We attended admitted student days at Skidmore and Rochester last weekend, and F&M this weekend. We were scheduled for the admitted student day at Conn College 4/22 but didn’t want to wait that long so went up yesterday to just do a regular tour and check out campus life.
UR felt too cold (literally and figuratively), and helped her realize she really didn’t want greek life at her campus. F&M was nice, but whether because of its proximity to us or the fact that she spent a lot of time on campus as a child visiting her cousin, it felt so familiar as to not feel like anything special. Conn College was also fine, with a beautiful campus but felt too isolated and there was no one out and about anywhere on campus, other than a handful of runners. Skidmore was just a warm fuzzy from the moment we arrived, with authentic interactions everywhere and students who seem so happy. That experience green colored everything else we did - so F&M and Conn didn’t really have a chance after that.
She is committing to Skidmore today with so much enthusiasm for how good a fit it seems to be for her.
We never would have applied without this forum so am SOOOOOOO grateful to everyone who took time to provide their thoughts, guidance, and advice - particularly to you for your data driven approach with me. I speak data.
Looking forward to building many happy memories in Saratoga Springs. Thank you.
That is wonderful. It was actually the college that I was silently hoping your daughter would choose, but your posts made it sound like she was leaning away from there so I didn’t want to join the chorus. Anyway, my daughters have several friends who are currently very happy at Skidmore (including one who is majoring in English or literature). D24 did not end up applying, but she loved her visit and I think one of her closest friends is on the verge of committing there. It is a great college.
This is also an important point - why folks need to visit (where they possibly can, even if inconvenient time wise or monetarily.
OP had four wonderful schools they visited - and there were many pre-thoughts (even before you apply) as to why one might be better than another, etc.
But nothing - and this is a great example - can replace an in person visit - to help decide - where do I belong? Often times, one school will speak to a student, that they belong - like Skidmore did here.
It was a long journey for the student with lots of varying thoughts (sometimes contentious), advice, and otherwise - but i’m glad, in the end, the student found their right choice and I’m hopeful things go very well once on campus.
Though others may feel otherwise, my only goal was to provide as much information as possible to make the best decision possible – while my need to feel understood made me “keep going” to make sure I was. I think that struck some people as arguing but I was really just trying to correct some interpretation that felt wrong – and the reason it felt so “whack a mole” is that my kid is variable and has sunny days, and partly to cloudy days, and some days that are just grey and bleak. She’s a lot of different people at different and varying times, so acting in service to different elements looks very confusing (and sometimes maybe even contradictory).
Anyway, it was a long journey, and lessons learned list is equally long, but I feel very satisfied with where we are. Quite honestly, it genuinely feels like where we were meant to be. It’s supportive, but challenging at the same time, and has a fantastic focus on her areas of passion. Bonus consideration we were not contemplating: she can ride there (she competed as a child before anxiety interfered)!
Silly point DD noted - their online shop had very reasonable prices for most things, which she compared favorably to many other college stores’ prices for the same quality/type of merch. She liked that they weren’t gouging.
Congratulations ! I’m very happy for you and your daughter, especially since based on the multifaceted portrait you’d painted of her, Skidmore sounded like a great fit. Congratulations on navigating a difficult process to everyone’s satisfaction and even happiness
Oh not you - us If you read back, there was some - this can’t or that can’t - from many of us myself included - and you stayed here!! For the entire time and kept engaging!!
And it worked out great.
Sorry - I meant opposite of that!!! If you read through, not from you, but the posters all trying to help, things got a bit critical at times.
So 100% not you!!! You stayed with us and didn’t run away. And that’s awesome. And I saw the previous note just posted from @merc81 and that’s awesome if that’s how it got on the radar!!
And look where we are- you have, we hope, the perfect fit!!
We’re all rooting for your daughter I know. And hope to get a great report back in December.
I’m relentlessly self-examining, so am predisposed toward owning my role in things, but that also means that I’m very secure with who I am (and whether I need or don’t need therapy, for example) – which made most of the negative comments irrelevant to me.
I see all relevant information as good, regardless of the package it is sometimes delivered in, so truly just discarded the somewhat more rough packages to examine their contents. And for the most part, even the roughest packages contained useful information (ie, the people “sorry not trying to be rude-ing” were more right than wrong). So I took the wheat and left the chaf.
Happy for your daughter. Sorry you felt you had to “separate the wheat from the chaff.” We share our experiences in an effort to give hope and realistic help. This is from your first post:
One more thing, clinical anxiety cost her more than 2 months of school days either directly or through physical manifestations this year (would love thoughts on whether/how to address this because it really hurt her in her AP classes in particular) - missed 42 days this year and a huge bit last year.
Hope the focus is now on mental health so she can thrive in the supportive community of Skidmore.
I remember the circumstances of that reply. Although brief, it was made after reading your original post thoroughly. Then, as now, I couldn’t think of a better school for daughter than Skidmore. I wish her a great experience there!
Fun Fact: I’m not sure how accurate this is, but according to the CC search engine, the following schools received the most mentions in this thread prior to January `24:
I’m very happy for you and your daughter, especially since based on the multifaceted portrait you’d painted of her, Skidmore sounded like a great fit. 
Congratulations on navigating a difficult process to everyone’s satisfaction and even happiness 