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Colleges and Universities A-Z Vassar College
41

<p>Question: From what I've read, Vassar seems to have a diverse social scene. Hmm, see, I like Vassar alot, but I'm kind of nerdy...Is there a nerd contingent at Vassar? Or is everyone into indie chic-ness and partying?</p>

<p>Answer: First of all, that's not a weird question... I asked a similar one last year when I was figuring out if I was really going to apply to Vassar or not XD. Now, on to the question... Yes, I'd definitely say that there's a nerd contingent at Vassar (I'm a part of it). Although there are partiers and indie people, there are definitely a lot of highly studious, scholastically-focused people as well. The nice thing about Vassar is that there's a real mix of different types of people as opposed to predominantly one type of person.</p>

42

<p>You can also be a partier AND a highly studious, scholastically-focused person. That's the best part.</p>

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<p>Yes. I would say most people I know are like that.</p>

44

<p>Thanks Littleathiest for answering the food one. I have another.
Wut student club is most popular at Vassar? and most renowned among several nearby liberal arts college? can the atmosphere at VC be considered artistic?</p>

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<p>A few more questions: </p>

<p>1.) But beyond studious nerds, are there also geeky nerds? As in the ones who may read alot, play videogames, watch anime, stuff like that? I want to be able to walk about Vassar and take pride in my nerdy extensions of self. Yes, I am studious. Yes, I'm artsy. Yes, I like indie rock music. I also, however, love Japanese animation...Can I find a social niche?</p>

<p>2.) Are sports big at Vassar? My guess would be that they're not, but I'm just curious...</p>

<p>3.) How many students are from the New England area? I'm sure that Vassar is geographically diverse in terms of having some amount of students from across the nation, but is there any one region of the U.S. that feels slightly over represented? How many southwesterners are at Vasssar?</p>

<p>4.) If I don't drink/smoke/do drugs or whatever, will I suffer socially? </p>

<p>5.) Can you elaborate on this tea business in the rose parlor or whatever? Heh, I like tea, and this is one thing that interests me about Vassar. :]</p>

46

<p>There's not really a "most popular" student club. I went to a performing arts high school, so it's not quite as artsy as I'm used to, but it definitely has a creative vibe. </p>

<p>Second poster:
1) Yes.
2) Not REALLY big, but available. There's track, basketball, hockey, lacrosse, ultimate frisbee, etc etc.
3) About nine million. Seriously, I think like half the school is from the northeastern US. I'm a southwest kid myself and I'm definitely one of few. It's fun to be different, though.
4) No.
5) I've never been, but the Rose Parlor is pretty... it's there every day at 3ish...</p>

47

<p>How do you find navigating course selection without a strict core curriculum? Is it relatively easy to develop a strong academic program without a course in each discipline? Or, do most students choose to have a "taste" of everything anyway? </p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

48

<p>What is it that separates Vassar from other top tier LACs in the northeast? What makes Vassar unique? It may be a general question, but I just want to get an idea.</p>

49

<p>Below is another perspective on the questions dc89 answered and answers to the new questions not addressed yet…</p>

<p>Question: What student club is most popular at Vassar? and most renowned among several nearby liberal arts college? can the atmosphere at VC be considered artistic?</p>

<p>Answer: There’s a ton of clubs at Vassar, and I definitely agree with dc89 in saying that there’s no one club that dominates the school. I believe the club that has the most members is Young Democrats (surprise, surprise!); however, the amount to which all its members participate is another story. If you’re interested in what clubs are offered at Vassar, the following link has a list of them: <a href="http://vsa.vassar.edu/index.php/organizations/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://vsa.vassar.edu/index.php/organizations/&lt;/a>. From the standpoint of reputation, one of the student groups Vassar is particularly well-known for is the Night Owls, the first all-female A cappella group in the US. The major dance troupe on campus, VRDT, is also quite prestigious from my understanding. There are also several “unique” clubs offered at Vassar as well: the Barefoot Monkeys, SQUIRM, and Air cappella are three examples. And lastly, in relation to the atmosphere of Vassar… I’d say it’s definitely artsy. Or at least, it’s much more artsy than my rather sports-centered, college preparatory high school.</p>

<p>Question: But beyond studious nerds, are there also geeky nerds? As in the ones who may read alot, play videogames, watch anime, stuff like that? I want to be able to walk about Vassar and take pride in my nerdy extensions of self. Yes, I am studious. Yes, I'm artsy. Yes, I like indie rock music. I also, however, love Japanese animation...Can I find a social niche?</p>

