<p>Has anyone visited two or all three? Can you comment on your perceived similarities and differences?</p>
<p>We visited Vassar and Wesleyan in spring of 2002. The Vassar adcom spent a lot of the info session telling us parents exactly how he decided who to reject. My daughter thought he enjoyed rejecting people way too much (he mentioned 3 times that he'd rejected "lots of people" with 1600 SATs) and we left quite early. Thus, I have no real sense of the campus. (My niece went there in the early '90s and transferred out after two years.)</p>
<p>My D quite liked Wesleyan and applied there. She was waitlisted, along with (as far as I can tell) pretty much everyone else they didn't admit. (It's kind of a gentle rejection.) It is much more casual and much more friendly than Vassar---but as I said, Vassar was pretty nasty that day.</p>
<p>I got the feeling that Vassar aspired to the HYP set (as a former 7 sister) and Wesleyan was content to be what it was, a small liberal (and liberal arts) college with a sense of humor.</p>
<p>I know several students at Oberlin--former students and children of friends--and all like it a lot. We did not visit.</p>
<p>We visited Oberlin, but not during the school year, so we only got a sense of the campus. The town was pretty small, without much to do, but the campus is big and active. We liked the new ecology or green design building, and we liked all the options for food coops, housing choices, etc.</p>
<p>Vassar was the only one of the three we visited. My daughter thought it sounded great from the information she read before our visit, but we got a similar impression to dmd77 from the adcom's talk, and my daughter did not apply there.</p>
<p>My D visited both Oberlin and Wesleyan as a prospective transfer. She really liked both a lot, both struck her as friendly, liberal-minded, accepting of quirkiness, and great academics. We really liked the cool building at Oberlin, especially as she was still thinking of environmental studies major. She was accepted to both and ultimately chose Wes for location--didnt at the time think she wanted to be that far away. I think she would have been incredibly happy at either one. Can't imagine this is a choice which you could make a mistake on. I don't have any experience with Vassar.</p>
<p>Our d had all three schools on her list but visited only Wesleyan and Vassar, which are within driving distance. Wesleyan had sounded like a great fit for her (arts and humanities interests, especially theater, liberal, socially aware), but the visit was not a success. She found the tour guide to be smug and self-important, thought the campus was unattractive and the arts campus downright ugly--Brutalist (???) style blocks--and separated from the 'main' campus, the info session was run by students--no adcoms in sight--and repeated the tour spiel practically verbatim... We hoped she might visit again, give it a second chance, but nothing doing.</p>
<p>Our experience at Vassar was just the opposite. D was blown away by the beauty of the campus, info session was reassuring, the tourguide was okay. We drew a droll, low-key adcom whose point about SATs was that the school puts less weight on scores, is more interested in the entire application/whole person, welcomes creative supplemental submissions, etc. D liked Vassar well enough to do an overnight this fall and, as she put it, was 'not just welcomed but included.' Students and faculty friendly and helpful, neat mix of kids, a tolerant, artsy vibe, stunning facilities... When she asked what students liked best about the school, the answer she heard most often was 'the people here.' (FWIW, maybe not much, Vassar apparently popped up as having 'the happiest students' a year or so back, acc. to PR.) </p>
<p>A few other points of comparison. D liked Vassar's curricular flexibility, with virtually no requirements; I think Wesleyan has distribution requirements, probably not onerous at all, but d liked Vassar's being wide open. D liked Vassar housing and dining: no theme houses, no frats or sororities, but large-ish dorms mixing all classes (maybe ranging from one to two hundred kids, and all with faculty families in them), and townhouse apartment options for jrs/srs; one all-campus dining hall plus cafe-type options. Wesleyan housing and dining seemed fragmented to her: freshmen here, sophomores there, many small theme houses, apartments seemed remote, this dining hall mainly for freshman, frat/sorority presence. What might have seemed like lots of neat options to someone else struck her as disconnected and socially isolating.</p>
<p>Now, Oberlin... We have met so many wonderful Oberlin people over the years... if only it were nearer. As the reality of going away drew closer, D's geographic range narrowed. I'm just as glad!</p>
<p>Great posts, thanks to all.</p>
<p>It's interesting how the various adcoms can paint such different pictures and affect prospective applicants so strongly.</p>
<p>Gratefulmom: Is your D a senior? Did she apply ED to Vassar?</p>
<p>We saw Wes & Vassar. (My D went to a local Oberlin event and said "no way" to Oberlin; did not see herself there.)</p>
<p>Vassar was incredibly beautiful and we had an exceptional tour. Seemed to be filled with happy, dare I say ELATED, students. Extremely friendly kids.</p>
<p>Wes campus was not ugly IMHO, but it was not as beautiful as Vassar... Wes info session had adcom & students. Wes kids seemed very happy too-- but of course those doing tours & interviews are probably a self-selected group of very happy pro-their-college kids.</p>
<p>Both schools were very appealing.</p>
<p>We visited all three. They are three fine schools with similarities and differences.
Some particular programs of study are stronger at certain schools than at others.</p>
<p>Vassar has the most attractive campus IMO, followed closely by Oberlin. The dorms we saw at Wesleyan were not impressive. All three schools could be in better locations, but you may prefer one situation to another.</p>
<p>Our experience on the tour at Wesleyan was just as gratefulmom described.</p>