Swarthmore College Top Questions

The social life is what you make of it. You can party every night if you want, you can study every night if you want. Random occurances happen frequently. There were times when I would find myself on midnight runs or involved in late night games or conversations, or middle of the day adventures. When I was at Swat I did a mix of going out to parties on the weekends, hosting gatherings of people for wine and cheese, hanging out with friends, going into Philly, watching movies. Dorm life is pretty active, though it depends on the dorm. My most active was when I lived in Willets (mainly freshmen and sophomores). We had people frequently streaming in and out of our room. Conversations with Swatties are always an adventure. They float easily back and forth between uber serious, to melodramatically serious, to ridiculously stupid, to superficial, to grossly funny, and back again. I miss the ease of conversation - of floating over topics and depths of conversation.

Extracurricular activities are diverse and well, active. Students often leave their doors open in dorms to promote a social life on the hall. Athletic events come last on the Swarthmore list of priorities. Guest speakers are frequent and informative. People work hard and play hard. There are many traditions that are alive on campus - Sager, Crunk Fest, Soul Shack, the Block Party, Parrish Takeover, etc. There are plays, musical and dance performances that happen on weekends that do not involve drinking, however they do not usually last past 11 at night. Many people go off campus to party on weekends or go into Philadelphia to hangout, go to a movie, out to dinner, etc.

social life? activities? Hillary Clinton went to Haverford, we got Chelsea who was tired, and said "Oh My Gosh" before answering any questions. that sums it up

plenty of options for all. usually a party or movie option. people go to athletic events if they have time, but are supportive. many groups on campus.

There are a ton of clubs and groups and they're lavishly funded. Sophomores tend to run them, since juniors and seniors are too busy. Sports aren't very big (we have no football team, thank goodness), but they are there. Social life varies widely with what kind of people you hang around with. There are drunken dance parties at Paces, tripping in the woods, board games/ roleplaying/ cult movies, religious groups, etc. – you can take your pick. Dating is similarly varied – some people don't do it, some find a new hook-up each weekend, some hang out awkwardly for weeks or months until they get up the courage to start awkwardly making out – we've got all kinds. There are no sororities and two frats, who are not a big part of campus life but still seem find a way to make trouble all the time.

On weekends there is generally (each night) a paces party (all campus), a smaller, but equally well attended separate party, two frat parties, a movie showing, a musical, athletic, learning, lecture, eating, event. Plus any number of small gatherings of friends. I would say the frat party scene has the same people every week, but then, so do the movie showings. Thanks to large scale event, we get some pretty big name bands/people at the school including, maragret cho, the roots, ben folds, the new pornographers, state radio etccc.Students do leave their doors open, except when they are working of course. I would say that the work hard play hard saying holds really true here. The dating scene is tricky if you date within the school because it is so small, everybody usually knows everything, and rumors start. I met my closest friends on sports teams and on my dorm halls. the sports teams here are both good and bad, but the people on the teams are usually great. I try not to stay up until 2am cause i wake up anyway at like 7. but if i am i am probably back to the dorm at this point, hanging on my hall, or just recently a friends invaded my dorm room and cleaned it. ha or tried to

There's always one big party every weekend. Because the school is so small, parties are very inclusive. You will never find yourself in the awkward situation of not knowing anyone at a social event. There are tons of activities for the politically active. Theater here is kind of a dud in terms of the scale of productions.

Well for me swim team is pretty cool. People try to leave their dorms open, my dorm floor was pretty close this year. The students get emails about events on campus to go to. The dating scene-maybe it is just the people I hang out with, but most seem to be taken. There is also a good amount of queer couples as well as heterogeneous couples. We have two fraternity houses, but no one really lives in them. They basically serve as designated party areas.

Social life is fun, here - there's always something to do. There are parties every weekend, and if, like me, you don't drink, no problem - there's also quieter, (or not so quiet) dry parties in various places around campus. The frats exist, but they're not the only way to have a social life. Some crazy traditions we have are the "Pterodactyl Hunt" (a really crazy game where one pretends one is a great hero and goes about slaying monsters) and Sager ("guys wear a dress, girls wear less". Those aren't the only but I'm frankly getting kinda bored with the survey.

Everyone here is very friendly and open, so you can basically hang out with whomever you want to and just chill with anyone. You have so many opportunities to join new organizations or hear interesting lectures, where you can meet new people. Some people find the size of the school to be annoying when everyone else knows about your relationships. There are lots of traditions we celebrate, and they are all awesome to participate in. Last weekend was parent's weekend, and I went with my room mate's parents to Washington D.C., where we participated in a demonstration for Darfur with other students from around the country. Basically you have the small college atmosphere with the excitement of a big city right at your doorstep.

