Why is Swarthmore so selective?

Today, Swarthmore College's admissions process is highly competitive. The college considers a range of factors in its admissions decisions, including academic achievement, extracurricular involvement, and personal character.

Why is it so hard to get into Swarthmore?

Admissions officials at Swarthmore College consider a student's GPA a very important academic factor. An applicant's high school class rank, when available, is considered very important and letters of recommendation are considered very important for admissions officials at Swarthmore College.

What is so special about Swarthmore?

With a curriculum unmatched among liberal arts colleges of its size, Swarthmore offers more than 600 courses and undergraduate research opportunities—from the humanities and performing arts to the social and natural sciences and engineering.

What type of student is Swarthmore looking for?

Swarthmore is impressed by applicants who pursue their unique academic and extracurricular passions. So, the admissions team focuses on building a well-rounded and diverse Swarthmore undergraduate enrollment cohort. Swarthmore's acceptance rate is low because nearly all applicants have high grades and scores.

What are the odds of getting into Swarthmore?

Admissions Rate: 6.9%

If you want to get in, the first thing to look at is the acceptance rate. This tells you how competitive the school is and how serious their requirements are. The acceptance rate at Swarthmore is 6.9%. For every 100 applicants, only 7 are admitted.

Why Swarthmore?

Is Swarthmore too intense?

Some professors were also hesitant to say that Swarthmore is exceptional in its intensity. Physics Professor Benjamin Geller '01, who has also taught classes at UC Berkeley and Columbia, cautioned that although Swarthmore is certainly rigorous, it's not necessarily dramatically more difficult than other schools.

Is Swarthmore a little ivy?

Swarthmore is considered one of the “Little Ivies”, a colloquial term for smaller colleges with ample academic prowess that rivals the Ivy League universities. Swarthmore provides each student the opportunity to design their own major by choosing from more than 40 courses.

How prestigious is Swarthmore?

Swarthmore College is ranked #4 out of 211 National Liberal Arts Colleges. Schools are ranked according to their performance across a set of widely accepted indicators of excellence.

What percent of Swarthmore is white?

book Enrollment

The enrolled student population at Swarthmore College, both undergraduate and graduate, is 33.3% White, 17.4% Asian, 13.6% Hispanic or Latino, 9.27% Two or More Races, 7.69% Black or African American, 0.303% American Indian or Alaska Native, and 0.121% Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islanders.

What is the most popular major at Swarthmore College?

The most popular majors at Swarthmore College include: Social Sciences; Biological and Biomedical Sciences; Computer and Information Sciences and Support Services; Mathematics and Statistics; Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies; Visual and Performing Arts; Engineering; Physical Sciences; Foreign Languages, Literatures, and ...

What is the Swarthmore controversy?

Swarthmore College drew national notoriety last spring after a trove of internal fraternity documents describing horrendous behavior was leaked and published by two campus media organizations. Students held multiple protests and demanded that the college's two on-campus fraternities be permanently closed.

What is Swarthmore best at?

Swarthmore College is known for its strong liberal arts education, and offers a wide range of majors across many fields.

Is Swarthmore academically rigorous?

Swarthmore is known for being one of the most academically rigorous college in the country. This is true but studying what one is truly interested in and passionate about makes the heavy reading and problem sets worth while.

Who gets into Swarthmore?

The average AMCAS GPA for accepted Swarthmore applicants was 3.70. Our experience at Swarthmore is that a strong A- average is a solid basis for applying. This places a student in the top half of the graduating class, which had a median GPA of A- in 2023.

Why is Swarthmore College acceptance rate so low?

Applicant Selectivity: Highly Selective

The selectivity of applicants for undergraduate admissions to Swarthmore is considered highly selective. Many accepted applicants score in the top-range on the SAT or ACT exam, as well as having a solid high school GPA and number of college prep courses.

Is Swarthmore a Tier 1 school?

Tier 2 represents selective private liberal arts colleges (like Williams, Smith, Swarthmore, and Amherst Colleges); Tier 3 refers to public research universities (like UT Austin, Brandeis, Occidental, and UCLA);

Is Swarthmore an elite College?

Awarded one of America's Best Colleges

Swarthmore is an elite and demanding liberal arts school founded by the Quakers in 1864.

Are there Jews at Swarthmore?

Jewish life at Swarthmore is both vibrant and diverse and offers all Jews the opportunity to engage with their tradition in a meaningful way.

What College is 100% white?

List of Colleges by Percent of White Students. Below is a ranking of the 278 colleges in California with the highest percent of white students. American Conservatory Theater tops the list with white students comprising 100% of the school's enrollment.

Is Swarthmore better than Cornell?

They are both world class institutions. Cornell is much larger, significantly more engaged in research, and therefore, more well known. But where it matters, in academe and industry, Swarthmore is as respected as Cornell.

Is Williams better than Swarthmore?

Yes, Swarthmore is ranked 3 where Williams is ranked 1 and Amherst is ranked 2. Yes. Here are the top national liberal arts colleges.

Is Swarthmore better than Middlebury?

They are both excellent colleges. Although admission to both colleges is difficult, Swarthmore is slightly more competitive. Although both colleges are academically strong and rigorous, Swarthmore's reputation is that it is probably the most academically rigorous liberal arts college in the United States.

What are the 8 Little Ivies?

Was Swarthmore all girls?

Their efforts took legal form on April 1, 1864, when the Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania authorized Swarthmore College "to establish and maintain a school and college for the purpose of importing to persons of both sexes knowledge in the various branches of science, literature, ...

What is a hidden Ivy school?

Today, these schools connote a highly selective school committed to rigorous academics. Hidden Ivies, also known as almost Ivy League schools, are schools that share some of the Ivy League's defining traits.