CONFUSED: Smith vs. Bard College vs. Skidmore

Colleges and Universities A-Z Smith College
1

<p>Right now I'm having a sort of love affair (read: triangle) with these three schools. I've visited all of them, and have found different aspects about each school to be appealing to what I want to do. I'm looking to get a good liberal arts education, primarily, but I'm also interested in advertising/business. I know lib. arts schools may not be the best for that, but I'm not going to school as a pre-professional/hey I'm gonna get a job right out of college!! type deal. I'm really interested in the music industry, but that's what graduate school is for, I suppose.</p>

<p>So, I want to hear your thoughts about either your experiences with any of the three schools, or how I should go about my decision based upon my interests. All I know is I am extremely lost right now and I could use some input that is not from my parents (who are obviously pushing for Smith, and gee, bias much?). </p>

<p>Thanks in advance :) :) -Kate</p>

2

<p>Have you looked around at advertising/business grad schools with music industry ties and seen what their requirments are, if any? If there are specific courses or backgrounds they require, that might help you narrow your choisces. </p>

<p>My experience as a Smith student has been altogether positive. One of the nice things about Smith is that a degree from here can take you pretty much anywhere, so if you are looking at graduate work, you'll have a lot of options . </p>

<p>Also, Smithies are in lots of industries, including the entertainment and advertising industry, so you'll have a great alum network to work with, and they might be able to help you get internships which are really what will help you move into the businesses you want.</p>

3

<p>My D actually looked at both Bard and Skidmore.<br>
Bard has a senior project requirement that requires a year of independent work...you either love it, or you hate it. Our tour guide told us that the school makes it difficult to go abroad, which was an immediate turn-off for our D -- may or may not be true. She also told us that many students take five years to graduate because of the sr. project -- again, may or may not be true. Bard is a very small school in a very rural location with a "granola" feel -- this was a huge turn-off for our D who wanted a town nearby.<br>
Bard and Smith seemed far superior to Skidmore academically, but I'm not sure if their course offerings are more appealing to you personally.<br>
Finally, both Bard and Skidmore do not have much ethnic/racial diveristy.
Three very different schools -- go with your gut!</p>

4

<p>From what I know about all 3 schs (second-hand from current students, current parents and recent alums), each will prepare you for grad sch and none has particularly strong ties in advertising/business or the music industry- - so you'll have to find some other basis for disting among them. </p>

<p>Stating the obvious: Smith is the most prestig of the bunch, but it is also the only women's college. And, in a close race, either prestig or co-ed is a legit basis for accepting or rejecting an offer of admission. </p>

<p>In my houme, it was a split decision: D2 applied to Smith ED; D1 repeated stated she'd rather work at Target than attend women's college. D2 liked the fact that Smith had no distrib req, had more black students, and offered an unbelievable variety of courses/majors for a LAC; she also liked the house system (the thought of rolling out of bed and not having to walk outside to get bfast).</p>

<p>Why are your parents pushing Smith? And why discount their advice - - they know you far better than any poster?</p>

<p>Have you visited the respective campuses to see where you feel most comfortable?</p>

<p>It may be a difficult decision (like splitting hairs), but they are all good choices, so you're unlikely to have a bad outcome regardless of which school you pick.</p>

<p>Good luck.</p>

5

<p>My perspective is similar to MomofSmithie's. Skidmore was my D's Safety and as soon as she got the "Likely" letter from Wellesley, her second words were, "Oh good, I don't have to go to Skidmore." While Skidmore has some very attractive performing arts features, academically Smith runs circles around Skidmore without even trying. We went to a Skidmore party here in L.A. and the overwhelming sense for both D and me was: a) it was one of the whitest groups of people we'd seen in a while (hey, we are too, but...) and b) the prospective students seemed to be second-tier students...competent enough but not terribly exceptional. But there's a reason that Skidmore was the Safety, and that only under duress of needing a Safety. (One respected college counselor said that Smith was more or less a Safety for D, who would pirouette in, but we didn't believe her. I believe in "applying scared," having seen too many crash-and-burns over the years.)</p>

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<p>After reading TD's post, I figured I'd come clean: D1, who desperately wanted a coed sch, considered Skidmore to be a safety, much for the reasons TD stated (weaker academically, unimpressive students on our tour, unimpressive tour guide).</p>

