<p>How would you guys compare Skidmore to Bard? In terms of the eople, social life and overall personalities of the schools. Is Skidmore as "hipstery" as bard?</p>
<p>Bsically, there are some colleges (Bard, reed, oberlin) that are just extremely antimainstream , and I’m wondering if skidmore is like those places too. Is it? Or is it a little more normal?</p>
<p>I’d also love to hear what folks think about the similarities and differences between Bard and Skidmore. I didn’t anticipate this being the case, but it looks like we might well be down to these two college for S?</p>
<p>Anyone?</p>
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<p>I was wondering this exact thing to. I really can’t see myself at places as far out there as bard or oberlin so I’m wondering if skidmore is going to be like that too</p>
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<p>Found this CC thread that might be of interest - </p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/bard-college/1326252-bard-vs-skidmore.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/bard-college/1326252-bard-vs-skidmore.html</a></p>
<p>I don’t know much about Bard but my son is a junior who is a science major at Skidmore and loves it there. He’s not a far out hippy dippy artsy fartsy kid, but he is a crunchy granola vegetarian tree hugger. His sister calls him a hipster and he adamantly denies its.</p>
<p>I’d say based on the kids I’ve seen on campus my guy is right in the middle of the pack. There’s a bell curve at Skidmore ranging from the very emo looking girls with weird haircuts, piercings and tattoos, to the jocky looking guys with 12 packs. The bulk of the kids are on what looks like the cooler, more socially conscious side of preppy East Coast America. My son can’t possibly own enough plaid flannel shirts.</p>
<p>The student politics are definitely liberal but more on the “let’s work to change the world” side than the “let’s destroy the establishment” side. The town/gown relationship is very good - Skidmore kids are welcome everywhere and don’t stand out as odd or counterculture at all.</p>
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<p>And that’s a good thing.</p>
<p>It’s interesting that Skidmore decided to invite a former global mining corporation CEO, Cynthia Carroll of Anglo-American, as the Commencement speaker. This has sparked a great deal of controversy and apparently the first protest demonstration “in twenty years” according to the conservative-leaning student newspaper, The Skidmore News. I find the fact that students there seem to be developing an active political consciousness refreshing–and a sign that Skidmore’s student body is gradually becoming more similar to other selective northeast liberal arts colleges. </p>
<p>The editorial and comments about it demonstrate this growing consciousness:
[An</a> admirable, but poorly thought-out protest - Op-Ed - The Skidmore News - Skidmore College](<a href=“http://www.skidmorenews.com/op-ed/an-admirable-but-poorly-thought-out-protest-1.3027039]An”>http://www.skidmorenews.com/op-ed/an-admirable-but-poorly-thought-out-protest-1.3027039)</p>
<p>Getting back to the OP’s question about Skidmore vs. Bard, my son has just returned from a two day visit to Skidmore, and as a result, he has chosen to attend Skidmore instead of Bard. He had very similar financial aid offers from each place, so finances were not determinative. Here’s what he wrote to me about Skidmore:</p>
<p>"The environment feels very natural to me; the students and professors are all really open and friendly; the theater and writing programs are really advanced; the food is diverse and varied; the weather is more intense but you feel it more; the buildings are extremely well-stocked and well-designed (especially the arts buildings); there are events happening almost all the time (I saw a production of Hair by the Cabaret troupe); the dorms all have window seats and it’s easy to focus in them; the library is also easy to study in; and the campus is in an interesting ecological location; the buildings are well-connected and the campus is big but not too big; the students in general are all really creative people. This place is great; people say that after 3-4 years they are still really happy. Skidmore has a strong reputation as well, so it’s good for getting into graduate programs. Their programs are strong in all departments, so I have a lot of freedom to decide on whatever I want to learn and have the resources to pursue it; everyone comes from a different background; and I feel as though I fit in well. "</p>
<p>I was very happy to hear this, because the more research I did about Bard, the more troubled I felt that this would not be a good choice for HIM. Maybe it’s a great and amazing place for students who do not seek a feeling of community at their liberal arts college and for those who don’t value that collegial and warm feeling. But I happened to discover the Bard student newspaper online, [The</a> Bard Free Press](<a href=“http://bardfreepress.com/]The”>http://bardfreepress.com/), and in the most recent issue I read an opinion piece about “Bard’s Existential Crisis” that detailed very clearly the roots of Bard’s lack of a strong campus community; the memorial for a young and talented student who recently committed suicide; the feelings of exclusion among Bard’s Latino students; the poor reception that the January Citizen Science program for freshmen gets; and a police bust of underage Bardians who were caught drinking at a nearby village bar. On top of that, I learned that their College Counseling Center can’t handle the huge demand for mental health counseling among the “staggering number” of students who are on psychiatric medicine, and that the VP of Administration, in an article on Bard’s “fiscal cliff”, says that Bard’s endowment is “virtually non-existent”. </p>
