u/KILLDAECIAN

So basically I am deciding in between Swarthmore College and Lehigh University. A lot of people are telling me I am nuts for considering Lehigh over Swarthmore.

Ultimately I am not looking to go to graduate school at all. I want to work in higher education upon graduation, or as a higher educational consultant, and I want to hone my quantitative skills with an Economics degree. I like the small community at Swarthmore, but the lack of preprofessional/job prospects after graduation repels me a bit. Also, doing Economics at Swarthmore might be a challenge (or nearly impossible) with the way my credits have transferred. At Lehigh it is more achievable, and they have better preprofessional culture with their College of Business.

If anyone had any initial impression on this decision, any thoughts are appreciated!

Last week I was accepted into Swarthmore College and Lehigh University, and both colleges gave me a full-ride! I will be posting a bit about my stats for those looking to transfer to a T25 from a community college (or 4-year)! Please leave any questions you have for me or PM me if you want! I tagged as T25 but this can function as an AMA too I think.

For context, I am a nontraditional student and graduated high school in 2021 and came to a New Jersey community college in 2024.

Stats:

First-generation low-income

High school: Was never really a good student, 3.2 overall GPA. Never took any AP exams or courses. One Honors course I got a 67 in.

CGPA and grades: 3.76. My community college GPA was 3.82 and I got a B in a Princeton University course (think it looked a lot better than a community college B), so my total college GPA was 3.76 because of that. I withdrew from two 4-credit courses in Spring 2025 and I had two Bs in online STEM courses the previous semester and I added a lengthy note explaining why (thought it cooked my application highkey). As in all other courses except an A- in Spanish I.

SAT: 1450 composite (710 Math, 740 English). Submitted to both!

Major: Economics (Educational Studies/Econ for Swarthmore)

College extracurriculars:

1. President and Founder of Transfer Success Club at my community college. Club invited 4-year schools to present about their transfer process. Example of some schools: Amherst College, Cornell University, University of Rochester
2. Student Government, VP of Events & Fundraising. Led a few charity and student life centered events
3. Spearheaded a community college transfer research project. Delivered a presentation to the President about the results and suggested changes
4. Student contributor on college-funded STEM transfer panel
5. Jack Kent Cooke Semifinalist
6. Volunteer/member of college's university partner Catholic club.
7. PTK, I wasn't very involved....

Non-college extracurriculars:

1. Worked as a year for a man with intellectual disabilities as a caregiver
2. Moved to NYC at age 20 and worked full time for about 8 months
3. Volunteer work across all of five NYC's boroughs through Catholic churches
4. million views on Google Reviews page, reviewing small and local businesses

Essays:

If you would like a copy of my essays, please PM me and I'll share them with you!

Swarthmore:

So actually after getting rejected from Williams and Amherst, I took it a very different direction. I pretty much pulled back on the trying to perfect my essays and as cheesy as it sounds just kept it real. For the self-identity, I wrote about my experience being Protestant for many years and going to a Catholic church at the same time and some of the tension behind that. I also wrote about how even though I converted to Catholicism, I still feel connected to my Protestant side/community. I said in this essay that I hope everyone "submits to Rome" so my advice is to really put yourself out there with your essay!

For my academic interests, I talked about my journey coming to community college and how surprised I was that Princeton was on campus. I wrote about how I'd like to study on how we can create inclusive pathways to education. (Education/Econ double major for Swarthmore, so it made sense.)

For the Common App essay, I selected the "problem you've solved" option. I wrote about how my mother graduated from my exact community college like 20 years ago, and she never transferred, and I wanted to continue studying to figure out ways to make sure people's journeys don't end at community college. I had a lot of experience with transfer advocacy so it wasn't difficult to write about this.

Lehigh:

For the why Lehigh, I mentioned that I wanted to continue transfer advocacy work and that Lehigh has a great Econ department. I also mentioned how I could stay close to home and how it was closeby to major cities.

For something awesome that's happening, I talked a lot about Transfer Success Club.

Letters of Recommendation:

I THINK THESE CARRIED MY ACCEPTANCE!!! I cannot stress enough how much a good letter will take you. My advice is to read your letters before they get submitted. I had four letters for Swarthmore. I only had Letter 1 for Lehigh.

Letter 1: Microeconomics professor and mentor, spoke about my dedication to the transfer club and my performance in class, how I was a curious student and also attended his optional lectures and did all the extra credit.

Letter 2: Statistics professor, spoke to my strong performance in class asking questions beyond the material. Spoke to our close relationship and my ability to overcome difficult challenges and failures.

Letter 3: Former youth minister, now college minister, has known me for about 7 years. Didn't see final draft of this letter but spoke about my volunteer work and interaction with others

Letter 4: Current Humanities professor in two courses, knew me since the Fall 2024 semester, very close relationship and we've had a lot of deep discussions about course material and my academic journey, I didn't see this letter.

With that being said I am glad to be finished with this transfer process and hope my journey helps others!

Hi! I’m from a New Jersey community college and I was recently accepted into Lehigh University. If there’s any students who transferred in from community college (4-year is okay too) or any nontransfers, would you be willing to chat?

Right now I’m deciding in between Swarthmore and Lehigh. I intend to enter the CAS as an Econ major. Shoot me a PM and I’ll get back to you in time thanks :D

"All in-person examinations at Princeton will be proctored starting July 1, representing the most significant change to the honor system since it was established in 1893. The faculty passed a proposal requiring instructor supervision at Monday’s faculty meeting, with one opposing vote.

The historic vote was the culmination of months of deliberation within the administration and student governing bodies about how to address increasing concerns over academic integrity violations, including the proliferation of AI usage.

Additional details, including proctor-to-student ratios and guidelines regarding monitoring practices, will be finalized before the policy takes effect."

https://www.instagram.com/p/DYNzOoHk66j/?img_index=1

In my opinion, I hope other top colleges start doing this!

Can someone enlighten me if Amherst College is taking any students from Hampshire College, in some sort of agreement in light of the incoming closure? Please and thank you.