Admissions

Take advantage of everything the school offers! Create a project.

Ask for help! Seek academic tutoring and personal advice from peers, upperclassmen, profs, and deans. Everyone is willing to help but only if they know you need it.

Make sure you love to learn for the sake of learning. If you're more interested in college as a means to an end, you will probably be pretty unhappy at Swarthmore.

Come to Swarthmore with an open mind. Do your research and visit the campus before you commit to attending the school. It is a wonderful experience for many people but is definitely not the place for everyone. I would recommend participating in overnight visits such as Ride The Tide (perspective students weekend) to talk to current students.

Try to provide an accurate representation of yourself on your application. Call the admissions office if you have any questions at all; they are so nice and helpful!

Be open to new things. SEPTA will be your frienemy, take the train into Philadelphia and explore the whole city (I recommend getting a day pass and a map and just seeing all the sights). Go to the Amphitheater when it's full, and alone or with just a few friends. Take advantage of all the free opportunities around town. Get a ridiculous amount of candy from the Head Nut when you're having a bad day, or fries from Renato's. Be friendly to everyone, because everyone is friendly (given, some of them might actually be evil, watch out for that). Also, visit!!! The people I've talked to said that their visit was what made them choose Swarthmore.

Swarthmore likes well-rounded people. I have friends who are fluent in 12 languages and worked for corporations in NY, or are ultimate frisbee playing, theater performers majoring in engineering, etc.
Just do what you like and don't feel the need to limit yourself to one thing.

The college acceptance is rigorous but Swarthmore does a really good job about holistically looking at each student. Make sure you get an interview with an alum or on campus if you can!

You definitely need to visit if given the chance, because the environment is not for everyone. Some absolutely love how green the campus is and some wish that there was more of a city feel. Look up Swarthmore's fly-in programs (and other school's fly-in programs)! Fly-ins are (usually) completely free weekend visits to a school and can dramatically assist in making a decision.