<p>Answer: Yes, there are most definitely anime fans and gamers as well. I believe one of the triples down the hall from me has an x-box, for instance. I haven’t personally met anyone into Anime; but I’m sure there are people around who like it. After all, I’ve met only a small percentage of the campus to date.</p>

<p>Question: Are sports big at Vassar?</p>

<p>Answer: Frankly, the events that seems to get the most hype at Vassar are the theatrical and dance performances. Nevertheless, there are a variety of sports offered at Vassar and a ton of student-athletes on campus. But its definitely not a “jock school,” so if you’re looking for that, Vassar probably isn’t the place for you.</p>

<p>Question: How many students are from the New England area? I'm sure that Vassar is geographically diverse in terms of having some amount of students from across the nation, but is there any one region of the U.S. that feels slightly over represented? How many southwesterners are at Vassar?</p>

<p>Answer: I don’t know the exact percentages, but I’d agree with dc89 in terms of saying that there’s more people from the northeastern US than from any other region of the country. To give you an idea with some statistics… for the class of 2011 (682 students) the top feeder states were New York (172), California (73), Massachusetts (60), New Jersey (56), Connecticut (42), Pennsylvania (35), Texas (18), Maryland (16), Illinois (14), and Florida (9). </p>

<p>Question: If I don't drink/smoke/do drugs or whatever, will I suffer socially?</p>

<p>Answer: Once again, I agree with dc89. You won’t suffer at all (or I haven’t in my almost two months here and I don’t drink/smoke/do drugs). They’ll be certain types of parties you’ll probably want to avoid going to, but there’s so much else to do on campus and so many other things going on besides drinking, smoking, and drug doing that you won’t run out of things to do. </p>

<p>Question: Can you elaborate on this tea business in the rose parlor or whatever?</p>

<p>Answer: I’m not a tea person, so I haven’t gone to the Rose Parlor for tea, but the idea is that every day during the week there’s tea served there from about two to four or so (not sure on the exact times). It’s basically another way to socialize and meet people.</p>

<p>Question: How do you find navigating course selection without a strict core curriculum? Is it relatively easy to develop a strong academic program without a course in each discipline? Or, do most students choose to have a "taste" of everything anyway?</p>

<p>Answer: I can only speak for myself, but I’m planning on taking classes throughout a variety of disciplines in my first year at Vassar. First semester, for me, has been biology, mathematics, literature, and history and second will be psychology, biology, political science, anthropology, and history. The idea of the open curriculum is that students are able to pick and choose which classes they’d like and “experiment” with different offerings as opposed to being constrained by requirements. You can thus decide on not only what you’d like to study, but also on how rigorous or not you’d like your course load to be. Within reason, that is. Every student has an advisor who guides his/her course choosing and ensures that the classes picked are suitable. In other words, people don’t get away with taking four dance classes, two physical education classes, and singing lessons. </p>

<p>Question: What is it that separates Vassar from other top tier LACs in the northeast? What makes Vassar unique? It may be a general question, but I just want to get an idea.</p>

<p>Answer: The first answer would have to be the pink bikes; that’s definitely not something you’ll see on any other college campus that I know of. After that ever so slightly superficial answer, I’d say aspects such as the tolerant and accepting attitude, the abundance of music and theatre, the wide selection of majors offered, and the high caliber of the professors make Vassar stand out in my mind.</p>

50

<p>1.Any idea if the admissions percentages are higher for early decision applicants (and if so is it because they are better qualified)?</p>

<p>2.How easy is it for a non-recruited athlete to play on a team?</p>

51

<p>Question: Any idea if the admissions percentages are higher for early decision applicants (and if so is it because they are better qualified)?</p>

<p>Answer: I'm almost 100% certain that the admissions percentages are higher for early decision applicants. As for the question about whether or not they're better qualified... the official stance of the school is that they are; however, I don't really know whether this is true or not.</p>

<p>Question: How easy is it for a non-recruited athlete to play on a team?</p>

<p>Answer: It depends on the team, really. For boys soccer, for example, you've got to be pretty good to make the team if you're not a recruit. However, for less popular sports such as field hockey, it's much less difficult to play on the team. If you're interested in a specific sport, I recommend that you contact the coach to get a better idea of this.</p>

