For the people who have subscribed to US News - I myself won’t do it because (1) I can’t bring myself to validate their ranking by paying for it, and (2) US News is not otherwise a relevant periodical for me.
As Vassar is on the big’ish side, smaller than Wes but larger than Hamilton, Williams, Amherst, etc., I’m wondering this: would you expect either school to shoot up the ranks if they dropped their student populations down to 2,000 or 1,900 students? Is that, and the levers in the ranking methodology that it would pull, the secret sauce here? Both schools enjoy an 8:1 ratio. Several schools ranked above them disclose 9:1. A small handful in the top tier report 7:1, and only Williams has 6:1. So 8:1 seems like pretty good company. What else that is thought-provoking would change if both schools dropped their enrollments? I wonder if that’s it, or if they just need to add another .4 or .5 to their endowments to make their rankings work in US News.
That’s really it in a nutshell. Even I once asked, “How the hell is it that Wesleyan, of all LACs in the NE, still has even one fraternity, when Middlebury, a LAC that oozes “bro” culture as much as any in the region, killed their last one years ago?” And the answer is in part what I posted in the pro/con list a couple of weeks ago (subtle remaining vestiges of “old” (male) Wesleyan). But it is also in part a general culture of not yielding to the man … meaning that the 97% of Wes kids who have disdain for Greek campus culture (as would the typical Vassar student) also stands in solidarity with the 3% in fighting back against the admin. leading the charge in trying to end it.
In that this would have led to the virtual closing of Vassar (the plan called for the Poughkeepsie campus to be abandoned), the offer, and Vassar’s serious considerations of it, represents a dismal footnote in Vassar’s history, in my opinion.
Let’s see–an overture from one of the greatest schools on the planet and the decision to reject it to protect a beloved campus and legacy is a dismal footnote in Vassar’s history? I take it your view is that Vassar would have imprudently sold out its past if it had joined Yale so why is its decision not to a blemish?
For an extended perspective on coordinate collegiate education, as at schools such as Radcliffe and Pembroke, which includes a discussion of the interlude involving Vassar and Yale, anyone interested may want to see Coordinate Colleges for American Women: a Convergence of Interests, 1947-78 (Morice).
The single greatest consideration institutions of higher education lose sleep over is that of endurance and legacy. Considering Yale’s relatively enormous resources, Vassar’s “serious considerations” were completely rational and hardly a “dismal footnote.” As someone who has had the immense privilege of attending both Vassar and Yale, it’s puzzling that you’re so focused on the deliberation and not the final decision. Vassar’s choice not to join Yale is a testament to their conviction in their mission. The same can not be said for Radcliffe and Pembroke, who, despite providing word-class educations befitting their reputations, are regrettably at risk of being resigned to actual historical footnotes.
Vassar’s library? Its chapel? The historic Hudson Valley location? Vassar’s direct connection to its own historic past in general? People can suit themselves as to whether it ever made sense for Vassar to have considered forgoing its further potential in relinquishing these in what would have amounted to an absorption by the much physically smaller Yale. Certainly, if it had done so, no one would have seen the academically top-level school that Vassar represents today.
Maybe the bottom line on this is two things on which most can agree: (1) there were probably good reasons why Vassar, at the time, was considering the move (presumably cash and related operating constraints); and (2) it would have been a shame had they done it.
FWIW, while I’ve never been to the physical place that was Radcliffe College (or if I ever walked by it I wasn’t aware), I have been to the site of old Pembroke several times. And while it is a pretty little enclave on College Hill just off of Thayer, it is relatively small and would represent a tiny fraction of the physical plant that is Vassar. It would have been a tragedy indeed for the Vassar College campus to have been abandoned (if in fact that’s what would have transpired).
So an update on this old thread. Vassar finally posted its class of 2025 profile. Just over 50% of the new class, 50.4% to be exact, was admitted without standardized tests. Thus the US News 15% deduction would have kicked in taking their 1467 average SAT down by a couple hundred points for ranking purposes if US News had access to those numbers. If not, then Vassar may take another hit next year and this year’s decline is still inexplicable.
It just shows how limited the value of these rankings are that are based on stats. Vassar isn’t doing anything different from one year to the next. That’s what matters. So if anyone liked what Vassar was offering 2 years ago, they should sill like them today. Same facilities, same program, same faculty, etc. the Vassar experience hasn’t changed.
SAT 2019 2020 see below
U.S. News surveyed schools in the spring and summer of 2021. Some of this information published on our website – most notably tuition and fees – reflect the upcoming 2021-2022 academic year. However, the latest data available for the ranking calculations pertained to fall 2020 and earlier. Notably, SAT/ACT scores mostly reflect a test-taking period from 2019 to early 2020, before the effects of the coronavirus were felt in the United States. Nonetheless, to account for the disruption to higher education due to the ongoing pandemic, we slightly adjusted how we assessed SAT/ACT scores and made greater use of historic data for a few of the other ranking indicators, described below.
Based on its 2025 profile, an aspect that has changed at Vassar can be seen in its drift toward predominately female enrollment (61.6% female, 38.4% male).
In the oldest common data set on Vassar’s website (2003-04), Vassar undergrad student body was 60% female. Vassar has had more women than men for decades. I suspect the more recent changes since COVID primarily relate to going test optional, which tends to favor women on average more than men. For example, some specific numbers comparing pre-COVID class of 2023 to post-COVID class of 2024 are below. In both classes a similar 68-69% of applicants were female, but the female admit rate was higher post-COVID with test optional.
Class of 2023
Applicants – 68% Female
Admits – 59% Female
Enrolls – 59% Female
Class of 2024
Applicants – 69% Female
Admits – 64% Female
Enrolls – 66% Female
Out of a class of 2435, and using these percentages, there are a tad more than 900 male Vassar students. Of those 900 or so approximately 300 are playing sports for the college, mostly as recruited athletes. The men’s basketball team just won its first Liberty League Championship and the soccer and volleyball programs have been highly competitive for years. It is an interesting dynamic that at a very diverse liberal arts school that there are such a large percentage of high achieving jocks, especially considering that the school does not have a football program. Back to the over 50% non-test admits, I would bet that the number is under 50% this year just to improve the school’s ranking.