My daughter has a few Singapore friends (from SAS) who barely lasted freshman year at Skidmore and Syracuse respectively as they felt it was the schools were either too isolated, too far from major cities, diversity was there but not enough for them in school; you want a school with large-ish international community as much as “diversity”
of the unhappy freshman mentioned above - 1 transferred to school in boston and 1 to a school in DC and are infinitely times happier in these new environments
of your 2 choices - vassar seems better located (NYC) to achieve comfort in what a big city has to offer.
Hamilton’s campus is a few times larger than those of many universities with 10 times its enrollment. Even a city girl could get used to living in spatial luxury in a beautiful area free of serious crime.
Of course this is your choice…but I’m wondering what you aren’t convinced about…especially if your student wants to be in an urban setting.
But that’s perhaps off topic to this thread. If you are choosing between Hamilton and Vassar for a student who wants an urban setting…I would choose Vassar.
Fordham’s admission yield is 11%. Perhaps it should not be surprising that the OP’s daughter has a greater interest in colleges with much higher yields, such as Hamilton (41%) and Vassar (32%). Fordham’s English department is quite strong, however.