I am torn between these two liberal arts colleges for my Early Decision choice. I like them both quite a bit, but am having trouble making final decision. Academically I’m interested in history, sociology, anthropology, and psychology. I also love film (but am not particularly interested in studying it), comedy, television, and food & cooking. Straight white man. I lean pretty left but am not a huge fan of PC culture and know that’s a pretty big issue at both. Don’t care too much (or at all) about sports. Wondering which school has the most students like me and has more to do (besides party) on a daily/nightly basis. Thanks
I’m not overlooking the greater content of your post, but in terms of a statistical aspect, Wesleyan (45% male) enrolls more students like you (in at least one way) than Vassar (41% male). If you’d prefer a relatively gender-balanced college experience, then you may want to consider this difference.
I’d go for Wes.
Vassar’s powerhouse theater is well known and highly respected, and well known actors come to participate in summer programs.
If you are interested, Vassar just announced a 5 year MPH program with Columbia.
The male/female ration at Vassar is not a big deal. Don’t think that should be a significant deciding factor.
The art history department and the gallery are renowned, and the history, anthro, psych, sociology depts are fabulous. you can even create your own major.
Plenty to do on campus. Clubs, films, music, etc. Good luck!!
The PC culture is much more in your face at Wes. It was actually distracting and, in some cases, offensive, walking around campus. Have you visited both?
autocorrect above-- ratio, not ration!!
Significant difference in number of fulltime undergraduate students at each school. Vassar College has about 2,450 fulltime undergrads while Wesleyan University is almost 25% larger at almost 3,000 undergraduates enrolled fulltime.
Since you are looking for a variety of activities, the larger school may be better in that respect.
But, since you are concerned about a PC culture, I think that you may want to rethink your targeted schools. Or, at the very least, do an overnight visit to each of these LACs.
P.S. If I had to pick between these two schools for you based on your posted concerns, then I would lean toward Wesleyan University.
The bottom line is that the differences are at the margins: both offer everything you are looking for, and you will find lots of people ‘like you’ at both (also, plenty not like you, which imo is a good thing).
For a decision as important as ED you need to listen to your own voice, not random people on CC. Think about how you felt on your visits. For example, one of my collegekids came out of sitting in on a class* at one of those schools, and it was obvious how well it suited her.
*reaction to a class is a tricky metric- imo, best used only in the affirmative, b/c you usually don’t get much choice, and any given prof or class can have a dull day. So, i wouldn’t rule out a school based on a disappointing class, but I would keep one in based on an outstanding class.
IMO, the OP is asking for input, experiences, examples, etc (not just random opinions) about these 2 schools. When “random people on CC” have personal knowledge/experience, it can be helpful. That’s the beauty of CC. That said, if the OP really can’t decide which to ED at, maybe (probably) he shouldn’t apply ED.
In principle, I agree, @jym626! but these 2 schools are such near-peers in all the metrics the OP has identified. At this point, other opinions are only anecdotal, and so few people have true experience of both that I’m not sure individual anecdotes should be the deciding factor.
My impression is that this might be a student who is anxious about pulling the trigger- which is fair, because it is a big decision, and I also agree that if it’s that close, will any bump from ED outweigh the uncertainty?
Go with your gut. Both places very left leaning. Wesleyan Is famous for their film department, though you said you didn’t want to study that…
My D at Vassar said that sometimes you cannot say anything because some people are so PC.
If she feels like that at Vassar, Wesleyan can be a scary place!
@HiToWaMom : I find it interesting that OP’s final two schools are Vassar & Wesleyan based on his self description in the original post in this thread.