@Turquoise52
I posted a Vibe report that was an ‘interview’ with my D (sophomore at St Olaf at the time).
https://www.collegeconfidential.com/vibe/st-olaf-college/4129201.html
My sense from Niche is that Skidmore and St Olaf are SO different that once your D visits, she’ll easily be able to make a decision. But here are some thoughts that come to mind.
Majors: Top 4 majors
Skidmore: Business, Psychology, English, Economics
St Olaf: Biology, Economics, Psychology, Mathematics ← St Olaf does not offer Business.
of STEM majors in top 10 majors on Niche
Skidmore: 154 (Bio, Math, Env Sci, Chem, CS, Physics, Geology, Neuro)
St Olaf: 281 (Bio, Math, Env Sci, Chem, CS, Physics) ← that’s getting close to 1/3 of the graduates each year
Their strengths are different. St Olaf is known for being very strong in STEM. A high fraction go on to become teachers, nurses, doctors, grad school. It’s one of the top producers of students who go on to get PhDs in math for example. Same # as much larger UMN (which is also strong in math).
Music is huge on St Olaf, especially choral music. This cannot be overstated. This is the ‘varsity’ sport. In D’s dorm, people were singing all the time for enjoyment. People break into song. D said it’s like living on the stage of a musical. However most of the musicians are majoring in something. Music is their passion but not their academic subject necessarily. D is not a musician and not in one of the audition choirs, but is in the non-audition choir. I had the chance to listen to the Ole Choir (top) in a concert hall. Amazing. Really top-notch.
Nerdy, overly earnest, musician is a St Olaf stereotype which has a lot of truth to it. I can totally imagine someone in the dining hall breaking out into some earnest song (like a modern Kumbaya My Lord) and 2/3s of the others joining in with great earnestness (and multi-part amazing harmonies). Carleton makes fun of St Olaf about this sort of earnestness for a reason…
On Niche, St Olaf gets a C+ on party scene. This is dry campus. Do students drink? Sure, off campus or at the sport houses. But there are a significant number whose idea of a good weekend is drinking tea and playing board games with your friends or better yet going to a friend’s recital or singing together or something like that. So it’s not C+ on school spirit, rather the dominant idea of expressing school spirit is rather different than at other schools. They call themselves ‘community on the hill’ for a reason.
Religion is at ‘thing’ at St Olaf. See the Vibe report. No, it’s not about converting anyone, but if you go there you will have many friends for whom faith is important. Keep in mind that St Olaf falls on the Progressive Christianity side, very liberal on issues of full-inclusion, social justice, etc. My D is an atheist and has many atheist, agnostic friends along with many very religious friends (including her closest friend). There are 2 ‘Bible’ courses required. So you will read the Bible and discuss it—with people from a variety of viewpoints and backgrounds. Discussions can become spirited. One of D’s fellow Great Conversations peers made it his mission to argue how God is the villain in the Old Testament. D said it got old after awhile, but made for very lively ‘discussions’. There was also a student who argued that there was only one ‘right’ way to interpret the Bible. That also got old very quickly… Note this was in Great Con, which is full of students who like to debate. D took her 2nd Bible class outside of Great Con and that was chill she said and the prof was focused more on history and sociology stuff which was very interesting.