Swarthmore College Top Questions

Contrary to popular belief, Swatties find time apart from studying to join various clubs, teams, committees, and other groups. I, for example, am a member of the Village Education Project. The group provides education opportunities for young Ecuadorean children by giving them school supplies and sending Swattie volunteers to a partner school to teach them over the summers. Overall, politically oriented and a capella clubs seem to be the highest populated and most represented groups, reflecting Swarthmore’s artistic, eco friendly, and activist inclinations. Specifically, political activists can find a wide range of projects to get involved with from stopping hydraulic fracturing to War News Radio to (economic) Class Activists to Global Health Forum and much more. Even clubs with different interests have an activist purpose: for example, TOPSoccer gives soccer players the opportunity to play with and teach kids in nearby underserved communities. For the more creative types, there are seven a capella groups (not to mention additional choral and musical groups!) with their own styles/ fields of expertise. Although athletics are not at the forefront of Swat’s reputation, our men’s Garnet soccer team is highly competitive, and their games are also great social, prideful bonding experiences for the students. Each of their matches home and sometimes away is attended by the majority of the student body. In fact, class of 2011 alum Morgan Langley was signed with the MLS Philadelphia Union shortly after his recent graduation from Swat. Swat’s intellectual atmosphere also attracts tons of students to incredible guest lectures; renowned journalist Nicholas Kristof was a recent visitor whose lecture attracted and captivated practically the entire student body! After the soccer games, the two on-campus fraternities Delta Upsilon (the “baseball frat”) and Phi Psi (the “lacrosse frat”) have been known to throw popular themed late-night parties like 80s Night and Western Wear, and Swat’s Pub Night every Thursday in Paces Cafe starts the weekend off on a great note for many students. Pre-and-after-party shindigs are usually held by each dorm (especially Willets: the party dorm!) Besides making the occasional trip to U Penn, there isn’t much to do off campus for entertainment in the small town of Swarthmore, and people usually only party once to twice a week. As such, it’s possible to get “Swat Goggles” (a close relative of beer goggles) at on-campus events from being such a small school, but the dating scene is pretty intimate in a charming, quaint way. In fact, Swat is often called the Quaker Matchbox because of the high number of Swatties who find themselves married to one another after their time in college. Luckily, the matchbox also works great for finding friends! I found my three closest buds attending a Swat diversity workshop over the summer. Once we found out our common interests extended beyond diversity awareness when we found ourselves in many of the same classes, we’ve been inseparable since. This sense of togetherness makes students quite trusting of one another: we usually leave our dorm doors open, and strive to spend time with each other apart from drinking and greek life, as those are present but not dominant aspects of student life (there aren’t any sororities!) For instance, I recently spent my night going for a walk around town with friends and meandering down to the local Chinese food restaurant, where we celebrated the end of finals with a large feast. Wildly exciting? No. Extremely amusing and good bonding? Definitely.

Some groups on campus: The Phoenix, Swarthmore Asian Organization, Enlace, and the fraternity, DU. None of these are that big--they tend to be sort of like familial groups that you go to during meetings. I'm involved in The Phoenix, the campus newspaper, and I got started in it because I had never written for a newspaper before and thought that it would be cool to try something new and know how it was like, so I joined. Groups here are generally very inclusive. We often get guest speakers here. One of the most interesting guest speakers I spoke to (I interviewed for The Phoenix) was involved in an organization called Food Not Bombs, which calls for redirecting military expenses toward feeding the hungry, with the idea that providing food for all is more important than war. He was really amazing because he was taught by Howard Zinn and went all over Europe to see Food Not Bombs groups starting up, and it was amazing to see how a small idea that he and his friends had would become a global thing. Other guest lectures I've attended: a professor from MIT talked about the effect of climate change on economics, and Michael Dukakis spoke about the 2008 election. Parties are usually Thursday nights and Saturday nights. On Sunday most people get to work and do stuff for Monday. Lots of people here drink, but if you're not into that (I'm not), there are often movies showing every week, dances (in other words, party but just don't drink), and of course there's Philadelphia. I think a lot of people might find this boring, but I think a lot of people are fine with it--I usually watch a movie during the weekend, hang out with friends, do a bit of work (sometimes a lot), and just relax. It's really low-key.

