<p>College app's are coming nearer and nearer for me, so i'm beginning to finish my college list. However, i'm having some trouble deciding between Vassar and Wesleyan, so i was wondering what input you guys have. I'm not that chuffed about academics, since what i've heard about both Vassar and Wesleyan have great schools and usually high quality professors. What i was wondering is what life on campus is like between the two - what the student body is like, what the college town is like, what things there are to do outside of campus, etc.</p>
<p>Is there a reason you need to decide between them now? Because they are very similar to each other, and if you like the general idea of Vassar/Wes (artsy/alternative cultured slightly large LAC), it might be a good idea to apply to both, in case you only get into one (I mean, there are definitely reasons to chose one over the other based on fit, but someone who fits really well at one will probably fit pretty well at the other, and might find the other a much better fit than many of the more dissimilar schools out there). </p>
<p>That said, some thoughts (obviously, I'm biased towards Wes, though I also think Vassar is a pretty nifty school):</p>
<p>--Location: Ok. Neither school is exactly in the most happening town, and Vassar is closer to NYC. That said, Middletown (where Wes is) is a lot better than Poughkeepsie (Vassar), which was seriously the most run down, depressing town I found on my college visits. Middletown's not that exciting, but Main Street is really cute and has some really good restaurants (plus a movie theater and laser tag!). And we sometimes get carnivals :D</p>
<p>--Campus: Vassar's campus is more classical-college-y pretty, whereas Wes's campus is more eclectic, with beautiful old buildings sitting next to some nifty modern ones, and a really post-modern arts center. Vassar's campus also seemed more spread out than Wes's. Some people respond better to Vassar's classic beauty, though I prefer Wes's look.</p>
<p>--Dorms: Ok. So, I think Vassar's are, as a whole, nicer than Wes's (except for maybe the newest dorms at Wes). They do all have pianos in them. That said, I'm pretty sure that at Vassar they live in dorms for most of the time there (though I do remember something about seniors in houses), whereas at Wes people tend to live in campus-supplied apartments as juniors and wood frame houses or apartments as seniors. I could be wrong about Vassar though. I also don't know how much program housing there is at Vassar, but there's a TON at Wes.</p>
<p>--Student body: Vassar has 2,400 students, Wes has 2,700 plus some grad students (the website says about 500, though I thought it was less), so Wes does feel bigger. Wes's student body is about 50:50 male:female, whereas Vassar's is more like 40:60 (I MUCH prefer the 50:50 ratio, though YMMV). </p>
<p>--The general feeling I got when visiting was that Wes has a stronger uber-activist/hippyish community, while Vassar has a stronger hipster/"cool" intellectuals who are/want to by New Yorkers type community. I'm not sure how true that is though — that might be biased by the people I happen to know who go to Vassar, since I haven't spent enough time there to really judge. It's also possible that Wes actually has a larger athlete/"mainstream" contingent, because we do have a football team, which I belive Vassar does not. Either way, they both certainly have a strong alternate/artsy bent to their student body. </p>
<p>The campus, size, and male/female ratio were some of the reasons that Wes appealed to me, personally, more than Vassar did (it didn't hurt that Wes has a stronger program in one of my areas of interest).</p>
<p>Thanks for the input, but i was wondering if anyone else could elaborate on this whole hippie atmosphere that Wesleyan purportedly has in terms of Vassar - i mean i'm pretty sure it wouldn't be a big deal, but i was just wondering if anybody could clear this up as stereotype or truth or whatever</p>
<p>This is a personal decision, and I think Weskid advises you well to apply to both. If you get accepted to both you have plenty of time to decide. My S preferred Vassar because its music department is more classically oriented than Wes's, and he did not like the po-mo music building. That said, I'm sure he would have been happy at either, although he chose a third LAC.</p>
<p>It's a wash; surely, the number of people who wear tie-dyed shirts and bell bottom jeans is negligible at both campuses.</p>
<p>Yeah--by "hippy-ish" I really mean people who tend to be poltically active in a liberal peace-and-love kind of way, maybe long skirt wearing or pot smoking (though that is by no means a rule). There are not many actual, honest-to-god-stright-out-of-the-60s types. </p>
<p>However, that kind of person is by no means ever present or even the majority at Wes--just more present than at a lot of other schools (though probably not a lot more present than at Vassar, really). Really, what Wes students are all about is respecting individuality--there are many types at Wes, and as long as you respect other people, they will respect you. My guess is that it's the same at Vassar, but I don't know.</p>
<p>You will find a lot of cross-applicants at Vassar and Wesleyan. My son, like many kids, was accepted to both. He chose Vassar. The campus appealed to him more, and it did seem to be a bit less hippy-ish. I do believe that he would have been happy on either campus, though he just loves Vassar. </p>
<p>I suspect that Wesleyan is a more politically active campus than Vassar is. As Weskid noted about Wesleyan, Vassar students also respect individuality. I think it is less of a "tie-dyed" campus than Wesleyan is.</p>
<p>The arts and music are very big at Vassar. Vassar has a beautiful museum with Picassos and many more wonderful works. The campus has more Steinway pianos than any other campus in the country, I believe.</p>
