The weather may be a consideration for you.
I personally love RIT for the reasons above and more – diverse student body, strong mostly tech education, but has very interesting arty side too. However – the winters there are fierce. If you’re from Venezuela, you might be miserable.
Skidmore – a fine school for arts, and in a cute town, but again it is subject to serious winters. Getting to a city or even a moderately active town most of the time is hard to do. While they offered in the presentation a trip for the students to NYC once per year, the school feels quite remote. In the summer the town is a big tourist town, with lots of arts – classical music and the like. For my taste, I felt that the academics were not as high level as some of the others on your list, even though it’s a nice school in general. For example, they kept talking about how they had programs to ensure that your child got out of bed and went to class. For us, this wasn’t encouraging about the level of student there and their involvement. Also the book they were recommending for the all-campus read was a book that seemed to have been written by a graduate who had succeeded in business – and felt to me like a big boost to a potential donor, rather than a book with real literary value. Many people love this school, though, for its arts and recently it’s gotten quite “hot” in terms of people wanting to attend.
Mt. H is part of a consortium that INCLUDES SMITH. It’s a top school and you can also freely take classes at UMass Amherst and at Amherst College, another top school. There are free buses among the four campuses. Mt. H has a gorgeous campus (small waterfalls, a goose named Jorge, and horses for their equestrian program) and, if you’re concerned about winter, each dorm has a glassed-in sunroom for you to enjoy. They serve cookies to the students I think every day. The atmosphere of the campus is supportive among the students. They tend to be remarkable women who are strivers. This is a school with very strong academics including sciences – new buildings and new programs. The school provides also a bus to the Mall and other services for students. This is a school with high level academics, striving students who support each other, a gorgeous campus, and a homey atmosphere – with sun rooms in case you need an escape from the cold weather. This area (the Northampton general area) is also lively with students and other activities at the other campuses. As a member of one campus, you can take part in the activities of the other campuses. https://www.fivecolleges.edu/
Sarah Lawrence is a fine school and quite different from the others. SL you take 3 rather than 4 classes per semester (for that tuition!) and it’s on a tiny campus set in Yonkers and next to Bronxville. There’s a 20 minute train to NYC. The school also runs a bus to NYC on the weekends. I found that the students for whatever reason didn’t use this opportunity much, making me feel that the campus was fairly insular The campus is pretty, but it’s small. The students it attracts tend to be very very arty and somewhat, well, they like to push boundaries. If I were you I’d google the SL student newspaper and see if you relate well to that atmosphere. The sciences there, while they are attempting to improve their offerings, they are quite lacking. I felt that if my daughter wanted to take a science, she would be very shortchanged. I was not impressed by the projects on posters in the department and the dept was very small. She went with high hopes for this school and left scratching it off of her list, not just becasue of the sciences but also because of the art programs, surprisingly. They seemed underdeveloped compared with her experience in high school and the students seemed to be enthusiastic about their experience–having fun–and also not well directed. My largest concern about SL is the lack of structure. Lack of structure is what draws some people there. For this family we found that it would be easy to get lost there, UNLESS YOU WERE SUPER DIRECTED. If you’re directed, then you could possibly make it work. I know of one student, for example, who because of the lack of structure was able to take an entire semester and work on a political campaign as her coursework. This led to her finding a career. Again, it’s a unique school and if it’s the right atmosphere for you, then terrific.
As for getting off of a waitlist, to check your chances for that, google and . That should get you the information about what how many students were on the waitlist and how many were accepted off of the waitlist.