<p>I haven't heard Skidmore mentioned much on these boards. DKE, I believe you mentioned a family member there? My next child, who will not get into a top ten like her siblings, is very interested in Skidmore. We've done the research and its got a lot of what she wants, but I would be interested in anyone's personal take on student body, work load, etc. Thanks to anyone that ccan help!</p>
<p>My son was interested in Skidmore because of it's fine art and art history programs. Skidmore has a reputation I think left over from it's all-girl days of being a finishing school for wealthy white girls. Although I wouldn't characterize it as an intellectual powerhouse, I'd say that the college is trying very hard to counter that stereotype by introducing interesting and stimulating courses and actively recruiting diversity (and males, of course). Saratoga Springs is a lovely town and the campus is one of the prettiest we saw. I'm sure it helps to be involveed in some sort of winter sport as it's a long, cold season. </p>
<p>If your daughter is looking at art or art history, the facilities are wonderful; the museum is one of the best college museums in the country.</p>
<p>I work with a young woman who is a recent grad and she's articulate, intelligent and a delight to be around. How's that for anecdotal evidence!?</p>
<p>Thank you, Momrath! </p>
<p>USNWR is listing it as a first tier school - around #50, if I remember correctly (though of course, not a powerhouse, as you point out). I do wonder about the low yield rate. I wonder if a lot of people aren't using it as a safety.</p>
<p>I don't have the exact answers you are looking for, unfortunately, but will chime in about Skidmore. My husband grew up in Saratoga Springs and my inlaws still live there and I have been there COUNTLESS times over the years and have seen the Skidmore campus as well. In high school, my hubby took courses at Skidmore. My inlaws audit courses every semester there. A friend of my D's who is a recent graduate of our high school and one of our best students is a freshman this year at Skidmore and loves it. She excels in school, is an athlete, and has extensive performing arts experience as well. She is currently on the field hockey team there. She is NOT rich. She IS white. I think Skidmore is much better than average and for students who themselves are much better than average. It simply is not the most selective or top tier but clearly no slouch school by any means. It is for strong students. Perhaps the yield rate is low because for kids who are applying to Ivy type schools, it may very well be a safety for kids in that "league" but for anyone else it would be a strong contender for a strong student. For instance, I believe last year, Skidmore was a safety for TheDad's D and she applied to some very selective schools. But for anyone looking just a "tier" down in selectivity, this school fits the bill well. </p>
<p>Saratoga has grown a lot over the years and is a vibrant place with lots to do and would be a very fun college town. And then just 30 miles away is the city of Albany. There is an airport nearby and also many other great places to go for the day. I recommend your D visit and see what she thinks. </p>
<p>It is funny because back when I was in high school, I looked at Skidmore but did not end up applying but ended up marrying a guy from that town. </p>
<p>Susan</p>
<p>Good heavens, Soozievt, is there anything you DON'T know? That was EXTREMELY helpful! You are such an awesome resource on this board, and always so willing to help!</p>
<p>I've got a D who likes lacrosse, crew, and theater, and is taking all Honors and AP courses, but who would not be able to handle the workload at a top ten like her siblings. Unlike her older sister, who had no trouble staying up for hours, the younger D seems to need more sleep. Her SATs are in the ballpark for Skidmore but I suspect that despite just barely squeaking into the top ten percent at her school ( a very good quality public hs that gets people into Ivies), she probaby wouldn't do well even at a top 25 (say, Colby or Bates). The non-frat/sorority social climate at Skidmore looks good for her but I wonder if she has what it takes to handle the workload.</p>
<p>I do understand that it USED to be considered a "finishing school," but like some other good LACS, the designation is now way in the past....</p>
<p>Yes neDad, that designation for Skidmore is way in the past. From what you describe about your D, I am sure she could handle the workload. There will be strong students there but not necessarily at the level that she'd see at an Ivy, not far behind but still strong. I think if she is taking honors and AP now, she is well prepared for this student body. She is well above average and so are these kids. The kids in the top 5% are the ones at the next tier up, so to speak. </p>
<p>The girl who is there now, from here, has done professional theater as her parents run a theater company but I think her "hook" sort of thing at Skidmore had more to do with field hockey, though she also plays on tennis team and did choral stuff here. She is not someone who applied to Ivy league schools but was in the top 10% at our high school, thus sounds a bit like your D. </p>