<p>Students live in dorms that are called "houses" as they are residential communities. Their common rooms are parlors and are quite lovely. Bathrooms are all co-ed. Generally, students stay in the same house for three years. Junior Year Abroad is highly encouraged. </p>
<p>Almost all seniors live in townhouse or terrace apartments which are owned by Vassar and are on the far end of campus. Meal plans are optional for seniors; most cook in their own apartments as far as I know.</p>
<p>There is not much to do in Poughkeepsie. I did think Middletown presented as a nicer town. You can, however, easily get on the train to Manhattan ... it is about an hour and a half ride. </p>
<p>Vassar has a lot of internationals - not sure about Wesleyan. As noted above, there are no grad students. Classes are small and professors are involved with their students. The classrooms are updated with high end technical equipment and the campus is meticulously maintained as it is an arboretium.</p>
<p>Weskid is correct in that Vassar's population is 60/40 women to men.</p>
<p>Both are terrific schools; apply to both unless you are sure you want ED at one. You might also like Oberlin which has a similar feel. Many Vassar applicants also seem to apply to Haverford too.</p>
<p>When my decidedly nonartsy S was recruited as an athlete at both Vassar and Wesleyan, his very knowledgeable GC opined that he would "go nuts" at Vassar but encouraged him to pursue Wes because the GC thought Wes was far more diverse.</p>
<p>And what did he choose?</p>
<p>Okay lil' brother graduated from Wes in May and I'm an '05 vassar grad.
Students at both places will resist the generalizations I'm about to make and that's part of what makes both schools great.</p>
<p>1) Both schools have more than thier fair share of hipsters (parents ask your kids). Vassar has more hippie-hipsters (VT) wes has more urban Williamsburg-Brooklyn hipsters.</p>
<p>2) Wes is more intense. Now, Vassar kids are serious about their academics and passionate but are also more likely to put down the books on a weekday night to go to Jazz night or see a friend's performance. You're more likely to hear a Vassar kid say " I've got a *<strong><em>-ton of work to do, but . . . ." and a Wes kid say "I've got a *</em></strong>-ton of work to do. Sorry."</p>
<p>3) I can only speak for Vassar's Depts. English and Drama are (of course!) great. You're on pretty good footing in ALL the social sciences. I was poli sci and religion and loved both. Had friends in Film that loved it . . . and a good Environmental Studies program. Brother was Gov't at Wes and he liked it, but always thought that the Gov't program there was pretty traditional given the reputation of Wes.</p>
<p>4) Your major difference is the campus experience. Vassar is the gated bubble: you can choose to engage with poughkeepsie or not, and in this sense it can be insular, but the campus is SO BEAUTIFUL. Wes is very much IN middletown, which is good and bad (i.e. you are more likely to encounter real police instead of campus security, there is also just LESS campus security because, unlike Vassar, Wes doesn't have a wall running around it) Now, I doubt any Wes students would ever say they feel "unsafe" but the experience is very different. I think if your looking for a more pastoral, traditionally campus-y feel, go to vassar. If you want a more sub/urban thing, then Wes.</p>
<p>But others may feel differently . . .</p>
<p>I don't disagree. I think, it would be fair to say that Wesleyan is a bit more buttoned-down than Vassar; it's stronger in the sciences; more people doing problem sets during the week. That kind of thing. Others have remarked that Wesleyan has more of a university ambience, though the difference is admittedly subtle.</p>
<p>I don't really disagree about most things listed, but your point #2 suprised me. I suppose it is possible that MORE Vasar kids will say "I've got a ****-ton of work to do, but..." more of the time, but Wes is NOT Reed or UChicago. There are plenty of times that many students at Wes chose to do everything from see their friend's jazz performance to just sit on the hill, even though they have lots of work to do. Still, I suppose it is true that there are also plenty of things I don't do during the week because I have a lot of work, but really, if I did EVERYTHING I wanted to do here during the week, I doubt I could get any good school's workload done :D</p>
<p>Also, re: departments. It's actually pretty true that our Gov department is suprisingly traditional. The same does not apply for a lot of our other departments. I've only been at Wes for a year now, but I've found our Religion and English departments to be esp. strong, and of course our sciences and film department are known to be really strong as well.</p>
<p>Wes is academically stronger across the board, except for one or two departments. Better students/profs. It is in the top tier of LACs, along with Amherst, Williams, Wellesley and Swarthmore. Location: Big advantage to Wes. Not only a better immediate location with things to do in Middletown vs nothing in Poughkeepsie (a horrid town), but it is also very close to other really outstanding college towns such as downtown New Haven and Amherst/Northampton, and Hartford is also very close, which although not a city really worth spending that much time in, has its share of music venues, museums, culture, large mall, good restaurants etc. Vassar is pretty isolated, even though it is a few minutes closer on the MNRR line to NYC - a fact more than made up by Wes being at least an hour closer to Boston.</p>
<p>Woah, PosterX. I'm pretty sure that Wesleyan is not at all academically stronger across the board. And what does "Better students/profs" even mean? I think it would be pretty ridiculous to exclude Vassar from the the top tier of LACs if Wesleyan is included.
