Wellesley's campus life

<p>I was cruising the listings of the different schools my DD has visited, and Vassar caught my eye (just after I checked out the Wellesley listing and posted the Globe article). I found a student debating the merits of Vassar and Wellesley. One of the responding posts was from a student who had apparently attended both. Her post is below. I considered paraphrasing her post but decided it was better to give you her words. She raises some interesting points and I'd like to hear from some current students, if possible.</p>

<p>"I have the distinction of having attended both schools (one as an exchange student), so can give you an inside look from both perspectives. There is no comparison between a coed school (Vassar) and a all-women school (Wellesley). Vassar has a self-contained, healthy (relatively speaking) social environment. Wellesley becomes a ghost town on weekends (everyone in Boston or Cambridge), and there is nothing happening during weekday nights. Academically, both are great schools with excellent teachers -- but the students at Wellesley are less likely to engage in classroom discussions, or challenge their instructors (but more likely to study harder outside of class). Wellesley is beautiful, but so is Vassar (totally disagree with the poster who bashed the condition of the buildings at Vassar -- older dorms are tired looking, but are in the process of a dorm-by-dorm rehab, and with a few notable exceptions, the academic buildings are in great shape, with lots of new and state-of-the-art facilities). Vassar is in Poughkeepsie, Wellesley is in metro Boston -- stated that way, one might think the advantage goes to Wellesley, but it all depends. Because it does not have a local urban "draw," Vassar has to work harder to make campus life interesting and self-sufficient, and it shows. There are some departments at Vassar that are better than their corresponding departments at Wellesley, and vice - versa. You will have to check that out on your own. Overall, I don't think a person who would be happy at Vassar would be happy at Wellesley, and the converse holds, as well, so this is a choice you are really going to have to sort out. Good luck!"</p>

<p>Comments, current students?</p>

<p>I mean, I don't find it inflammatory, but I don't really agree. There isn't "nothing" going on during the week--of course there are lots of clubs that hold regular meetings, but there are also plenty of lectures, periodic plays, movie symposiums, etc. There are some complaints that these events aren't enormously well-attended, but they are there and I personally find it unrealistic to expect droves of students to attend every special-interest lecture/gathering every week. We've been having great and really well-attended debate watching parties this past few weeks. On the weekend I'd agree a little more, but I think it is also important to point out that at least some Wellesley students (hand raised) were attracted to Wellesley precisely because it does not conform to a traditional, big-party-every-weekend social life. I'm unabashedly disinterested in that, and while I realize that makes me a loser in terms of the traditional college social scene, I think that I'm not the only person that feels that way. That said, as a self-admitted introvert/non-party girl, Wellesley students are actually more social than I expected, and it is true that if you want to go to a party every weekend, you will end up off-campus a lot. </p>

<p>The poster also glosses over the positive (for some) aspects of the all-women's environment in other aspects of life (such as relationships with fellow students), which most Wellesley students would happily babble on about (we're having a bit of a minor debate about that on campus right now, actually, but opinions are pretty strongly in favor, especially given the demographic make-up that these debates usually skew towards). The classroom discussion thing depends on the department, in my opinion, but I don't really know how it compares to other schools. </p>

<p>Like the poster, I think that Vassar and Wellesley are not terribly similar (I visited Vassar and liked it fine but ultimately decided not to apply b/c of a lack of "spark") and probably do cater to a somewhat different (although not hugely divergent) group. So I would say it is a matter of fit more than anything else.</p>

<p>While, I've never attended classes at Vassar, I have lived on campus for 10 weeks over the summer in 2006. Nor I am a current student, but I graduated in 2008.</p>

<p>I would say Wellesley's beauty outshines Vassar's, though Vassar students there often remark on the picturesque nature of the college. I wouldn't disagree, but Wellelsey is more to my taste. In general, current and former women's schools have the best campuses. Wellesley's campus has comparatively few buildings and was designed to be a park, so the feel is quite different. Vassar's "Main" building functions as the equivalent of Wellesley's College Hall, long burned down. As a Wellesley student, it was fascinating to imagine what College Hall would be like today were it still standing (no Tower Court, for one).</p>

