Swarthmore College Top Questions

"Work" and "play" should be defined first... Students usually really enjoy what they're studying here, so for an outside observer, s/he might see a lot of studious students. It's true that a lot of students here study a lot, but they really enjoy it, so Swatties incorporate their play into their work.

Nope...when I first got here as a freshman, i thought swat was off the hook. I knew plenty of people that hated studying...were not nerdy and were ready to get down on fridays and saturdays.

These stereotypes certainly do account for some of the student body, but definitely not all of.

Yes.

For the majority of the campus, yes.

Somewhat. Swatties are not all nerds and are not all socially inept. the majority of swatties are pretty "normal" people, so to speak. The sports, while they are definitely not a major part of the college life, are important to those who participate in them. Yes, the majority of swatties are quite achieved academically and are socially conscious/informed. Swatties are characterized by passion, to the point of being overzealous in their endeavors to be a "good, benevolent person" who does not fail to see every insignificant angle to every single issue. Many Swatties tend to be highly critical of any statement or belief - If one swattie isn't offended by a statement, another will be and will not be afraid to let everone know. However, not all swatties are this way.

Yes to the first two, but that's fine with me. I wanted to come to a school where the other students were equally serious about academics (aka, not a party school) and it's comfortable to be in an environment where we all joke about how awkward we are because it allows to be less self-conscious. The last two stereotypes that I mentioned - that we're really liberal and socially active - really aren't that true in my mind. Yes, most students are liberal you can count the number of people who are willing to call themselves Republicans on one hand, but one can easily avoid the social activism aspects of Swarthmore and there are plenty of times I wonder just how committed Swatties really are to the idea of social activism.

Swatties are very intelligent and the academic environment is not a cake-walk to say the least, but Swatties know how to get it down too. Any college that has Pub Night every Thursday where unlimited beer is sold for $4 seems like it can party it up too. Life can be chilled out at Swat even though there are times where it is intense.

Some are, some aren't. I'd say that most students here came from a certain high school mold--a bit repressed socially, sexually, but certainly not academically--who have finally arrived at Swat and among peers can finally be themselves (with some interesting consequences). But saying that we're out of touch with the real world is only so truthful. Much is made of "the Swarthmore bubble," but it's not so isolated. And I'd wager that the thinking/questioning skills that Swat ingrains in us in fact help college grads be successful in the real world.

For some people, yes. But it's hard to have an accurate stereotype about a school as diverse as Swarthmore.