I chose Vassar over Wesleyan last spring and I'm happy I did. I think both schools are academically top-notch, and it would be hard to go wrong either way. I wanted a school where students would gladly take a break from studies and have fun. I can't speak for Wesleyan, but this certainly occurs at Vassar. People are very focused on studies, but parties happen most nights and there's alway something else to do, which people take advantage of.
My choice of Vassar over Wesleyan came down to two things. One, I found Wesleyan's campus to be unimpressive in comparison to Vassar's. This is not at all to say that Wesleyan has an unattractive campus, because it doesn't. I just fell in love with Vassar's look. More importantly, I just got this abstract feeling that I would fit in more with Vassar's student body. My impression was that Wesleyan students were more hippy-ish, and weird kind of for the sake of it. There is some of that at Vassar, but I would describe students as more quirky.
Wesleyan does have a better male:female ratio and I guess I would say that Middletown is better than Poughkeepsie. However, I don't really ever notice the imbalance, and I think Poughkeepsie's bad reputation is really overblown. It's not that bad at all, and people take advantage of the easy access to NYC all the time.
However, I think the two colleges share more similarities than differences, and you would do well to attend either.</p>
<p>mers~ i know i'm going to get some folks upset with this, but i want to add my comments. in spring, 2002, my d , husband, and i visited Wes. we were completely disappointed! dirty, poorly landscaped campus, FILTHY "model" dorm room, and graffitied student center, due to an on-going protest. nothing wrong with student activism, but it was crude and tasteless, and not fitting what we THOUGHT was the caliber of this place. the lovely New England town was a bit quiet, but MUCH cleaner than the school! the tour guide was very defensive, comparing Wesleyan to Williams throughout the tour! a big turn-off, especially considering it was one of the most expensive she was looking at!</p>
<p>happycollegemom--I'm sorry you had a bad experiance when you visited Wes (esp. the bad tour guide :( ). However, I would like to point out to merm that a) some people love the landscaping and b) you did visit quite a while ago. I've heard the "dirty" complaint from people who have visited in the past (including in The Gatekeepers), but I don't experiance that at all on campus currently (except maybe a bit in the WesCo dorms, but that's balanced by the fact that we have some really nice new dorms, and WestCo is a place that no one is forced to live in, since it's in high demand for other reasons). </p>
<p>And as for chalking/graffiting...well, that's a much debated issue, and the issue of crudity/taste level in on that garners strong student opinions on both sides of the table.</p>
<p>OTOH, I agree with That'sWhatSheSaid that to call Wes academically stronger across the board isn't right: the two schools are more or less equal in caliber, each with their own specific special strengths (as well as both being generally very good at most things they offer). I wouldn't chose one over the other because of acedmics unless you happen to be interested in a specific feild that one of the two is especially strong in.</p>
<p>As the mother of a Wes senior I can only say that I've been more than happy with Wesleyan. My s's teacher have superb, supportive, brilliant, accross the board. His friends are the greatest - smart, serious, focused, fun. He has been mentored by wonderful people. He loves it and is happy there as are his friends. And I am not a pushover.</p>
<p>one of the things Doug Bennet did as president was improve the physical quality of the campus. the landscaping is much improved, dorms have been renovated, and new construction is found throughout the campus. if you were to visit today, it'd look much different from 5 years ago.</p>
<p>Yes, smartalic that is a very good point.</p>
<p>^^ Agreed. I had occasion to visit Wesleyan fairly frequently in the early-to-mid 1990s. It was already an impressive school back then, of course, but when you see it today it's clear that Doug Bennet and his 10-year regime did wonderful work improving the campus and continuing to strengthen the academics.</p>