<p>I applied ED II to Vassar and, since then, I've been hearing a lot of stuff about Vassar being full of smokers. I don't mean to appear judgmental about people's life choices in asking this but, coming from a country where you can't walk to school without passing by at least 10 people smoking (over 50% of adults in my country smoke), I was wondering if the claims I've heard are true. </p>
<p>Also, I was wondering what the policies were for smokers (e.g. can/do people smoke in dorms...etc)</p>
<p>I adore Vassar, obviously :), and it's not like any response will make me regret applying (I mean I've dealt with smoking for 18 years, what's another 4?) but I'd still appreciate knowing exactly how prevalent it is.</p>
<p>S, who is a sophomore, says there are people who he knows that are against smoking. He says he sees very few smokers around campus. He doesn’t smoke.</p>
<p>I go there and don’t smoke myself, but a noticeable portion of people smoke on campus. Not everyone by any means, but a significant number. There’s always a couple of smokers lingering outside the library or dorms. It’s not a problem except when they stand directly in front of a major entrance and you have to walk through a smokey haze to get in the building. It’s a minor annoyance, but not unbearable by any means. </p>
<p>To compare to your example from home of “passing by at least 10 people smoking” on your way to school, at Vassar, you might see one or two people smoking on your way to class or the library on any given day. A little more on the weekends.</p>
<p>I saw so many cigarette butts on the ground outside one dorm during the Vassar tour that it was a huge turnoff. I did not notice this on any other school tour. When I mentioned this to my son who attends another LAC, he said that many students smoke at his school…</p>
<p>No matter how bad it is…it will be far better than any European community in terms of smoking. Far, FAR better. I have no idea how it compares to other colleges, but as bad as it can possibly be will, by comparison, seem like you’re taking hits of pure oxygen.</p>
<p>When you hear Americans talk about how prevalent smoking is, there are a couple things coming into play. First, there’s the perception of smoking being a low-class or bourgeois behavior that seems all the more out-of-place at an elite private liberal arts college. It gets extra notice and scrutiny because it runs counter to expectations. Second, there’s the legal and cultural climate of the U.S. that has very little tolerance for smoking. It’s practically taboo. For both of these reasons, when you hear talk of lots of smoking…and you’re thinking that other people’s understanding of “lots of smokers” is translatable to your understanding of “lots of smokers” you SHOULD be alarmed! But if, like me, you’re in Europe, you have to compensate and adjust for a much different benchmark that Americans use when judging how much smoking is too much smoking. My guess is that you’d encounter more smokers during a single lunchtime at a popular Parisan cafe than you’d encounter over the course of a week’s worth of travels across the Vassar campus (or any other SLAC around its size). Even with a higher than average rate of smoking than other colleges, I guarantee that you’ll find it to be a breath of fresh air compared to your current environment.</p>
<p>EDIT: I see that you’re coming from Beirut. Same difference as Europe. No matter how awful it may seem to Americans, it will be a breeze for you. You’ll probably laugh at the impossibly low tolerance level Americans have for smoking, much like Coloradans laugh at what counts for tall mountains and excessive snowfall in the Eastern U.S. and how Easterners are humored by what counts for big cities as one travels west through the U.S.</p>
<p>My brother went to Vassar and when I first visited him and his friends they all smoked, and my brother picked up a habit there. I’m going to Vassar and I smoke pretty frequently (like five cigs a day) but I live in Eastern Europe where smoking is really prevalent. It’s not such a big deal though - no one’s going to be smoking inside your dorm and I’m sure most people would be smart enough to stand away from entrances of buildings and bus stops or whatever so you don’t have to breathe in their nasty second hand smoke. I get a slight vibe that Vassar has more smokers than a place like Wesleyan or Oberlin because the kids are more of the Lou Reed type than the John Lennon type. Less hippy and more hip a.k.a. a lot more open to the idea of poisoning their body with substances other than psychedelics. That’s not backed up by anything but opinion, though.</p>
<p>Thanks, everyone! You guys REALLY helped put everything I heard into perspective. It’s such a relief to know that smoking isn’t as prolific there as I imagined it to be!</p>
<p>@D’yer Maker: Haha I see what you mean now. Between the Arab influence with hookah and the French influence with cigarettes, Lebanon didn’t really stand a smoke-free chance </p>
<p>It’s good to know that getting into Vassar will feel like a breath of fresh air in more ways than one ;)</p>
<p>I know of one girl who smokes in her dorm room. I have no idea why she told me, because we are lucky if we go a week without a fire alarm in my house (once we had two in one day!) and no one likes getting dragged out of bed at 4:00 in the morning. Which happens.</p>
<p>On paper, it’s not allowed. Whether they do it is something that is probably hit or miss. Weekly fire alarms for smoking suggests there’s a degree of tolerance for in-dorm smoking among students – or, at the very least, a culture that’s unwilling to rein in smoking in the dorms even though the cost of refusing to snitch means having to evacuate the dorm at 4 a.m. in February in Poughkeepsie. One can only hope that that’s the worst price students have to pay for tolerating smoking in their dorms.</p>
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