Hey, I’m a european student, I will do soon my early application and I’m not sure whether to submit it to Nyu, Columbia or Vassar. I know that these are very different universities with different academics and settings. I’d like to know if Vassar and NYU are as prestigous as Columbia and which is the most socially involving environment. And how are people at Vassar? Thanks
Vassar and NYU are not necessarily “as prestigious” as Columbia, if we’re talking about prestige within a certain group of around 400 top colleges and universities in the U.S. But considering that there are around 4,000 universities and colleges in the U.S., when looking through that lens yes, Vassar and Columbia and NYU are in a similar universe of prestige. My point is - don’t worry about that, worry about what’s a good fit for you. They’re all good.
This focus on prestige is strange considering that they are so different and it also depends on what you study, what fields you’re in, and where you are/who you ask.
Let me put it this way: Are Amsterdam University College or Warwick as prestigious as LSE, or would that be the wrong question to ask?
What do you plan to study and what goals do you have?
While Columbia U is technically the most prestigious of the three, and the hardest to get into, a better question is what are you looking for in your college experience? Because NYU is large and in NYC, Vassar is small and in a small city very unlike the Big Apple. Very different experiences.
Columbia is definitely the most prestigious. NYU has some graduate programs that are as prestigious as the same ones at Columbia, but overall Columbia is more prestigious. Vassar students are probably just as smart as NYU’s students (or maybe a bit smarter), but NYU is much better known. All 3 schools are politically liberal.
Thanks for your replies, I plan to study English or Political Science. I’m afraid Vassar would be too small, sort of a bubble from the real world, while NYU could be too big and with a small sense of community. If you could choose one of them which would you choose?
What do you want to do after you graduate with that degree?
You can find universities similar to NYU throughout Europe, China, and Japan. But, you will never find anything that is quite like an American, stand-alone, liberal arts college. Unless you’re looking for an academic discipline that is so esoteric that it can only be found at “Such-and-Such University”, I’d go for the LAC.
It all comes down to aims and motivations. So why these colleges? Why these colleges in the US rather than Europe? Why care about prestige? Without the OP saying more, it’s hard to make a recommendation.
BTW, @circuitrider, the university colleges in the Netherlands aim to provide a LAC-like experience and there are true LACs in Japan.
They’re still not quite the same:
@circuitrider, indeed, which is why I said “LAC-like”. You can consider them very beefed-up honors colleges if you like, though with separate dorms and separate classes, the distinction between them and a LAC becomes blurry. They’re somewhere in the middle between a LAC that is part of a consortium that includes at least one research U and a very strong and independent honors college in a RU. Note that Amsterdam University College actually has 2 parent unis.
BTW, there’s nothing about LACs that says they have to be private. New College of Florida is a very fine (and tiny) public LAC, for instance.
There’s only one consortium in America that really blurs the line between universities and stand-alone LACs, and that’s Claremont with 5 undergraduate colleges and a graduate school all located within a few blocks of each other, for all intents and purposes a 6,000 student campus. You might be able to climb down from tne Claremont Colleges and argue that Wesleyan, at half the size, blurs the line somewhat, too. But, I can’t think of any others.
@circuitrider, I think you’re looking at it from a narrow American point of view. European unis tend to just be a collection of buildings in various parts of a city. So the main difference that being a part of a uni(s) gives the Dutch university colleges (which tend to be small self-contained units located away from the uni it’s affiliated with) is that students there can take classes at the parent uni(s). In that sense, it’s not that different from the Swarthmore/Haverford/Bryn Mawr consortium that contains UPenn.
I thought I made that plain. 
All kiddiing aside, I did look up one of the campuses and it looks delightful. Gotta love the American references in the name:
http://www.ucr.nl/about-ucr/Pages/default.aspx
Personally I’d choose Vassar or Columbia. My issue with NYU was always the lack of a defined campus and the sort of “buildings scattered across a city” feel that NYU has both physically and socially. I went to a small LAC for undergrad and I loved the experience. I went to Columbia for grad school, and for an undergrad I think it has pros and cons. It just kind of depends on whether you want the small-school experience or a large university.
My father in law is a tenured college professor at a state university and he always recommended a liberal arts college. In an liberal arts college the focus is entirely on the undergraduate students, opportunities can start in your freshman year and the professors are much more approachable. In a research university often the university’s and professor’s main interest lie with the graduate schools.