Swarthmore College

Swarthmore, PA
March 27, 2010

Since most of you have probably not heard of Swarthmore, let me briefly assure you that it is indeed a top college worth considering. Swarthmore is a small liberal arts school of 1490 undergraduates located half an hour southwest of Philadelphia, in the sheltered suburb of Swarthmore, PA. Swarthmore’s main attributes are its honor code - which is descended from the college’s Quaker origins, its honors program - through which one third of the student body undergoes a quarter of their credit hours in rigorous graduate level seminars, and for its blend of a rich liberal arts background with practical programs such as majors in engineering and public policy. For the class of 2013, exactly 50% of students were in the top 2% of their class, and 15.7% of students were admitted.

From what I’ve just told you, Swarthmore seems like a one of a kind school, and it is in many ways. I went on a campus tour expecting another New England liberal arts college akin to Williams, Bowdoin, or Middlebury. What I saw was ultimately quite different from that expectation and belongs in its own category. My initial reaction was that the immediate campus atmosphere was far more friendly and quirky than those aforementioned, typical liberal arts colleges. The campus almost looks like it belongs permanently in spring, with dollhouse-like white trim and fences everywhere and gorgeous, well maintained grounds and foliage. Meanwhile, students are out soaking up the sun on the lawn, creating a really welcoming environment. Now, contrast this scene with typical collegiate gothic campus with students scurrying around like robots, not acknowledging each other. This is the first major distinction that Swarthmore brings to the table, already securing it as a place of utmost community, as inspired by its Quaker founders. To further this theme, many campus buildings are open 24/7, the college has only one communal dining hall, and faculty have office hours at least twice a week.

Next, take in Swarthmore’s academic prowess. It is currently ranked third among all liberal arts colleges in the country by U.S. News and World Report, behind Williams and Amherst. It is also ranked third in the country, behind only small engineering colleges, for the percentage of graduates going on to earn PhD’s, which is nearly one in five students. This is the typical study for gauging how intellectually oriented a college is. However, Swarthmore is also competitive in graduate school placement for professional schools such as business, law, and medicine, as it was ranked tenth in the nation for placement into top programs by the Wall Street Journal.

This clearly outstanding academic program doesn’t train the best students in the country by coincidence. Swarthmore has tailored its academic program to near perfection over its long existence. The most distinctive part of this program is the option students have to take any major on what is called the “honors” program, which is more focused and graduate school oriented than the typical “course” option, which allows for more course freedom. I can’t tell you how many times it was stressed to me that neither program is “better” or more rigorous than the other; they are simply different styles of learning. The colleges distinctive honors program requires four double credit seminars in the major to be taken each semester over a students junior and senior years. These seminars are capped at ten students and really practice graduate level immersion in coursework. Honors seminars meet once a week for extended amounts of time - usually around five hours - and are discussion and theory based responses to the ungodly amounts of reading assigned between weekly classes, which is typically a few hundred pages. Keep in mind that these seminars count for double credit, so a junior or senior schedule in honors consists of one honors seminar and only two elective or major required classes. For this reason, many students opt to take only course majors so that they can still take advanced non-honors courses in their course major and also fit in three classes, both elective and major oriented. In either case, all Swarthmore students must submit a thesis to graduate. However, honors applicants must defend their thesis in an hour long oral examination by external examiners, typically experts in the field from other institutions, while course majors must only submit a written thesis. Ultimately, one in three students at Swarthmore chooses to major with honors. Though no prospective student can know already whether or not honors is for them, this is an amazing resource available to students and it really highlights Swarthmore’s main priority of outstanding, intense academics. The school seems to understand an academic balance between student-teacher interaction, with an outstanding ratio of eight students to each faculty member, with an amazing amount of student activism and ownership of their own Swarthmore education. My tour guide stressed that the academic experience at Swarthmore permeates all times of the day and all corners of campus. The academic experience depends more on the quality of the student body than on the professors or the academic program.

