Arlington. Plenty to walk to in an afternoon and bars local to walk to also. Students have easy access to downtown shops and restaurants. But there’s much more shopping and food (chipotle) on the way to and near Marist which is 4-5 miles. Parking is easy on campus if your student has a car.
Sorry didn’t see this earlier. The area around Vassar feels a bit rundown but it’s got some amenities & the kids seem to like it ok - there’s a coffee shop my kid loves, some restaurants, the college bookstore, another bookstore and some other shops. A market of some sort. I think a bakery. They get some $$ from the meal plan to spend in the local area (Arlington bucks). My kid spends a reasonable amount of time at the coffee shop from what I can tell (the Crafted Kup). They have access to the Poughkeepsie bus system and NYC is maybe 90 minutes on the train. But my kid seems pretty content to stay on campus or it’s immediate surroundings. I don’t think she’s explored Poughkeepsie and although they talk about going to NY she hadn’t yet. I’m sure some kids do though. Maybe next year 
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You have to change at Penn Station
The largest Oaxacan population outside Oaxaca (Mexico) and thus excellent Mexican food and groceries. Poughkeepsie is EXTREMELY multicultural.
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I had no idea!! Now I want to go visit D just to have good Mexican food!
That’s one of the saddest thing I see on Vassar campus. Very few kids have any interest in exploring the real Poughkeepsie. Casa Latina Market’s Chorizo and Mole are a must for my kitchen.
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Vassar sophomore here! I wanted to share a bunch about the communities Vassar is in. My apologies if this is more than you were looking for!
Vassar is basically in the city of Poughkeepsie, but the little “town” across the street is called Arlington.
Poughkeepsie has a bus system that’s free for Vassar students, and takes you directly to the train station and down Main Street (buses go by Vassar campus). Train to NYC is 2 hours, $38 round trip (90 minutes if you pay more for the Amtrak). Most folks go down once or twice a semester – some way more, others never. Lots of Vassar students are from NYC and are happy to tour friends around! I’ve been to NYC a couple times with friends, and twice to see Broadway shows (paid for by the Vassar ticket fund!). Every semester, there’s a free bus to NYC paid for by the student government (the VSA). VSA also pays for Saturday shuttles to the mall (movie theater, Target, arcade, etc… also of note, it doesn’t seem like a “dying” mall either).
Arlington is cute. They have community days where they block off the street in the fall and spring. Every Vassar student gets $105 to spend at Arlington restaurants every semester. Within a 5-7 minute walk into Arlington, there’s a coffee shop, bagel shop, fusion South American, 2 Mexican, Thai, Dominican, a diner, Indian, Chinese, Middle Eastern, Jamaican, Sushi, 2 “american,” pizza, a Dunkin, an indie bookstore, a bowling alley. When you adventure further than a 10 minute walk there’s way more… Honduran, a couple places with soul food, a bunch more Mexican (specifically Oaxacan), sandwich places, pubs, bars, fancier places, etc. For Poughkeepsie’s size, there’re a TON of good restaurants – this comes from a combination of being a really diverse community and having the Culinary Institute so close! We’re always sharing new restaurants with each other.
I really like Poughkeepsie (admittedly more than most students) – there’s way more going on than most students realize. Us Vassar students don’t get off campus as much as we should… a legacy of pandemic policies on campus culture. I get the sense that this culture is changing though. I’ve volunteered in the public schools and help with English classes for a group of Spanish-speaking migrants every week. I have friends who volunteer with all sorts of different organizations. Our office of community engaged learning does a good job connecting people to projects and community groups.
Poughkeepsie has a few art galleries, a theater, a couple community spaces, etc. The Christmas lights cover Main street in December, and they decorate a few different trees around Poughkeepsie in some of the public parks. There’s a holiday parade, and throughout the year, there are tons of community events. In the summer, people sell icys and food on Main Street. Most of the waterfront by the Hudson is a public park – in the spring, there are people out there blasting music and having cook outs together. It’s a good vibe.
There’s a restored rail trail that runs by campus – students bike down it to get to the Walkway Over the Hudson and other public parks. Tons of natural spaces and parks in the extended area.
Most Vassar students don’t get off campus much, at least not to downtown Poughkeepsie. It’s a shame, but doesn’t have to be your experience; the opportunities are here! I really do love Poughkeepsie though – it’s a real city, not just a college town. The communities here in Poughkeepsie are truly diverse. I think someone already mentioned, it’s said that the largest population of Oaxacan migrants in the US lives in Poughkeepsie.
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Current Vassar sophomore – Juno16 covered a lot, but I just wanted to add some/ reiterate some from my experience and what I’ve observed! Happy to answer other questions
On flights – the free public bus runs from campus to the train station; you can take the Metro North to NYC for $19 in 110mins (it’s a little more for the Amtrak, which is 90mins). Vassar also charters a bus to take students from campus to NYC and Boston airports at the start of every break. You have to pay a little to get a ride on it, but some of my friends appreciate the ease. Others like the Metro North (it’s a pretty train ride along the Hudson, not an actual metro). Vassar has free shuttles from the Poughkeepsie train station to campus at the start and end of every break. Taxis from the train station to campus are $10-15.