Sports and frats exist, but they're not important. The social life is what you make of it. You can have whatever you want, but by senior year, you mostly just want to hang out with your friends and drink. The town sucks, but Philly is cool and if you have one urbane bone in your body, you'll be there at least once a month. We get good bands coming through. There are a few big parties every year, the most notable being Sager Genderfuck. It's the least progressive way of looking at sexual freedom, but it's fun nonetheless. However, if you don't like drinking, there are plenty of other dorks playing board games on a Saturday night. Dating happens more than hooking up. Mostly because students here think that once you hook up wiht someone, you're in love with them. They're a little slow in that respect. 25{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} of students end marrying another Swarthmore student.

Many students participate in sports and clubs on campus. I'm a member of the ultimate frisbee team, which is a very laid pack sport that runs itself (without a coach), whose practices are pretty optional, and who value having a good time and feeling physically satisfied more than achieving any certain results. There are a number of guest speakers who come to campus, and they are always fascinating. The dating scene is fully functional here. I, myself, find many opportunities to ask a cute boy to go on a walk with me around our beautiful campus and get to know them a little better. Philadelphia is a short train ride away, so people sometimes go on adventures into the city.

There are two fraternities, Delta Upsilon and Phi Psi. DU is the more closed frat, while Phi Psi is pretty open (a drinking club if you will). Weekends are typically pretty lively, with plenty of dancing. Swarthmore parties aren't like typical college "house parties" where only a select few party together. Swarthmore, being a Quaker college, encourages socializing together, which usually means large open parties for all to attend. Swarthmore is also a part of the Tri-College Consortium with Haverford and Bryn Mawr...a bus load of Bryn Mawr girls usually unload every weekend.

People are very committed to their activities. It's a small campus, so there aren't tons of party options, but I don't think this was a huge thing for most of us. Lots of people drink, lots of people never drink. Many people party for a few hours and then return to their room and study before crashing. Everyone seems to feel very safe and secure among one another, which is probably risky. I personally couldn't understand why so many people would never lock their doors, but that was fairly common. The dating scene was generally complained about, but I met some great guys at Swarthmore and didn't have any complaints there.

If you want to find a strong frat scene, this is not the place. If you like hanging out with friends over a couple beers, or going to a (relatively tame) dance party, then you should be happy. A good place to find very hard-core sci-fi/fantasy/folk dancing types, although they are a small minority. Swatties tend to over-commit, and have a ridiculous number of extra-curricular activities. Since it's such small place it's easy to get involved in anything. At Swat all you need are two degrees of separation. Some people find that suffocating, as there are fewer people to meet and everyone finds out about your business. Some love the tight-knit community, the experience of entering a party and feeling like everyone there is a friend of yours.

I have fun. Drinking is pretty open here but very safe because upper classment tend to take care of kids, etc. There are TONS of clubs and organizations and the school is good about helping people start new ones. The frats serve an important role for people who want that, but lots of other people rarely ever go there. Athletic events are increasing in popularity. The dating scene: either hooking up or practically married.

People are very involved at Swarthmore. People all have their "thing," whether it be sports, activist groups, affinity groups, or performance groups. There are two frats, mostly comprised of athletes, but the members don't live at the frats, they just have parties and are not a huge presence on campus. Because it is such a small campus, a lot of the parties are in all-campus spaces, not in people's rooms. Therefore, they are fun and not exclusive. In terms of drinking, the school's main priority is keeping people safe, not getting people in trouble. There is also a fairly big group that doesn't drink, and there are things to do that don't involve drinking.

Many Swatties complain that the social scene is repetitive, and while this might be true, you can definitely make your own fun. Philly is really only a hop-skip-and-a-jump from campus by train, and while the (2) frats or the communal social center may not be your scene on a Saturday night, there are generally parties/festivities/movies/concerts going on to keep people entertained. Athletics are not really "du jour" at Swat, much to the annoyance of the athletes themselves, and fraternities are definitely not the sordid, debaucherous affairs portrayed in "Animal House."