<p>What is the non-club-related social life like at Vassar? Poughkeepsie, NY is a very small town. I am curious whether the small size of the town at all affects the social opportunities and whether there are fun on-campus social events/parties regularly. I was also curious how often students from Vassar go to New York City on the weekends.</p>
<p>Hmm. Well, if you mean ‘not-club’ as in not ec related, there’s the Mug and drinking a lot, and if you mean ‘not-club’ as in not clubbing, then there’re ECs. There are interesting things that happen on campus, but not terribly many that aren’t related to some club or another, to be honest. There are some good lectures and some music things, but not terribly much. </p>
<p>There are parties, mostly of the ‘let’s get completely thrashed and hook up and wake up somewhere unfamiliar’ sort, unless they are, well, club related, in which case they are more about socializing with friends. Different sorts of parties. Oh, and then there are the all campus parties. They’re hit or miss. Seven Deadly is fun, if you don’t live in Jewett, the dorm where it’s happening, and some of them are really great. ABC, the anything but cloth party is quite a bit of fun, where you make your own outfits and whatnot. So, there are on campus things fairly regularly. They usually aren’t wonderful, but they’re there for the sort that likes that kind of thing.</p>
<p>I went out to the city occasionally and I’ll be going more next year because I have the money and the time, but the cost kept me back this year. Some people go pretty frequently and some people don’t go at all.</p>
<p>Disclaimer: Averagesnarker has been at Vassar one year.</p>
<p>@nevertheless: I wouldn’t say Poughkeepsie is as small as you think it is; the city proper has ~35,000 people and then theres the surrounding suburbs and such. In terms of social events in the town/city whatever, there isn’t much. Not many Vassar students party or club in Poughkeepsie (assuming you were talking about clubbing, but I have no idea). However, students from Marist college which is about 10 minutes away do seem to hit the bars and clubs in Poughkeepsie a lot more so there is a young crowd that does party in Poughkeepsie proper. The town/gown relationship needs some work since (speculative thinking on my part) Vassar started as an all girls school and the families did not want their daughters actively engaging with the lowly townsfolk. But, there is definitely things to do/groups to get involved with in Poughkeepsie if you look for it. </p>
<p>Don’t listen to averagesnarker about parties cause he/she seems to have a bais against them. People party every weekend (Thursday thru Saturday night) and given the size of the student body as long as you talk to a few people you will be able to find some sort of party to go to. It probably won’t be a rager house party, but I think its still possible to have fun with 10-12 people in a dorm room. </p>
<p>(I really want to “upvote” joshsnow but sadly that is not possible.)</p>
<p>No, averagesnarker just doesn’t see the point in buttering people up and thinks it’s rude to show up at randos houses to drink their alcohol and get wasted. I have no bias against parties; I have a bias against being rude. And, really, what is the point of going to a party if you don’t know anyone there, which, inevitably, is what happens to freshmen.</p>
<p>Just because I have standards and don’t want people to look like twits when they get here doesn’t mean I’m wrong about most things. The number of upperclassmen I’ve heard complaining about the freshmen showing for no good reason is insane.</p>
<p>mods editing my posts! CC is a nanny state! dont let them censor us!</p>
<p>Jeez, you’re acting like a SA ■■■■■. You probably ARE an old SA ■■■■■.</p>
<p>Hi, I’m an international student now thinking to apply to Vassar. Is there any current students can tell me why they chose Vassar or any interesting traditions the school has? Also, will if be easier for me to be accepted if I declare psychology as my major?</p>
<p>I chose Vassar because I visited when it was raining, and it was still beautiful, so I figured if I could love it when it was raining, I could love it when it’s sunny. But, mostly, I wanted to go to the most selective school I got into. That was Vassar. It was just a bonus that I loved how it looked, and the housing (even Raymond), and the location, and the people, for the most part. I attended an oceanography class while I visited and, even though I’m in no way interested in oceanography, I still enjoyed the class, which I think was a testament to the professor. I also picked it because it offered many of the languages I’m interested in. Many of the schools I looked at, for some reason or another, didn’t offer German, and since I want to travel abroad in Germany, it’s rather important that there’s a strong German department.</p>