52

<p>You mention that most ED applicants are more "academically qualified." That makes sense, but it also makes the ED acceptance rate of 43% kinda confusing. Given my stats (current 27 ACT, 3.3/3.4ish GPA) should I really apply EDII? Or just RD? My gut says EDII, as the admissions rate is higher, and I won't be in need of fin aid, but all I am interested in is maximizing my chances at admission. Could you also please give your opinions on this thread: <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=409085%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=409085&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

53

<p>thanx, littleathiest and dc89. any chances of playing cricket at Vassar??</p>

54

<p>Question: You mention that most ED applicants are more "academically qualified." That makes sense, but it also makes the ED acceptance rate of 43% kinda confusing. Given my stats (current 27 ACT, 3.3/3.4ish GPA) should I really apply EDII? Or just RD?</p>

<p>Answer: Actually, in my response to the question about ED applicants I said that Vassar's official statement about the matter is that ED applicants are more qualified candidates which is why there's a higher percentage accepted than RD. My opinion on whether applying ED "helps" or not, however, is the opposite: I feel that applying ED can give you an edge because you're clearly identifying Vassar as you're top choice and you're part of a smaller pool to choose from. I'd say in your case, you should apply ED. As for whether you should do EDI or EDII... it's up to you really, although I'd probably advise EDII if you're confident that your first semester grades will turn out well.</p>

<p>Question: Any chances of playing cricket at Vassar?</p>

<p>Answer: At the moment, I don't believe there is a cricket club offered. However, it is quite easy to start up a club, from my understanding (as an example... Quidditch started up this year).Also, the intermural board is always looking for suggestions of sports and tournaments to offer each season, so that would be another outlet through which it could be started.</p>

55

<p>This thread is incredibly helpful. Thank you!</p>

<p>A few questions of my own;</p>

<p>Do you know anything about Vassar Quidditch? I was super excited that in came up in my very first conversation at Vassar this weekend. Haha. And on that note, how is Vassar rowing?</p>

<p>I recently spent the night with a Vassar host student, and while I felt that the student body was very diverse in terms of student types, racially, it felt a bit segregated. Is this just an unfortunate misconception on my part?</p>

<p>I'm interested in studying theatre and creative writing in college. Obviously the theatre department is very strong, and I have heard the english department is great, too. But, as far as I can tell, there is neither a major or correlate in creative writing. Do you know anything about this?</p>

<p>I know I love Vassar, and it is my top choice for a school right now. But I'm seriously struggling as to whether or not to apply early decision. What sold you on Vassar?</p>

<p>Is Poughkeepsie really as awful as it sounds? Is being 90 minutes from NYC really as helpful as it sounds?</p>

<p>Are there any cons to this school?</p>

<p>Sorry for so many questions, I just have had to many running through my mind in the past few months...</p>

56

<p>This is kind of a shallow question, but how attractive is the overall student population?</p>

<p>Also, do you know where I can find pictures on the website of the school? They don't seem to exist.</p>

57

<p>Go to admission and take the virtual tours. You will see the Vassar campus. In fact, I think Vassar's virtual tour is the best of all the colleges we looked into.</p>

58

<p>Question: Do you know anything about Vassar Quidditch? I was super excited that in came up in my very first conversation at Vassar this weekend. Haha. And on that note, how is Vassar rowing?</p>

<p>Answer: I have two friends who play Quidditch for Vassar, and they both love it. The team just started up recently, so it's a relatively "new" thing, but has been very popular thus far. They have practice once a week (Sunday afternoon) and are going to be attending the World Cup at Middlebury sometime in the next couple of weeks. I don't know if they plan on having any other tournaments after that... but I can tell you that it looks like a ton of fun. As for rowing: it's intense what with early morning practices and all but the team seems to be very close. I have another friend who's on it and she says its enjoyable, albeit a fairly big commitment. I'm not entirely sure how competitive the team is; however, you could probably find out how well they've done this year on the Vassar Athletic Website: Vassar</a> College Athletics.</p>

<p>Question: I recently spent the night with a Vassar host student, and while I felt that the student body was very diverse in terms of student types, racially, it felt a bit segregated. Is this just an unfortunate misconception on my part?</p>

<p>Answer: I would say that's a bit of a misconception (I've found Vassar to be much less segregated feeling than my high school, for example); however, at the same time there is some truth to the observation. There are, for example, a variety of different student clubs on campus (such as the Asian Students Alliance) which focus on establishing a connection between members of the same ethnicity at Vassar. As one would probably expect, this does cause there to be a certain feeling of segregation on campus at times. These clubs do, however, try to combat this issue, howeverby having club-sponsered events open to everyone (Poder Latina hosted a dance in the Mug, for example).</p>

