Got a Question for a Current Student?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Vassar College
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<p>Question: Can a current student comment on the "typical" Friday or weekend night, if there is such a thing and how it might compare to the fire jugglers, dance parties and improv shows sampled at Wesleyan? </p>

<p>Answer: Although dc89 gave you a great, complete answer, I would be happy to give you another "weekend run-down" as a sort of second opinion. I've also included Thursday night on this list because I don't have classes on Friday, so I treat it more or less like a weekend night.</p>

<p>Thursday afternoon/evening: played tennis with a friend, had dinner, and then attended the end of year dance show put on by FlyPeople that dc89 was in. There are usually theatrical, dance, musical, and/or comedic shows going on on-campus every weekend. Afterwards, I came back to my room and worked on a paper for one of my classes. Usually, I don't do work on Thursday/Friday/Saturday nights, but unfortunately, with the end of the year approaching, there's more work to do than usual.</p>

<p>Friday afternoon/evening: Spent the afternoon working on my paper (I sleep late on weekends), ate dinner, and then attended a campus meeting about student elections for next year. Following this, I hung out in my room with some friends for a bit and then headed over to a school event called "Mr. Vassar." On weekends, some of the groups on campus usually sponser dances and events like this one. They're just about always free and are usually a lot of fun.</p>

<p>Saturday morning/afternoon/evening: went into New York for the day with one of my classes. Because of the availability of NYC, several of the professors on-campus either urge students to go by themselves or arrange for field trips like this one into the city. Following this trip, I came back, ate dinner, relaxed, and went to sleep (the trip was a bit tiring). This was rather atypical from my "typical" Saturday... had I been on campus I probably would have attended a Young Democrats-sponsered discussion and then gone over to a party hosted by one of the dorms, Noyes.</p>

<p>Question: Is there often interaction between Vassar students and Bard students, or just mutual dislike? Are there any subtle differences between the student bodies at both schools?</p>

<p>Answer: I wouldn't say that there's any dislike between Vassar and Bard students either... there's just not much interaction in general due to the distance between the two schools, as ctParent2006 pointed out. As for differences... although I'm most definitely biased, I would say that Vassar is a bit better, from the standpoint of reputation at least. I don't know very much about Bard--I didn't consider the school because it was too close to New York for me--so can't say much more.</p>

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<p>I was referred to this thread for questions about Vassar and as it happens I have one: I've read that one of Vassar's few graduation requirements is proficiency in a foreign language. I'm sold on almost every aspect of Vassar but this one gives me serious pause. I am now in my fifth year of Spanish study and am looking forward to failing the AP test on it in two weeks. Studying the language has hammered my GPA throughout my time in middle school and high school, with me even failing a year of it in 8th grade. And although I have stuck with it all this time, it is now clear to me that foreign language is simply not my forte. I have never academically struggled with anything as much as I have with Spanish.</p>

<p>As such, the thought of having to deal with it for four more years is not something that appeals to me. So what I was wondering is how exactly is this requirement enforced? Does it at all vary from major to major? Anything you could tell me about this requirement would be appreciated.</p>

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<p>Sorry, "I didn't consider the school because it was too close to New York for me"? Can you explain that comment?</p>

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<p>Question: Sorry, "I didn't consider the school because it was too close to New York for me"? Can you explain that comment?</p>

<p>Answer: What I meant by that comment, (z), was that Bard didn't interest me because I didn't want to be close to NYC in general (aka, within a two hour radius). This choice was a personal preference which sprang from the fact that I grew up in an area that is less than an hour from the city and wanted to "get away" from the greater New York area. In this manner, Vassar was an exception for me... it was the only school which I looked at and applied to that was within a two hour radius of the city because it was such a good fit for me, other than its location. </p>

<p>Question: So what I was wondering is how exactly is this language requirement enforced? Does it at all vary from major to major? Anything you could tell me about this requirement would be appreciated.</p>

<p>Answer: Vassar does have a language requirement for all its students (regardless of major); however, it's not that challenging to fulfill. There are a variety of ways to gain this credit: getting an SAT II score of 600 or higher on a language test other than English Literature, an AP score of 4 or 5 on a foreign language/literature exam, passing a proficiency exam given by one of the foreign language departments, completing a year-long introductory language course or a semester-long language course above the introductory level, taking a class in a summer school or other academic program and getting approval from Vassar, or taking the Old English/Beowulf classes offered by the English department. So basically, if you attend Vassar, you'll have to get this requirement completed, but there are so many different ways to accomplish it that it (hopefully) shouldn't be a problem. Also, keep in mind that you could also start a different language, and Vassar offers a rather large quantity: Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, American Sign Language, French, Italian, Russian, German, Swahili, Hebrew, Latin, Greek, Hindi, Yiddish, Gaelic, Old English, and Korean are some that I can name off the top of my head.</p>

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<p>Question: Do many people leave campus on the weekends? Do many people have cars?</p>

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<p>Question: Do many people leave campus on the weekends? Do many people have cars?</p>

<p>Answer: I can't come up with percentages for you because I don't know the majority of people on campus, but would guess that the vast majority of the student body is on campus for much of the time during weekends. There are definitely students who go into New York, home, or another college to visit friends, but that gets expensive, so most decide to make these sorts of trips occasional treats rather than an every weekend kind of thing. Besides, there are so many offerings of weekend activities to do both on-campus and locally that leaving every weekend would be missing out on a major part of the social scene. So no, Vassar is definitely not a commuter campus.</p>

