Swarthmore College Top Questions

If I were awake at 2am on a Tuesday, I'd probably be procastinating about a paper due the next day.

popular groups: frisbee team, SWIL, random sports, student government. i wasn't really involved in anything besides swim team. students in dorms definitely left their doors open most of the time except when sleeping or if they didn't want to be disturbed. ha, don't make me laugh - no one cares about athletic events except the kids who are on the teams. guest speakers are very popular, theater a little less so. i didn't really date while i was there (i was basically only with one guy) and i'd say people are either hooking up every weekend, completely chaste, or they are practically married. i met some of my friends at spec weekend, and the others randomly from classes (lab partners, etc.). some of them lived on my floor or in my dorm. awake at 2 am - talking to someone, eating ramen, or frantically finishing the images in a neurobiology paper. there are a lot of traditions/events - like showing the graduate to incoming freshmen every year, the big concert/large scale event, and SWIL pterodactyl hunt. if you want you can party every weekend, but most people don't. it's definitely an option. i'd say the frats were/are only important to people on the sports teams - lacrosse and the former football players. i tended to do all kinds of random things on the weekend, but i mostly saw a lot of free movies on campus and hung out with friends in their rooms. of course you can go to the various dance parties and not drink. and there were all kinds of random things like fashion shows and theater pieces and a capella. it's really easy to get to philly too since the train station is right on campus, i went to a lot of concerts and walked around to shop a lot.

Athletic events are not very popular, with the exception of the end of season match-ups against our arch-rival Haverford. Fraternities are not that important (there are only 2) and sororities are non-existent (Thank God!) If I am awake at 2AM on a Tuesday, I am doing homework or finishing a paper. People party pretty much every weekend, but there are plenty of things to do if you are not into drinking. And if you do go to a party and don't want to drink, no one will force you to.

I tend to make my own fun (playing bocce after hours in our main building and going for bike rides with hallmates), but there's all kinds of things to do if you want to find them. I wish I went to more lectures, but I've been going to more arts performances this year and loving them. I've also discovered the student run Paces Cafe, where I bring the hookah I picked up while abroad and do my homework (until 1AM on Tuesdays). I spend a lot of time in my room with friends too, mostly because I'm an RA and want to be available to the hall. We listen to music, dance, play board games, and talk. Really anything goes. Yesterday, I went into Philly with a couple friends and we spent three hours befriending the owner of a little middle eastern coffee shop, and playing scrabble with him.

I have never been to a sports game, other than the rugby ones I am playing in, but I've heard there is some school spirit for soccer, basketball and swim meets. Theater is extremely popular- there are ten or more student productions a year. There are 6 a cappella groups, so there are always concerts. There are two small, non residential frats that hold parties and have free beer. There is Olde Club, a grungy concert venue for open mics and Philly bands - Nirvana played there before they were famous. There's Kitao/Qub, which is a student art gallery and sushi bar. Finally, my personal favorite, Paces, where there are dance parties each weekend. It's the closest thing to a club we have. Alcohol is almost always free and almost always available. Some people never drink or smoke, some do five nights a week. Everything on campus - theater, parties, concerts, lectures - is free with your student ID. I met my closest friends on a pre-orientation hiking trip. We live together now in a dorm that is actually a cool converted mansion. The dating scene can get a little incestuous. My boyfriend semi-dated one of my ex-friends last year, and I dated one of his hallmates freshman fall. There are always people hooking up randomly at parties, so it can be hard not to overlap with friends. There are also lots and lots of long-term couples. We even have a few married ones!

A lot of people do TOP Soccer, the program that works with children with disabilities. I think tutoring in Chester is also pretty big, and the various acapella groups and dance groups are also very popular, especially Rhythm N Motion. The fraternities are popular places for male athletes and popular because they provide party locations on the weekends. Sports teams aren't necessarily popular because most non-athletes don't come to games that often. But, a lot of people do go to the men's soccer and basketball games. I'm really involved with the Learning for Life (L4L) program at Swarthmore. It's an awesome program that pairs students with staff members in Environmental Services and Dining Services. The partnerships work together for a semester to learn something. Some chose to work out together, some cook, and others work on computers. We also have people working on photography and gardening. It's a unique program that really gives students a new perspective on the campus. It connects you to a group of the campus that often goes unnoticed, and you learn a lot from just talking with the staff members. Plus, it gives you another person you can look to for support when you're stressed out. My closest friends are either on the field hockey team with me or they lived on my hall freshman year. For a lot of athletes, they only really hang out with other athletes, but I really enjoy having several different groups of friends. As someone who doesn't drink, I can say that there are some limitations to the Swat social scene in that regard. I do go out and dance with my friends who drink, which is fun for a while. But it often gets old more quickly with me, so I tend to go to bed earlier, which is good because sleep is important. I know the college is working on starting a Friday night game night sort of thing, which may target non-drinkers. If you don't want to go out and drink, you can definitely still go out sober, but people may question you as to why you're not drinking. It's not really pressure to drink, just questions. You can also usually find a group of people who aren't going out to watch a movie with or just sit around and hang out with.

