Swarthmore is a small, private liberal arts school with an impressive reputation. After being a bit of a long-time hidden gem of the east coast, Swarthmore has gained international attention for combining intellectual rigor with a tight-knit community and ample alumni network. The acceptance rate for fall 2026, the Class of 2030, was only 7.4%.
Students considering Swarthmore can pick between Early Decision, Early Decision II, or Regular Decision avenues towards acceptance. If you like Swarthmore, though, you need to seriously consider ED. The acceptance rate for first-years has plummeted as the number of applications Swarthmore receives for each first-year class has skyrocketed. The ED acceptance rate does suggest an advantage, however. The ED acceptance rate for the Class of 2030 was 18.5%.
Applying ED takes some of the heat off, but you still need to do more than simply have an exceptional transcript to get in. Swarthmore is test-optional, and they emphasize that omitting the SAT or ACT from your application will not negatively impact your odds of admission. Statistically, this checks out. About 55% of recently accepted and enrolled first-years submitted either the SAT or the ACT as part of their application. This does not, however, mean that you should stop studying. If you can achieve strong scores on either test, the SAT or the ACT, it only strengthens an already impressive application. For Swarthmore, that means a 1540+ on the SAT or a 34+ ACT.
In this post, we’ll be focusing on the role narrative, storytelling, and clarity of direction play in your Swarthmore application. It’s all the unquantifiable stuff that is less clear than a test score but just as (if not more) impactful when applying to Swarthmore.
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The Swarthmore supplement is wordy but simple. Each prompt is approximately three-times longer than it needs to be to convey the message or ask the question, which can make it intimidating. We don’t think that this something they are doing on purpose. Swarthmore is, at its core, earnest — but it is certainly annoying.
The first step, then, is to simplify each supplement down to what they are actually asking. Then, we can break down how to write your best answers.
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 words)
The whole prompt for this supplement is actually in the final paragraph, but you can even cut it down further to sum up in one, albeit two-part, question: What matters most to you, and how have you grown from committing to it?
It’s a little silly that they use half the length of the space allocated for your response just to get to that question. It is, however, a great question that you can write a killer answer to if you approach it right.
The first step is to map out what you value most. This is not a moment for a deep cut or to focus on a short-term experience that you feel changed your life but happened hundreds of miles away and lasted a week. The strongest answers for this supplement are rooted in the daily expression of your life.
It also isn’t required that you focus on hardship nor on loss or challenge. You can, of course, but the most compelling essays are, like we just said, rooted in the daily. Perhaps it’s a weekly dinner with your grandfather who has very different values than you and is not nervous about sharing them, a part-time job that became a full-time passion, or a long-term volunteer position at a local food pantry or shelter. Whatever you pick to focus on, you can’t simply explain it. You need to tell a story.
This supplemental should have a full story arc within it. There should be an introduction, a moment of conflict, tension, or challenge, and a success that follows through hard work and perseverance. Again, each step in this journey can be small. It does not need to be some monumental ideological mountain you are climbing, but you should take the reader along with you each step of the way.
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 words)
Swarthmore has been more succinct with the second prompt, but you still have 250 words. Here, they simply want to see your passion. While they don’t ask that it be related to what you want to study, we guide our students towards writing about something here that connects (even if loosely) to their prospective area(s) of study. If you don’t know what you want to study, that is okay. It is not okay, though, for the application. Saying that you are undecided as to a course of study is like shrugging your shoulders at the admissions officers. Don’t do it.
Like with the previous supplement, you want to tell a story here. Also like in the previous supplement, they want to see growth in your interest or passion and to leave the supplement with an idea of how the interest shaped your vision of what you will do next.
Similar to the previous supplement, your story also needs to follow an arc, but the arc can be more subtle or even be a small arc within a larger story. For example, perhaps you want to study medieval studies. It’s possible that your interest in medieval studies started after watching A Knight’s Tale with Heath Ledger, and there could be a fun way to start this supplement with one sentence centered on watching the movie, but the story needs to go deeper than that. Maybe the movie led you to fact checking and the realization that a lot of the things you thought were true in the distant past actually weren’t true at all, or where only partly true. And maybe there is one specific truth that captured your imagination, and you began chasing an understanding of it through museums, books, and independent studies.
Remember to include what stokes your curiosity and drive to keep exploring, citing specific opportunities at Swarthmore that would fuel your next steps.
The Swarthmore supplement isn’t rocket science, but it does require a skilled hand for storytelling. What it also takes is time. If you are feeling rushed or aren’t sure how to structure a story, we can help. We’re experts at this.
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