A nice Boston Globe arti­cle on col­lege swim tests notes that MIT is one of only 9 or so uni­ver­si­ties left in the United States with the require­ment, down from 42% of all col­leges in 1977.

The rea­sons cited for elim­i­nat­ing it are pretty weak.

5/8 Update: The heart­warm­ing story of an MIT senior who was afraid of water, dis­in­ter­ested in swim­ming, and lacked the sta­mina to swim 4 laps… and wasn’t the least bit both­ered by it.