<p>So, even though Bard is currently ranked #36 on the US News and World Report rankings for National Liberal Arts Colleges and Skidmore is #43, I felt my son made absolutely the right choice for HIM, which is what this whole process is all about, isn’t it?</p>
<p>I got the feeling from my visit that the arts-major kids (Studio Arts, Theatre, Music, etc) were a sort of clan that formed almost a smaller college within Skidmore, separate from the business majors etc. Is this true?</p>
<p>Kinda sorta. My daughter is a junior theate major and loves the school. It’s definitely the kind of place where theater kids and other arts lovers feel completely comfortable and at home. Rather than being thought of as the oddballs, as they might in a jock kingdom, they feel empowered and thoroughly appreciated. But my overall impression of Skidmore is that it is very much a “live and let live” environment. Kids are generally friendly and accepting of all. They respect each other’s passions.</p>
<p>Now that my son is actually at Skidmore and contemplating a double major in theater and a science, I do not get the impression that “arts majors” are some sort of isolated enclave, but rather they are mixed in among all students. Skidmore is a liberal arts college and this year’s freshman class is very diverse. The college is drawing more students with science interests and they are investing more in labs and faculty. </p>
<p>Sent from my ADR6410LVW using CC</p>
<p>So here’s an update to Skidmore vs. Bard. As I wrote previously, my son’s top two choices were Skidmore and Bard and he was accepted at both and chose Skidmore, where he’s now a freshman. This weekend I spent three full.days on the Skidmore campus, got to attend two minicourses in English (Prof. Bob Boyers, editor of Salmagundi, Skidmore’s highly regarded literary magazine) and in Neuroscience, (Prof. Sara Lagalwar who is department chair). </p>
<p>Prof Boyers spoke on Modernism in a way that was clear and highly engaging. He was a close friend of the late Howard Rosenbaum, long-time New Yorker critic and Boyers has both an intellectual grasp and an insider’s perspective toward the modern and post-modern. I was very impressed!</p>
<p>Prof Lagalwar spoke before a standing room only crowd. She broke down the key elements of the brain with lucidity and humor. She summarized the latest research on stress and the brain (note to students: your pre-frontal cortex won’t mature until age 22 for women and age 25 for men, so in the meantime to reduce stress get plenty of sleep, exercise, and leafy green vegetables).</p>
<p>I also had the chance to listen again to President Phil Glotzbach, who announced a new $100 million project to build a massive new science and computing complex. One third of Skidmore students currently are science, math, or computer science majors. Glotzbach is moving to make the science literacy requirement even stronger than at present.</p>
<p>We later drove down to Bard College. I had never visited that campus, and I was struck by a couple things. First, the Bard campus is incredibly spread out and therebud no common center. There is a small student center but the distance between buildings makes for a feeling of dispersed energy. The buildings are stunningly beautiful, each one worth a pause to take them in. The economics center is perched just beyond the banks of the Hudson River.</p>
<p>Oddly, when you turn off the road onto the campus, there is no sign indicating Bard College. Without GPS, you could very well drive past it, except for the sign that indicates that the Center for the Performing Arts is inside. Since the campus is literally in the middle of nowhere, this is important.</p>
<p>The two campuses seem to evoke different kinds of communities. Skidmore’s campus is much more compact and organized, permitting lots of student to student contact, and 90% of all students live on campus. Downtown Saratoga Springs is a 25 minute walk or a five minute bus ride. For solace, there us about a mile square woods in the north end. Students there seem to travel in packs, and there is very clearly a feeling of warmth, mutual support and energy.</p>
<p>Bard’s campus seems to evoke individual contemplation. Privacy and being on one’s own. We saw mostly individuals sitting alone or in pairs. There were not many students outside, and it was pretty quiet. While I would not call it unfriendly per se, the only person who acknowledged us was a security officer who saw we were about to drive up onto a sidewalk. It’s easy to do this, as signage is pretty unclear even as you go into the campus. We almost did drive down that sidewalk and luckily it was a bright and sunny afternoon.</p>
<p>Sent from my ADR6410LVW using CC</p>
<p>Thank you so much for this very informative post, Morganhil!</p>
<p>morganhil - What a beautiful review.</p>
<p>Thank you Morganhill ! A very useful review indeed. My son is trying to choose between Skidmore and Brandeis. </p>
I know that your post is a full three years old at this point, but this was helpful. Thank you. Hope your son enjoyed his years at Skidmore.