<p>So, Ive been accepted by all these great schools and Im having a really hard time making a decision. Can you guys tell me whats the character of each schools student body? And also, what are some similarities and differences between these schools besides the obvious stuff like location? Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>Any Vassar input?</p>
<p>im going to Vassar next year. I love its appearance and live 30 minutes away and know the area. Its a great place to go to school and has that sort of NE feeling if you know what I mean. Poughkeepsie isnt the greatest area but there are places that are far worse.</p>
<p>Some of the best aspects of Vassar, in my biased (current freshman) opinion...</p>
<p>~ Large mix of students... there's no one "type"
~ The beautiful campus.
~ The almost unanimous excellence of the professors... there are very few who I've heard bad things about.
~ The mix of academic, extracurricular, and social interests among the student body... studying comes first (for most), but there's a feeling that it's okay to have a life beyond one's work.
~ The lack of fraternities/sororities... it makes things feel more unified.
~ The lack of a graduate student body... it's nice to have ALL of the professors's attention.
~ The size of the student body... the campus doesn't feel too small; however, at the same time, one won't get lost.
~ The huge selection of majors and unstructured curriculum... it's fantastic to be able to take what I want to take when I want to take it, without having to worry much about a ton of requirements.
~ The dorm life... the way in which the houses are organized creates a real sense of belonging without creating segregation. There's a sense of community within the dorm, but also a great amount of exchange between the individual dorms.
~ The openness of campus events and classes... one doesn't need to live in Jewett to go to the Jewett-sponsered parties, nor does one need to be a history major to take an advanced history class. You can do what you want without worrying about restrictions due to one's year/major/place of residence.</p>
<p>Carleton, Grinnell, Wesleyan, Vassar and.......Colgate???</p>
<p>I don't get it. </p>
<p>Obama, Clinton, Pelosi, Reid and.......Bush???</p>
<p>Carleton and Grinnell - far from anything. Wesleyan, ugly campus. Ugly.
Vassar - great diversity and a gorgeous campus to die for. 2 hours from NYC.</p>
<p>Colgate - in the middle of nowhere. Hamilton has a bookstore and, uh, yea.</p>
<p>Wesleyan - Ugly campus. Oh - excuse me, I said that already. Ugly. Unless you have a thing for concrete blocks built into large boxes. And Middletown makes Poughkeepsie look like Oahu.</p>
<p>TheOldProf--I wouldn't agree that Wes's campus is objectively ugly. I think it is gorgeous here, though the arts center (which is the only concrete-block like part of the campus) takes some getting used to. (I also think Middletown is actually better than Poughkeepsie, but neither are something to write home about). </p>
<p>OP: Some people don’t like Wes’s campus, which is very eclectic. I loved it more than any other campus I saw because of that very eclecticness…however, if you are into classic beauty, Vassar is definitely the way to go between those four. It was one of the most gorgeous campuses I saw, and had fantastic looking dorms.</p>
<p>TheOldProf--I WOULD agree that Wes's campus is objectively ugly. ;) Vassar is better-respected than any of the other schools up there save maybe Wesleyan... and at least two people here found Wesleyan to be ugly!</p>
<p>I would say that Vassar is better known than those schools (save maybe Wesleyan), but better respected? I'd say that they're all pretty well-regarded in academic circles and by grad schools.</p>
<p>Yeah, I agree that Colgate was the odd one out, but I liked it at first. I was also accepted at Amherst, maybe this one fits better:P</p>
<p>Oh. Go to Amherst, then.</p>
<p>Just kidding... you should try to get a feel for the people at each. People matter!</p>
<p>Small differences make uglier fights:
Image:Old</a> Main, Vassar College, no distortion.jpg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia</p>
<p>Vassar better respected than Carleton, Grinnell, or Wesleyan? Uh ... if you say so.</p>
<p>I have to agree with Hindoo here.</p>
<p>Which one is better respected then?</p>
<p>In my opinion, I don't think it's that Vassar is less respected than any of these schools, just that it isn't better respected than any of them, either. I know that rankings aren't everything, but the fact that Vassar is six spots behind Carleton and tied with Grinnell and Wesleyan seems to show that all of those schools are pretty comparable in terms of prestige and respect. I have nothing against Vassar--I think it's a great school and was thrilled to be accepted--but I don't think it's entirely fair to those other great schools to say that a Vassar degree is more well-regarded than a Wesleyan/Grinnell/Carleton one.</p>
<p>I think it's safe to say that a Vassar/Wesleyan degree is just as well-respected in the northeast as a Grinnel/Carleton degree is regarded in the midwest. </p>
<p>If you're choosing a school based on prestige, you might as well flip a coin. As such, it makes far more sense to learn about the student bodies at each school. And yes, Colgate is clearly the odd one out. How the hell did Colgate end up on this list anyway? You like the toothpaste?</p>
<p>You know what's amazing to me, if I can wander off point for a moment? We live in what I thought was a fairly sophisticated, university town in Kentucky. When my daughters were going through their college-search process these past couple of years, it seemed that most people we talked to hadn't even heard of the schools they were considering--Carleton, Vassar, Wesleyan, Pomona, Macalester, Brown, Wash U. ... If it's not Harvard, Princeton, or Yale, then it's off the radar for your average man-on-the-street. Sad, but true. All of the schools you're considering are academic all-stars, even if they don't exist to most people.</p>
<p>People didn't know about any of my schools either (I applied to many of the same ones that Hindoo's daughters did), and while it was frustrating at first, I figured that if I wanted people to know where I was going, I might as well just go to the local state school that, while a decent school, is about 45,000 students too big for me. It may sound silly, but it really did make me feel a little better about the whole brand-name thing.</p>
<p>Hi, I just wanted to say thanks for all your info about Vassar and that I've chosen to go to Vassar next year!! :D I'm really excited, Vassar is the perfect school for me. ^_^</p>
<p>My son is going to Vassar next year. When he told people that he was applying to Wesleyan, Bates, Colby, Carleton, Grinnell, Kenyon, even Middlebury, they all said "Huh?" When he tells them he is going to Vassar, they say, "OOOOHHHHHHH." No lie. Everyone knows Vassar, even if they don't know colleges, they know it is a famous and good college. So if you like prestige, go to Vassar.</p>