Swarthmore College Top Questions

Swarthmore's campus is pretty progressive. We have very strong LGBT and inter-cultural communities that are very vocal in asserting their presence on campus. Swarthmore is known for its activism, although the student body as a whole is probably more apathetic than it would like to admit. Religious life is more of an undercurrent at Swarthmore than a predominant group. The college makes an effort to make socio-economic class not an issue at Swarthmore, for example, we just initiated a no-loans financial aid policy beginning with the class of 2012. The goal of the administration is for students to not require money on campus and therefore equalize all students. But there is economic disparity, and its a struggle to make the campus more sensitive to that fact. Students are from all over the country and the world, and because its such a small campus, students get to interact with people from very different backgrounds than their own.

There are two things you must know about Swatties: (1) All are geniuses in their own right and (2) they always want to know more. Most students are politically, socially, racially, economically, etc. aware and active, those that are are in the process of learning.

Talked about this above - cohesive group of challenging students who secretly can;t stand that they aren't top of their class anymore. Kind of like thousand generals and one soldier monty python skit

everyone is accepted amongst the community. some groups are more outspoken than others. predominantly liberal.

The school makes an effort to have a diverse student body, though people tend to clump by race/sexual orientation/ religion/ language. There's plenty of opportunity to expand your social horizons, but not everyone does. The student body is, as the campus Republicans loves complaining, overwhelmingly left. Yet, if you actually make some public declaration of queer/feminist/black/Latino(a)/ class identity, it seems like a bunch of ignorant middle-class, white, hetero men always come out of the woodwork and start whining about it. The fact is, progressive or no, most Swatties are from incredibly privileged backgrounds and most don't like being confronted with this fact. Still Swatties tend to be really interesting, intelligent and, on the whole, very decent people. Most high-achieving assholes either stick to the frats and sports teams, or go to a different school.

I feel that there is a lot of diversity on campus whether people know it or not. I do however think that regardless of any other type of identity or factor, all swat students are extremely open-minded. If you cannot accept someone's lifestyle, whatever it may be, dont come here. There are many many cultural groups so pretty much anyone can find a type of community there are also many queer groups, a women's group, and international group (for international students) . People are generally politically aware, whether it be campus politics or global ones, but everyone also enjoys arguing his/her point.

Everyone is extremely supportive and kind. Students here are generally really kind and quirky. The one thing that bothers me though, is that the campus is incredibly PC and hypersensitive. Is it always common for a certain group to be "personally offended" by something relatively insignificant. The campus is very liberal and will undoubtedly feel stifling to a student with conservative or even moderate political views.

Our campus is extremely liberal, and extremely accepting of LGBT students. Actually, I have a friend from a prep school in Washington DC, and he actually feels that Swarthmore is TOO diverse. He says he wants to institute a "keep in the weird" week, in which students would act stereotypically "normal," which seems odd to me, that people would have to go out of their way to be not themselves, and thus, "normal". but whatever.

I would say that the BCC(Black Cultural Center) is pretty active. I have not felt discriminated against. I would say that attire is pretty casual, you don't have to dress up everyday if you don't want to. Some people come in dresses, some come in pajamas, it doesn't really matter. In the dining hall most people are divided by activities they are involved in. During swim season I primarily eat with the swim team because we come straight from practice. The same goes for other sports teams. There are also a lot of discussion groups that occur during meals for classes, so that is another way people divide. Students are pretty active in at least one thing. There definitely is a sort of social activist vibe that you feel when on campus, but it is not so strong as to segregate people who are active and those who choose not to be.

Swarthmore for the most part is a really understanding, supportive, and accepting community, whether one is gay, straight, rich, poor, US citizen, Haitian citizen, or whatever. The diversity is really wonderful, and the various ethnic groups on campus really do mix around a lot. The thing is, though, we really are INCREDIBLY liberal. Even the PROFS make Bush jokes, and the Republican student group here feels more like a support group than a political party. That said, a Republican on campus would still make friends and such, he/she'd just end up not talking politics a lot, probably.