Swarthmore students come from all over the world, with all manners of motivation for coming and staying. What are some of those motivations? Today, twenty students gave their answers.
As always, all interviewees were given pseudonyms to protect their identity, and because I don’t care about their privacy that much, they were allowed to pick their fake names. I shall honor their wishes, but let it be known that I did not say that Swarthmore is a “great place to meet men;” that was a Bryn Mawr student who asked if she could be in the blog post, and chose “Spencer” as her pseudonym. An informal conversation was had with all, out of which various quotes are highlighted here.
The mediums of speech and writing are disparate; as such, a translation of sound into words has been done by me (i.e. single statements are often many stitched together, with many conversational devices omitted). This disclaimer is here to warn you of an undeniable fact; I, in my role as translator, undeniably influenced what has made it here. A pertinent quote:
“When I transcribe the conversation around me, I find myself purposefully playing down the verbal range of it, so that it does not read like post-literate affectation–which it isn’t… I suppose I’m just getting frustrated by what written words can’t do. This afternoon [someone said]: “You got no . . .” paused and interjected three syllables of laughter “. . . know what I can see it in here, can I?” What marks of elision, inflection, and melody could make that sound, or the sense of it, intelligible on paper?”
–Samuel R. Delany, Dhalgren, 680-681
FERDINAND: It’s a really good school, gorgeous campus, and I wanted to go far away from home. I like the classes, and I really like the people. Also, I really like the Crum.
FORK: There are a lot of people like me here. I mean, we [the author and the subject] argued an hour ago about the necessity of the Lebesgue integral. Can’t do that anywhere else. I get to work with professors very closely, I get to do research about circle packing.
CHAIR: I love Gamelan. I really like Swarthmore’s location–it’s really easy to go to Philly, but not too close to the city. I have very tight relationships with professors.
VLAD: I knew I wanted something smaller. Since I was looking to go into STEM, the ability to have close relationships with my professors was important to me. Swarthmore has great psych and bio programs (and they’re getting a new building!). I grew up at a Quaker school, so I really like the moral vibes. I love the community, the friends I’ve made, the organizations I’m in, the lab I joined; I get to have a lot of friends. Also, it’s close to home; at some point I won’t be close to home, so might as well do it while I can.
NAMRA: My reasons for coming are a secret, even to myself. I’ve stayed primarily because of inertia, but hell, I’m having a great time.
PEPI: Good financial aid and better financial aid. Some of the people are cool, I suppose.
TORY: When I was looking for schools, I was coming in as an engineering and theater person, which is a very odd mix, but Swarthmore let (and really encouraged) me to do both. Everybody’s like that; nobody here limits themselves to one thing. All the people I’ve met have been so interesting. I can learn from every single student.
JERRY: I toured here last summer with a friend and it was just a very unique campus. Loved the arboretum aspect. I thought I’d be an environmental sciences major (not at all what I’m doing now), so I’m glad I came somewhere where I could change that. I love the community, the people. (I know, I’m so unique, nobody else likes other people.) I can do intense work in areas that are interesting to me, and know that my professors are people I can count on to care about their material.
ZYX: Honestly, I think I came here because the quirky letters got to me. Academics are good for both of the majors I’m interested in (Russian and Psych) and the financial aid was excellent. Now that I’m here, it’s great. I like the professors. I like all of my classes (except this damn computational psychology one that I’m terrible at, but that’s life). I’ve made a lot of friends.
SPENCER: I mean, I got the opportunity to be a Lang scholar. I really like my professors and the general student body, and I feel like I’m really being prepared for whatever happens to me after I graduate. I like the trees and the flowers.
KLAW (chiming in at “I like the flowers”): I like the dirt here. It’s really great dirt. Unironically.
JIMOTHY: It’s the opportunities the college gives. There’s a lot of opportunities—academic and extracurricular—that are really easy to take advantage of.
WILLETS: I’m sure that everyone else is going to say “the people,” and I’m not going to do anything else. The people here are really exceptional; they’re all so interesting on such a visceral level. The variety of things you can do and classes you can take is kind of astonishing. Also, it’s pretty small; I love the feeling of knowing somebody in pretty much every room I walk into.
RIVET: Sunken cost fallacy. Too lazy to move. Seriously, there really is so much to like here—what comes to mind immediately are the opportunities beyond Swarthmore, be that Tri-Co, or UPenn, or even just how a bunch of my dance classes take us on field trips. There are a lot of opportunities to break out.
MAGNET: I really enjoy the connections to other colleges. Great place to meet “friends.” (Magnet went on a date last night with someone from outside of Swarthmore. We here at the blog wish them the best.)
RETIREMENT: I love the accessibility of opportunities beyond Swarthmore, like the Tri-Co. My arts classes take us to performances and shows all the time. There are opportunities to break out. And obviously, there’s the people, who aren’t really like anywhere else. I think I wrote my “Why Swarthmore” supplemental essay about that—people here recognize how much words matter and really try to embody them. They recognize that they have a stake in their community.
MEOW: Everyone’s nice, the departments I’m in are all very supportive, the rankings are great, the campus is beautiful. I do theater, and I wanted the ability to explore a lot of different fields of study, in order to inform my performances. Also, I love the small classes.
ANDREW: I came here because it’s cheaper than staying in the UK. I really like the great cast of rotating visiting professors—there’s always something new and interesting on offer.
SPENCER (Bryn Mawr student): It’s a great place to meet men.
