Swarthmore College Top Questions

Swarthmore is a very socially conscious community, being very liberal and very aware. People bend over backwards to not be offensive, heteronormative or supportive of malicious dominant paradigms. That being said, Republicans might feel a little uncomfortable, but they'll fit in just fine. Students are mostly from the World. They are from Varied backgrounds. The 4 tables of students will be Mixed and Diverse. Students wear Whatever they want to class. If students ever talk about how much they'll earn one day, it's in dispair over being a liberal arts major. Here's to living in a box!

Swarthmore has a very diverse student body, with representatives of many races, nationalities, religions, sexual preferences, etc. If anything, a politically conservative student may feel slightly out of place here as Swarthmore is largely liberal, however, the College Republicans do have a presence on campus as well.

A highly conservative student, one who cannot appreciate the fantastic offerings of diverse thought would feel quite out of place at Swarthmore. However, that is not to say that politically conservative students have no place at Swarthmore, especially given the great re-emergence of the Swarthmore Republicans group. Most students dress like average college students in Sweatshirts and jeans, athletic apparel, or polos and khakis (the latter being least represented), with the exception of students who dress up in suits on 'Foxy Fridays.'

In the Sharples dining hall, you find these four groups of students, each sitting at their own table: 1. The Swarthmore Warders of Imaginative Literature (SWIL) kids, also known as Swillies, all huddle together playing board games, wearing cloaks, and making inside jokes that relate somehow to sci-fi, fantasy or general absurdity. This is the club that puts on the pterodactyl hunt each year and also re-enacts the Valentine's Day Massacre. 2. The international students. They seem to arrive on campus before all the other freshmen and are already bonded together as friends by the time classes start. 3. The jocks and frat boy types, a maligned minority, looking generally hostile toward everyone in this egghead atmosphere. Most of the College Republicans can be found in this group or in economics classes already wearing suits and carrying briefcases. 4. Studiers with textbooks open. They are quizzing each other on the new German vocabulary and halfheartedly picking at their peanut butter bagels.

People are too PC. You have to watch over your shoulder anytime something you say is vaguely referring to any race, gender, socio-economic class or whatnot. People need to let loose about their hang ups on the above mentioned groups.

i'd say that students are pretty segregated, which i think is sad, but not different from any college in america. ha, i know republicans feel out of place at swat. students wear anything, i've seen stiletto heels and i've seen pajamas. different types of students definitely interact one and one, but the groups of students you see together tend to be fairly homogeneous. if there were 4 tables, one would be the fratboys, one would be the dirty hippie frisbee players, one would be the SWIL table (but they aren't called that anymore), and one would be a sad kid sitting all by himself and mumbling into his cell phone headset. students are from all over the country and even the world. i'd say upper middle class to rich predominates financial background, which i find sad, again. i felt really out of place often because to these students, it's nothing to pay $100 per private dance lesson, or to go to rome on spring break. students are VERY politically aware, though certainly you find apathetic people. they are very left with some loud conservatives. i don't recall most of them talking about making a lot of money, except for some of the aforementioned conservatives.

I think it is difficult to be conservative on campus, but I would encourage outspoken, open conservatives to try Swat and make it a more even keeled place. Because friends are often based on freshmen hall configurations and classes as well as clubs, everyone gets the chance to interact. That's great. I wear jeans and a tee shirt (often barefeet) to my classes, but others go all out and dress up.

The four tables: 1. The frat guys and LASS girls. They aren't stupid, but like to pretend that they are and get drunk a lot. I'm convinced this is carried over from their lack of popularity and status as nerds in high school. 2. The SASS, SOCA, etc kids - aka, people of color. Although most groups of friends are mixed, some black, hispanic and asian students tend to hang out together. It's not exclusive, all of them have white friends; it just works out this way. This group is really loud and sometimes plays dance music in the cafeteria. Many of them are in Rhythm and Motion, a dance group. 3. The physics/math/computer science/etc kids. They can be identified by their typical nerd look and discussion of Star Wars. 4. The barn kids. These kids are hipsters - guys in tight jeans, girls in flats and leggings, interesting hair cuts.. and so on. Very indie. Many of these people are queer in one way or another. Of course, there are other types! A cappella nerds, drama nerds, Women's Studies girls, the LGBGTQ activism crowd, the not-frat-like jocks... I don't even know where I fit in. There is so much interaction between different supposed social grous that it's not necessarily worth identifying them. You will have classes, live with, and be in extracurricular activities with every type of erson you can imagine. Swarthmore is very diverse on issues of race, class, and sexuality. It is about 50{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} white and maybe 10{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} queer. The one place where there isn't much diversity is in politics - Swarthmore is very liberal.

I think I mentioned this earlier, but Swarthmore boasts a very diverse student body. I'm not sure how diverse it is in terms of political tendencies, and I think it takes a decent amount of effort to really get to know people of different groups. I think Swat is predominantly a seemingly upper-middle class school. It appears as if most students are reasonably well-off, in terms of how people dress. In class you have everything ranging from sweats to suits, but most people wear jeans and a reasonably nice shirt or t-shirt. It's nothing flashy, but it appears as if people have enough money to buy brand jeans or whatever. However, I think that there is a lot more socio-economic diversity at Swat than there appears. People don't really talk about it that much. There is class awareness month, which tries to bring up campus discussions about class on campus, but I think that most people can easily go without consciously considering it.

