Swarthmore is a private liberal arts college outside of Philadelphia. While it has under 2,000 undergrads, it is part of two consortiums that can make it feel larger: the Tri-College and the Quaker Consortium. These consortiums allow Swarthmore students to take classes at Bryn Mawr College, Haverford, and the University of Pennsylvania. While the school is in the Quaker Consortium and was originally a Quaker school, it is no longer religious. Last year, their acceptance rate was around 6.8%.
We have written about Swarthmore in the past, but they have changed their supplement this year, so we wanted to revisit how to approach the Swarthmore Supplement.
While they call their questions “topics,” this is not “choose your own prompts.” You need to respond to both essay questions.
Topic 1: Swarthmore College maintains an ongoing commitment of building a diverse, equitable, and inclusive residential community dedicated to rigorous intellectual inquiry.
All who engage in our community are empowered through the open exchange of ideas guided by equity and social responsibility to thrive and contribute as bridge builders within global communities.
Our identities and perspectives are supported and developed by our immediate contexts and lived experiences – in our neighborhoods, families, classrooms, communities of faith, and more.
What aspects of your self-identity or personal background are most significant to you? Reflecting on the elements of your home, school, or other communities that have shaped your life, explain how you have grown in your ability to navigate differences when engaging with others, or demonstrated your ability to collaborate in communities other than your own.* 250
Okay, this question has way too many words. We understand that schools want to state their commitments to inclusion, but we don’t think it is best expressed in a preamble to an essay question. The TL;DR of this question is just asking you to tell a story about a time you have overcome a difference or collaborated in a community that you are a part of.
Sometimes when we say “community,” students get nervous. Many believe that “community” has to refer a religious, ethnic, or sexual identity-based group. These are all great communities to discuss, but they aren’t the only ones. A community is simply any group with common interests or goals. This means sports teams, study groups, clubs, etc., are also all communities. For example, you can identify as someone who is passionate about community service and tell a story about your work with a service club. Just make sure your story includes collaboration or navigating differences with a community that isn’t your own. Let’s say you want to write about your community service club’s monthly beach clean-up. Tell a story about trying to get others to participate or a conversation with someone who didn’t think your work was important. How did you change their minds or include them? Collaboration and differences need to be at the heart of this story.
Topic 2: Swarthmore’s community of learners inspire one another through their collaborative and flexible approach to learning. Swarthmore students are comfortable with intellectual experimentation and connection of ideas across the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and interdisciplinary studies through a liberal arts education.
Tell us about a topic that has fascinated you recently – either inside or outside of the classroom. What made you curious about this? Has this topic connected across other areas of your interests? How has this experience shaped you and what encourages you to keep exploring?* 250
Another long preamble. This question asks you to take us down a rabbit hole. We want to see you follow your interest to learn more about the topic. You should start your story about where you first learned about this topic. Then, give us some background about why it caught your interest. Then, it’s time to show how you explored it more.
Any topic that you find interesting can work here. The more critical part of this essay is to show your process of learning when you are interested in something. For example, maybe you learned about the topic in class but then researched it independently because you were curious to know more. Did you read books on the subject? Did you do research? How did you get more information? Make sure to include why you are interested in the topic, aka how it connects to your areas of interest. End with how you want to keep exploring this topic and/or similar topics. This question has a lot of parts; you want to hit on all of them. It is a lot for 250 words but completely doable with some planning and editing.
While it is only two questions, the Swarthmore supplement packs a lot in. Give yourself time to brainstorm stories that will allow you to stand out.
If you need help with the Swarthmore supplement or any other supplement for that matter, contact us here!