Swarthmore College Top Questions

Swarthmore is certainly very diverse, and most groups of friends and dining tables are highly mixed racially. The only thing that I've found, as a Middle Eastern student, is that the Middle East is not very well represented here. There seems to be a group on campus for every other region of the earth (except perhaps Antarctica and Australia) besides the Middle East. It's somewhat disappointing.

The decrease in racial diversity is subtle, but very distinct. I think the numbers go back to 1970, when we had more Black students accepted than we had in the class of 2011, which is very dissappointing to see that a "progressive" institution such as this is so limited in its racial scope, and usually the type of people that categorize that racial scope, in terms of social and class background.

Coming from Los Angeles, I believe that I came from a very diverse community of people; however, at Swarthmore I have experienced more diversity than anywhere else at Swarthmore. There is a great mix of race, religino and sexual orientation among the student body and, Swarthmore has a persona that allows all different subgroups among these groups feel welcome among the campus. I really believe that very few people would ever feel out of place at Swarthmore.

people pay too much attention to these issues, issues that are clearly not a problem on campus, i am not going to get into the student body

The student body leans towards a very liberal. Almost everything goes. Students feel very free on campus. I think that being conservative could create some difficulties. The most noticeable table in the dining hall is the Sci-Fi people's table,

So...we're liberal. We're smart and we know it. A lot of Swatties are involved with a lot of progressive groups and organizations, and generally there are some pretty amazing people all around you. That girl next to you in seminar? Wrote a book. That guy in front of you at Sharples dinner line? Professional mountain unicyclist. Most of us are pretty idealistic and want to change the world, so we're all resigned to living in boxes. There aren't really any cliques or anything, although there's the general SWIL group and athletes. Since it's such a small group, we have a fair amount of mixing. We really are very diverse here, racially, socio-economically and so on. Whereas in high school, all my friends were Asian, here my closest group of friends are Caucasian, Middle Eastern, Black, South Asian, Asian, Hispanic...and that's really pretty much the norm. People here are also really, really nice. Like, everbody. I've never had so many people who don't personally know me open doors for me or hold an umbrella over me when it's raining. We are generally very considerate and we have good relationships with each other, the professors, the EVS, the Sharples staff.

Students are super aware in some ways, but not so much in other ways. People will be throwing around the words "hegemonic" and "heteronormative" when talking about gender oppression, but will have no idea what you're talking about when you mention the Elliot Spitzer scandal. We have a week for everything -- Class awareness week, coming out week, earth week, peace week, the list goes on. Most people here are middle class students who love to talk about oppression and injustice and want to help every poor person in the entire world. Most students are from Pennsylvania and New York, with a big population from New York City and a sizable amount of kids from the Philadelphia area. Almost everyone is liberal and being an extreme leftist is pretty much the norm. The College Republicans may be the least popular group on campus, but they do exist (after fighting for like two years). Very few people talk about how much they'll earn one day, most people think earning money is evil. If there were four tables of students in the dining hall, there would be the hipsters (men clad in super-tight jeans, girls in flannel and tights, listening to atonal music and discussing obscure art exhibits in NYC and even more obscure books, printed on an independent printing press in the Meat-packing district), the athletes (in their sweaty clothes, fresh from practice talking about how many men/women they "banged," how drunk they're going to get, how much they hate their "faggie/dykie" roommate), the kids that were mocked mercilessly in high school (usually wearing tye-dye, or shirts with animals screen-printed, or long, flowey skirts with those strap-on sandals, talking about video games and Dungeons and Dragons), students of color (generally dressed well, in clothes that reflect the fashions of the time, talking about different things -- movies, books, classes, life). (Sidenote: these are probably the four most sizeable and extreme groups, there are a lot of normal, average people at Swarthmore, and very few people sit at the same table or with the same people in the dining hall).

I was happy with my experience at Swarthmore as a gay. No anti-gay sentiment or anything like that--being gay is completely unremarkable at Swarthmore. Given the school's small size, if you're a gay male you can only really hope for 25 gay guys max per class, so incoming classes' crops o' gays are scrutinized intensely for potential mates. (The straights do this too, although there is a little less pressure on them.) Student attire: It is not possible to feel underdressed at Swarthmore; on the contrary, it is very possible to feel overdressed, as wearing "nice" (i.e. expensive but conventional-looking) will make you stick out like a sore thumb and make you feel like an ass. Political diversity at Swarthmore ranges from centrist Democrat to anarchist. The six or seven Republicans on campus any given year are usually obnoxiously vocal and viewed as douches by everyone else.

i like the "diversity." sometimes i feel the people here try to have discussions about racial or socio-economic issues too much. because the discussion can never get past the surface because their so worried with being politically correct and not offending anyone

Outside of Heidi, there are not a lot of pretty girls.