Aaron
The school is very rigorous, more so then 98{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} of the schools where my friends go, but the students here definitely find time to socialize.
Parker
Most of us do study a lot, yes. Before you find out where your true interests lie that's mostly because the amount of readings and the length of papers you're assigned to write require you to. Later however, when you find your major and everything, you want to work that much and actually stay up because that book actually is really interesting.
John
Many swarthmore students don't have great social skills. However, for the most part people are nice. Swarthmore requires a lot of work.
Claire
People think that everyone who goes to Swarthmore is a total nerd-- which is probably true. I think everyone who goes here is a nerd at heart but there are a lot of cool and fun people too. If your conception of beauty is what you see in Glamour or GQ, then you're not going to like what you see at Swarthmore. That's not to say that we don't have good looking people here-- it's just that they're beautiful in a non-fake tanned kind of way. Oh, and the stereotype about everyone being incredibly intelligent? Definitely true.
Ryan
I mean..we do work all the time. And we do talk about doing work all the time. But we still make time to have fun. It's more just hanging out with close friends though
Andy
There are a lot of ugly, awkward nerds on campus and a lot of loud superlefty liberals. But there are also a lot of socially apt nerds and less loud moderates. Beautiful people are few and far between, and everyone is a little bit awkward and nerdy, and most people are left of center, so I'd say the stereotypes are exaggerations based on truth.
Toby
They are true in different degrees and ways for different people. It is very easy to absorb these stereotypes too.
Paige
To the first - Swarthmore is in an interesting place. It is academically intense and students do spend a lot of time in the library, but that is sort of the person that is drawn to the place. For as much as we complain about our work, we really do love it and we enjoy doing it. So for those who don't like learning, yea, Swarthmore is way too intense. But if you can geek out over simple things or are just interesting in thinking and learning and answering questions, then Swarthmore is the place for you. And, while the stereotype may be based in reality, you have chosen it because you enjoy it (somewhere down there). As for fun, I spent much of my time at Sharples laughing hysterically with friends or getting involved in random scrapes. It's not the stereotypical "frat and going out to bars fun" (there are two frats if you want something like that), but it's a quirky sort of fun. You'll find it climbing roofs, skinny dipping in the crum, in late night conversations, in Sharples marathons, in the Parlors, or pulling campus wide social experiements.
Kavita
I don't know what the workload is at other colleges, but I think most Swatties find their workload a little stressful, but definitely manageable. We've come to this school to be intellectually challenged, and the pressure we feel is usually self-imposed. As to being hippies, both our college as an institution and the individuals that comprise it really value social and ethical responsibility. There are students doing amazing things for people all over the world, from Sudan to Ecuador, with the support of the college and other students of course.