Swarthmore’s general academic philosophy is bringing together new ways of thinking into every classroom. In the information session I attended, the admissions representative spoke of a tree in the middle of the room. He went around the room calling on prospective students, asking their intended major and supposing ways they might think about the tree; the biology major attempts to classify it, the physics major analyzes its structure, the sociology major wonders how people have interacted with it, the history major wonders why and when it was planted, etc. This seems very indicative of the academic soup brewing at Swarthmore; students of all different perspectives with their own ways of thinking rub off onto others and constantly create new paths of thinking. This type of exploration and meshing together of students with varied interests is incentivized the the college through extensive pass/fail course options. For all students at Swarthmore, the first semester is taken entirely pass/fail. This gives students the opportunity to assimilate to the expectations of academic and residential life at Swarthmore without overwhelming them with grade expectations. In addition, students may take four other courses pass/fail. For science or math oriented students, this means that they can take that intense literature course they have been eyeing without fear of earning a bad grade. For artistic or language based students, this means that you can take a few of your three science or math classes in Swarthmore’s distribution requirements for pass/fail credit. The school has thus developed an academic program that encourages new ways of thinking and minimizes the risk to students that typically forces them to graduate without branching out academically.

Anyways, in case this academic scene seems a little overwhelming, Swarthmore also offers an interesting, balanced social atmosphere. With Philadelphia only a twenty minute train ride away from the Swarthmore campus, a brief escape from academics is typically welcome among Swatties. The school has two small fraternities that offer the campus a social break on the weekends. One guidebook I typically profile for all schools, the ISI guidebook, really framed Swarthmore as a liberal place. Swarthmore recently attracted national criticism when it canceled its football program to enact more serious affirmative action policies - certainly a controversial, but meaningful change. From the admissions video I watched, students seemed amazingly down to earth. Each student had their own story to tell and both their academic interests and extracurricular involvements seemed extremely well grounded in unique passions. Students seem to be those “organizational kids” who somehow manage to take advantage of every opportunity available to them, and are phrased more as “hard workers” than “geniuses.” Everywhere I went on the tour, there were dozens of posters for guest speakers, club events, and social activities all for the next weekend. My tour guide furthered that students frequently get behind in their schoolwork because they overload on the many social and extracurricular options at Swarthmore. Strange social activities like “screw your roommate” and a yearly “pterodactyl hunt” in addition to a ton of school provided alcohol on the weekends seem to liberate students from their academic blinders. The administration seems to have a great grasp on what the students need to balance intense academics with a constructive social scene, and students seem generally satisfied with the overall experience.

Early Decision results from The Choice

As you may know by now, I am a huge proponent of Early Decision programs as a way for students and institutions to connect over a common interest in bringing the most motivated, eager students to world renowned campuses across the nation.

Here are the admissions statistics from the 2009-2010 admissions season for Early Decision and Early Action programs. The accompanying article is very typical of those published yearly by guidebooks, noting exaggerated increases in applications.

I found these interesting simply because they vary so much from school to school. As opposed to the common story pitched by guidebooks that applications increase 20% at every school, every year, these statistics are pretty refreshing. Of course, at many schools, admissions chances are bleaker than last year (see the University of Chicago with a 56% increase in Early Action applications this year).

However, there is really only a substantial difference in about a quarter of competitive schools. Plenty of colleges like Williams got as much as 12% fewer applications this year, with most liberal arts colleges just about flat year over year.

In case you were wondering, there is still hope for most of us out there, and the admissions process is not cycling out of control - for this year at least. The problem with the process as a whole is that it is not forgiving year over year, and often times decisions come down to pure luck depending on where we are in the cycle at the particular time an applicant applies. Unfortunately for students seeking admission to places like the University of Chicago, this year was outright devastating.

Davidson College

Davidson College
Davidson, North Carolina

March 25, 2010

I came to Davidson not knowing what to expect of this unique liberal arts college located in the “research triangle” of suburban North Carolina. Davidson brings together many unique, impressive pieces into one really solid liberal arts experience; first- Davidson is the smallest school in the United States to boast a complete set of Division I athletic teams, second- Davidson is one of the few nationally competitive small liberal arts colleges located in the south, third- Davidson boasts amazing graduation rates into top professional schools, and fourth- Davidson boasts the social feel of a large university with active students, established greek life, and amazing school spirit.

Stepping foot on the campus, I couldn’t help but feel welcome. The campus is huge, the grounds are neat, and the stately Georgian brick buildings are consistent with the school’s large endowment. The school was founded by a group of Presbyterian Christians, one of whom was Woodrow Wilson’s father (Wilson even attended Davidson for a few years). The once religious focus of the campus has eroded over time into a non-sectarian “honor code” emphasizing moral, religious values minus the exclusivity of a specific denomination. The honor code is a formal set moral principles that all students agree to follow. An honor board composed of students thus takes care of all discipline on campus. As all students have pledged never to cheat, steal, lie, etc. on campus, the school has a sense of trust in its air. As a result, classes require mostly take home tests, most buildings on campus do not have door locks, and the library does not have security scanners for books. Though it may sound like a minor part of campus life, it is crucial to the sense of community that I got to know while visiting Davidson.