<p>If you could get there to visit, talk with other kids on campus and why they chose it and what their own backgrounds were and that will give you a feel for that. </p>
<p>I definitely don't know everything, neDad, but you hit on a school from my hubby's home town. </p>
<p>I kid the girl from here who started there that she might find my girls' grandparents in class with her as they truly take classes there along with the college aged kids and love it. </p>
<p>As I said, it is a fun town for college with plenty to do. Not sure where else your D is looking (is she a junior) to compare with Skidmore. Might Colby or Hamilton be in her range? Skidmore's location is more fun, in my opinion though. </p>
<p>Susan</p>
<p>PS, if she is willing to look into all girls, may I suggest Smith as in the right range for your D, has theater too, and the town there feels a lot like Saratoga Springs. My D originally had NO interest in all girls but when looking into Smith, a lot of it was so enticing that she ended up applying and really liked it, though ended up in the end choosing coed.</p>
<p>Thanks again Soozievt - yes, she is a junior and definitely wants coed. We will visiting the spring. I have heard many, many great things about Saratoga Springs. Colgate and Hamilton are both, I believe, more isolated (I hear SS is a great performing arts town) and maybe too hard...she will probably be looking BELOW Skidmore in the rnakings. But maybe she should not second guess herself this early....But the truth is, while she works hard in school, she is nowhere near her siblings - just not as motivated, and more into having fun. The siblings are having to work quite hard at their top schools, even though they themselves were top 2% students (they are both doing very, very well, but it's work) and this D just is not in that motivational ballpark!</p>
<p>NeDad, you know your daughter well and I am confident you will be guiding her to the schools that match her interests ,personality , and needs. While she is unlike her older sibs, she still sounds like she has done very well in school and is much above average but you are looking at her in comparison to what you were used to with your other kids. I do understand that her motivation and personality are different. There are great schools out there for her. Yes, Hamilton and Colgate are more remote and Skidmore's location is way more fun and yes, lots of performing arts in that area. </p>
<p>I am not someone who follows or cares about rankings. But just look at your D's college criteria and find schools that both match that, plus her current qualifications and you will do fine. </p>
<p>Susan</p>
<p>I'm a recent alum who truly loved my experience at Skidmore (and in Saratoga.) I went there because I fell in love with the town/campus, thought the students seemed like my type (less preppy, diverse interests, artistic, enthusiastic, friendly). It is a fantastic school! Soozie's example of a student sounds very typical--into sports and theater as well. Definitely go visit!</p>
<p>We visited Skidmore recently - do a search for that thread. I was just going to add that their financial aid looked pretty scarce to me - if that is an issue for you. They claim to meet need, but they really have no merit money at all. They do have a nice big scholarship for music, but I suspect it is very competitive.</p>
<p>NEDAD_ I pulled my and others comments from the archives:</p>
<p>My comment: Went to Skidmore to visit open house for accepted students. My son was accepted so we wanted to check it out further hoping that he can come to a decision on the 4 colleges that accepted him out of the 7 he applied to. Students this is a parent perspective so take it with a grain..ha! </p>
<p>The campus is certainly located in what appears to be a nice town-Saratoga,NY- Old Victorian homes line the main street and the shops are upscale somewhat. The architecture to the campus is a blend of modern, 1960's brick look and would give it a B as some areas just were not clean or neat...We saw two dorms they were ok. Dark in hallways not as nice as some other schools but hey it is a college dorm. </p>
<p>One gets the sense that creativity does abound around this campus. As a former hippie I thought" hey this is where all the hippies disappeared to" The mode of dress ran from some grunge (if they still use that word)- to a notch below prep. Didn't see much prep at all. Maybe prep dress is dead? Or I am too old and grunge,skater stuff is prep? Saw several athletic types who seemed to enjoy being in this hippie like environment. hmmmmmm big athletic fish in small athletic college pond? Of course what I know about Skidmore's athleteic program is minimal so that is my opinion which could be dead wrong...... All the students were polite and direct, honest and sincere in some random discussions we had regarding the college. The admin planned a nice day for us. The highlight was a professor that dressed like I did 30 years ago, but was obviously very intelligent and he gave a sample lecture to accepted students and parents. If even 1/2 of the prof's at Skidmore are like this professor ,I would like to go back to college! Again creativity could actually be felt at this college , not like the other colleges that attempt to pitch that they are creative. I felt it here...and heck I am a stuffed shirt,white collar old foagy that was always a frustrated musician ,but took the business route to make a buck! </p>