7

<p>Bard has some very good things going for it. The best undergraduate creative writing faculty in the country (and that includes all the Ivies). Already the best undergraduate music conservatory faculty in the country (and that includes Oberlin.) A beautiful location. An amazing concert hall. And some fine faculty (I know some of them in environmental economics and religion). But it is remote (very), not very diverse - it is quite a hothouse environment.</p>

<p>For what it's worth, my d. chose Smith over Williams (which heavily recruited her, and offered close to the same amount of money.) Much better language departments/offerings/study abroad, better housing options, much better town (and opportunities either for service or in the arts in town), better music (when combined with the five colleges), more students engaged in research with faculty, especially in the first two years, and in the humanities, more more economically diverse student body.</p>

<p>And it felt "right". That was most important of all.</p>

8

<p>Heh. Didn't mean to pop you out of the closet, nyc. If there had been a co-ed school similar to Smith, I'm sure that D would have considered it. Here application pattern was a little unusual: HYS, three womens colleges, Skidmore.</p>

<p>Skidmore probably <em>was</em> the closest co-ed to LAC for D, however the co-ed factor wasn't a sufficient draw for her. Vassar never rang any chimes for her, Swat was too small, she didn't like the ballet at Brown, and Bryn Mawr was also too small for her tastes, as well as being another women's college.</p>

9

<p>D2 was also courted by a number of more prestig schools, though admittedly more for athletics and diversity than academic/intellectual prowess. She was not a candidate for STRIDE, Mary Maples Dunn or other merit $$ at Smith, and unlike Mini's D, has little interest in reseach opptys. But like Mini's D, D2 chose Smith for its course offerings. D plans to study art/architecture and engineering, but she wanter a more open program/curric than offered by most pre-prof programs. </p>

<p>We have found Noho to be a lovely town, but a bit pricey, especially for the student on a limited budget. On the other hand, it's great to have so many opptys so nearby for the occasional splurge.</p>

<p>As for fit, we never found a school that "felt" completely right - - there were, however, schools that felt totally wrong during the visit (ie: Trinity). And Smith was onr of two schools where D2 was most comfortable (Kenyon was the other).</p>

10

<p>Have to echo the comments on Skidmore...my daughter felt the academics 2nd rate - gleaned from sitting in on several classes, she commented her high school a p classes had better discussions. very homogenous student population. Skidmore does give out several scholarships for the arts, I think?</p>

<p>I've heard good things about Bard, but that's 2nd hand. One thing in Skidmore's favor: Saratoga is a really nice town.</p>

11

<p>I'm finding this interesting in a small group of datapoints how many cross-applications between Smith and Skidmore there are...or at least cross-considerations. </p>

<p>I confess, I'd heard of Smith decades ago. Never heard of Skidmore until D was in high school and it popped onto the infamous List of 73.</p>

<p>NoHo: "...lovely but a bit pricey." Roger that.</p>

12

<p>I've known about Skidmore all along, almost applied to its first co-ed class myself. The place has made amazing strides since then, in my opinion. As has Bard.</p>

<p>Skidmore is highly oriented towards the creative and performing arts, but in addition it offers an undergraduate business major. A consulting firm I used to do business with hired a Skidmore grad, straight out of college, to do advertising and marketing for them, so this might actually be a strength there. D2 (and I) visited last year and was very impressed with the school. </p>

<p>She didn't visit a class, but my impression is the academic capabilties of the student body at Skidmore has improved quite a bit. This can be verified, and compared to the other schools, via US News, etc. I would not be surprised if you found that there was actually substantial overlap at this point in student academic capabilities.</p>

<p>D1 has friend at Bard, loves it. Seems very much like a creative arts-friendly place. I believe they have an electronic music program there. The members of the band Steely Dan met at Bard. Don't know that any of this translates to music business per se.</p>

<p>Family friend graduated from Smith, liked it. Still sees some of her male friends from U Mass Amherst.</p>

<p>Each has different environment and some obviously different characteristics. All these decisions are tough but you should be able to choose.</p>

<p>Posters to this sub-forum are giving you the straight poop as they see it, in all sincerity and candor, but recognize that, in many cases, they or theirs chose Smith. You are, in effect, preaching to the same choir that your parents have joined, so not sure why you would expect to get drastically different conclusions about the matter, ultimately, here vs your parents' position.</p>