My immediate fear was that the school would be overbearingly athletic. This concern was indeed a legitimate one, but I have learned to look on athletics in a new way. I initially believed that an athletic focus would detract from the academic quality of the student body or perhaps the arts culture on campus. When I explained my concern during the information session, however I got a satisfying response that seems to sum up Davidson's community ethos. The counselor explained that a lot of people come to Davidson not really caring about the athletic element. This counselor was, for example, a theatre major. He soon noticed that athletics became a major part of his life at Davidson, though, as he wanted to support the school that he loved, and wearing red face paint and cheering on their perennial “sweet 16” NCAA basketball team totally changed his outlook on athletics. As opposed to the athletics detracting from the arts experience or from academic focus, athletics seems to inject a campus pride into the school community. For the arts, this means sold out musical events just as popular as athletic events, and in the classroom, this means refreshing student perspectives with an active social setting in which to live and learn.

Facilities around campus were amazing, especially the athletic facilities. For a school of such a small size, Davidson is absolutely tops for athletic facilities and programs. Typical buildings such as the library and student union felt comfortable and well maintained, though nothing at the college was very original. As comfortable as campus facilities were, I was a little disappointed by how concentrated all of the academic space was. All departments (and classes) that are not hard sciences are housed in one giant academic building. Though the building is very sophisticated and possesses newly renovated classrooms, I feel that this condensation of separate departments mashes disciplines into an uncomfortable conglomeration reminiscent of high school. As opposed to the organization at most small liberal arts colleges, wherein smaller departments get their own houses just off campus and larger departments get their own medium sized building on campus, this felt like an impersonal - dare I say bureaucratic - way to learn at a place that is so proud of its close-knit community aesthetic.

I mentioned earlier that Davidson’s southern location really distinguishes it among schools. Along with Washington and Lee, it really is one of the only top liberal arts colleges located in the south, though its geography ultimately played little part in my impression of the campus. That is, Davidson, North Carolina provides an environment similar to the college towns I visited last spring break along the eastern seaboard. The students at first seemed a little bit homogeneous- mostly athletic, well dressed (wealthy?), and white. I got to seeing a lot of interesting people on the tour though, so I don’t think the school is narrow set or plain. Davidson seems to provide the diversity of an eastern liberal arts school coupled (perhaps just diluted) with a southern state school feeling of WASPY athleticism. In addition to the campus, the town of Davidson felt very neutral and was not overwhelmingly southern. Everyone I saw was noticeably well dressed and the quirky shops around campus fit well into the “quaint” New England town feeling while maintaining a comfortable and practical feeling of suburban America.

Overall, Davidson is clearly a gem of the south. It probably won't stand out for me in the long run because its strong suits, notably its athleticism and its well rounded, white, southern student body, were simply not priorities of mine, though they are certainly conducive to a high standard of living that is probably the closest you can get to having a true “college experience” at an academically rigorous liberal arts college. Personally, I’m still looking at Northeastern schools because they aren’t afraid to sacrifice the traditional athletic state school effect in exchange for added diversity, greater academic intensity, and a generally more open, liberal experience for students than what is common at Davidson.

Insight into the Admissions office of UChicago

The following article is quite dated (from a 1999 Newsweek issue), but quite telling as for the kind of thinking that admissions officers are forced to utilize when forced to meet so many quotas. What may seem to be a negligible distinction between two applicants often makes the cut, and the article lists a few great examples that most people wouldn't have caught on to.

I mentioned quotas before, and I think the U of C approach to them is interesting.

"Their ethnicity, something that many applicants don't divulge, still isn't known in the aggregate. Chicago prides itself on using no gender, racial, geographic or other quotas in deciding whom to accept. "We're not 'building a class,' creating this ideal little world with so many of these and so many of those," O'Neill says. "We accept the best, and hope to get as many as we can."

This is a constant struggle for me when I am looking into campus demographics; trying to objectively interpret a campus culture from mere statistics or snippets of student input. What I have found true for most schools is certainly not consistent with Chicago's statement above; most top colleges are indeed statistically (racially) diverse, but are still overly homogeneous in opinion and politics.

