Swarthmore College Top Questions

What is the stereotype of students at your school?

Tristan

Swarthmore students are stereotyped as hard working, extremely smart and not that attractive.

Nico

That they are all awkward, pretentious but friendly. Swarthmore students work all the time.

Patricia

That we are all wealthy nerds that study all the time and get straight A's at Swarthmore.

Dan

Extremely nerdy, not prone to sexual encounters, intelligent, overprepared for the job market.

Brett

Studying all the time, smart, hippie-like, odds and ends...

Nick

That they are nerdy, socially, inept, and work all the time. Another less common stereotype is that they are very activist politically.

Maria

Intense academics, (too) small campus, extreme nerds, socially awkward/uninteresting, and that all we do is study at Swarthmore. I must admit that these are some stereotypes that I initially had of Swarthmore, but of course, I was extremely wrong.

Irene

Swarthmore students are brilliant, curious, interesting, and driven, but unattractive, socially weird and painfully awkward.

Joe

They all want to be academics, they work collaboratively, they are very liberal,

Rachel

nerdy, weird, antisocial, quirky, liberal

rebecca

sci-fi nerds who study too hard and don't party. Also, though it's not a stereotype, people constantly think Swat is an all girls school in upstate New York.

Sophia

Extremely intellectual workaholics Liberal hippies

Emmerson

That they're nerdy and awkward, that the place is intense and you are always busy. Also that Swatties are always talking about something intellectual. That Swatties are a bunch of hippies.

Mel

nerdy, intense, politically correct, ugly

Jessica

That they're all overly PC. They're activist-y pseudo-hippies who actually come from exceptionally privileged backgrounds. They couldn't get into Yale.

Jerry

Stereotypes: Swatties are super-nerdy, unattractive, and socially awkward.

Andy

That Swatties study too much and too hard; that they’re intellectual and probably weird-looking and left-wing. That they’re dorks, basically.

Mello

The typical Swarthmore student is awkward, nerdy, hardworking, activist...socially awkward. Like they say choose three of four: friends, work, sex and sleep.