Oberlin vs Skidmore

Colleges and Universities A-Z Skidmore College
1

Hey all,

I’m a current high school junior who is looking at both Oberlin and Skidmore. Some things about me: I go to a New England prep school and am super involved in the performing and literary arts. I’m looking for a school where I can immerse myself in theatre (particularly directing) and still take other classes, maybe double minor in business/econ and creative writing. So a few questions:

  1. How do the cultures of the two colleges compare?
  2. How do the theatre, econ/business & creative writing programs compare?
  3. What's the social life like? How prominent is smoking on both campuses? How is the dating life?
  4. Do a lot of graduates of each college stay close to the school after graduation?

Thanks so much and I’ll appreciate any info you can provide!

2

My D goes to Skidmore but I can’t really answer your questions…I’ll bump it for you though :slight_smile:

3

My only knowledge of Skidmore is a generation out of date. For Oberlin I can say that the theater department is vibrant with both faculty run and student runs shows abundant.
As for smoking, I believe that Oberlin will be 100% smoke free as of next year (and it isn’t far from that now). Unless, of course, by “smoking” you mean marijuana. In that case its abundant.

4

Maybe checking out student reviews may be helpful? The reviews covers a large amount of aspects.(like campus food,saying life,academics,etc. and gives an average grade for each category,based on the reviews)
https://colleges.niche.com/oberlin-college/
https://colleges.niche.com/skidmore-college/
1.Well there both liberal arts colleges. :slight_smile: I know that wasn’t helpful

2.I’ve heard that Skidmore has a pretty good business program,so you should definitely look more into that.

  1. It's about 60% female and 40% male if that's helpful.

But, yeah I think maybe looking at the student reviews will be helpful and doing more in-depth research.

Hopefully that was somewhat helpful :slight_smile:

5

My son debated Skidmore and Oberlin as well. When deciding on which college for ED2, he went back and forth. In the end, he chose Skidmore because of the actual business degree (he will probably double major); Oberlin only has Economics. Both schools are very similar politically, but Skidmore is a little less alternative. Oberlin and Skidmore are full of creative energy so you can’t go wrong. I recommend a visit and you’ll have a better idea.