Swarthmore is small and tight-knit. They are very careful about who they let in not just academically, but also culturally. This drives down the acceptance rate, and the Swarthmore acceptance rate for the Class of 2029 was only around 8% when you average out the higher Early Decision rate of admission and the much lower Regular Decision acceptance rate.
When it comes to the waitlist, though, there isn’t as much clarity. The college did not publish full waitlist statistics for admissions for the fall of 2024. Swarthmore confirms that there is a waitlist, and then declines, in recent years, to share how many people were offered a spot on the waitlist. They also don’t share how many people joined the waitlist. The only number that Swarthmore chose to share that year was that zero (yes, 0) students were extended an offer of admission from the waitlist.
One year earlier, for the fall of 2023, they played the same game. Swarthmore kept the length of their waitlist private and only shared the number of students admitted off of it. For fall 2023 that number was a grand total of 23. What this tells us is very little about how the Swarthmore waitlist works. Sometimes they don’t accept anyone, and sometimes they have spots to fill. The waitlist could have a few dozen students, a few hundred, or as many (or more) students as were accepted. Based on the behavior of similarly-sized small liberal arts schools, it’s likely that the waitlist for Swarthmore is longer than you’d hope for if you’re one of the students sitting on it. In addition, the acceptance rate off of the waitlist is, undoubtedly, less than the overall acceptance rate for the college.
Swarthmore also doesn’t guide students on what to do after a waitlist decision, but we know what works.
If you are aiming to get off a waitlist, we can help. Contact us to learn more.
If you have been waitlisted by Swarthmore, there are four steps that you need to take — starting now — to increase your chances of acceptance while also ensuring a successful conclusion to your first-year application experience. Below, we break them down.
Step One: Join the Waitlist
You’ve been offered a spot on the Swarthmore waitlist, but you actually aren’t on it yet. While the waitlist is not ranked and responding quickly doesn’t get you brownie points, we recommend joining the Swarthmore waitlist as soon as you feel confident that you’d like to see this process through all of the way to a final decision from Swarthmore: whether that is an acceptance or a rejection.
Step Two: Commit to a College
Once you are on the Swarthmore waitlist, you need to line up a school for the fall. Yes, our eyes are still set on Swarthmore, but it’s important to build yourself a back-up plan, nevertheless. The odds of the Swarthmore waitlist are so incredibly low, even without knowing the length of the waitlist this year, that putting a plan in place for fall in case Swarthmore doesn’t work out is simply common sense.
We recommend that you pick your best option that you have received an acceptance from, and commit. Remember, transferring is an option. It is much easier to transfer to a dream(ier) school than to reapply as a first-year next year. So, commit somewhere then pivot your attention back to Swarthmore.
Step Three: Update Swarthmore
Remember how we mentioned the importance of cultural fit at the top of this post? This is where it comes into play in the waitlist process. Swarthmore wants to be 100% sure of three things before accepting a student off of the waitlist:
That you can hang academically
That you are a strong cultural fit
That you will choose Swarthmore if admitted
What you do next is all aimed at communicating those three things to Swarthmore, and you are going to do it in three ways.
Updated Grades: The most important thing is to keep your grades sky high, and to raise them if at all possible. Ask your school to send a mid-term grade report, and then plan on sending your final grades if you haven’t heard from Swarthmore before graduation.
Supplemental Recommendation: You also need to recruit a mentor, employer, or coach to help you make your case. Ask someone who knows you well — but outside of the classroom — to write a one-page supplemental recommendation letter, and guide them through the process. It might feel weird to tell someone what to say about you, and we’re not suggesting that you write the letter for them. However, it’s important that the recommendation underlines what you emphasized in your initial application, from academic priorities and passions to character traits and moral grounding. The letter should be submitted to the admissions office directly, not through you.
Letter of Continued Interest: The Letter of Continued Interest (LOCI) is a fixture of the waitlist process, so you may have heard the term before. While the term is well-known, though, the structure is not set in stone. We advise the structure below because we know that it works. Heads up that it does require you to be concise, and many students have to edit themselves in ways that can feel a bit brutal. Yes, we know you could write 10+ pages about why you’re a strong Swarthmore fit and how you’d thrive as part of the community. However, the admissions office isn’t going to read 8 pages to see that super important detail you buried towards the end.
This is why we advocate for a concise, one-page letter in size 12pt. font and with normal margins. It does mean that you are going to have to edit things out that you wish they could hear, but keeping the letter short actually helps the Swarthmore admissions officials hear you more.
Structure your letter with four parts:
Opening: The opening should be formal. You are writing this letter to admissions, not a friend. Start with “Dear Swarthmore Admissions” and then follow that with a three-sentence opening paragraph. Once sentence should introduce you by name, share your status as a waitlisted candidate, and specify your prospective major. Follow that with a sentence stating extremely clearly that Swarthmore remains your first choice, and that you will enroll if accepted. The final sentence of the opening should set out your goals for this letter. Namely, to update Swarthmore and reinforce your interest.
Update: Next, you need to provide 2-4 updates to your application. These must either be completely new things, or be things that build upon interests you emphasized in your initial application. Remember that Swarthmore is looking for academic and cultural fit, so you want to pinpoint updates here that speak to one or both of those angles. Updates do not need to be awards, either. In fact, many of the best updates are short stories that convey a combination of academic experience or community engagement and teamwork. Showing you working and growing alongside others will help Swarthmore envision you on their campus, and contributing to their community.
Reinforce: Next, you need to remind Swarthmore why you love them. This paragraph should be fairly short, because you don’t need to reiterate anything that you’ve already shared in your initial application. Instead, look for two things that are in line with what you have said before while offering additional perspective on what you would jump to take advantage of — and contribute to — at Swarthmore. This could include a professor, a research opportunity, a specific academic niche, or another opportunity.
Step Four: Wait it out.
Finally, you need to be patient. We’re not saying that waiting is easy. It is unlikely you will hear from Swarthmore until the first week of May, and waiting that long can be down-right painful. Try to keep your mind off of it by focusing on what can actually make a difference for you: a strong academic finish to your year, continuing to pursue the passions you adore, and enjoying your senior spring.
If you are offered a space in the first-year class at Swarthmore, be prepared to move fast. Former admissions team members at Swarthmore have reported giving students 48 hours to respond to an offer of admission off of the waitlist. If you are accepted off of the waitlist, you will still have the option to take a gap year and defer admission.
Getting into Swarthmore off of the waitlist is a long shot. It is possible — some years, at least — and it won’t happen at all if you don’t put in the work.
We help strong students pull off unlikely waitlist acceptances. Email us to learn more.