Swarthmore College Top Questions

While there is no escaping those pesky distribution requirements (2 Writing courses, 1 lab, and courses in the Humanities, Social Sciences and Natural Sciences), there are tons of ways to fulfill them through the multitude of classes. Swatties can even avail themselves of Haverford, Bryn Mawr, and some U Penn courses. I intend to be a Psychology major, and the department has expressed to me their great acceptance of me taking a variety of general education courses not directly linked to my major. The only time course selection becomes somewhat limited at Swat is on the Engineering track, but then again this sort of pre-profession track rarely lends itself to a liberal arts lifestyle. Personally, I have found some of my more obscure course selections to be the most satisfying; To fulfill a writing course requirement during my first semester, I took a quirky First Year Seminar called What’s So Funny?: Cultures of American Humor. Despite its name, this was one of the most unique, intellectual, challenging courses I’ve taken! We analyzed the cultural merits of varieties of American humor from Benjamin Franklin to Tina Fey. The seminar-style class, capped at 12 people, also let me have a valuable, non-competitive, give-and-take relationship with my peers and professor. Even in the larger-level introductory courses, I was surprised that the professors still know each student; once while grocery shopping in the Ville (Swarthmore’s village), I ran into one of my intro biology professors. While this was my least favorite class because of the student “anonymity” I thought existed, and I was certain she would hardly recognize me being one of her other 120 students in the class, she greeted me by name. As this shows, people hardly stop caring about you outside of the classroom. Nor do students stop caring about academics; Swatties are known for their tenacious personalities when it comes to being informed, value learning as it’s own reward above competition and grade-grubbing, and participate frequently regardless of class size. So it should come as no surprise that studying is an ongoing, rigorous, vital part of a Swattie’s daily life. Expect to spend some weekends holed up in McCabe Library, especially during exam crunch times!

All my professors except my biology professors know my name. We have four biology professors in Introduction to Biology, each one specializing in a different section of biology. My favorite class is probably Linear Algebra honors seminar, which is a first-year seminar (FYS). A first-year seminar is a seminar specifically for first-year students, and it's meant to give freshmen a sense of what upper-level seminar courses will feel like. It's really a great opportunity to take a class other than lecture. FYS's are capped at 12 students, and my math seminar (28S) has only 11 students, and it's great because we all (11 students and the professor) really get to know each other much better. We sit around a giant table and we basically discuss math problems, and the classroom walls are all made up of just blackboard, which is cool. It's great to have that close interaction--I think it makes class much more special than just going to a lecture and taking notes. The math seminar lasts twice as long as other classes--6 hours a week instead of 3. Every Wednesday we meet for those 3 additional hours, and our professor always brings snacks. He actually invited the whole class to his house for dinner, and the dinner will be held in a few weeks, during finals, so that'll be awesome. My least favorite class is Intro to Biology. I'm really not that interested in the subject material--I was mainly looking for a general background in biology, and I suppose I did get that, but it is a big lecture course (over 100 students) and quite frankly, I find it to be pretty boring. Also, the quality of the professor matters--we have 4 profs in Bio 1, and the boring professors make the lectures boring, and the lively professors who have almost a tangible excitement about the subject make the lectures lively. It's also a very big time commitment, and assignments in Bio 1 take much longer to complete than assigments in my other classes. Swatties really do have intellectual discussions outside of class, but they're not ubiquitous, I don't think, and I think a lot of people don't want intellectual discussions outside of class to be ubiquitous. Some people (including me) just want a break from academics during meals, and they prefer to talk about their day, and how class has been, and stuff like that. But most of my friends make some kind of intellectual reference at some point during the day. Students aren't competitive--in fact, it's quite the opposite. You see a lot of collaboration here. Example: students get together to do math homework. Another example: students get together in study group meetings for biology. Students here are very friendly, and they're generally willing to help struggling students. None of my classes so far curve grades, so it really doesn't help your grade if others do worse (which may be the case in classes where exam grades are curved). Students here keep their grades to themselves, and in fact grades are almost never mentioned--I've barely mentioned grades at all here. The unwillingness of students to discuss grades (it's not because they have bad grades, but more because it's a personal thing, and quite frankly, nobody here really cares about your grade) is a welcome improvement in maturity level from high school. Education here is definitely geared to learning for its own sake. You don't learn things that are really practical for jobs, necessarily. It's important to try to get work experience outside of class, and to seek internships and externships. Career Services helps you with that, but you need to really work to find good work experience. Many Swatties end up going to graduate school. I think many people here are just afraid of going off into the work world and "abandoning" school--I am. I don't want to work a boring 9-5 job, where I won't really be contributing that much to the world. I think many people enjoy learning so much that they really don't want to leave it behind.

