<p>My take on Vassar was this. Great school with all of the atrributes of a top LAC (slightly feminized). My greatest concern as a red-blooded, soon to be 18-year old, heterosexual female was this - 60/40 female to male split, some decent % of the guys are gay, small total number of students. You get the picture -- too many chicks chasing too few eligible guys.</p>
<p>On Bowdoin -- too remote, too small, too preppy, too self-satisfied IMHO. I think it is also way overrrated academically. It reminded me of St. Paul's School in NH which I turned down as a freshman in high school for all the same reasons. The common plaint in Maine is this -- "One goes to Bowdoin for the name, Colby for the parties and Bates for an education."</p>
<p>Thanks BalletGirl, for your very succinct and helpful response. I confess to the same worries about Vassar. It's a gorgeous campus despite the urban blight surrounding it, and it seems even more academically vibrant than many of the ivies I've toured. But I've heard it said, "40% guys: 20% gay and 10% crippled..."
Could you tell me more about Bates? I sensed angst among the natives there...</p>
<p>Don't know a lot a Bates, though my cousin is applying there RD and is quite keen on it. Lewiston makes Poughkeepsie seem like a resort town! The Bates campus is rather nice and pretty self-contained; like most places, a lot of new buildings recently. A few friends of friends like it and I've never heard anything about unhappy natives. I do think Bates is pretty strong academically and has been for some time. As Bowdoin is a tad overrated here, Bates is a tad underrated. Bates also has a tradition of social activism that goes back to the Civil War, which is a good thing. In that way, it's a bit more like some of the midwestern LACs like Oberlin, Grinnell and Earlham -- a bit more egalitarian and progressive in temperment than its NE peers. Bates is small and smallness for me was always an issue with most of the LACs. </p>
<p>I wish the demographics were different at Vassar, it's seems like a fantastic school. Poughkeepsie didn't bother me.</p>
<p>Vassar is a great school. Its absolutely one of my favorite schools, and I've visited it more than a few times. Its m/f ratio is very different than most top schools (60/40) and its culture is very open and liberal. What I love about it though is unlike my experience with Wes, which in my experience tends to be judgmental; like Brown Vassar is a friendly place that embraces open mindedness over intense stereotypical liberalism (btw I am a huge democrat). </p>
<p>In my experience there are schools that seem to indoctrinate the feeling that you must be an intense academic or you are a loser partier with no intellectual capabilities. </p>
<p>What I've found to be true is that life is a balance and that the truly wise learn how to play with life. Places like Dartmouth and Brown inspire students to learn about life, while places like chicago engender a culture of false choices. In my opinion a student who dreams big will love Dartmouth, Brown, Amherst, Pomona, Stanford, etc.</p>
<p>lol. Thanks Ballet. BTW most of my perspective on life was solidified at Dartmouth. Its a school that encouraged my true "big picture" intellectual pursuit. I feel fortunate to be one of the few who attended two Ivies, and the difference is beyond words.</p>