@stepay do you mind sharing with me what your daughters stats were? Just her SAT score, GPA, class rank, and how good her ECs were? If not that’s ok too lol.
BatesParents, one off-peak round trip train ticket is $35.50. You need to add around $6 each way for a taxi to and from the train station so that’s a total of around $47. Takes 1 hour 45 minutes on the train to Grand Central Station.
About housing, I want to add that my son began to live off-campus his junior year. There are a whole lot of nice Victorian houses around campus and it can be cheaper to live in one of those than in a dorm. My son loved having his own large room within a house two blocks from campus. He could cook, play music loud at night without bothering anyone, and just a cozier environment.
As far as everything else, he had very good SAT scores and grades but since I went to Vassar he was a “legacy” which gave him a leg-up in the admissions process. As stated, Vassar is amazingly UN-competitive among the students. However, the work is hard and there is a lot of it. On the other hand, there is no “stupid” work. My son got (he just graduated) a really incredible education. The school has a lovely small community feeling and the students are by and large amazingly friendly. The teachers are incredible. My son seems always to have felt “known” by his professors, who seem to be top-notch with barely any exceptions. The teachers are very respectful of the students, are very into meeting with students after class to discuss the work, and also virtually all of them seemed to bend over backwards to explain themselves, give leeway when appropriate, allow freedom of expression (picking topics for papers, readings, etc.), and really value independent ideas and self-expression.
(That said, my son was in writing-artsy departments for the most part, so I cannot speak for science/math/computer majors – I just don’t know.)
Many of the students are very very talented in one or another art form and there are so many ways to join activities such as playing in bands and other music groups and just all kinds of things (including plenty of political activity if that’s your thing). It’s a great school but it’s not an easy school academically, just so you’re aware of that. One reason Vassar (and any similar school) is so selective is that, once you’re there, you have to do a lot of hard work! Vassar does not want to make mistakes in this regard, because they have a very very low attrition (drop-out or transfer) rate. The vast majority of people they accept seem to really like the school and stick around to graduate. By and large this is a student body comprising young people who are very smart, socially and politically conscious, and have the energy and aptitude to do all kinds of interesting and often helpful things both in college and when they graduate. Good luck in your admissions process and in college, wherever you wind up!
Thank you so much @DMelanogaster ! What do you mean by “amazingly UN-competitive among the students?”
@kingofhogwarts - I will tell you that she had all As in high school which included 7 or 8 AP classes and a lot of honors classes, so a weighted GPA well above 4.0 and unweighted of 4.0. Her school doesn’t rank, but there were 14 others in her class of 334 who also had all As. I can’t share her SAT score without asking her, but I will tell you it was very good. Doesn’t really matter though how others did. If you can fall within Vassar’s ranges (usually no lower than the 25% range) then you have a decent shot of getting in. Vassar’s site says the typical student had an A- average in HS and is within the top 10-20% of their graduating class. Likely need to start there. Then, if you can get your SAT score within their target range, you have a chance. Vassar is much like some other more elite colleges though in that nothing is really guaranteed. Some students with some very high test scores and GPAs did not get admitted this past year (some of the posted on the results thread, so you can check that). My only advice it to get those grades up or keep them up if they are already there, do very well on the SAT or ACT, show a passion for Vassar in your essay (if you do indeed have a passion about it), and then that’s about it. Make sure to pick some teachers who will give you a strong recommendation. If all of that seems too much, then you might have to target another school. Hard to get into Vassar, but there are plenty of others that are harder to get into. Good luck to you.
@kingofhogwarts - Pretty sure that what was meant by “amazingly UN-competitive among the students” is that the students for the most part are not competitive with each other like you might find at other elite colleges. Students are generally more helpful to each other when they can be rather than hoping another student crashes and burns.
Thanks @stepay !
From President Hill re: the Freshman class:
"Last month we welcomed 668 first year students, a very diverse group of young people from 46 states and 25 countries outside the U.S. Our freshmen were selected from a pool of 7,567 applicants, with an admit rate for the class of 25.7 percent.
In addition to this new class’s strong academic background – including 30 high school valedictorians, 15 salutatorians, and 19 National Honor Society presidents – the class is also diverse in numerous ways. More than 35 percent of the freshmen are students of color, including U.S. citizens and non-citizens; 43 percent are men; 97 are first-generation college students; and 89 are international students with either foreign or dual citizenship. One hundred fifty-one students are fully bilingual or speak English as a second language. Sixty-two percent are receiving need-based financial aid from the college, demonstrating Vassar’s strong commitment to recruiting talented students from across the socioeconomic spectrum. I am pleased that for the second year Vassar has been recognized by the New York Times’ College Access Index as one of the top colleges doing the most for low-income students. The top private college in the index, Vassar ranked 8th overall.
Ten members of the class are veterans of the United States armed services, the third group of veterans to enroll as freshmen as part of the college’s partnership with the Posse Foundation that began in 2013."