This is by far my favorite part about Swarthmore. BY FAR. I was in the Honors programs, where you spend your last two years taking seminars that account for half of your course load each semester. The seminars are essentially graduate-level. In the end you are examined by external professors. The seminars are led by professors, but run by the students. This experience was something that you cannot really get anywhere else, and it's one of the many reasons that grad schools and professional schools love Swarthmore students. In general, classes are at Swarthmore make you think, and will give you much more depth than at other schools. The only downside would be for those interested in business or more practical things like that. Yes, it's hard, but it's not too bad. It's really what you make of it. You can take less challenging classes, and you don't have to write a thesis or do the Honors program. You can't be a moron and do well here, but I guess you can't be a moron and get in here.

Academics at Swarthmore are absolutely awesome. All of my professors, past and present, know my name and ask me how my life is progressing every time that they see me. Professors really seem to enjoy getting to know their students in smaller classes, and their enthusiasm about the course material is infectious and really motivates students to get as much out of the course as possible. Class participation is usually very good (except for some 8:30am classes, but for the most part I steer clear of those), and students are good about setting up study groups outside of the classroom to study together for exams. A lot of times students will leave a class still talking about the material, as it is often presented in a very engaging way. I would say that students are conscious of doing well in a course, but that they are not so much competitive with their peers. Since it is a liberal arts college, the education is geared more towards learning for its own sake (and learning how to learn and finding out what interests you most), and not towards getting a job. For these sort of practical life skills, seek out extracurricular clubs that get you more involved in the real world.

Most all professors are extremely interested in their students. They expect a lot out of each student, which can translate into rather copious amounts of work. The greatest educational experience happens outside of the classroom, though, by interacting with such a talented, intellectual, and engaging student body.

Incredibly smart professors who tend to be open to developing close relationships with their students. Great class discussions as long as the professors provide the right direction, which doesn't always happen -- the one thing I'd change about Swat academics would be to add more lecture and decrease discussion time, since we had so much to gain from our professors and less from one another. Everyone studies all the time and people talk about their class material outside class for fun -- I feel like I absorbed half my best friend's course material just from chatting with her every day about whatever she'd found interesting. Classes are purely academic and not geared toward professions. I learned what I needed to know to start out as a journalist from working on The Phoenix, but my work and life and relationships and thoughts are affected every day by what I learned in my classes and from my peers. So my education at Swat was more of a holistic experience, not to sound tacky.

Academics are very intense. You will be expected to work very hard - harder, in fact, than in my PhD program. Many people find it stressful. My theory is that this is to a large extent the result of self-selection. The admissions department finds a bunch of really intense students, throws them together, and they go a bit crazy. I would not, however, describe it as being at all competitive. People are internally motived to work hard, and do so, but they also help each other and support each other in a really nice way. There are a lot of nice people at Swarthmore. My classes were very rewarding. The highlights for me were the honors seminars, which had 10 or fewer students and lasted from 1:15 to 5 or 6. I also had some of my best experiences in random electives with great teachers. The professors are as a rule extremely helpful and accessible. They're at Swarthmore because they want to teach.

Professors ALL know my name and yes they do spend time outside of class talking to me at office hours, department social events (such as picnics, receptions, ice cream socials, etc.), sporting events, church, community service events, meals, etc. They are great: down to earth, enthusiastic, caring about their students (as whole people, not just as a single-faceted student in a particular class...it is common for them to ask about roommates, family, weekend plans, other courses, etc) and just lots of fun. Students study every day. We work hard for sure, but you set priorities and do that. I have gone out every weekend. I have friends who have slept for 9 hours or more every night. etc. Students are NOT competitive. It is a really cooperative environment. It is taboo to talk about specific grades you got. Learning is about furthering your own understanding and the best way to do that is to work together, exchange ideas, etc. MY favorite and most unique class was "Music of WWII and the Holocaust". It was totally different and I feel like I learned things about how people get through hard times, how different social movements can come together, how those can be expressed through art, etc. It was AMAZING. I feel like we are geared towards learning here, not getting a job. That said, I have been employed for next year since November. I have been very happy with career services. I had tons of interviews (in business, finance, and consulting) and interviewers had a high regard for Swatties.

Academics at Swarthmore are intense. You will have to spend a lot of hours in the library, but you will also learn interesting things. The classes mostly aren't huge and professors generally know your name and will help you with your assignments if you ask them. One of the best things about Swarthmore academics is that the first semester of freshman year is pass/fail. It lets freshmen figure out how much time and effort they need to put into academics and lets them have fun for their first semester. You can study anything that you find interesting. For example, my first semester I took a seminar called "Women and Popular Culture." We did everything from read Uncle Tom's Cabin to watching Bridget Jones' Diary. I even wrote a paper on Desperate Housewives! At the same time, though I learned a lot about theory, feminism, and media.

You can expect your professor to know your name by the second week of class - even in classes that are larger than the norm. It is also common for students to babysit faculty children. As for the academics - yes, swarthmore is a lot of work. Professors expect output and they will assign plenty of work. You can guarantee that you will leave Swarthmore knowing how to write well, research, and to think, even if your Swat education doesn't put you on the fast track of the career path.