I can't really speak to the athletic life at Swat, but it definitely exists, and is a main social outlet for a lot of people. The international group, the Asian- and African- American groups, the LBGTQ group, all serve as organizations and social groups, but otherwise extracurriculars and groups of friends seem to exist more separately. Which isn't to say that students aren't invested in their groups and organizations. For a lot of Swatties these things are the main reason why they're at school - their passion. This might be more true of the activist groups - the Genocide Intervention Fund and War News Radio, for example. There are a lot of social outlets at Swat. The two frats - a student could easily never step foot in one their entire stint at Swarthmore, but they definitely fill their niche - the on-campus parties hosted by groups and athletic teams, open mic nights, film screenings, etc. As students get older they attend more dorm room and off-campus parties, but there's usually enough to keep people busy. Guest speakers and events are student-determined, and tend to be hit or miss - one year the Large Scale Event was some third-tier comedian, the next year it was the Roots (at the height of their popularity). So. Drinking, like most things at Swarthmore, is optional. There's a lot available, but there are a lot of people who simply don't drink and will spend their weekends watching movies or playing board games with their friends. Then others who go into hedonistic overdrive on the weekend, hooking up with people and drinking everything in sight.

There's nothing to eat after 11 pm. There have been a lot of thefts this year, from the library and from dorm rooms. Performing arts are really amazing given the size of the school. You can do a ton on Saturday night that doesn't involve drinking. Nobody goes on dates. You are either single and really lonely or you are in a really clingy relationship. This may have to do with Swat students' poor hygiene or extreme awkwardness, but mostly it's just how things work around here. Nobody goes on dates.

The dating scene at Swarthmore is strange. Because the school is so small, it's difficult to meet people you don't know anything about. Dating here usually isn't the same kind of "dating" you'd do elsewhere, like the kind where you meet someone new and then go out on a date. From what I gather, people usually just spend more and more time together, and then fall into the zone between friendship and relationship for a while. Then the inevitable question of whether or not you want to take it one step further and become serious comes up. I feel that most people in relationships on campus are practically "married," in that they spend all of their time together. Greek life is not a big part of the social life here, although I guess that really depends on who you are. For some, it is. There are only two fraternities and no sororities. The two frats throw a number of the same parties every year and generally receive good attendance. Otherwise, there are usually a number of other opportunities for people to party and socialize. Different organizations usually throw a dance party in the all-too-familiar Paces every weekend. These parties become repetitive quickly. My personal favorite events are live shows performed at Olde Club, our small dingy venue, which stages both student performers and indie bands on the rise. Since campus is so clustered together, it's very easy to hop from one party to another all night. I think that people also appreciate that Swarthmore really is a bubble, in that security is very lenient and people can safely wander around campus in the dead of the night without running into any trouble. It's also very easy for people to throw parties in public spaces and even get funded for their parties by the Social Affair Committee, so long as they abide by the guidelines. The people who show up to campus-wide parties are usually the same, and turnouts aren't usually great. I get really excited when I see a lot of people out at the same time, because it's so rare. Philadelphia is a convenient half-hour ride on the SEPTA train from campus, but it feels a lot farther. The fare is pretty expensive, and I feel that it's not a particularly enjoyable city unless you know where to go. I don't explore it as much as I thought I would, and usually only go in when I'm going to see a movie or a show. I'm only familiar with the movie theatres and music venues. Media is also a nice option to explore outside of campus. It's a town maybe ten minutes away by train and it's got a few nice dining options as well as a Trader Joe's for grocery shopping. I feel that occasionally venturing outside of campus is essential to maintaining one's sanity and general well-being at Swarthmore.

I am pretty heavily involved with Ultimate Frisbee on campus. Our team is called the Swarthmore Earthworms (Earthworms is Swarthmore re-arranged... a reflection of our "nerdiness") and we play all fall and spring. It's a club sport, which means that we are much more casual than any of the varsity sports, and it's a great way to get your mind off of classes and schoolwork and run around for a bit. Plus, the team camaraderie is definitely a big plus. Actually I am writing this just as we are preparing to leave for a Spring Break trip down to South Carolina. We will play two tournaments and cram more than 30 people in a single beach house, so you can imagine how these things tend to help bonds form between people. That's one way to make friends here--get to know the people involved in the same activities as you. But really, when the campus is so small, it's hard to be a hermit. I can't say that your friends will fall from the sky at you, but at least there isn't the problem of anonymity you have a large state schools. PS: Lots of drinking.