This statement is surely taken into account by people viewing "diversity" statistics, but I don't think most people account for how true this problem really is on college campuses. The product of this thinking is generally an unbalanced and overly liberal student body which, though open to new ideas, is intrinsically closed to much of America's real political sentiment, inadvertently hampering campus "diversity".

The article is linked here: University of Chicago Admissions - Newsweek

Question and Answer

I have a question for the expert... I got C's in geometry last year for both semesters. I am considering retaking the second semester over summer school this summer to get an A so on my transcript so that I would have a C then an A with the grade replacement. Does this really matter to colleges? Should I just use the summer to get ahead in an interest of mine like psychology instead? Do colleges really look at your freshman year?
-Sally Sophomore

This is a tough call. Really, the only downside to the C's is that they will lower your GPA. As to the specific grades, you can explain them to colleges in a counselor note or personal comment on how they were "hard earned" and you weren't just slacking off. Basically, make it clear to colleges that those grades were the exception to an otherwise strong transcript.

The more I read about colleges, the more I realize that you have to play offense to succeed in admissions. Playing defense and defending your past grades just so that you can meet the GPA averages of a college won't do you much good if that only gets you to be an "average" applicant.

Basically, the perfect applicant has a passion. This is what everyone tries to have one or two of, but they are often unimpressive. Let's face it, it's hard to have college level interests at our age! Becoming passionate about something and loosely framing all of your extracurriculars (and work experience) around it should be your main goal, and that might compensate for some mishaps earlier on. For you, this could be something like teaching (tutoring), working, or spending your summer developing an academic passion that spreads beyond the classroom by using summer school to proactively (rather than defensively) boost your grades and demonstrate interest in a new subject.

Review: America's Elite Colleges

Having read countless guidebooks, I'm usually only mildly impressed by any effort put out by a big box publishing company - this is one major exception. This author has taken an often neglected concept and written an entire book principled on it; that in our current "sellers market", applicants need to know how to

1. Identify their interests and strengths
and then
2. Comprehensively communicate those strengths to fit what that college is looking for.

The book emphasizes that applicants are not appraised equally at all institutions. The author cites examples such as one student applying to Amherst for engineering and the school, neither admitting him nor denying him, simply telling him that Amherst wasn't right for him because it lacked any engineering equivalent. This sort of puzzle piece fitting is ultimately what colleges are looking for, not generically qualified applicants.

Because the author emphasizes a student really connecting with a school not only in academic programs, but also in general motivations and personality, a sort of personality quiz is included in the book in which students are either labeled "Idealist, Rational, Guardian, or Artisan". Don't be fooled by this seemingly generic test, though. Whereas most tests simply spit out information (i.e. "you are logical" - so what?), this book actually uses this grouping to match you with one of the 32 "Elite Colleges of America" and actually helps you make the choice based on personality fit, not just on admission chances or name.

Without the dull common sense page-filling fluff occupying 3/4 of most guidebooks, this book is a must for any student considering top schools because it skips straight to the heart of the discussion. In addition to admissions advice on how to communicate your match with the college, brief but insightful profiles of 32 of America's top schools are included in the back of the book, making this a great resource for those who don't want to waste their time flipping through thousand page volumes. The best part may be that the reviews are written so as to differentiate the schools from one another - an absurdly rare occasion among guidebooks for any colleges. As opposed to generically advertising a liberal arts education or strong campus community, the book breaks down school demographics and the real passions driving the school forward.

Ultimately, I'm very impressed by this book's insightful and condensed information. "America's Elite Colleges" is a must for all potential applicants to top colleges who want real, useful information out of a guidebook that for once distinguishes colleges rather than homogenizing them.

The Best Sources for College Information

I wanted to provide some insight into how I process the wealth of information about each particular college to make it manageable, accurate, and most importantly, relevant to my application process.

1. Website - When I first hear about a college by word of mouth or maybe a glace through a ranking or viewbook, my first step is to stop at the college's website. This seems like the logical step, but college websites are often unbelievably convoluted and generally uninformative. Liberal arts colleges especially end up advertising the benefits of a liberal arts education, rather than an education from a particular college. The website visit thus allows for a general gist of what the school has to offer you academically and socially. One thing to take note of is what the colleges choose to occupy the space on their websites. Pay attention to what the college is really advertising - this is what the school prioritizes, even though they will all claim a "holistic undergraduate experience". Such categories to take note of are school spirit, academic rigor, and most popularly a great residential environment (most ivy league schools).