<p>They had several students on a panel that for first time at one of these college functions actually appeared to be "the regular" type of student. Instead of hyped up over achievers. They were all honest and direct especially to the accepted student question as to whether or not Skidmore was the "reefer madness school according to the Princeton Review?". (or some question about reefer?)I don't think the admin appreciated this question ,but they handled it well. </p>
<p>They seem to have all the facilties and resources that a student would want or need. There seems to enough activities on and off campus in order to prevent boredom. What really struck me about this school is that (to a business guy like me)the students seemed to enjoy being creative,proud of their majors and exuded an enthusiasm for the arts. They did not appear to be delusional regarding making arts careers fit with the real world of making a living, etc. They appeared to have connected the dots ,that even in the arts or with a creative career, that nothing gets done or funded until one of us business types promote or funds it... Their career choices or goals seemed to be based in reality? Remember we spoke to students that were off the tour path. Smart kids IMHO.....Meanwhile the school requires a course in economics and statistics in order to graduate? Maybe this is why? Either way... I felt that this college actually lives up to its motto! And Skidmore's is "Creative Thought matters" </p>
<p>This comment is from Travler:My experience with Skidmore was an overridingly positive one. I had been at a very conservative boarding school in the NE, for which Skidmore was certainly a "fringe choice." If you were REALLY liberal you went to Vassar or really, really liberal Sarah Lawrence.
I also applied to Conn College, Hamilton, and Bowdoin. I was accepted to the two former, and rejected from the latter.
I chose Skidmore because I needed a new perspective: I had been surrounded by predominantly wealthy WASP type A's all my life. I loved the fact that you could socialize in a more creative manner, frats did not interest me, and I found the core cirriculum well-rounded.
When I arrived at Skidmore, I discovered that the constituency was still, largely, upper class, white, prep school kids, there was more diversity than I had ever experienced: jewish, black, gay, and public scbool students. I did visit my friends at "peer schools" and also found Skidmore students to be very sophisticated and mature. Instead of doing a keg stand on a Saturday night, a Skidmore student is more likely to have a picnic on the Green with someone playing guitar (although there is plenty of the keg scene, if you want it. Just no hazing).
I saw little to no pot at school. I was an econ major, German minor and I thoroughly loved both programs. I am remiss to say I did not take an art course at Skidmore, but did appear in several plays.
Finally, Saratoga is hard to beat as a college town. The region has so much to offer. </p>
<p>And TheDad: One of the biggest knocks on Skidmore, as you can see reading between the lines of Travelr's post, is that it's not very diverse. It was the "whitest" college of any that my D applied to (and it was her safety) and the sense we got from the local Skidmore meeting/presentation was that it has a lot of not-quite-first-tier students from prep schools. </p>
<p>The arts and performing arts classes sound phenomenal. </p>
<p>Songman: as a footnote the Dean explained away (somewhat) the lack of diversity by stating that Skidmore sits in the middle of the pack of LAC's. Many talented diverse students have numerous options and I guess Skidmore is not on their list or they have numerous choices??. I am not quoting him, but he was sincere ,honest and direct.</p>
<p>I can't think of anything else to add about Skidmore...it's reputation definitely has changed....my friends in the 70's who went there used to call it "Skid Row".....in that it wasn't very challenging or particularly diverse.....from what my niece tells me the college has done a 180......</p>
<p>Thank you, Newonk and Weenie! We are, alas, going to have to pay full freight so financial aid isn't an issue (siblings have done very well on outside merit scholarships - some worth $10,000 - so we'll try that, but expect none from the school).</p>
<p>Newonk, D thinks (from people she's spoken to) that Skidmore has the kind of community that is perfect for her, and your description sounds like what she is looking for. Can you comment on the workload and level of competitiveness? One of D's siblings is at a school where the workload is very hard, but students help each other - there is practically no competition to speak of (a far cry from our high school!) while a cousin is at a brutally competitive school.</p>
