Vassar

what is the average SAT score to get into vassar? How is the campus? The dorms? The food? I just want facts about this school as it is one of my top choices … I’ll take anything lol !

Don’t actually have a straight up answer, but I’d say you’d probably have better luck on the Vassar page.

If you don’t know anything about it, how can it be a top choice?

@Pizzagirl
I know a lot about it academically, but I only know what I see on the website and other college websites. I want to get some inside reviews to make sure what I’ve read and love about the school is not misleading.

English major/artsy veneer, recently offset by their investment in an impressive new science building. Beautiful chapel and library. The gender imbalance, though real, does not differ significantly from the national average. An easy train ride to New York City, though the Hudson Valley also has attractions to offer. Irrespective of its surface vibe, Vassar is a mainstream college at its core, and enhanced by broad curriculum, excellent resources and accomplished students.

Thank you so much @merc81 ! You are very helpful!

The train to NY is close to 2 hours each way and the cost is $75 - $90 roundtrip.

My nephew goes to Marist and has taken it before.

Thank you so much @BatesParents2019

Does your nephew like Poughkeepsie?

He likes Marist and he is OK on Poughkeepsie. He runs cross country and has very little time for venturing off campus.

Don’t go there thinking NYC is just around the corner. Once you arrive at Penn Station add at least 30 minutes to wherever you want to go.

The OP would have been better served if I’d said covenient train ride. Easy would apply more to a college such as Sarah Lawrence.

Thank you all so much!
The dorms seem really nice in the photos I’ve seen online. Do they look as great in person?

Personally, I found some perhaps imposing because of their size. The nicest one I saw was a somewhat smaller one near the periphery of the campus – but that one was very nice. However, Vassar is built on a fairly large scale in general, so even the largest dorms match the overall proportions of the campus.

The common data set is what you are looking for - Section C: http://institutionalresearch.vassar.edu/data/2013-2014/

If you are a girl, it will be a bit tougher than the stats suggest. If you are a guy, it will be a bit easier. This is due to the gender imbalance at the applicant pool.

Thank you all so much!

To all those who were accepted to vassar, would you mind telling me what your SAT scores were. I understand numbers aren’t everything, but they are nonetheless stressful to think about.

As BatesParents said, the train trip is just under 2 hours, but if you take the Metro North Line to Grand Central instead of the Amtrak to Penn, you can buy a 10-trip ticket for $151, so it works out to about $30 for an RT. S goes to Vassar and makes the trip about once a month.

@otisp how does your s like vassar? And thank you also for your insight.

Vassar has a combination of dorms, terrace apartment ( IIRC houses 5) and terrace apartments (IIRC houses 4).

KingOfHogwarts: Considers it one of the best choices he’s ever made. He’s an athletic bio-geek who likes playing music and making films, and Vassar let’s him do it all (well, at least as much as he can do and still have some time to sleep). Like anywhere, it’s not perfect, but it sounds like he enjoys the various campus dynamics as part of the overall experience. BTW, I love merc81’s summary.

@kingofhogwarts - what is the average SAT score to get into vassar? How is the campus? The dorms? The food? I just want facts about this school as it is one of my top choices … I’ll take anything lol !

First of all, with that user name you would fit in quite well there. Middle 50% is 2010-2300 for SAT score, but unless you have a major hook (athlete, URM, etc.), I do think you need to be targeting 2100 SAT minimum to have a realistic shot, and even that won’t guarantee you admittance.

My daughter will begin as a freshman next month.

Here’s what she liked about it:

  1. No fraternities or sororities. Creates an atmosphere of inclusion and opens up potentially more friends.

  2. Dorms (houses) that most students fall in love with enough to want to stay in the one they were assigned for 3 or even 4 years (seniors have more options). She stayed overnight in Main and liked it a lot.

  3. Beautiful campus. It is amazingly beautiful.

  4. Very few core requirements…just 3: Freshman Writing seminar, a language requirement (can be a class or you can get a 4 or 5 on a language AP test), and a quantitative class.

  5. She actually loved the food for the 2-days she was on campus. Perhaps that means we aren’t good cooks at our house (but we are), but she was pleased with the food. I’m sure it gets old after a while though.

  6. No graduate students so no classes being taught by TAs.

  7. Excellent academics (school she chose had to have that).

  8. Liberal leaning - Vassar is more liberal than most colleges, and she didn’t necessarily require that, but she does lean liberal and so more conservative-leaning schools were not appealing to her.

  9. Size - She decided early on in the process that she didn’t want to go to a huge school with very large classes. At the same time, she didn’t want the school to be too small. Haverford fell off her list because she felt that 1,100+ students was just too small.

  10. Laid back feel - For an elite college with very smart students, Vassar has a more laid-back reputation. Students are said to be less cutthroat with each other than at some other top colleges. Brown University stayed on her list for a long time for this same reason.

  11. Varied architecture - Low on her list of criteria, but she found it interesting that the buildings don’t all look the same. Adds to the unique quirky feel of the campus that she loved.

As far as admitted students, you can see what some of them said about their scores and GPAs here:

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/vassar-college/1717521-vassar-college-ed-i-class-of-2019-decision-thread.html#latest