Vassar has a high acceptance to med school, too, and the Cog. Sci. Sept is very, very good. But you’re right - the student bodies are very different, so definitely visit. Both are beautiful schools. Colgate has Greek life. Congrats- you have two great schools to choose from!
Another positive for Vassar is they don’t have a core curriculum. The thing regarding majors is that I could probably create my own interdisciplinary major @ Colgate but I know Vassar does have a great Cog Sci. Dept. I just don’t know what’s more important lol
Make sure to wear your Make America Great Again baseball cap during your visit to Vassar, and wear your I’m With Bernie T-Shirt at Colgate. Then come back & let us know about your thoughts & experiences.
Also, a bit ironic that you pointed out that Colgate is farther from NYC–because it sure places a lot of finance grads there.
One of my sons is at Colgate, another is headed to Vassar in the Fall.Colgate is remote and beautiful and cold. The core requirements became tedious for my oldest but now that he’s finished with them he truly loves his classes. Colgate has terrific study abroad programs and does provide a direct pipeline of interns and graduates to the NYC finance firms. Great sports teams and career services Dept. Colgate has a very homogeneous population.Politically: It’s liberal with a touch of fiscal conservatism.
My younger son was looking for a more diverse student body and less stringent core requirements. Vassar was his first choice followed by Colgate and Washington & Lee. In the end, it was Vassar by a wide margin.
This isn’t even a close contest, in terms of academic reputation. Vassar is far more “elite” in the traditional sense. Colgate probably has a more Greek life/“fun” sort of student population. But in terms of what looks good on a resume… I can’t imagine a scenario where one would choose a school like Colgate over Vassar. Unless Colgate truly gives you a free ride and a bag of cash. Vassar’s network, especially in the sciences, would position you do get into any medical school, research lab, or hospital role that you could want.
Important to note that vassar is seriously struggling financially due to going need blind too early. So while tuition may be initially cheaper, colgate might have a larger budget to work with in terms of student activities and funding while you’re here. The alumni network at Colgate is outstanding for internship opportunities (Colgate will even pay you 4k-6k for an unpaid internship). It’s not close to the city, admittedly, but you would have absolutely no problem finding a job/internship in NYC and alumni go out of their way to help you. I’ve had three internships and they have all been because of colgate’s connections. One student had a funded internship in an African country studying some sort of neuroscience (not a science person so i can’t relay specifics, but check out colgate’s career services site to see what past students have done).
Like you mentioned, facilities at Colgate are great. If you have visited, you know how beautiful the campus itself is. Colgate is also redoing all of its residence halls and next year the newest one will be running. They are also building an absolutely beautiful career services building at the moment. Can’t speak too much about the science departments as i’m in humanities, but a friend recently took a trip to Hawaii to study volcanoes over spring break with her professor (completely paid for, of course). This is a completely normal occurrence. Tons of my friends are working as research assistants in labs at Colgate over the summer and during the school year. Many of them have been published with their professors. So, if you’re dedicated and take advantage of opportunities, you will get unparalleled opportunities (which I’m sure can be said of vassar as well).
If you haven’t suspected, I’m a colgate student and a bit biased
I visited both of these schools recently. Both beautiful schools but different vibes. Vassar definitely more art/theatre oriented. Colgate talked about a semester that could be spent at NIH, the only college to have that program, and that could be of interest to you as a pre-med. We met a couple pre meds there. One had the opportunity to do some type of health related research in Africa with a professor. Another actually dropped pre med as she said she wasn’t making high enough grades to continue, which happens a lot at these top schools. Colgate seemed like it would be stronger in science than Vassar, but both schools have lots to like about them. Go visit. I think the vibe will be your determining factor
Pnwsea’s first sentence is inaccurate.
Vassar is in wonderful shape financially. In 2016, Forbes rated colleges on their financial well being, and Vassar was one of only 66 colleges in the nation to get an A+ financial rating. Vassar is rich enough to give its students lots of opportunities and is a national leader in enrolling students from low socioeconomic levels, as they have made a special outreach to such students.
Its endowment is smaller than that of Princeton or Amherst, but still extremely high!
US News 2017 ranked Vassar #18 in financial resources and Colgate #29, so both colleges have wonderful resources. Pnwsea must be confusing Vassar with another college.
Colgate and Vassar are both wonderful choices. You can’t go wrong. Both have all the strengths of top small liberal arts colleges. Both have gorgeous campuses. One major difference would be whether you want Fraternities/ sororities (Colgate) or not (Vassar).
@pnwsea I will second the above comment; you must be mistaking Vassar with another school? Vassar’s endowment is 1.002 Billion USD - higher than Colgate’s 908 million USD so not sure where you got the information that Vassar is struggling financially. Being Need Blind has made Vassar a leader in terms of opening up the college experience to those who come from low-income families. There are many reasons why one might want to choose one college over the other - resources is not one of them.
Being need blind is not enough; a school must also meet full need to enable helping many low-income students. NYU has been need blind for years (without meeting full need for all), with a poor reputation for financial aid.
Vassar’s generosity with financial aid is well-documented and well-known and in my own experience has been a God send; I am truly grateful. Vassar is also well-known for getting students into med school.
My source is a close family friend who is a board member at vassar. as vonlost states, you can be need blind and not meet full need. Endowment is not yearly budget.
But Vassar DOES meet full demonstrated need.
It says so right on their website!
Here is the list from Wikipedia of the colleges that are both need blind and meet full demonstrated need: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Need-blind_admission
The two schools are maybe a few spots apart in the rankings. I think they could be called peers.
Your visit will tell you everything you need to know about fit.
I can tell you that Colgate is more centrist politically, more rah-rah about sports, and more pre-professional in their academic vibe overall. (it’s hard not to be more pre-professional than Vassar). It is in a lovely setting in a town named after another famous school in the area. The party scene is well developed.
Vassar is a fairly liberal LAC in a small city in lower upstate NY (is that a thing?). Students tend to be fairly artsy, crunchy or nerdy (or mixtures of those). I’d think of it as kind of an Oberlin or Grinnell in the Northeast. It is probably also similar in culture to Wesleyan, another of its close peers.
Pick the place that feels more like home. I can’t imagine they’ll be tied after your visit, but if they are, save the $16000 at Vassar. But I bet you’ll have a pretty clear favorite because the vibes are quite different.
