Swarthmore students take an average of 4 courses per semester, and although many of these credits go toward fulfilling distribution or major requirements, there is plenty of opportunity to explore other areas. With Swarthmore’s vast course catalog, most Swatties would say there are too many interesting classes and too few hours in the day! I asked six members of the Class of 2024 to share a favorite class as they look back over their Swat academic career.
My favorite class was…
“…Poetry Workshop with professor Betsy Bolton. I’d been wanting to take a creative writing class for a while and this one was both challenging and really fun. It helped me understand my serious love for creative work and taught me to be really intentional with taking my creative and artistic self seriously.” – Madeline Clay
“…a computer science class called Computer Compilers. A compiler is a black box that acts as a translator from human readable form of code into computer language. In the class, we detangled the whole mystery behind compilers, and after I took the class, I interned at Google for the summer and was able to apply a lot of the skills I learned. I’m a CS major and I want to be a software engineer, so I really value the fact that Swarthmore classes teach me knowledge and skills that I can apply directly to the industry after I graduate.” – Kelvin Darfour
“…a first year seminar called Religion and the Meaning of Life. We read a bunch of different religious texts and talked about what classifies as “a life well lived.” Something that really surprised me about academics at Swat is that courses that you don’t really expect to overlap can explore common themes from different perspectives. For example, in that class, we read a book called Braiding Sweetgrass which was also mentioned in my Bio 002 class that semester. I think that the interdisciplinary aspect of Swat courses is really exciting and valuable.” – Ana Carney
“…Music and War with Barbara Milewski. I’m a political science major and music minor and that course really brought the two together for me in a way that I hadn’t experienced before. We talked about the culture, music, and identity of a nation and also types of music during times of war, specifically World War II and the Holocaust.” – Abigail Edwards
“… Advanced Integrated Experimental Chemistry, my senior level chem lab course. The chemistry major is small, so we’ve formed a really tight-knit community, making that course a lot of fun. Also, that course gave me the confidence to go out into the real world and apply the concepts and skills that I learned at Swat to actual work in the field of chemistry.” – Tyler Hicks
“…Intro to Computer Science. That class really opened my eyes to how much academic support Swarthmore offers. The weekly student-run review sessions were always helpful and Professor Brody was amazing at making time to meet with students and being genuinely engaged in who we are as people. I entered the class just wanting a basic knowledge of computer science, but I had such a great time that I’ve now decided to minor in CS.” – Laura Strachan