<p>Question: I'm interested in studying theatre and creative writing in college. Obviously the theatre department is very strong, and I have heard the english department is great, too. But, as far as I can tell, there is neither a major or correlate in creative writing. Do you know anything about this?</p>

<p>Answer: You are quite right in the fact that there is no major in creative writing offered by Vassar. There are, however, a wide selection of creative writing courses offered in the English department and you could probably concentrate in creative writing if you were to do an English major.</p>

<p>Question: I know I love Vassar, and it is my top choice for a school right now. But I'm seriously struggling as to whether or not to apply early decision. What sold you on Vassar?</p>

<p>Answer: Frankly, I wasn't a huge fan of Vassar throughout my own college application process. I thought it was too arty, too alternative, and too activisty for me. It was, in other words, one of those schools that I crossed off my list about six times and then added back on because I couldn't quite bring myself to take it off. I eventually ended up applying regular decision to the school and after I got in attended a special open house for accepted students where I talked to several current Vassar students. Doing so is what ended up selling me on the school: it showed me that although there were lots of artistic people there was a ton of science and pre-med majors too, that there were a huge variety of sports options in the form of club and Division III teams, and that not everyone who attended the school was outwardly edgy and rebellious. Basically, I was sold on the fact that Vassar is a place where one can be oneself and find one's own niche without having to change who he/she is as a person. Also, I really liked the idea of an open curriculum.</p>

<p>Question: Is Poughkeepsie really as awful as it sounds? Is being 90 minutes from NYC really as helpful as it sounds?</p>

<p>Answer: No, Poughkeepsie isn't nearly as bad as it sounds. There are several little shops directly around Vassar as well as a variety of restaurants (and maybe a club?). Besides, there's so much going on on-campus that going off into Poughkeepsie every weekend really isn't necessary for fun. As for being 90 minutes from New York, well, I haven't taken the train ride in, but I know several people who have and they think it's fantastically convinient.</p>

<p>Question: Are there any cons to this school?</p>

<p>Answer: I personally feel that there are pros and cons to just about everything in life, including Vassar. One of my complaints about the school would be the laidback atmosphere which stresses collaboration. I'm probably in a minority, but I wouldn't mind seeing a bit more "healthy competition" between students in classes (I'm a bit more cutthroat than the average Vassar student, I guess). Another complaint would be that, although there are plenty of student-athletes, the major focus of students seems to be on the arts. Coming from a sports-centered high school, I'm used to the tradition of sports and I miss that a bit at Vassar. </p>

<p>Question: This is kind of a shallow question, but how attractive is the overall student population?</p>

<p>Answer: It depends on who you ask, I'm sure, but I'd say that Vassar has it's fair share of attractive people. At the same, there are plenty of unattractive ones as well. There's "a complete spectrum" to quote my roommate.</p>

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<p>Quidditch: Two of my hallmates and I recently got takeout from a place down the street, plunked ourselves in front of Quidditch practice, and watched... finest entertainment I've had in a long time. I mean, if you're into running around with a broom between your legs, by all means go for it... at least it's exercise... it's pretty freaking hilarious though...</p>

<p>Diversity: My friends and I talk a lot about how NOT diverse Vassar is, despite the fact that they try to play themselves up as this incredibly diverse campus. I think I'm actually the opposite of you; I feel that it's not particularly segregated, but there's not a lot to BE segregated. </p>

<p>Poughkeepsie: </p>

<p>It's not that bad. I'm from Las Vegas, so I miss the city life, but I like having something COMPLETELY different from home. I do REALLY miss having a Starbucks within walking distance, though... and NYC is definitely convenient. It's a great short trip and really makes you appreciate the quiet of smaller-city life. </p>

<p>Cons: </p>

<p>Like I said, I miss the city life, and it's hard being so far from home. For me, my problems adjusting stem from the typical problems at every college -- I don't yet have the kind of friends I have at home (although I'm making them; it just takes time, you know?), etc. etc. I also miss having a lot of musical theatre options... there's only one group here.... oh well. </p>

<p>Attractiveness: </p>

<p>This campus kind of makes me feel fat and ugly... but that's probably a side effect of being involved in ballet... nah, it's pretty typical of the general population.</p>

60

<p>Ahh, musical theatre, that's good to know. How is the one group they do have?</p>