Swarthmore is an excellent small liberal arts school that has become intensely competitive to gain admission to in recent years. The college wasn’t ever easy to get into — or, at least, not in the past half century. But the acceptance rate has plummet more recently and more students than ever are receiving disappointing news in the Early Decision round.
If you recently received a letter from Swarthmore rejecting your Early Decision application, you aren’t alone. Your college application process isn’t over, either. You still need to get into college. In this post, we’re going to focus on exactly that. You can still get into a dream school, and we’ll tell you how. First, though, let’s talk some numbers.
Over the past three years, the overall acceptance rate for Swarthmore has stayed well below 10%. 13,065 students applied for admission to the Class of 2028 and only 975, or 7.5%, were offered a spot. The yield for the class was 44%. That same year, Swarthmore received 1,221 Early Decision applications and offered a seat in the first-year class to 220 students, or 18%, more than double the overall acceptance rate for the year.
The following year, in the 2024-2025 admissions cycle, the overall acceptance rate was 7% — a negligible decrease. Last year the Early Decision acceptance rate stayed steady, too, at 18%.
Each year, the admissions team at Swarthmore aims to enroll a quarter of the first-year class through the Early Decision cycle. This explains both why the acceptance rate for ED is so high, and why the overall acceptance rate is so low.
What this tells us is that your application was not compelling enough for Swarthmore to want to offer you a seat. It doesn’t tell us, though, that you can’t get into an exceptional school in the Regular Decision or ED II round. Below, we are going to break down the problems that you probably need to address in your application and the strategy you need to make a dream acceptance happen.
Outstanding acceptances don’t just happen. Learn how to get into a dream school.
This would all be easier if college admissions were a formula. It isn’t, though. Instead, it’s unique to you. The four steps below outline what you need to be doing right now to get into an exceptional school, but you also need to make them your own to stand out for all the ways in which you are spectacular.
Step One: Take a Break
First, you need to do nothing. We’re serious about this one. We need you to slow down. Great work doesn’t come out of a place of panic. Immediately after receiving your Swarthmore rejection, you are grappling with a mountain of feelings and frustrations. There’s sadness over the Swarthmore decision, but also annoyance that you aren’t done with this whole college admissions thing. You were supposed to be done, but now are back in the midst of it. Before you dive in, you need to recenter. Go on a hike, watch a fun movie, play with a friend’s dog (or your own, obviously). Most importantly, catch up on sleep. Once you are well-rested, it’s time to get back to work.
Step Two: Strategize
Once you are in the right headspace, you need to rethink your college strategy. The first step to doing that is to grapple with why, perhaps, Swarthmore chose to reject your application. Typically, we see an ED rejection fall into one of two buckets.
The first bucket is quantitative. Swarthmore expects a lot from applicants. High school GPA data is not published for students accepted by Swarthmore, but of students who reported class rank in the 24-25 admissions cycle, 93% were in the top decile (10%) of their graduating class. The college doesn’t require SAT or ACT scores, but more than half of accepted and enrolled applicants, 55%, submit SAT and ACT scores. And the results are strong. A middling SAT score for accepted students is 1530, while a middle 50% ACT score is 34. If you submitted scores below those thresholds, they didn’t improve your chances of getting in.
And if you didn’t submit strong scores or scores at all, and your transcript had some weak spots, that’s an easy reason for rejection to point to.
The second bucket is softer and more wishy-washy. It’s the story you told, particularly in connection to your prospective major. Certain majors are more competitive at particular schools, and engineering is the most popular major at Swarthmore in recent years. We don’t recommend shifting your purported academic plans to appeal to colleges, though — or at least not entirely. If you want to major in engineering, you should not say that you want to major in English. This isn’t just for ethical reasons, and it isn’t just because you need to be applying to the best programs you are a strong candidate for specifically in what you want to study. Really, it’s tactical. If you love engineering, you’ve probably pursued it in the classroom and beyond, and those activities are key to what would make you a strong applicant. Saying that you’d like to study something else wouldn’t make any sense when all your hard work has been pointing in another direction.
As you finalize your new college list for the Regular Decision round, and decide on an ED II if you choose to go that route, make sure that you are selecting programs that play to your strengths and that match well with where you perform best.
When a student with strong grades and scores doesn’t get into Swarthmore ED, we often find that the application was written more to try to appeal to the college, or to find a way in, than to properly represent the student in the most compelling way possible. The student tried to pick a major strategically, or focused more on sounding impressive than on connecting with the reader on a human level. But getting into college isn’t actually about sounding the fanciest, it’s about being human.
Step Three: Essays
The “being human” part is the thing that most students who are rejected ED are missing. It isn’t on purpose. They didn’t aim to write an application that fell flat, but that’s how things worked out. Now, though, you get another shot.
If you are brave — which you will be — and if you are thoughtful — which you will be — you get the chance to write an application that truly makes you shine.
What makes an application stand out, especially if you are aiming for highly-selective liberal arts schools, is story. They care about more than your grades and scores; they want to get to know you. We work with our students to craft applications that convey the core of who a student is through compelling narratives that truly connect with the application readers. The more an admissions officer knows you, the harder it is to say no to your application.
Step Four: Ask For Help
The final step is to embrace good advice. Some students ask loads of people for feedback on their essays and approach to college admissions. This is a bad idea. Some students don’t want to show their work to anyone. That is also a bad idea. Instead, you need expert advice and guidance that is tailored to your particular situation. This is where we can help.
As you approach the next phase of the college application process, remember that what gets you into a great school isn’t simply the numbers. Your story is your strongest selling point, so tell it.
We help strong students get into great schools. Learn more.