<p>I'd say more students leave campus on the weekends for local day trips (aka, within a 30 minute radius). There's a bunch of shopping in the area around Vassar which is pretty popular, and one can take a free shuttle to a mall/movie theatre complex on weekends. There's also a daily shuttle system that Vassar has started running; however, I have yet to try this so can't give you details on what it's like.</p>

<p>As for your question about cars... this changes as one gets to be an upperclassman I believe, but most freshmen do not have cars on campus. That being said, a car, or access to one through a friend, is definitely a nice resource to have. I didn't have access to one first semester, and it was a bit limiting at times. This semester my boyfriend has his car on-campus, and it's a lot nicer to have the opportunity to get off-campus whenever I like. That being said, it's not that bad if you don't have a car... with shuttles and taxis, you can get off-campus pretty much whenever you want.</p>

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<p>"Answer: What I meant by that comment, (z), was that Bard didn't interest me because I didn't want to be close to NYC in general (aka, within a two hour radius). This choice was a personal preference which sprang from the fact that I grew up in an area that is less than an hour from the city and wanted to "get away" from the greater New York area. In this manner, Vassar was an exception for me... it was the only school which I looked at and applied to that was within a two hour radius of the city because it was such a good fit for me, other than its location."</p>

<p>Ah, okay, gotcha. I was just confused at the comment, since Vassar's actually closer to the city than Bard.</p>

<p>I, too, live less than an hour from NYC, though I can't say I'd mind going to college in the same area... especially considering the convenience of being within an hour's drive of home.</p>

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<p>Is it advisable for a student to bring his own printer, or are there printers easily available in the dorms?</p>

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<p>Question: Is it advisable for a student to bring his own printer, or are there printers easily available in the dorms?</p>

<p>Answer: I'd say having one's own printer is convenient, but definitely not necessary. There's a printing system on campus called V-print which is very easy to use and a printer in every dorm, as well as a bunch in the library. The school is also very attentive in fixing the printers when the break, so the system works rather well. Unless your son is planning on printing a bunch of color images for some reason or doesn't feel like having to walk up and down the stairs every time he needs to print something, he really doesn't need to have a personal printer.</p>

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<p>what is the classics program like? is it popular? im very into latin and i wish to study it in college.</p>

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<p>Question: What is the classics program like? Is it popular?</p>

<p>Answer: The Classics Department at Vassar is small, but to the best of my knowledge is quite good. My bf took the year-long Introduction to Latin course and really liked both of the professors he had (it changed at the semester). In particular, Robert Brown, the head of the department and professor who teaches most of the Latin Classes is, according to him, outstanding. If you're interested in more than this very limited sketch (sorry, haven't taken any classes in the department yet, so I can't give you a personal reaction), I suggest you check out the department website: Vassar</a> College Classics Department.</p>

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<p>My daughter just declared as a Classic major. She has enjoyed her two classes very much so far.</p>

<p>You can learn more in the catalog</p>

<p>College</a> Catalogue - Vassar College</p>

<p>and see what courses are offered and their enrollments for the past and the fall, without any Freshmen enrollments naturally, at </p>

<p><a href="https://secure.vassar.edu/cgi-bin/geninfo.cgi%5B/url%5D"&gt;https://secure.vassar.edu/cgi-bin/geninfo.cgi&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>That second is a public website despite the https URL.</p>

<p>Good luck</p>

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<p>Thank you very much. That was actually quite helpful. I enjoyed the Vassar classic's webpage. I began taking latin this year and I definitely plan to continue during my senior year.</p>

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<p>another question:</p>

<p>does vassar use the major you pick as a way of determining your admission? to put it more clearly-are certain departments more difficult to get into?</p>

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<p>No. Everyone enters undeclared, and so many people change their mind drastically about their major that it would be a little pointless to do so. They pretty much only use your prospective major/areas of interest as a way to give you a premajor advisor.</p>

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<p>SAT</a> and ACT scores trump Regents for college admission | PoughkeepsieJournal.com | Poughkeepsie Journal</p>

<p>The article above claims: "About 6,400 students applied to Vassar this year, with 681 accepted."</p>

<p>Is that accurate? There's no way the acceptance rate is that goddamn low, right?</p>

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<p>no, that is definitely incorrect. that would be a 10.64% rate. it sounds more like the amount of accepted students who actually enroll as a freshman; but not the total amount accepted.</p>

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<p>Ah, the PoJo and its impeccable journalism... nah, the Class of 2011 is 681 people. I have no idea how many were accepted, but I think it was closer to 28%. I don't know the stats for 2012, though.</p>

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<p>For the class of 2012 there were 7360 applications with 1758 acceptances.
Don't know what the number of Early Decisions were (assume 300?) so that leaves 1478. If 26% of these decide to send in deposits (384) the class would be 684.</p>

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<p>that means nearly 24% were accepted this year. im guessing the drop is in direct correlation with the dorm project. i think for vassar the ED applicants are closer to 500-550, with about half of them being accepted. i think that was the stat for the class of 11'</p>