Swarthmore College Top Questions

Swat academics are tough. Really tough. Overall, they're also of excellent quality, which makes it better. I love the biology department, and the new Arabic section in the department of Modern Languages is exciting and has some really fabulous professors. The small size of the school does mean that course offerings are sometimes limited, both in topics and in timing, but at least the difficulties that these problems cause are distributed relatively fairly between the lower and upperclassmen. First year seminars are a must for freshmen, and small discussion classes are the best of what Swat has to offer. There really are no easy A's at Swat, but the natural science division is definitely more difficult as a whole. Your poli sci prof may happily hand out C's, but you're not in danger of failing. Orgo offers no such assurances. To be honest, I learn more just from talking with my fellow Swatties than I ever do in class. I'm constantly amazed at what everyone is researching, writing about, or just reading on blogs. And people here >care< about subjects that the rest of the world dismisses as merely academic or intellectual. From what I've seen, even if you manage to sleep through class, it's impossible to graduate from Swarthmore without doing some serious thinking.

Hard. But it's true that students are not competitive with each other, generally. Education at Swarthmore is geared more toward learning for its own sake, but sometimes this really annoys me when there's no practical application whatsoever. Intellectual conversations are everywhere, in the dining hall, walking around campus. But the classes are so interesting. Bio 2, for example, is like a show every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

The academics are challenging. The professors expect quality work and effort from their students. The professors are also williing to put quality effor into their students. All of my professors know my name. I frequent their office hours as much as I need it and I have found they make great efforts to be available to help. Coming in with questions the professors are always willing to assist. In my math class last semester, I came in needing some help. My prof decided he would make me into a math major. I came in and sat down with my econ prof last semester to discuss my paper and she helped me go through the whole process. I quite frequently have conversations with my philosophy professor that extend well beyond the material to larger questions the readings evoke for me. This one-on-one attention is possible mostly by the small class sizes. I am in a history seminar of three students. My largest classes have about 40 students. This makes conversations great and the material accessible.

Professors here definitely know your name! One of my professors had all of our names memorized for the first day of class - he looked us all up on the student directory available to professors and made an effort to be able to recognize us!

The classroom environment at Swarthmore is really nice. I feel that when i'm in class, I can express my opinions clearly and openly. All the professors encourage participation. Most swatties carry these intellectual conversations outside of the classroom, which can sometimes be wierd, but its all good.

There is a incredible level of intimacy between students and professors. You can be sure that at Swarthmore, you will be able to get very personal and unique recommendation letters from more than one teacher.

I'm only a freshman, so I don't have a very wide picture of what the academics are like here. I do take a lot of science classes, though, and I can say that most of the professors are top-notch. The workload, by the way, is what you make of it. It all depends on what classes you take, and how anal you are about grades (if you take a lot of science classes, be prepared to work your ass off to get an A).

All the professors know my name. My favorite class is Intro to Asian American Literature with Mani- she is amazing. My least favorite class that I've taken has to be orgo. Students study every minute of the day- if they don't, they feel guilty about not studying. Class participation is common. Swarthmore students have [pompous] intellectual conversations outside of class. Students are competitive mostly with themselves, and not usually with each other. I am a biology major. The biology department is like a family- they are absolutely wonderful. Mani's class is the most unique/brilliant class I've taken. Swarthmore's academic requirements are really flexible. The education is definitely geared towards learning for its own sake, not getting a job.

Yes, professors know my name. Students study often, late into the night, it's almost necessary. Class participation is common in almost all classes, and even moreso in Literature, Sociology/Anthropology, and History classes. Heated debates are common and easily ignited. yes, swarthmore students do have intellectual conversations out of class, which is usually very nice; to be able to do so on a peer level, totally without academic reason, is something i see as a positive thing....although, again, heated debates are easily ignited once a certain topic is broached and a certain line is crossed. Students generally are not competitive, although there are select few who are overly paranoid about others not working as hard as they are, and will attempt to insure that you are not gaining an undeserved advantage by adamantly refusing to share a few chemical properties of three compounds for a pre-lab assignment. this is not typical. Many do spend time with professors outside of class, for example, afternoon tea every friday with a physics professor. Swarthmore's academic requirements are, for sure, intense and rigorous, but for sure, not impossible.

The largest class I've ever taken at Swarthmore was Intro to Psych and about 100 people were in it. My second day of class, the professor knew my name. I wanted to come to Swarthmore because I wanted to be surrounded by peers that took academics seriously, and I have been disappointed in that regard at Swarthmore. If you envision college being something substantially different than about academics, Swat's probably not the place for you. People devote Saturday and Sunday afternoons to working, and when someone leaves a conversation, it's inevitably with, "I've got work to do". This academic focus definitely spills over into the social life, where I have experienced many wonderful conversations about politics, morality, and current affairs in addition to the more banal things people everywhere talk about. The great thing about Swarthmore is that you can have both really banal conversations about celebrities or who's dating whom, but no one looks at you askance if you start talking about this book you're reading for class that has raised some really interesting questions for you. One aspect of Swarthmore that I was looking forward to but have been slightly disappointed in is class participation. I was looking forward to not being the only person who was interested in having class discussions, but I have found that there are plenty of times that awkward silences fall. I think that this is largely because people are afraid of saying something stupid, so they don't say anything at all. But that doesn't change the fact that the majority of my classes have been discussion based and/or the professor has really encouraged participation, which is plentiful, it just has its lulls at times too.