Hello!
I’m a prospective international applicant. My subject(s) of preference are international relations and environmental studies. I’m an extrovert and would love to make friends, go on outings and stuff. As I’ll be requiring a pretty generous amount of financial aid and as my SAT scores are at borderline of their class of 2022’s SAT range, I was looking forward to apply early decision.
To me,
Colgate :
Pros:
Very good career prospects. Payscale ranks Colgate amongst it’s college’s with highest mid-career earnings.
Excellent extra curriculars
Solid financial aid.
Cons:
According to Princeton review, they are one of the college’s with “little race/class interaction”. Hence I don’t quite know if I’ll fit in.
Frats. Frats/sorros. are non existent in our country and even though I wouldn’t mind joining one, their website didn’t have a picture of a single international student in any of the frat images they post. If frats result in some sort of segregation, it’s kinda going to be difficult for me to maintain a good social life there.
Vassar :
Pros:
Laid back.
Best financial aid prospects amongst the two.
Vibrant social life. No frats and ranks very high on college access index.
Cons :
I don’t know if their international relations and environmental studies are that good as Colgate.
I think they don’t have as good career prospects as Colgate.
I can’t visit either of the campuses for obvious reasons.
Please advise on which college to opt for.
If you haven’t yet, look on their websites for frequently asked questions for international applicants. They have some interesting information.
My knowledge of this is just from having visited Vassar with my son and read a lot about it. I know much less about Colgate. My take would be:
-I don’t think there is a significant difference in overall quality, name recognition, etc. I don’t know if job prospects from Colgate are necessarily better. It could be students from Colgate are just more likely to go into fields with better or higher-paying job prospects.
-Both seem good for international relations and environmental studies. But if you look into the courses, professors, requirements, etc., maybe one would be better for you.
-Vassar might have a slight edge in fitting in. It has 14% international students vs. more like 10% at Colgate, and is about a hour and 45 minutes to NYC, which makes it feel less isolated if you want a different experience. On the other hand, I wouldn’t say there aren’t many people at Colgate you could fit in with. And maybe a sorority or fraternity could actually help in finding a group.
-On the Vassar website, it mentioned that they have about 1000 international applicants with need, and about 35-45 get admitted. This is quite low, of course. (Also, if you are female, Vassar admits a lower percentage of females just because of their applicant pool, so that might be another factor.) The Colgate site has a question about this with a much less clear answer.
Overall, I think Vassar might be a slightly better choice, but I really have no idea which is a more likely ED admit for an international student with need. You should do what you can to figure that out. There is ED1 and ED2 if you decide to do one and then the other. Good luck!
Others with direct experience with these two schools will hopefully chime in, but my sense is that these are two pretty different schools. Both are excellent academically. Colgate will probably be a bit less diverse (though not as much as I initially believed: 66% white for Colgate, 58% white at Vassar). Also, Colgate’s reputation (fair or not) is that it’s preppier, more sports-driven, and party-crazy than Vassar (don’t get me wrong, though; Colgate is a terrific school).
Vassar is a former women’s college that went coed in 1969. Its rep is progressive, intellectual, and perhaps a bit elite. There was a time where Vassar was sort of synonymous with privilege, where one could say “Vassar woman” and others knew exactly what that meant. But Vassar has worked very hard to become more diverse and was even highlighted in some study that I cannot remember (!) for its commitment to diversity.
Last year, when deciding on colleges, my final two choices were Colgate and Vassar and I was admitted to both. After visiting them both I decided on Colgate. Yes, there is some preppiness here but honestly almost everybody you meet is very nice. Also, we have a new commons system which starting next year, you have to stay in for your first two years so honestly the whole frat/soro’s aren’t really as prevalent as one might think.
The campus here is beautiful, every professor that I’ve had has been great. Also they’re currently building two new residence halls that will be done by next year.
However, I’m somewhat concerned about what you might mean with respect to your “borderline” standardized scoring. As an international applicant seeking financial assistance, you might need higher scores than this indicates.