Potentially transferring to Skidmore College

I am a second year undergraduate who currently attends SUNY Geneseo and has been thinking about transferring to Skidmore College. While my decision is not yet final, I am extremely unhappy at Geneseo to the point that my mental health is slowly deteriorating and I’ve been trying to get closer to home before I get worse.

I was just curious if anybody knew whether Skidmore has strong academics, particularly in its English program? Geneseo is not a bad college and has some great professors, but it has an inflated reputation in my experience with regards to how intelligent the average student is here. While I am unhappy for a variety of reasons, I do not want to potentially compromise my academic development by going to a school that isn’t strong just to be closer to home. Does anybody know if Skidmore is reputable and challenging, or would I be better off looking somewhere else when it comes to that?

Skidmore is a great school that would have very different vibe from Geneseo. The cost is very different too. I’m assuming you can handle that? Have you gone for a visit?

The cost is another deciding factor, so I’m waiting to see what I’ll ultimately be paying. I do know that it is considerably more expensive than Geneseo but I’m still waiting to see what kind of offer I’ll be getting. I have been on a visit and I thought the campus seemed nice.

Skidmore is a very strong LAC, with excellent arts and humanities, and a somewhat broader range of majors than found at some LACs, including an education studies, health and human sciences, and business major. Regular admission has been increasingly competitive, with something like a 25% acceptance rate and a middle 50% SAT range of 610-700 and ACT 27-31. We never visited but know several very happy students there. According to the Common Data Set, looks like about a 40% acceptance rate for transfers.

Are there other colleges in the area of the state you want to be in, that you can apply to in addition to Skidmore, and which you might also like? I ask in case financial aid at Skidmore doesn’t turn out as you need it to. I’d like you to have some backups.

@RoaringMice From my research, I can’t seem to find any colleges that are as reputable as Skidmore in the general area I am looking for that aren’t either a) far reaches or b) equally as expensive as Skidmore and with a similar financial aid policy. If the financial situation does not work out with Skidmore I will try a more productive college search for the Fall of 2019, or I might talk with a doctor about potentially going on some medicine to help with my mental health issues. The latter choice seems like it might obviously be the easiest but my experience thus far with therapy and medicine have had poor results in terms of curbing my mental health issues. I thank you for the concern, though, and acknowledge that I should’ve been much better prepared for this transfer but it’s just gotten so bad that I feel like I have to at least have the option open to transfer, even if it’s only one option.

Check out Union College. You might like it.