Skidmore College

Skidmore College placed 41st in the 2027 U.S. News Best National Liberal Arts Colleges ranking, remaining relatively stable after holding that exact position in 2018. Admission to the college is selective. In 2025, Skidmore recorded an acceptance rate of 21.1%, which was higher than 17% of peer schools in its comparison group of similarly ranked private liberal arts colleges, placing it toward the more competitive end of its peer cohort. In terms of attracting accepted applicants, the college demonstrates a solid draw. Its yield rate reached 26.6% in 2025, which was higher than 67% of peer schools. This indicates that Skidmore converts its offers of admission at a stronger rate than most comparable institutions in its category. For prospective applicants, these figures mean that admission is demanding, while the institution maintains a steady pulling power among the students it decides to admit.

Applicants considering Skidmore College generally face a high testing standard if they evaluate their profiles against admitted peers. For the class entering in 2025, the median SAT score was 1390, which was higher than 41% of peer schools among 29 peer private liberal arts colleges. On the ACT, enrolled students who reported scores posted middle-range composite marks between 31 and 33. Standardized test reporting has become far less common on campus in recent years, as only a minority of incoming students submit testing profiles during admission. For families navigating college selection, these ranges provide a concrete reference point for academic standing relative to enrolled peers, demonstrating that students submitting test results are generally well-prepared across core reading, writing, and analytical competencies.

Skidmore College awarded 629 bachelor degrees in 2025, with academic interests broadly distributed rather than heavily concentrated. The top three programs accounted for 30.4% of all graduates. Business/Commerce was the largest undergraduate major, producing 95 graduates, followed by Experimental Psychology and Fine Arts. The college's largest major is not its highest-ranked program; instead, Psychology holds that distinction, earning a ranking of 83rd nationally by U.S. News in 2027. International students are modestly represented among graduates, with their highest concentration in Computer and Information Sciences, where roughly one-fifth of graduates were international, followed by Business. First-year earnings data from 2023 indicate that Business graduates secured the highest median salary at $65,869, while Chemistry and General Psychology graduates followed at lower pay bands. Overall, Skidmore's curriculum successfully blends popular pre-professional coursework in business with formally recognized liberal arts strengths like psychology.

In 2025, continuing undergraduates formed the core of Skidmore College's campus community, with female students outnumbering male peers across all classes. White students made up the largest group across every academic level, while international and Asian students maintained consistent cohorts throughout the college. Within the continuing undergraduate group, international students numbered 160, making up 8% of the cohort. Asian students in this same group numbered 119, representing 6% of continuing students. First-year cohorts showed similar proportions for both communities, alongside Hispanic, Black, and multiracial peers, while transfer students represented only a minor fraction of enrollment. Together, these figures portray an undergraduate-focused institution where international and Asian students form established segments of the campus community alongside peers from a range of demographic backgrounds.

Skidmore College's student body consists entirely of traditional college-age undergraduates, with zero graduate students enrolled in 2025. Campus life is heavily shaped by young adults progressing together through a four-year residential degree. The largest cohort consists of students aged twenty to twenty-one, who number 1,245 and represent 46% of the undergraduate population. The second-largest group comprises students aged eighteen to nineteen, totaling 1,166. Older students make up only a tiny fraction of total enrollment. Because nearly the entire community falls between the ages of eighteen and twenty-one and there are no graduate programs, campus living, dining, and social activities center almost exclusively on full-time undergraduates sharing the same developmental stage.

The international student presence at Skidmore College is confined entirely to the undergraduate level and has contracted over recent years. In 2025, international students comprised 7.4% of undergraduates, down from nearly ten percent in 2016 and below its 2019 peak. This proportion is higher than 43% of peer private liberal arts colleges, trailing the peer median. The college enrolled no graduate students in 2025, leaving zero international graduate presence. Among bachelor degree recipients in 2025, international students earned roughly eight percent of all degrees, but their representation varied sharply across academic disciplines. They were most concentrated in Computer and Information Sciences, where international students made up 19.4% of graduates, followed by Business/Commerce at 9.5% and Experimental Psychology at a smaller share. Other popular majors, including English, Fine Arts, and Political Science, recorded no international graduates. For prospective international applicants, this distribution shows a focused academic footprint centered primarily in quantitative and commercial subjects.

Families considering Skidmore College can evaluate several higher education options within the surrounding region. Just 20.6 kilometers away, Union College is another private liberal arts college, ranked 44th in the 2027 U.S. News liberal arts rankings. For students exploring national research universities, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is located 25.9 kilometers away and holds the 69th spot among national universities, while the University at Albany is 28.5 kilometers from campus and ranked 121st in the same category. Additionally, Williams College is located 39.7 kilometers away, holding the 1st position among national liberal arts colleges. These neighboring institutions provide prospective applicants with an array of choices, from top-tier liberal arts colleges to prominent research universities in eastern New York and western Massachusetts.

Skidmore College has seen a steady reduction in campus incidents over the past decade. The crime rate per 1,000 students dropped to 5.5 in 2025, down significantly from its peak earlier in the decade. Across the three-year period from 2023 to 2025, most recorded offenses were student conduct infractions rather than serious crimes. Disciplinary referrals for alcohol violations formed the largest category by a wide margin, totaling 79 incidents over those years. Property crimes were limited, with 11 reports of theft and a similar number of residence hall fires. Serious interpersonal offenses occurred in small numbers, including 9 reports of rape alongside few instances of sexual harassment and stalking during the 2023 to 2025 timeframe. Overall, these statistics indicate that safety challenges on campus primarily involve alcohol policy enforcement rather than rampant violent crime.