2. View Book - I must first confess, I am a complete sucker for flattery mail sent out by colleges. As soon as I have established a serious interest in a college, I fill out the form on their website to request information. This serves two purposes. First, the content of view books is some of the best information you will get about a school, from student perspectives to admissions preferences, this is the colleges time and place to brag about what makes them unique. Look at a view book the same way as you view a website. Interact with it, read the entire thing, and note what the college chooses to emphasize to see if those things are fitting with your priorities in a college. Second, you will also be added to that school's list of applicants who have "demonstrated interest". This is seen as a way of expressing interest (and thus likelihood to enroll if admitted) a little under the influence of a campus visit, but still seen as a positive initiation of communication between applicant and college.

3. Look the school up in a comprehensive guide - I have used a variety of guide books, but I keep coming back to the same few books because they have truly outstanding and experienced perspectives on schools that parents and students couldn't possibly have gleaned from a view book or even a campus visit or information session. The guide to start with is undoubtedly "Fiske's Guide to the Colleges", a very comprehensive and easy to read guide book that really emphasizes the intangibles of a school, what you might call a school's personality. This is a great opportunity to cross reference what the guidebook says from professional experience with what you thought about the school from exposure to their marketing - perhaps you were sucked in by those autumn campus still shots in the view book. A College Prowler is also a must to capture the overall experience of a college. Skipping the insignificant sections like safety, security, on and off campus housing, computers, etc. and focusing on the meaty sections like academics, local atmosphere, and guys and girls, they take a maximum of twenty minutes to read - an efficient use of time.

4. After you have been interested for a school for a few weeks or months, it's time to get serious about comparing your top choices. Check out the college's yearly course handbook from your guidance office and compare the types of classes offered for the program of interest to you. The types of courses offered speak boldly about what a college values. As a prospective anthropology major myself, I see a lot of schools offering only traditional courses such as Social Anthropology, Urban Anthropology, Social Theory of the Individual, which reflects upon that school valuing a more traditional liberal arts education. More progressive schools might offer courses like The Anthropology of Star Wars, Consumerism in Society, or even The Anthropology of Tattoos. Such specialization is key in selecting both an academic program and a comprehensive atmosphere that is fitting with your interests. To further your understanding of a school's academic reputation and offerings, begin to look at the specific department that houses your prospective majors (always more than one program - you will probably change your mind between the time you apply and enroll)and decide what they emphasize through major requirements. The guide book "Choosing the Right College" published biannually by the ISI organization, though terribly elitist and demanding of schools (upholding that a school is essentially worthless if it doesn't require a core curriculum), offers a lot of insight into how the school is doing financially, what resources it has to offer, what departments emphasize, how responsive the administration is, and the general campus atmosphere encompassing the political views and student awareness on campus.

Always remember - it is a process and your opinion of a school at a given time is completely relative to which source you have seen last or what mood you are in. I keep a journal of my interest in schools so that I can compare how I feel currently with how I felt a few months ago. This method has kept me from "obsessing" over certain schools for short periods of time, and has allowed me to find the schools that I consistently recognize as top choices to help establish what I really value in a college for the long term.

Relections on "Prospectives from Dartmouth Admissions"

I recently came upon this blog hosted by the Dartmouth admissions staff that is constantly updated with insightful reminders crucial to the sanity of anyone working or applying for college admissions.

An Assistant Dean gave the following synthesis of the process through a college's eyes, and I believe these are sincere attempts to explain the process honestly.














She seeks the approach that most students want to believe - that admissions isn't all about the numbers, but does so in a new light. Rather than vaguely bumbling out phrases such as "holistic view" or "character", Caroline breaks it down in to five important questions she asks before reading a Dartmouth application.

As I read your application, I am thinking about five basic questions:

1. What opportunities have been available to this applicant?
2. What are the things that matter most to him/her?
3. Given these two, what choices has he/she made?
4. What are the applicant's successes?
5. How has he/she had an impact on others?

This is a refreshing call to action for students to analyze their own applications objectively according to the criteria suggested in Caroline's questions. One key word - objective - implies a new clarity to the situation that will greatly help students assess their chances for admission and become stronger applicants.

The blog can be found at:
http://dartmouthperspectives.blogspot.com/2009/09/how-can-i-improve-my-chance-of.html