<p>Getting back to the OP’s question about Skidmore vs. Bard, my son has just returned from a two day visit to Skidmore, and as a result, he has chosen to attend Skidmore instead of Bard. He had very similar financial aid offers from each place, so finances were not determinative. Here’s what he wrote to me about Skidmore:</p>
<p>"The environment feels very natural to me; the students and professors are all really open and friendly; the theater and writing programs are really advanced; the food is diverse and varied; the weather is more intense but you feel it more; the buildings are extremely well-stocked and well-designed (especially the arts buildings); there are events happening almost all the time (I saw a production of Hair by the Cabaret troupe); the dorms all have window seats and it’s easy to focus in them; the library is also easy to study in; and the campus is in an interesting ecological location; the buildings are well-connected and the campus is big but not too big; the students in general are all really creative people. This place is great; people say that after 3-4 years they are still really happy. Skidmore has a strong reputation as well, so it’s good for getting into graduate programs. Their programs are strong in all departments, so I have a lot of freedom to decide on whatever I want to learn and have the resources to pursue it; everyone comes from a different background; and I feel as though I fit in well. "</p>
<p>I was very happy to hear this, because the more research I did about Bard, the more troubled I felt that this would not be a good choice for HIM. Maybe it’s a great and amazing place for students who do not seek a feeling of community at their liberal arts college and for those who don’t value that collegial and warm feeling. But I happened to discover the Bard student newspaper online, [The</a> Bard Free Press](<a href=“http://bardfreepress.com/]The”>http://bardfreepress.com/), and in the most recent issue I read an opinion piece about “Bard’s Existential Crisis” that detailed very clearly the roots of Bard’s lack of a strong campus community; the memorial for a young and talented student who recently committed suicide; the feelings of exclusion among Bard’s Latino students; the poor reception that the January Citizen Science program for freshmen gets; and a police bust of underage Bardians who were caught drinking at a nearby village bar. On top of that, I learned that their College Counseling Center can’t handle the huge demand for mental health counseling among the “staggering number” of students who are on psychiatric medicine, and that the VP of Administration, in an article on Bard’s “fiscal cliff”, says that Bard’s endowment is “virtually non-existent”. </p>
<p>So, even though Bard is currently ranked #36 on the US News and World Report rankings for National Liberal Arts Colleges and Skidmore is #43, I felt my son made absolutely the right choice for HIM, which is what this whole process is all about, isn’t it?</p>