It’s funny, Vassar students have strikingly different ideas of what the more or less desirable dorms are. Most people are loyal and dorms (we call them houses) have cultures. There are games at the end of Orientation – kind of like a field day with your house, no one takes it too seriously and it’s a lot of fun. Hall groups go through orientation together and meet throughout the year – most people don’t want to leave because they’re close with the other people who live around them. You can switch houses pretty easily if you have a friend to room with in the house you want to switch to. Otherwise, room draw is by house. House cultures are pretty strong – every house has a Steinway piano, a kitchen, a couple common rooms with a TV, and most have a ping pong table. I live in Cushing – most nights, there are 20-40 people studying together, hanging out, playing piano and ping pong, sometimes watching things on the TV. Every week, house leadership teams put on events (making boba, painting plant pots, water balloon fights, etc). No one enjoys the lack of AC in August or early Sept, but for the rest of the year it doesn’t matter. There are rarely mice and occasionally roaches in common rooms, but they’re very rarely in rooms (common rooms are messier). Facilitates usually takes care of pests pretty quickly. But that goes to say – we don’t live in palaces! The buildings themselves are pretty though, and I like the wood vibes. The culture of hall groups and houses is usually great. There’s a lot of support from res life… Each house also has a professor who lives in a suite with their family. The professors are involved in programming, have dinner, etc, and a pretty decent budget to put on events for the house. This year, Cushing had trips to see Cirque du Soleil and a trip in a sailboat on the Hudson, in addition to all the in-house stuff (about 30 Cushlings go to each).
On Dining – where food can lack in quality, it’s made up in quantity. Unlimited swipes are great, and the dining hall is open to midnight (they bring out late night snacks at 9pm every night). Makes it a nice social space! We each get 3 swipes a day to use at grab and go options. The food isn’t always great, but it’s never bad, haha. There are always quite a few options, and you can cook food at the “Your Kitchen” station. Every dorm has a kitchen. Lots of vegetarians/ vegans.
Linked to my last post about Poughkeepsie – a lot of students don’t leave campus, and that’s in part because there’s so much going on here on campus. Tons of orgs and events going on all the time; there’s so much to be involved in. People seem to all find their crowd; folks here are really genuinely friendly. Plus, all the small classes with discussions make it easier to meet new people. It’s nice that we all eat in the same dining hall too – easier to offer to grab lunch with someone new. I’ve read that our dining hall tables are such wonky shapes because people are supposedly more likely to sit by someone they don’t know with the weird shapes rather than your typical rectangles.
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Does anyone know if it is possible to negotiate about financial aid? The Vassar aid was lower than other comparable schools, perhaps because they use student loans as part of the package.
I don’t think it’s unusual to negotiate FA. Just be polite. It’s better to present what you are doing as an “appeal” rather than a negotiation. You can find some reasonable advice on how to appeal FA offers by googling “how to appeal college financial aid offers”
Good luck!
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thank you so much for this super detailed response! i seriously appreciate it because i’m very torn between wesleyan and vassar but i just hate middletown CT! how is the part scene at vassar?
thank you so much for responding (especially ab the food which is a pretty big deal to me haha)
I love Vassar but I hear Wesleyan is cool too! I wonder if there’s anyone involved in community stuff at Wesleyan that could share more about what all is going on in Middletown? Most Vassar students would probably say they didn’t really like Poughkeepsie too, but again, I feel like a lot of that’s from lack of exposure.
On parties:
Not sure what you’re looking for party-wise… parties aren’t huge here, but happen every weekend. Almost everyone lives on campus, though most seniors and some juniors live at the edge of campus in Terrace Apartments (TAs)/ Town Houses (THs). There are parties at the THs and TAs every weekend – some people love them, others are unsatisfied. They usually get shut down by Campus Safety when they get too noisy (the “shut downs” aren’t anything dramatic though). It depends on the friends you go with and what y’all are into. Some people live off campus (not many) and throw parties – these can be a little more wild, depending on who’s throwing them. We don’t have any frats or sororities of course, and so sports teams will throw parties. Of note – a lot of the popular parties are thrown by the Rugby and Ultimate Frisbee teams, which anyone can join. The Outing Club is also really popular and sometimes throws parties outside too. A lot of people just have parties in their rooms with groups of a dozen or so friends, and will sometimes go to the bigger parties.
Off campus, some people go to Marist parties. There are a couple bars that are popular close by, Mole Mole and the Juliet. More stuff downtown that people will go to sometimes too.
For other readers –
There are a lot of people who never participate in all this though; it’s totally normal if you aren’t interested in parties. Vassar/ Vassar orgs also have parties/events pretty often that involve dancing, eating, etc. Ie, there’s a Yule Ball every December that’s really popular, drag shows, a fake Quinseañerx, fake weddings from a few cultures, a bunch of stuff around Halloween and Founder’s Day (our big spring event), and org-thrown parties in “the Mug” on campus. There are other people who prefer it quieter though. Groups like NSO have all sorts of events in the broad gaming realm and Big Night In has non-alcoholic programming and events.