<p>Any info would be great, but you've already helped - thanks!</p>
<p>EDIT - DKE was posting as I did --- thanks to you too.</p>
<p>Wow, Songman - you too posted while I was posting. That was an AWESOME help! Thanks!</p>
<p>One other anecdote: I have a colleague who attended in the 70's. She was an ace skier but not much of a scholar. I guess you'd say she fit the rich, white finishing school stereotype. Well, she's now a Sr. VP at a Fortune 500 company and earns in 7 figures. She credits Skidmore's excellent career placement counseling. </p>
<p>NEDad, another school I'd take a look at is Kenyon. Like Hamilton, more isolated than Skidmore, but the three are similar academically.</p>
<p>Sure. Its tough since I have nothing to compare it too except my friends' reporting on their experiences, but -- I worked very hard in college and did really well. Like you'll hear from most LAC students, you can't possibly do all the reading, so you have to do your best and make tough choices sometimes. It seems like EVERYONE has a significant extracurricular commitment, so there is the feeling that we're all keeping multiple balls in the air at all times. I guess it was typical in that workload varied between professors from very very tough to fairly light, depending somewhat on department and somewhat just by chance -- English/art/art history/psychology were some that were particularly tough (art always surprises people, they were some of the hardest working for sure) and perhaps business being considered lighter. One thing I can say for sure is there is very very little competition between students, and professors NEVER pit students against each other, at least in my experience (although the hard sciences did curve tests.) There is no feeling at all that you don't want to help your classmates out, share notes etc. People are definitely self-motivated. One interesting thing is that social life starts very very late (you are not cool if you get to a party before 12:30 am at the earliest -- any student will attest) so I remember studying on Fri/Sat nights until midnight and then going out until 4, and working most of the day on weekends in the packed library. There was always lots of group studying for tests. Athletics are interesting too -- some teams are nationally competitive, others not, but athletes are not "revered" on campus as they are elsewhere--they are seen as just another group like the musicians, actors, artists and politicians (similar to what songman described). Overall its a very anti-elitist atmosphere -- everybody has a "thing" that they do well and one isn't considered more prestigious than the other, which I think is great for people coming from a high school where athletes ruled and musicians were dorks. You see this in the kids eyes--what they do is really valued by the community, whether its lacrosse or singing. The biggest events are acappella concerts, art openings, etc, and people come out in numbers to support their friends. </p>
<p>I'm happy to talk more, private message me too if you want!</p>
<p>I think Skidmore is a very interesting LAC and suspect that the low yield is a credit to the school. It may be a safety for very qualified students, but look at it this way. . .they could apply to a lot of schools. It appears that Skidmore is one where very qualified students would feel comfortable applying, though tough to pick if more "prestigious" schools tender acceptances. </p>
<p>It's been on my radar for its art and english departments - very serious students in each. Also, it is one of the few selective LACs with an undergrad business degree. I don't necessarily recommend that approach, but it's good to have the option. Also, the 40/60 M/F ratio may make it a good choice for able male students whose grades or test scores are not where they should be. </p>
<p>Has anyone any solid evidence on the last issue?</p>
<p>Reid - My sense is that Skidmore has done much better at narrowing it's male-female ratio than other former "all girl" schools. Based on some cases here on CC last year of males with lower-than-average stats who applied to Skidmore, I think the days of their giving some slack to males are pretty much over. They may still give a slight preference to males who fall into their median stat range, however. Wheaton and Goucher, two schools similiar to Skidmore (formerly all female, artsy students) do still give a nod to males with stats below their average - I've been able to see their actual male/female breakdowns. But I think Skidmore has become much more selective overall than either Wheaton or Goucher.</p>
<p>Based on anecdotal evidence, it has always appeared to me that both Skidmore and Vassar give a slight edge to male applicants. I am aware of male students who were accepted to each school when waitlisted and/or rejected at several schools USNEWS ranks lower in selectivity. This could certainly be changing though.</p>