Five Great Stats and Fun Facts about Swarthmore College

This summer I had the fantastic opportunity to attend a summer training institute offered by the Independent Educational Consultants Association (IECA) which offered college admissions advisors training on everything from the latest trends in college advising to the best resources to use for students with learning differences, plus the chance to network with their colleagues. 

The workshops were held at Swarthmore College, a private liberal arts college with 1,545 enrolled students located about 10 miles southwest of Philly. Since I ate, slept and drank at Swarthmore for four days, I really got to know this campus (along with its history, traditions and expectations from students) quite well.

Here are 5 great stats about Swarthmore College:

1. Tri-College Consortium: Swarthmore is part of the Tri-College Consortium, which is a cooperative arrangement among Swarthmore, Bryn Mawr, and Haverford Colleges. “The consortium shares an integrated library system of more than three million volumes, and students are able to cross-register in courses at all three institutions. A common Quaker heritage exists amongst the consortium schools and the University of Pennsylvania also extends this cross-registration agreement to classes at the University of Pennsylvania's College of Arts and Sciences.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swarthmore_College)

2. First semester without grades!  Although Swarthmore ranks #3 on the U.S. News and World Report list of National Liberal Arts Colleges and has only a 14% acceptance rate, this intellectual powerhouse still has a soft spot for its freshman academically. How so, you ask? “For a student's first semester of the first year at Swarthmore, final grades of CR (credit) or NC (no credit) are the only officially recorded grades on the transcript. This is to allow students time to make the transition to college-level academic work.” (http://www.swarthmore.edu/advising-handbook/general-advising-issues-and-information)

But while there’s no GPA, Dean’s List or class rank for the first semester, students should understand that they will still be graded as usual within their courses with written evaluations and grade equivalents from their instructors, copies of which are shared with the advisor.

3. The typical Swattie:  The Dean of Students, James Bock, describes a typical student at Swarthmore as one who is not afraid to debate. He or she is intellectually engaged and not scared to have beliefs challenged. The Admissions Department is currently looking for people who have faced adversity without pessimism, perfectionism, procrastination or career paralysis. Swarthmore is looking for “bridge builders” and “chill pills” – the type of student that doesn’t crash and burn when faced with academic rigor. Many Swatties are originally from California, New York, Pennsylvania & New Jersey.

4. One large arboretum: Swarthmore’s entire campus of over 300 acres is located on a gorgeous arboretum, exhibiting over 4,000 kinds of ornamental plants. It was formed as a living memorial to a student of the class of 1895, and its mission is educate the public about which plants are suited for home gardens in the Swarthmore area.

The Dean of Admissions recognized that more people come to see the arboretum than the university. Bock also joked that “Although each plants and trees has a label, not all buildings do. Therefore, even if you can’t find your class, at least you know where the trees are.”

4. Need blind admissions policy for domestic students: Swat has a need-blind admissions policy (which means that applicants are judged solely on their own merits, irrespective of their ability to pay for tuition) for domestic students. Need I say more?

5. Housing: All dorms are intergenerational (meaning they house a combination of students from different years together, not just freshman), and there is guaranteed housing for all 4 years. 95% of students live in college housing each semester. “Swat's 16 dorms range in size (from a cozy 8-person house to a lively 200-person dorm).” (http://www.swarthmore.edu/housing/dorm-life) A lottery system determines which dorm you or your student will end up in.

And now for the 5 fun facts:

1. “I do”:  According to James Bock, 15% of Swat alums marry other alums, although they usually get together after college, “giving substance to the College’s traditional appellation as the ‘Quaker matchbox’”. (http://www.swarthmore.edu/college-catalog/alumni-association-officers-and-alumni-council)

2. (Dining &) dance hall days love: Visitors to Swarthmore’s Sharples dining hall often have the feeling that they are visiting a set from Hogwarts. This idea inspired students back in the Fall of 2010 to transform their daily dining hall into a Harry Potter-like wonderland, complete with cauldron cakes, ice sculptures, musical performances, and various wizard-inspired attire.

The Yule Ball, now an annual tradition at Swat, is an excuse for students to sample a creative array of Harry Potter-themed desserts, such as Chocolate Frogs, Peppermint Toads, Cockroach Clusters, Pumpkin Pasties, and Treacle Tarts.  In past years, the Yule Ball Committee has even sponsored a host of related events in anticipation of the grand event, such as waltz lessons, screenings of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and tutorial lessons about the ins and outs of playing Quidditch. (http://www.swarthmore.edu/news-events/watch-swarthmore-transforms-hogwarts-annual-yule-ball)

3. Butterfly roof: "Responding to an urgent need to update and expand its science teaching facilities, Swarthmore College sought to create a contemporary environment to express the College's commitment to progressive education and intellectual inquiry." (http://www.archnewsnow.com/features/Feature171.htm)

Sustainability was one of the major forces leading the conceptualization. And so, Swarthmore hired an architectural team who could not only unify the isolated science buildings and library with a common area, but decided to make the new building innovations specifically for their campus needs. As mentioned earlier, Swarthmore’s entire campus is a nationally registered arboretum which needs lots of water to stay verdant and beautiful. For that reason, the renovators decided to make the Commons building an inviting place with transparent walls and a butterfly (or V) -shaped roof to harvest rain water, “directing water back into the earth through waterfalls, stone water channels, re-absorption pools, and infiltration beds with excess stored underground for irrigation.” (http://www.archnewsnow.com/features/Feature171.htm)  

4. Giant chalkboards: Besides finding innovative ways to keep the campus green, Swarthmore also decided to take a fresh twist on traditional teaching methods. Most notable are “the outdoor teaching spaces scattered around the perimeter of the building where honed black granite walls provide ‘blackboards’ so that science classes can be conducted with a traditional teaching wall.” (http://www.archnewsnow.com/features/Feature171.htm) Now wouldn’t that be a fun way to learn!

5. Pterodactyl hunt: “Once every year, an unparalleled phenomenon occurs on the Swarthmore College campus. The temporal boundary between the present and 65,000,000 years ago weakens, letting loose vicious pterodactyls and a slew of countless other monsters to attack the student body! How does Swarthmore respond? What do the students do in the face of impending doom?

They pick up foam bats, of course.

Usually occurring in early October, The Pterodactyl Hunt is a Swarthmore tradition unlike any other. Students come together to wear trash bags, fight monsters, and generally make fools of themselves—all while having the time of their lives.

The Pterodactyl Hunt is coordinated every year by the members of the Psi Phi Club, who spend a few weeks preparing for the event—and making sure that students are thoroughly prepared to defend the campus.

Students need not fear if standing on the side of good isn’t their thing. Psi Phi also spends time during those weeks to recruit students to the side of the monsters, which is by no means confined to pterodactyls. There’s a whole range of baddies and creatures of evil that join the fray, including (but never limited to) goblins, orcs, kobolds, the jabberwock, the lonely troll, and dactyl guards (dubbed, with nerdy wit, the “spondees”). Certainly, this mass of monsters proves to be a daunting task for Swatties to conquer, but Swarthmore students are of a valiant sort, and refuse to let their campus fall to the dactyls!” (http://www.swarthmore.edu/student-life/pterodactyl-hunt)

Well, there you have it: five great stats and fun facts about another fantastic college – Swarthmore College!