My D was accepted at both and is attending Skidmore. Had she got the LEEP scholarship we might have given it more consideration but after an overnight visit we both decided that the location was a big factor in her ultimate decision. My personal opinion is that she would not be able to venture around campus after dark by herself, not to mention leaving campus at night. And, in the end, their financial package was less than Skidmore.
Skidmore has been a great choice. D went in thinking Math/Bio/Spanish but because she really liked the Chem class she was taking, replaced bio with chem. She was offered and has taken a summer research project in Quantum Mechanics with the head of Chem Dept. I’m not sure how many freshman are invited to do 10-week summer research with stipends but she feels honored. She was also asked to take a tutoring job with the department and has been doing that for five hours each week.
ClarkU was a safety for D. FWIW, Skidmore’s acceptance rate apparently went from 37% to 29% this current app season. They are really marketing to STEM majors and trying to build those departments. When two of D’s classes were filled this semester and she was afraid of being shut out, she was assured they would figure something out. In the end, they opened up another slot for each class and, instead of being in a class of 22 students, each class has 15 or so. I thought this was great.