is a pretty diverse school in every respect except politically. The day after the election was just short of officially being declared a day of mourning on campus. And although the pc-ness can ruffle a few conservative feathers (if there even are conservatives?), students actually CAN tell the difference between liberal hogwash and liberal non-hogwash.

To sum the school up - people are really nice, idealistic, smart and interesting. Downsides are few if you are going to college for the books, not the beer.