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The best thing about Swarthmore are the people and the atmosphere. You are surrounded by brilliant, motivated, and diverse group of people, yet everyone shares the same sort of passion for something unnamed. We often discussed it at school, but the unnamed connection between Swatties has something to do with love of learning (even if you don't admit it), thinking, and being challenged. When I meet Swatties outside of school there is something that bonds us and conversations with once strangers can easily become four hours chatting like old friends.

As for size, it's about right. There are times when it can feel suffocating as you keep seeing the same people everywhere. That's when you go abroad or make efforts to meet people outside your circle of friends. But, the smallness of school really allows you to build community. It also makes a huge difference in the quality of education. We may have less breadth, but the interaction with teachers is unparelled. You may hate the fact that you can't hide from your professor, but the smallness of classes forces you to be really involved in your education (This isn't to say that you can't get away without doing the reading or skimming, you most certainly can, just pick your classes for that wisely).

I spent most of my time on campus bouncing around between the buildings in which I had classes, Parrish, Sharples, the fieldhouse, my dorm, McCabe, Science Center Commons, and working outside when it was beautiful. The best part was when I figured out that I could work outside late into the night, perched on the steps of Parrish that are have lights that go on in the evening. I was a bit of a nomad at Swat, especially in my study habits. Most of my friends could be found in 3-4 places on campus, I continually switched up my spots, depending on how well I was focusing in a certain area.

One of my favorite moments at Swat was walking outside of McCabe library one night int he midst of studying for my Honors exams. As I walked out of the library, the stars were shining, and a string quartet was playing on the steps of Parrish Hall. It was beautiful. There I was, all stressed out over exams and the music was a pause, a moment of silence in the otherwise frantic day. That's one of my favorite parts of Swarthmore - it's easy to get wrapped up in you as a student and the small worries and fears and stressors and then, there is one moment where you see someone bagpiping or you notice the flowers that sprung up outside your window or you run across a friend you haven't seen in a while and have a three hour conversation debating philosophy outside the rose garden. It's that one moment that you remember why you love the place.

That's probably the trick about Swarthmore. How do you keep it in perspective? You are there to learn, you have probably always done well in school, or could have done well if it interested you enough. It's easy to get caught up in the papers and the pressure that you mainly put on yourself. But if you can step back from time to time, it is a beautiful place and something you won't ever run across again once you leave.

Academics is the main focus of Swarthmore. Swarthmore (save engineering or perhaps pre-med or some of the sciences) does not provide techincal job training, but it teaches you how to think and how to write. I didn't realize how important this was until I left Swarthmore and entered into the job market. What is normal in terms of effort or expectation at Swarthmore is often above and beyond what is expected in the job market.

When I entered Swarthmore, I expected that due to the smallness of the school I would find a professor that I connected with and who would be a mentor/friend. I was disappointed for the first couple of years when I did not find that in my own department. By the end of senior year, however, I made connections with three really amazing professors, all outside of my department of study, but who became the sort of mentor and friend that I had been looking for. I realized, then, that I had not really taken advantage of the availability of professors in my earlier years. I wasn't the type of student who frequently went to the professor for help unless I really needed it but that didn't have to mean that I couldn't get to know my professors.

Swarthmore's student body is amazing. What I liked the most when I first arrived was that people didn't seem to fit into the groups that I had grown up with in high school. The captain of the soccer team also starred in musicals. There wasn't one group that was "the" group that defined everyone else. This was made quite clear when a woman from Princeton came to Swarthmore to start diversity conversation groups based on a Princeton model. When talking with interested students, she asked us to think of the group that if we got them to be involved, everyone else would follow them. You could have heard a pin drop in the room. Finally I stuck up my hand and commented that we didn't really have any group like that, there were just sort of a bunch of groups who did as the pleased and intermingled.

Groups do form. There are moments when you are frustrated and feel stuck within your own group, but it's not impossible to keep expanding your friend base. There are most definitely still racial, class, and sexuality issues. Athletes are often friends with mainly other athletes. Thing about Swarthmore is, though, you can choose to follow those lines or not. Sometimes you just have to make a bigger effort.

I cannot speak highly enough of the people who attend Swarthmore. I made life-long friends at Swarthmore. Even if we talk less now due to the fact that we are scattered around the world, I feel really lucky to have met these people and count them among my friends.

Another neat thing about Swarthmore is the idea of "you make your own normal." If you want to wear a cape to class, fine. If you want to never wear shoes or grow a mustache for all of November, fine. If you want to go out and party like a madwoman every week night, fine. If you want to go to the library and study on a Friday, fine. You make your own normal.

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.

I think the biggest stereotype about Swarthmore and Swarthmore students is that it is so academically intense that no one ever has fun and is always in the library.

To the first - Swarthmore is in an interesting place. It is academically intense and students do spend a lot of time in the library, but that is sort of the person that is drawn to the place. For as much as we complain about our work, we really do love it and we enjoy doing it. So for those who don't like learning, yea, Swarthmore is way too intense. But if you can geek out over simple things or are just interesting in thinking and learning and answering questions, then Swarthmore is the place for you. And, while the stereotype may be based in reality, you have chosen it because you enjoy it (somewhere down there). As for fun, I spent much of my time at Sharples laughing hysterically with friends or getting involved in random scrapes. It's not the stereotypical "frat and going out to bars fun" (there are two frats if you want something like that), but it's a quirky sort of fun. You'll find it climbing roofs, skinny dipping in the crum, in late night conversations, in Sharples marathons, in the Parlors, or pulling campus wide social experiements.

Looking back on what I've written, I realize I at times brushed over some of the bumps and bruises of Swarthmore. There were times where I felt that "debate" was more discussion as not all sides (especially political) were fairly represented. There were many times when I was stressed beyond belief due to workload. There were times when I was frustrated with self-segregation in the cafeteria due to race, language, activity, what have you.

But even with that said, Swarthmore is a pretty special place. If it were perfect, it would be boring and it wouldn't exist. It has its issues, but if you are a person who delights in thinking and questioning and being challenged, it's the place for you. The first thing that I was taught, my very first week of classes was to challenge everything, even what the teachers said. That's something important right there - that professors have weight because they are professors and so don't necessarily always treat you exaclty as equals, but you are not subservient either. They respect you and expect a lot from you. There are the "demi-gods" on campus, but they don't have to be.

Now almost a year out of school, I am happy to be done and moving on to new things. But, I am glad that I had the opportunity to attend Swarthmore. On the school side, it honed my ability to think, to make connections between seemingly unrelated things, and set me up for some really great opportunities. My friends are some of the most amazing people I have ever met, even with their foibles and idisyncracies, I love them the more for it.