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Of course! Food here really is pretty solid, sometimes genuinely good.
I think they do an excellent job with breakfast. Lunch and dinner fluctuate – it can get repetitive sometimes I suppose. Like I said, not always great, but never bad during the regular school year.
Sometimes the food is a little bland, but I get the idea that it’s so everyone can eat it. They have tons of spices and hot sauce you can use to flavor it up if the food is ever lacking, haha.
The Global Kitchen often has good food, and the menu there rotates throughout the semester (for this week, Ramadan inspired). Keeps things new!
Some Vassar students do complain a fair bit… remember though that some people here also grew up with private chefs. For other people, this is the first time in their lives that they’ve been food secure. The unlimited swipes and food until midnight really is nice.
There’s also a food truck weeknights if you want the grab and go option (menu switches every week, like burritos, philly cheese steak, heros, etc) that’s free (one of your 3 swipes per day at grab and go options).
Plus the $105 Arlington Bucks to use at local restaurants. There’s a farmer’s market that comes to campus every week, and a couple local restaurants table in the College Center on Tasty Tuesdays.
Any other questions though?
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Wesleyan and Middletown
Since the pandemic, I have been in and out of Middletown (CT) a lot. The relationship with the college is a little different from Poughkeepsie and Vassar in that only a few blocks separate them from each other. So in one direction, Wesleyan University faces a fairly busy central business district:
While in the other, it has many of the hallmarks of a bucolic, rural college:
This duality as a traditional LAC tucked inside a small, urban university is central to the social scene at Wesleyan University. There is a bubble in terms of the vast majority of people who prefer to stay on campus on the weekends, attending parties, attending film events four evenings a week or watching varsity sports from the steps of the library. But it’s a permeable bubble; downtown Middletown has some of the best take-out food this side of NYC and there is a steady stream of students walking to and from Main Street at all hours of the day.
Thanks to its central location, there are over 150 university-owned, single-family homes in and around campus that serve as independent living units for upper-class students. A grocery store imbedded in the main quad stands ready to fulfill every foodie’s greatest ambitions. All of this, of course, is in addition to the main dining hall which gets high marks for its vegan and vegetarian offerings.
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Echoing @circuitrider 's review. To amplify it a bit, Middletown’s Main Street hosts a very poorly understood (outside of Middletown that is) food scene that is leagues better than that of most college towns in its size range. And Main Street is pretty nice too. The rest of the town has its share of grit of the sort you see in Poughkeepsie. I’ve always held the view (based on some experience) that Vassar and Wesleyan mark one of the tougher choices to have to make between 2 LACs in the northeast. They are each so very similar in many respects, especially culturally, while also having their own pronounced strengths. There are much better pairings that draw more stark contrasts than these two schools. We really liked them both quite a bit. Coin toss IMO.
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Do you know anything about grade inflation at Vassar? I am planning on going to med schools I want to keep a high GPA.
My impression is that it’s not anything abnormal one way or another. Some parents actually might be able to answer this better if they have kids at multiple schools to compare (and if their kids decide to share info about their grades, hahaha).
What you decide to major in and the particular profs you take totally matter. There are some very tough graders, and others who reject typical grading metrics (as part of larger ideologies about teaching). But even the profs regarded as “tough graders” aren’t out here trying to make you fail or anything.
If you want good grades, you have to work, but professors grade fairly – they don’t penalize students because they only want a certain percentage of the class to get As and Bs.
If I were you, I wouldn’t make a decision based on grade inflation. I don’t think that Vassar is extreme enough on one side of the other when compared to peer schools that one could make enough of a distinction to choose your college based off of this factor. Of course, it depends on who else you’re deciding between…
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As someone whose first choice was Wesleyan and currently at Vassar, I would say Wesleyan has the edge in STEM, especially in computer science and physics. Our physics and computer science departments are meh, and Wesleyan has Ph.D. programs in physics and other sciences. Wesleyan also does have a specific science library in addition to its main library. Chemistry and Biology at Vassar are probably more on par with Wesleyan, the pre-med percentage heading to medical school at Vassar is technically higher, but I think that is because the sample size applying is smaller. I would give the edge to Vassar for Art History, as the Loeb is well-known with a great art collection, such as the Hudson river school painting, and attracts many outside visitors. I would probably say economics is about the same at both, though Wesleyan is perhaps better for wall street or consulting recruiting. I can’t speak for other departments, but I would estimate they are not too far off.
Dorms and food-wise, Wesleyan has the edge. Vassar dorms may look nice from the outside but inside its, a totally different story, as many of them could use a renovation. The sports scene at Wesleyan is much more significant as they are in NESCAC with football and ice hockey teams, neither of which Vassar has. I don’t know how the career development office is at Wesleyan, but it has not been too helpful at Vassar.
Hope this helped.
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Interestingly my daughter disliked Wesleyan enough that she refused to apply (we visited twice since it was theoretically such a good fit on paper) and Vassar was such her first choice she applied early decision and has never doubted or second-guessed her choice. We’ve definitely heard of others. So while there is some overlap it’s definitely not across the board.
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