Swarthmore College Top Questions

My classmates are bright, idealistic, open-minded, hyper-intellectual, feel-good, hyper-sensitive scholars.

They are unique but awesome.

Swarthmore's student body is very accepting and tolerant, to the extent that it welcomes and embraces diversity. Although students are in general pretty liberal, conservative guest lecturers are often invited to campus to stimulate discussions and make sure that students can understand both sides of an issue. Albeit a very accepting and diverse community, I think that people who care too much about their looks (e.g. girls who wear high heels every day or people with fake tans) may feel a bit out of place here, since the emphasis is really on the quality of one's character.

Swarthmore students come from all walks of life, which provides a culturing dynamic on campus. Most students could probably be described as hippies, hence the liberal nature of the campus. Overall, appearance is not the most prized thing on campus, which can be reflected in students' rather sloppy attire; but a Swarthmore education is about learning from within rather than experiencing through aesthetics.

People are very smart and care about the world. Sometimes this results in judgment upon others, which is unfortunate, but for the most part people are really nice. At Swarthmore, you are inclined to question every thought you've ever had. I thought the campus was diverse, but I'm not in a minority group so my experience might not be the most telling. You can wear pajamas to class and no one will question you; you can also wear a dress and heels and not be given a hard time for that. I felt that people dropped a lot of superficial expectations for themselves in the Swarthmore environment, which I considered positive. I stopped wearing makeup while I was there, for example, because other people didn't. People's politics are very left-wing, no doubt about that. Some people come from little money but a lot of people do have rich families -- what was interesting is that they seemed mostly to want to hide that fact rather than flaunt it. The school ensures equity of activities on campus by not allowing any parties or lectures or performances to charge a fee, unless it's for a student group raising funds. This was a great help, and I felt bad for my friends at other schools who had to dish out money every weekend for events on their own campus.

The student body is diverse by the standards of liberal arts colleges. The left is most vocal, but there are vocal students on the right, and plenty of others who aren't as politically minded. Lots of gay students, and quite gay friendly. In most circle it isn't seen as a big deal. Fairly economically diverse. Few people are showy about their money, and it's often not clear what peoples' backgrounds are. A good number of east coasters and Californians, but also lots of people from all over, including many internationals.

A conservative student should think twice about coming here. We are mostly all liberal and people who are intolerant, heteronormative, etc. will get their face yelled off. Students are politically active and aware. Social consciousness/community service, etc. is HUGE. Money is not a big goal for most people.

Swarthmore students are generally very accepting of different racial, religious, and queer identities. Although there is still prejudice around, it is talked about and discussed way more than at a lot of other schools. However, there are still cliques around. It is true that Swarthmore students are probably less attractive than at a lot of other schools, but there are still good looking people around. They are around- don't be fooled! Swarthmore is very liberal. There is a College Republicans group, but the general feeling is very liberal.

Swat is generally a very accepting and tolerant campus, that is if you're liberal and a registered Democrat. It is very LGBT friendly and the campus is relatively diverse. Students and faculty are very attuned to being "PC" and will often throw around terms such as "heteronormative" and "cultural specificity" when discussing a wide range of subjects - a fact that can be annoying, but also reveals that the campus and the students are interested and committed to continuing dialogs about racial, religious, LGBT, and socio-economic issues. You generally won't find snobby, prissy rich kids on campus. "Hipster" is the modus operandi at Swat and even the most privileged and cosmopolitan of students is likely to jump on the "hobo chic" bandwagon and sport duds picked up at the local Goodwill.

Student Body The majority of students here lean more to the left on the political spectrum. There are definitely Republicans on campus but they are the minority. As far as religion, I have found that the majority of student on campus are not religious; however, if you are, there is a religious community here.