<p>You’ll be accepted just fine if your a psych major. What do you mean by easier, though? Is there another major you’re considering? Because I’ve noticed that most majors tend to be accepted, even the math and science people. There’s always some grumbling from humanities majors about how much more love the math and science people get (we don’t, actually, which is why I’m switching to linguistics). </p>
<p>Interesting traditions? Serenading, where freshmen from each house, except for Joss, have to sing for the seniors (and also get pelted with water) happens right at the end of orientation week. Um. Primal scream, where, midnight before exams start, everyone gathers on the quad and screams. Founders day, AKA, day drinking day plus carnival rides. There’s spring and fall convocation, which mark the start and end of term, sort of. Unless you’re in choir, and even if you are, you probably will only go to one or two of these. Freshmen are encouraged to go to fall convocation. After spring convocation, Juniors ring the bell atop Main Building to mark becoming seniors. And there are some other ones that I can’t think of off hand.</p>
<p>@averagesnarker:
Thanks for your post! BTW, do you know why does Vassar has the singing tradition? Also, what kind of languages do Vassar provide? Is there Korean?</p>
<p>Apparently Serenading came from this thing called ‘step-singing,’ where the classes would salute each other on the steps of their houses. How that turned into a giant campus wide water fight I don’t know. </p>
<p>Vassar does have Korean as a self-instructional language. In terms of traditional classes, the languages are: Spanish, Italian, German, French, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Hebrew, Russian, Latin, Ancient Greek, and Old English, I think. I’ve probably forgotten some, there are such a lot…</p>
<p>Then, for self instructional, there’s Korean, Swahili, Hindi, Yiddish (which I’m thinking of taking next year), Irish, Swedish, Turkish, and Portuguese. I’m not sure how proficient the self-instructional classes will get you, since I have’t taken any yet, but I’ve had positive experiences with the traditional classes. I take German and Italian, and I think the departments are fantastic. I haven’t heard the best things about Spanish, though. I’m not entirely sure why. I hope to take Spanish in spring, so, we’ll see. I’ve had a few friends take self-instructional languages and they all seemed to like it, so if you want to take Korean, you definitely can!</p>
<p>I know the Vassar site says ED-I decisions come out “mid-December”, but does anyone know anything more specific? What dates have the ED-I decisions come out in years past?</p>
<p>I was accepted ED I for this coming Fall, and we were notified online on December 14.</p>
<p>Sounds good, thanks! :-)</p>
<p>It’s almost always around the 15th of December for most schools…</p>
<p>@averagesnarker:
What’s the point of going to a party if you don’t know the people?
Uh, let me think.
To meet people?
Look, I can understand having a problem with someone drinking your alcohol. I try to bring my own, regardless of whether I know everyone or not.
But if you’re going to be as clique-y as to have an issue with meeting new people, I’m getting a pretty poor impression of you.
The best parties I’ve been to are the ones where I’ve known the least amount of people. It’s fun to meet new people. Get out of your bubble.</p>
<p>Simply because I have better ideas of meeting people than drunken parties does not mean I’m being clique-y. I’m simply being reasonable. I have no problem with meeting new people, but I do prefer to do it when people are actually sober and following basic social etiquette. I also don’t necessarily want to be around drunk people I don’t know; I don’t know what they’ll do or if they’re safe to be around and I’m certainly not going to trust their judgement.</p>
<p>In my experience, people who go to parties without knowing people there usually come for the alcohol and leave. That’s rude. So. Yeah. </p>
<p>And the whole meeting new people is fun thing? There are people who are introverted. Telling people to ‘get out of their bubble’ when you don’t know them or their personality traits is a little presumptuous of you, isn’t it?</p>
<p>I fail to see how you thought your comment would add to the conversation. You clearly have very different ideas of what is acceptable than I do. That’s fine, but don’t push your values on me. I have one take on it and you have another. The world would be a boring place if we all agreed, don’t you think?</p>
<p>I have several questions for a current student! Here they are:</p>
<p><a href=“Questions about food/dorms/intramurals - Vassar College - College Confidential Forums”>Questions about food/dorms/intramurals - Vassar College - College Confidential Forums;
<p>Does anybody know much about Vassar’s women’s fencing team? Just general information, I guess.</p>
<p>I am a sophmore at a public high school in NJ. I am really trying to find out what it takes to get accepted into Ohio State. If any OSU students can help me out, it will be really appreciated.</p>