Skidmore College (SC)

Skidmore College “offers a strong liberal arts curriculum with abundant opportunities to engage professionally with coursework and fields of study.” Students appreciate that creativity seems to be a foundation of academics, “with the arts being well mixed into all areas of study,” and a “mind and hand” integration of classroom and experiential learning that offers a flexible curriculum. As a result, there are “many interdisciplinary experiences and projects” that students can use in plotting their educational path, along with “individualized support and care to their students” to get them there and a “very big emphasis on mental health awareness and advocacy.” Professors are “incredibly engaged in the material they are teaching” and succeed in “bringing it to life and encouraging passion for the subjects.” Faculty “are very supportive and engaging” and “willing to support student learning outside the classroom.” The school also taps the outside world for resources, and “does a great job bringing in visiting professionals to teach classes, lead workshops, and give lectures on campus that expand the learning goals in the classroom.” There’s also access to practical career training, as one student illustrates: “I trained in wilderness first aid, and they’re offering an EMT course in the spring.” Altogether, students receive “a foundation to understand the basics but most importantly…how to apply what [you] learn to real-world situations.”

Students here “are driven and tend to put schoolwork first,” and are “highly motivated and care deeply about their academic performance.” Most are also “involved with [the arts] in some way, even if it is not their primary area of study,” and many “have two majors that don’t seem to correlate thematically but end up tying together through creativity in unexpected ways.” It follows that friend groups tend to be “very diverse here—less so based on interests, more so based on personalities,” but “it’s easy to strike up a conversation with someone new.” That being said, the school is still intimate enough that “everyone knows everyone, and after four years here it’s strange to be in a room where you don’t know anybody.” Everyone “comes from somewhere different and interesting and those attributes are reflected” in the student body, and “you can expect to meet a lot of people with diverse interests that bring them here.” At Skidmore, “emphasis is placed on creative thought…and students are quick to deviate from popular trends,” making for a crowd of “open-minded individuals with a good sense of individuality.” Curiosity is an overarching theme, and those “who are not locked into a specific field tend to think very outside of the box and want to try new things.” Overall, students “are incredibly proud of their backgrounds and their interests…[and] there is a great feeling of school spirit and pride.”

Skidmore students are “invested in extracurriculars” and are “enjoyers of the outdoors.” They appreciate that “there are plenty of on-campus events run by cultural clubs or others” with “free food and free entertainment.” There’s also an Outing Club that offers structured events for the many students who “go hiking, skiing, [and take] day trips to [New York City].” Students also feel encouraged to get active because there are “really nice athletic facilities for athletes and non-athletes,” with “plenty of opportunities to play pickup basketball or pretty much any sport casually.” A student mentions that “[we] don’t have a football team, but the ultimate Frisbee team functions like that socially.” Everything “is so close together” on this cozy campus, which is “beautiful, especially in the fall,” and students can easily “walk around in clothes they handmade in the Idea Lab and host celebratory events for the different cultures with which they identify.” One student says, “There are so many things to do, and most students take those opportunities.”

According to Skidmore College, its “Career Development Center helps students develop a holistic view of their career development plan, offering programs and services for students in each year to foster enhanced self-awareness, exposure to a variety of career fields, participation in off-campus experiential activities, [and] effective career decision-making.” A Summer Experience Fund provides grants to students completing unpaid summer internships and experiences locally, nationally, or abroad. The Susan Hirsch Schwartz Fund provides monetary assistance to students receiving financial aid, which can be used on off-campus job fairs, networking receptions, and application and test prep fees. Skidmore’s Career Communities provide students with frameworks for what majors might best suit their interests and abilities, as well as the different career options and potential employers available to them in that major. Potential employers can also be found at numerous events such as the annual Career Jam, fall internship fair, and Skidmore Recruitment Week. According to PayScale.com, the median starting salary for a Skidmore graduate is roughly $64,000, and 51 percent of graduates consider their careers to be making a meaningful impact in the world.