Swarthmore College Top Questions

It's pretty easy to get to know and develop relationships with professors at Swarthmore. But that said, the "good" professors' classes fill up and are often overcrowded, making the often-touted "small classes" nonexistent. There is also no shortage of professors who are mediocre at best. In the honors program, it is possible to take 2-10 person seminars, but in some departments (like English and Political Science, for example) unless you are in the honors program it is nearly impossible to take those seminars or any other small class within the department for that matter. The requirements for graduation aren't too rigorous- 3 maths/sciences/engineering classes (one with a lab component), 3 humanities and 3 social sciences. Students study a LOT, but McCabe the library is a fairly social space. The science library, Cornell, is depressing but a lot of science students go there. The students at Swat are not competitive at all- everyone is working on different things and developing their own programs of study and is focused on achieving their full potential, not beating anyone else. The school fosters this and doesn't calculate GPA or class rank. Outside of the classroom, students often have intellectual conversations. Sometimes we also take a humorous attitude towards often studied ideas like postmodernism, heteronormativity and 'the patriarchy,' which we can do because we fully understand them. Most students will have dinner at a professor's house before graduating. The education is geared towards learning for its own sake, and many Swarthmore seniors fear living in a box on the sidewalk after graduation. That said, I feel I've had a significantly easier time getting internships because of the name of my school, and I'm only a sophomore.

The professors know their students, even those that they may not have had in their classes. Some professors teach better than others, but that's a given on all campuses. Professors are not required to take courses on education and pedagogy, as far as I know. I've had a lot of flexibility in driving my own education, I've written papers on topics that I have chosen, and I've grown a lot through my coursework, which is often reinforced by my extracurricular involvements. I see professors at non-curricular events too, which is nice. The education at Swarthmore is geared towards learning for its own sake, but that can also be tremendously advantageous for getting a job if you know how to spin it. Ethnic studies, film and media studies, and queer (or gender and sexuality) studies are lackluster here, but there are student-driven initiatives working for them.

Academics is the main focus of Swarthmore. Swarthmore (save engineering or perhaps pre-med or some of the sciences) does not provide techincal job training, but it teaches you how to think and how to write. I didn't realize how important this was until I left Swarthmore and entered into the job market. What is normal in terms of effort or expectation at Swarthmore is often above and beyond what is expected in the job market. When I entered Swarthmore, I expected that due to the smallness of the school I would find a professor that I connected with and who would be a mentor/friend. I was disappointed for the first couple of years when I did not find that in my own department. By the end of senior year, however, I made connections with three really amazing professors, all outside of my department of study, but who became the sort of mentor and friend that I had been looking for. I realized, then, that I had not really taken advantage of the availability of professors in my earlier years. I wasn't the type of student who frequently went to the professor for help unless I really needed it but that didn't have to mean that I couldn't get to know my professors.

Swarthmore has a very unique academic environment. The largest classes are about 100 people, usually intro biology, chemistry, and psychology. But after that, classes get a lot smaller, for example I have a three-person seminar this semester. All the professors in my department know my name, whether I've had a class with them or not. The departments are generally small, which can be both good and bad. The course options, while generally really interesting, are really limited. Either they are broad survey courses, or very specific and possibly not very applicable to real life. Most classes are geared toward learning for its own sake and the propagation of academia, rather than preparing for a job. That's especially true in the sciences. Some of the most popular jobs on campus are babysitting or dog-walking for professors. Students study a lot, but its usually because they want to really understand the material. A lot of classes are discussion based, and students can be very assertive in sharing their variety of opinions and experiences. Most classroom discussions finish outside the classroom, I've learned about political science and history that I have never taken a class on from conversations with my friends. Going through the dining hall you'll hear people talking about anything from Kant and physical chemistry to who hooked up with who last Friday.

Academically, Swarthmore is perfect. Professor not only know you by name they actually care about you and your life. Class participation is always great, students are not competitive in the traditional sense. All Swatties do is partake in intellectual conversations outside of class, often times with professors. Education here is geared toward learning for it's own sake, we are a liberal arts college. Students are constantly working and studying, the academic requirements at Swarthmore are set fairly high, but it's manageable.

Tough in the sciences. Really smart students everywhere, but grading is a joke in comparison to the sciences. Hard to ace in hard sciences and engineering, but also hard to fail. in social sciences and humanities, it's easy to ace classes and professors have no respect for dead lines.

Most Profs get to know their students. students not competitive about grades. no gpa, class rank, or honor roll. demanding work load can't fall behind. most classes are discussion based, only a few lecture classes. average class size about 15-20 or even less the high up in a department. liberal arts distribution requirement not hard to meet.

Swarthmore is tough. Lots of reading/problem sets, tough grading, advanced material, all that stuff. We spend A LOT of time studying – maybe 3-5 hours a day on average, including class time. It's usually fulfilling, though, if you can get through it. There are some excellent professors here, who put teaching before research and who put a lot of time and effort into being interesting, helpful, available, and fair. Two of the most common conversation themes are 1) interesting/ridiculous/terrifying things that came up in class, and 2) how screwed we are thanks to the paper that is due tomorrow on that interesting/ridiculous/terrifying thing. Students are almost always cooperative, not competitive, with each other. If you want to make money, you should have gone to UPenn or somewhere, with better connections and easier classes. Our $12000 BA's usually go for getting a professorship or a subsistence wage job with some nonprofit somewhere. (Exaggerated, but surprisingly close to the mark.)

Academics are hard, it is not unusual to have over five hundred pages of reading a week, plus a problem set, plus a paper. You really have to prioritize. The profs are really really available outside of class, regardless of their skill as a professor. Some are good and some are bad, but SAM's and upper classmen definitely can help in this matter. I have taken classes from intro stat to classical mythology to contemporary art. the requirements are fairly easy to fulfill, even though, as a humanities major, that lab class was a pain. The learning is DEFINITELY geared toward learning, and NOT getting a job.

When I first came to Swat I was overwhelmed by the amount of work. I thought to myself, "I am going to die with all this reading." But it's really just a matter of knowing your limits and pacing yourself. You get adjusted quickly. And when everyone else is working hard around you, you feel good about getting work done. Professors are generally considerate and the small class sizes are wonderful. I have yet to have a prof who doesn't know my name by the second week of the semester.