I think that one of the more popular groups on campus is Rhythm and Motion, which is a dance group. Their last performance was pretty packed. Athletic events are not too popular because of the fact that all of our teams, even though we are DIII, are still pretty bad. I think that dating within Swarthmore is very different than dating in the real world. Because of the small size, people find it hard to lead independent lives from their significant others. Thus, when breakups happen, there are several mutual friends that are left in awkward situations. A Swarthmore tradition is Pub Nite, which happens every Thursday and is all you can drink for $4 for underclassmen and $3 for seniors. The profit made from these Thursday night gatherings accrues to the senior class' senior week activities, which is the week before graduation in which they do activities. We have no sororities and only two fraternities, which signifies that the greek scene at Swarthmore is pretty nonexistant.

Last weekend I went to a Rhythm and Motion Dance Concert on Saturday and then on Sunday I attended a professional Taiko performance. It was such a great weekend! One good thing about social life here is that every on-campus event is free and open to all students of Tri-Co. It's such a great system that upholds the campus mission of inclusion and openness.

Sports aren't a big deal at Swarthmore. We don't have a football team, and nobody knows how the soccer team or the basketball team did unless they have a friend on the team. The college administration, academic departments, and students do a good job of bringing interesting speakers to campus. Orchestra 2001 performs music by modern composers at least once per semester on campus. Virtually all campus events are free for students.

Many of the individuals are very involved i activities. There are some that are very anti-social but those that aren't like to be involved with activities.

As with any small school, drinking is a big thing. On weekends, the main form of entertainment is a 10 pm to 2 am party, lots of alcohol included. That's not to say that there aren't other things going on...there are often concerts, plays, lectures, movies etc., but after a certain time of day, it all comes down to the parties. The worst thing about weekend life at Swat is the lack of food...after about 10 pm, food becomes pretty much inavailable on campus. There are a few pizza delivery places around, but after about midnight delivery is pretty iffy and unreliable.

Because Swat is kind of in a bubble, all of the socializing happens on campus. We can technically go to Bryn Mawr, Haverford or UPenn whenever we want, but the reality is that few people go on a regular basis. This makes Swarthmore a little incestuous. I think it's fair to say that I know about a fifth of the student body well enough to say hello to them, and almost a third by name or reputation. Swatties are generally wonderful fun to talk to, involved in at least six different extracurriculars, and prone to excessive social awkwardness. I find the people here endlessly entertaining, and I would rather be spending time with fellow Swatties than with any other group of people I can think of.

We have some crazy traditions. Pterodactyl Hunt (hitting people with foam swords), Crum Regatta (students building and racing "boats" down the creek), the rugby team streaking, etc. Very service and social action oriented organizations. It's really easy to get funding to do your own project, start your own organization, etc. There are no sororities, two non-residential frats, one of which provides most of the parties.

Sports are not a huge deal on campus, although a lot of students are involved. I live in a very social dorm. We like to drop into each others rooms for study breaks just to talk and can lose hours to good conversations, even when we don't have hours to lose. there are quite a few fun traditions at Swarthmore. We have the primal scream before finals where the deans serve the students a midnight breakfast and we all let out a primal scream before the chaos of finals begin. We have a large event called screw your roommate where you set you roommate up on a blind date, dress them up in a costume, send them to the dining hall in a costume (along with the rest of the student body) in order to find their matching mate for the night. There are a lot of these traditions these are just the first two that came to mind. Last weekend I went to a girl's night with the freshmen girls on my hall on Thursday night and then went to another hall to socialize further. On Friday i studied some, went on a run. I watched my best friend's a capella (i can't spell sorry) concert, went to a dance, discussed the war in iraq, and called it a night. On Saturday i studied in the library and on the main lawn in school where some bands were playing for peace week. I hung out with my Frisbee team, after which we attended a rhythm and motion dance concert (it's kind of a big deal on campus).

It's hard to judge "popularity" on campus because there's no real hierarchy. People are popular amongst their own friends, which tends to comprise a group. No real dating scene. Students just tend to hook-up or have unhealthy relationships that lead to them not having other friends.

Swarthmore activities such as clubs and organizations are very strong and informative. But when it comes to just having a strong social life...Swat isn't really the place to be, people study a lot around here.