Skidmore College

Date: Jul 25 2006
Major: Undecided (This Major's Salary over time)
Academically and intellecually, this school can be a little dissapointing for an institution esteemed by USNWR to be in the top 50 of LAC's. Many students carry a high-school type attitude towards their coursework. They use their newfound freedom as often to camp out and get high as they do getting involved with campus acitivities, and I in fact find it a norm to procrastinate and cram all papers the night before, BSing. If you're into having meaningful conversations without drugs, your options are limited. Ironically, the smart students at this humanities-oriented school are most heavily concentrated in the and sciences and math areas of study. They are for the most part here, though, because they are slackers as well.

You get the vibe that students are also very sheltered and often immature in their social awareness. While the students emulate their parents' liberal upbringing and behave politely towards their fellow students regardless of sexual orientation and race, the majority aren't proactive in helping the larger community beyond signing your petition, and some are even insensitive to the financial misfortunes of others. Expect obstacles 'fitting in' if you are not from a high-income family, especially if you are a girl. Whether a function of the admissions practices, or the constituents of the student body itself, there is a disproporionately large amount of pettiness and cliques at Skidmore, ethnic groups being no exception (again, direct hostility isn't an issue so much as an apparent unwillingness for students to leave social comfort zones established in high school).

The admin seems to do an okay job; certainly more to complain about from my friends at other schools. It's easy to change things with reslife, even if they do charge you for such a inconvenience that lands mostly on the student undergoing the move. They don't go postal with inspecting peoples' rooms and otherwise giving us our desired privacy. Disciplinary action, when taken however, seems a bit authoritative as opposed to 'educational'. They are unnecessarily bureaucratic in academic matters. The advising system is a little overboard for college-age students, making it seem THEIR responsibility that we get our required courses out of the way. I perceive that the honor code, however long its been established, is not widely taken as a 'serious policy' by students, or some faculty.

If you're longing for personal attention from the faculty. and access to the school's many academic facilities, though, going here may still be to your advantage. Professors are generally smart, try to make class interesting, and are generous with their office hours. There is little competition with research positions (excepting a few professors such as one by the initials SS), so ask away and prepare to thrive if you're a concientious type. There are enough activities to saturate your day with here, and a pretty exciting (albeit underrated) town with its unique historical quirks to explore in the intermittent moments the campus life goes dead.

Overall, however, I am not sufficiently deterred from transferring to a more selective (and interesting) liberal arts college.