The last stop of our New York sweep of colleges was Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs. I had heard that Saratoga Springs was a lovely town, and maybe it's because we were there during the holidays, but I have never, ever seen a Main Street as beautiful as I did here. It is the closest I have ever come to being in a real-life Hallmark movie. Saratoga Springs is the summer home of the NYC ballet and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Skidmore has long been known for being strong in the arts and indeed, their their programs are conservatory level - they do the arts exceedingly well. But make no mistake, Skidmore is academically rigorous and tends to draw intellectually curious students. Some of the most popular majors are Business, English, Psychology and Biology. One of the admissions officers met with us and told us that the myth of the tap-dancing brain surgeon is a typical Skidmore student. You'll find athletes at theater productions and artists at hockey games. And sometimes they're the same people! He said, "Our students are friendly, open-minded, and flat-out nice." Regarding fraternities and sororities, he said, "We've never had them and we never will." Regarding admissions, he stressed that course selection is the most important criterion. When AP classes are offered, students should be taking several of them. They are more forgiving of GPA then lack of rigor. Skidmore is not need-blind but they do meet 100% of demonstrated need; they do not gap students. They offer a very limited number of music and math/science scholarships and the bar is very very high for these merit awards. Lastly, Skidmore is in the process of building a new Center for Integrated Sciences. Part of the building is already up and running, and it's really nice to see a college so well known for being strong In the arts put such tremendous resources behind science.