<p>The "nothing to do" aspect truly depends on your personality. I never found myself miserably bored at either place because I have always been quite capable of entertaining myself. I worked nights when I was at Vassar, and had scant opportunity to take advantage of evening activities on campus. </p>

<p>You can whine all you wish about the lack of things open in Wellesley past 5, but there's no Guns, Ammo and Knives store down the street and around the corner. As my mom put it, Wellesley has the vil, but Poughkeepsie has da hood. I never, ever had any personal safety issues at Vassar, and I used to walk around alone at night around campus at every hour imaginable (I worked nights). My only outstanding complaint was that Vassar security was a little overzealous. The shops and restaurants in the vicinity of Vassar are slightly cheaper than those near Wellesley, but at Wellesley, you aren't as crippled if you don't have a car (I had a car at Vassar).</p>

<p>I agree that insular campuses promote better on-campus cohesion. RPI in Troy, NY, infamous for being one of the worst places to stick a college, is famous for having the best campus community. A Vassar student (international) bemoaned the isolation of Poughkeepsie. I was able to draw out the source of his urban pining: he missed going clubbing. New York City is a doable, but rarely undertaken diversion.</p>

<p>Vassar has continually held the impression of having very happy students and I would say the people I knew there seemed so. My program included a student from Colgate who liked the people at Vassar rather better than the Colgate ones. The original poster quotes a "relatively" healthy social life. I'm going to venture a guess that s/he is referring to more social opportunities, but many of them being less healthy. Like pot. There are a lot more chances to get stoned at Vassar than at Wellesley. People do drugs at Wellesley (loads of Wellesley students would love to see marijuana legalized), and no one at Vassar is going to make you smoke weed. Introverts and party-shy people like Wellesley because the of the different social focus.</p>

<p>As for social life at Wellesley during the week, I worked weeknights and did homework when I wasn't doing other stuff (I was an Astrophysics major, geez). However, there were enough events that I regretted missing to never feel like I lacked opportunities to do stuff if I did not procrastinate. As someone who tried (and failed) to plan events, I was always too busy to expect other people to show up on a weeknight, and to scared I was interrupting something More Important on a weekend. I mostly hung out with friends.</p>

<p>Wellesley's dorms are indeed overdue for renovation at the expense of academic and social buildings that didn't need it as badly (:: cough chapel cough alumnae hall cough::). At Vassar, I lived in Main and a TA (a terrace apartment), the latter of which my sister called "last chance cabins" and asked if I cried when I saw the place. While a bit old, my answer was to that an emphatic "no". Yes my TA was a bit grubby, but it was my home, and after living it in, it was part of me, and therefore not bad at all. I also saw the inside of one of the dorms in the residential quad and would remark that it rated similarly on the scale of grub as one of the quad dorms, maybe a bit lower.</p>

<p>As for social isolation, Vassar students get singles more quickly and older students get apartments. Many also live on off-campus. I could count the number of apartments available to Wellelsey students off-hand. Very few Wellelsey students live off-campus, owing to the economic unfeasibility. I've found that suite living tends to isolate people quite cliquishly.</p>

<p>The campus cultures are very very different, so the schools aren't entirely interchangeable. However, there is an overlap of the students who would do well at both schools, and a similarity in educational quality. I agree with the original suggestion that a student torn between the two might want to compare prospective departments.</p>

<p>Thank you for your thoughtful, honest and balanced replies, advantagious and WendyMouse. They've been really helpful. Beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder! :-) It really comes down to knowing what is important to you.</p>

<p>WC hands down...I've seen both along with dozens of other schools from BC to Georgetown to Trinity to US Coast Guard Academy...Lake Waban alone puts WC near the top...on Saturday the sun was glittering on the water like diamonds. Anyway social life is low on the priority list...just sayin'</p>

<p>My response to this is that it seems like a pretty fair comparison, but like Advantageous I wouldn't say that there is "nothing" going on on the weekdays, because the social life at Wellesley (or anywhere) is really what you make it. There are always club events or little movie nights happening here and there. Sure there aren't usually major parties on Wednesday nights, but there is always something going on.</p>