Skidmore College

Date: Jan 19 2007
Major: Undecided (This Major's Salary over time)
I came to Skidmore expecting to be academically less sophisticated than my classmates because I attended a large and impersonal public high school (and most students at Skidmore graduated from small, intimate, and intense private/boarding schools). As the semester progressed I found myself wishing that I were being challenged more often. Skidmore does not provide students with a challenging environment. The courses were not challenging, and the class discussions, which are supposed to be the main attraction of the Skidmore academic experience, lacked in substance and meaning. The class discussions were often shallow and highly idealistic. Skidmore is truly a highly idealized liberal bubble. While I am as liberal as they come, i found it difficult to function and thrive in the 'Skidmore bubble' because it was so unrealistic. Everyone agrees with you constantly, so you forget that the real world consists of people who do not or do not have the means to be able to view society and life as you do. Skidmore ultimatley forces students to lose touch with reality. While some coin this loss of touch the 'college experience', I found it unfulfilling and boring. While some of my course work was interesting, once I realised that the professors expected nothing more than babble and BS from their students I lost a great deal of motivation. I ended my semester with straight A's, which required very little effort on my part. If you are searching for a truly meaningful and rewarding academic experience, do not go to Skidmore. I constantly felt like I was on an all-inclusive, never ending resort vaction, or at summer camp with books. If you liked summer camp or boarding school, you drive an expensive car, and you are too easily amused, this might be the place for you. Students were rich and uninteresting, and most got into Skidmore due to the fine reputations of their boarding schools, as opposed to any substantial academic or intellectual qualifications. The social life at Skidmore is non-existent. This is a true liberal arts school, so it does not have fraternities or a football team. Ever since the security tightened and the campus went "dry" (the college's response to the #2 ranking for marajuana use), people are very careful about their drug/alcohol use. Campus parties occasionally occur in the upperclassmen apartments, but they are coined as 'not enjoyable' unless you are very very intoxicated. The parties run dry or are busted up by midnight anyway, so the party scene is lame and not well established. The only other parties that occur are in off campus "sports houses", which are virtually fraternities. If you do not enjoy hanging out with the lacross team and police presence by midnight, you have no other option but to drink in your dorm room. This gets very boring and depressing. No one is really involved with the lackluster extracurricular activities either. The occasional on campus dances were amusing, but they too get old fast. The social life, or lackthereof, is very repetitive and depressing for those who realize that they are stuck in a suburb in the middle of nowhere. Saratoga's history is interesting for about one day, but after that students realise that Saratoga Springs contains one very nice main road surrounded by miles of farms and trailerparks. Skidmore is not fun unless you like to sing in acapella bands or desire to feel safe and isolated throughout college. I left because I wanted college to open my eyes to new worlds and experiences, as opposed to closing me off from actual society as Skidmore did.