Swarthmore College Top Questions

Work all the time is a pretty accurate one for most students here. The only thing that unites Swatties is that we are all weird in one way or another.

It's true that it's an intense group of students at Swarthmore but not in the sense that we are all socially awkward moles who choose to stay in the library all day studying. On the contrary, this campus is "intense" because the students are not only academically driven but have so many other passions and interests. There is so much more than academics that is happening on this campus. The "ethical intelligence" that is mentioned in the Swarthmore brochures is for real. People here are very dedicated to contributing to the community, whether it be the Swarthmore community, the nearby Chester community, or overseas communities such as Sudan.

Yes. Mostly.

There are some students who are not very motivated academically, but there is a very large subset of the population whose dream job is to be a professor. Students mostly collaborate. There is a gulf between people whose liberalism defines them those for whom it is simply an intellectual position. Science majors seem largely estranged from political activism.

yes

Everyone at swat is a nerd, though not all sci-fi nerds (though SWIL, the sci-fi group does have a very large presence on campus). There are parties, funded by the school, and people do go, though it is definitely a place that is more about studying and discussing theory than partying.

To some extent, you should expect to have a lot of intellectually challenging conversations, but people at Swat definitely know how to have fun too. It is definitely not a school for someone who wants to coast along or for people who do not enjoy being challenged on a daily basis. There are many people with very liberal views politically and socially, but certainly not everyone. I do not think that enjoying walking around barefoot and eating outside makes you a "hippie".

It is true that there is a higher percentage of awkward people and very academic people who don't want to try and be "normal" because "normal" is a social construct. This makes me happy, that people here are so free to be themselves without feeling societal pressure to conform, but it also makes me sad when I want to meet new people but I just see a bunch of awkward people around. HOWEVER, there are cool people here! We're not clones, like at some other schools, and there are many, many non-awkward, really interesting people who like to do a wide array of different things for fun. We do have fun. If you make it a priority to have fun, you will leave the library. There are, of course, always those who don't like to leave the library. But that's good for them. They can do their thing and we'll do ours. Yes, the place is really intense, but you can lessen or increase the intensity depending on what classes/extracurriculars you do. There are people here whose lives are scheduled by the second, and others who play video games and chill out all day. Yes, swatties can be a little over intellectual sometimes. Sometimes that's a good thing. It's nice to be able to have an intelligent discussion once in a while. That said, we're not always busy being intellectuals. We can be silly and let loose and not take ourselves seriously. The intellectual thing also leads to a very intelligent sense of humor on campus, which I love. We are liberal, no doubt about it. And it can come out a lot in classes. Professors are often very pronounced in their political views and it affects the way they teach classes, and for some, how they interact with students. If you can't deal with openly liberal professors, don't come here.

nerdy-yes. even the hot ones are nerdy about something. maybe they get really interested in social theory or higher level math. they wouldn't be here if they weren't nerdy. intense--yes. very invested in what we do. politically correct-runs the gamut. some are much mroe so than others, but there is a very present sensitivity on campus ugly-i don't think this is very true

Largely, but of course not entirely.