Admissions Summer Open House: Big Crowd, Beautiful Day

Under sunny, blue skies on July 13, some 300 prospective students from 25 states and five countries attended Skidmore?s annual Admissions Summer Open House.  It was one of the best-attended summer open houses ever. (For photos of the event, click here.)

The crowd of more than 500 people (including families and friends and a dog or two) was treated to the following:

? student-led campus tours (including special arts and sciences tours)
? music by The Blatant Sellouts, a student band
? a picnic barbecue on upper South Park
? a welcome from Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Mary Lou Bates
? remarks from Student Government President Raina Bretan ?10
? a Q & A session with five student panelists, moderated by Dean of Student Affairs Rochelle Calhoun
? an admissions and financial aid informational session

?You?ve come from all over the country, indeed, all over the world today,? said Bates before rattling off the states: New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Maine, Illinois, New Hampshire, Maryland, New Jersey, Washington, Delaware, Florida, Tennessee, Ohio, Virginia, Texas, California, Michigan, Oklahoma, North Carolina, Minnesota, and Hawaii. And the countries: Taiwan, Germany, Portugal, Turkey, and Georgia (the country, not the state).

Later, after listing the most popular majors?English, Management and Business, Studio Art, Psychology, Government, Biology, and Foreign Languages?Bates issued a friendly dare. ?I challenge you to come up with another liberal arts college where both business and studio art are among the largest majors,? she told the crowd.

Bretan focused on Skidmore?s penchant for going ?above and beyond to help its students reconcile and engage their varying interests.? She talked about a friend determined to become a doctor, yet passionate about computer science: ?With the help of Skidmore Career Services and excellent advising, he is now applying to med school hoping to organize the ?da Vinci? surgeries, run by remote robotics derived from advanced computer formulas. At Skidmore, nothing is set in stone and you have full capacity to follow where your interests take you and equal opportunity to pursue new ones.?

Among the numerous audience questions for the student panelists was one about what drives social life? Lauren Napper ?10 (Washington, D.C.) pointed to the Scribner Seminars as being a great starting point. ?You meet people pretty quickly. You meet your seminar classmates even before classes begin. You live in the same dorm with them. I didn?t know anyone when I first arrived on campus, so it was nice to have that safety net.? This coming year, one of her seminar mates is her roommate.

For those who missed the Summer Open House, consider coming to one of the fall open houses:

? General Open Houses: Oct. 12 and Nov. 11
? Dance Open House: Oct. 25
? Science/Math Open House: Nov. 8
? Studio Art Open House: Nov. 14
? Theater Open House: Nov. 21

For further information, please contact the Office of Admissions at 800-867-6007. (Story and photos by Peter MacDonald, Office of Communications)