Students are upper-middle class by and large, but try to hide it: there's a stigma associated with being rich. But you can tell anyway. Even as someone who was from just a middle class background, I was made aware of and uncomfortable with this difference from time to time - you could always tell who could be unconcerned about loans after school, who could have the fun unpaid internships and trips abroad, etc. Though the student body is making an effort to get people talking about class issues, an initiative backed by the administration and getting more and more attention (as far as I know - graduated two years ago!). Different racial, etc. groups interact with each other, but in a sort of limited way. The international kids are their own group, black students another, southeast Asians another. There's an activisty LGBTQ group that I feel like was less cliquey, but maybe that's just because I was tangentially socially involved with that particular enclave. As with the class thing, people are good about getting things out into the open and talked about on the Swarthmore campus - people are super involved with and aware of identity politics, which sometimes makes it feel like there are more problems at Swat than other places. This of course, is the opposite of the truth - we just care more. Swarthmore is a very liberal school - this is a pretty true generalization that can be made about the school. I will also say, however, that while the radical types get a lot of attention, there's a big swath of the school that's more generically moderate-liberal and fairly apathetic, politically. Though it does feel like there are about twelve open Republicans on campus.

People joke about "Swat goggles" because Swarthmore students generally don't make a conscious effort to look good. It's a very laid-back and down-to-earth atmosphere when it comes to appearance.

Diverse and PC. There is definitely a leftwards lean in political opinions but it's nothing out of the ordinary for any college campus. Some people would point out distinct cliques of students but the fact of the matter is that each class is so small that all kinds of students interact with each other. I've never heard a complaint about Swarthmore's student body, so there really isn't too much to say. It seems that students are generally pretty satisfied with the way the demographics turned out. (I personally am, at least.)

Swarthmore has an idyllic campus and a somewhat scruffy looking student body. Fashion is not an imperative and sometimes it seems like more layers is always better. That haphazard charm means that there isn't a focus on brand names and designer goods. So, while a lot of students at Swarthmore come from families that can afford $40,000 in tuition annually (is it more now?) and not have to put their kids into debt, most students have the sense not to talk about it in a cavalier or bragging way. I would have like for there to be more transparency regarding socioeconomic status - it really seems like the last identity issue that is difficult for people to talk about because it's still quite sensitive and students want to be sensitive to that fact. Nobody talks about how much they'll earn one day except to complain that between grad school and the nonprofit sector, they'll never pay their debts. The less-than-ideal Swarthmore student would be: racist, homophobic, classist, politically conservative, unabashedly capitalist, and unaware of major domestic and international news.

The students are what really make this place stand out. We're an eclectic bunch and really diverse too, which makes it so much more interesting. I'd say that it's impossible for a college to not have any cliques but while Swat can be divided into a few types of people (if we generalize), there is usually no tension between cliques. Spontaneous conversations with strangers is highly common and people are normally extremely friendly and willing to help. The student body is predominantly democratic and many students are politically active.

everyone's welcome, except people who get in each other's faces too much. it seems this is the kind of place where "live and let live" reigns supreme. one table of students would be athletes, probably the guy's soccer team and a couple of their friends. one would be a table that is almost entirely black, and the other two would be "regular" swarthmore students, a mix of ethnicities, with most of them being pretty nerdy. swarthmore students are from all over, and surprisingly (to me), most of them aren't that well-off. they're mostly liberal, and in general pretty politically aware, unless they get swamped by schoolwork, which happens pretty often.

The only student that would feel a little out of place in Swarthmore would be an upper class conservative athlete. However, even they have their own small social niche. But even though most students develop bonds with a close group of friends, different social circles constantly interact with each other. Most students wear random clothes to class and don't care much about how they're dressed.

if you try, you can interact with everyone,..well, actually, correction: yes, everyone interacts because swat is so small! even if you dont know a person directly, there are about 2 degrees of separation here so chances are that one of your friends knows the person. swat is diverse in all areas except for political (leftist) perspective, i think. but thats even in the make of change right now!

Swat is diverse in many, many ways. I can't imagine anyone feeling out of place. Everyone has their own sense of style and some people wear sweat pants to class while others wear a suit. And all these different types of people get along amazingly well. Students tend to be politically aware and left. Not many care too much about how much money they will make in their future.

The students here are famous for being activist and tolerant. This isn't really true. Many students here are nominally activist but never do any actual activist work, only a small handful of the students take on that role. The students are politically tolerant if you agree with them- which defeats the purpose of being tolerant. in the classroom, discussions are very tolerant but when it comes to conservatives and religious people, students feel they have the freedom to bash them to their hearts content because they do not see a lot of opposition. The gay community is small but vocal and greatly supported as are different races. Students wear anything from designer wear to old pajamas to class. Nobody really notices, especially on days papers are due. Most people here come from very wealthy families who don't understand what it's like to come from anyplace else. I know a few people whose goals are to make as much money as they can but that's not prevalent at all. Most of the people I know are involved in art, philosophy, and socio-anthropology and have no idea what they would like to do when they graduate or would like to focus on volunteering or working for a non-profit.

All groups on campus respect one another and have joint activities commonly. No one would ever feel out of place here. It is really an accepting place for all people. Most students wear whatever they want (high fashion to pajamas). Most students are Swat are from the north east but there are certainly many from all over the world. The financial backgrounds definitely have a wide range. We are EXTREMELY socially active on campus and we definitely talk about professions and pay for the future.