Planning to commit to one of the two schools, and major in computer science. I also intend to go to grad school.
I enjoyed my time at both schools
Any advice which of the two would be better?
I know people who studied CS at both and love both. One of the biggest differences they seem to have is the social scene/culture, most likely because Vassar is a LAC and RPI is known for tech. RPI is about 70% male, which I have heard is very noticeable and the students are more “nerdy” than Vassar, which has a student body with more diverse interests. While you have stated you plan on going into grad school, RPI has excellent job placement and connections in the CS and related fields- but the program might be a little different at Vassar as I have been told it is very theoretical. Ultimately, either will probably work out great.
Spend some time reading through the RPI subforum. There seem to be some issues with their summer ARCH program.
Vassar’s CS department is relatively large for a LAC, and its CS offerings cover most of the typical upper level CS topics:
https://catalog.vassar.edu/content.php?catoid=33&navoid=6188
RPI’s CS department is significantly larger than Vassar’s, with additional more specialty course offerings:
https://science.rpi.edu/computer-science/faculty
http://catalog.rpi.edu/content.php?filter%5B27%5D=CSCI&filter%5B29%5D=&filter%5Bcourse_type%5D=-1&filter%5Bkeyword%5D=&filter%5B32%5D=1&filter%5Bcpage%5D=1&cur_cat_oid=20&expand=&navoid=498&search_database=Filter&filter%5Bexact_match%5D=1#acalog_template_course_filter
Vassar graduates about 25 CS majors per year, while RPI graduates about 200 CS majors per year.
Vassar students are 59% female, while RPI students are 68% male.
Thanks a lot for the responses! I ultimately chose Vassar