Class of 2016 is most diverse in Skidmore history

Skidmore's entering fall class - 658 students from 33 states, the District of Columbia, and 32 countries - is the most diverse in the College's history. Twenty-four percent of the class consists of domestic students of color and eight percent come from foreign countries. Last year's figures were 20 percent and 6 percent, respectively. Skidmore's student body as a whole hails from 45 states and 51 countries.

"The increased diversity is very exciting," says Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Mary Lou Bates, who recalls that a decade ago Skidmore's number of domestic students of color was 12 percent and those from foreign countries, 1 percent.

"The face of Skidmore is changing and everyone benefits from the diversity of this class," says Associate Director of Admissions Dean Mendes, who coordinates multicultural recruitment. "This May, we graduated 15 international students with the Class of 2012. The Class of 2016 has nearly 60 international students. That's a 400 percent increase." In addition to Canada, China, and Western Europe, new students hail from countries such as Bhutan, El Salvador, Georgia, Maldives, and Myanmar.

The increased diversity of the student body and the College's more inclusive environment is no accident; it's a key component of Skidmore's long-range strategic plan and was identified by President Philip Glotzbach's cabinetas an area of focus for 2011-12.

Why? The broader the backgrounds and experiences of the student body, the better and more relevant the education. Glotzbach offers a concrete example, "A student who has spent her entire life in the Middle East will most likely be able to contribute a perspective to a discussion of, say, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that would not be available to students (or even professors) who have lived entirely within the borders of the U.S." More generally, says the president, "Diversity links directly with creativity. Interactions among disparate perspectives frequently strike the intellectual sparks that herald the emergence of a new idea."

Skidmore's institutional identity is "creative thought matters."

On the affordability front, Director of Financial Aid Beth Post-Lundquist expects that 276 members of the new class (43 percent) will receive financial aid directly from Skidmore, with an average grant of $33,300 (last year, it was $30,500). Overall, the college annually provides approximately $38 million in financial aid. That compares with $16 million a decade ago, which means Skidmore has increased its commitment to financial aid by nearly 150 percent over that timeframe.

Welcoming a new group of talented students to campus generates tremendous excitement. Says Associate Director of Admissions Matt Cohen, "I interviewed a great student in New York City in January. She's a pianist and after our meeting she played part of her most recent concert for me on her iPad. I thought she was great and now she's one of our Filene scholars. Then, there is a student from a New England state whose upbringing was terribly difficult, which affected his earlier grades. But with the help of teachers and a guidance counselor, he picked up his GPA (and his life) and he's now enrolled with us. It's stories like these that make this work so worthwhile."

Of the 658 members of the Class of 2016, 613 will be on campus this fall and 38 will start their Skidmore experience in the College's London First-Year Experience program, now in its ninth year. A total of 41 percent of the class is male and 59 percent is female. Four students are Filene Music Scholars, six are Skidmore Scholars in Science and Math, and eight are Porter Math and Science Scholars.