<p>from its student body to its location, academics, etc. what do you generally think of Vassar College?</p>
<p>Really liberal, pretty campus, good food, the co-op is awesome, lots of clubs. Poughkeepsie is boring but NYC is like an hour and a half away. 100% of financial aid is met.</p>
<p>From what I have read, MOST people think it's full of weird freaky liberals and gay males. But I'm a weird liberal so I think it's an awesome college.</p>
<p>How pretentious would you say the student body is?</p>
<p>I love Vassar from a lot of what i've heard and read and from their website and admissions stuff... but man theres a girl in my class whose going to Vassar (chose it over Bard, another school I like) and she was going on and on about how much she loved it and how she fits in perfectly with everyone else when she visited...</p>
<p>The thing is, she is annoying in her tone, highly pretentious, and snobby to the point you just want to strangle her. She makes it a point to make sure everyone knows how "individual" and "creative" she is and just the way she talks down to everyone...</p>
<p>God I know I shouldn't judge an entire school based on a rising freshman, but I kind of got the notion from everywhere else that the northeastern liberal arts colleges are kind of like that, which would definately make me reevaluate my decision on applying to Vassar, Bard, and Wesleyan...</p>
<p>I don't actually attend Vassar, but I have visited and researched it extensively. Many current students have said there are some snobby pretentious rich kids, but they usually stick together in their own little clique and the rest of the student body ignores them. When I visited, I didn't really sense any of the students I talked with were pretentious, most were really friendly. </p>
<p>From what I have read, it seems like most people think Bard is more snobby than Vassar.</p>
<p>i thought i would love vassar, but it just didnt click when i visited. maybe it was just because i went on a dreary day, but the campus wasnt as 'breathtaking' as a lot of people say, and poughkeepsie is just sketchy! great academics though, and a nice selection of vegetarian dining :)</p>
<p>Vassar is a wonderful school. Your pretentious friend is right about one thing- that "individual" and "creative" is encouraged at Vassar. Anywhere you go there will be people of all different personalities. Vassar encourages you to develop your unique skills to the maximum, and is very encouraging and supportive, even if your ideas are a bit outside the box. Most of the students are quite down to earth. Some are a little "crunchy-granola". I suspect your snobby pretentious schoolmate will either (a) change a bit or (b) be in the minority.</p>
<p>It's a good idea to go to the numbers when trying to understand a college.</p>
<p>You guys can figure out the admissions stuff. Certainly SATs and all make Vassar one of the top LACs.</p>
<p>On size, Vassar grew signficantly when it went co-ed and is now at the large end of LAC scale at 2500. My Swarthmore daughter who visited friends at Vassar quite often commented that it felt much larger.</p>
<p>On per student endowment, Vassar in somewhere in the neighborhood of 15th largest for a liberal arts college. Not gold-plated, but solid financial footing. I would no be surprised if the new President (Cappy Hill from Williams) seeks to reduce enrollment a bit to bump the per student endowment.</p>
<p>The most popular majors provide an interesting gliimpse with English and Psych being the two most popular majors followed by Poli Sci and Econ, with Bio as the first science major at #10. That's unusual. It's usually Bio and Econ at the top these days. I would say the tilt of popular majors towards the Humanities is a vestige of Vassar's former Seven Sisters heritage in much the same way that some of the former-male colleges still have decidedly male cultures.</p>
<p>Popular</a> Majors</p>
<p>Gender balance is 60%/40% which tilts a bit more female that most of the top LACs, but not by much. 55%/45% is certainly not unusual:</p>
<p>Enrollment</a> by Gender</p>
<p>Ethnic diversity has just been so so over the last decade. Not bad. Not great. The Black, Latino/a, and International numbers didn't surprise me. The relatively low numbers of Asian Americans is a little surprising:</p>
<p>Minority</a> Student Enrollment</p>
<p>The percentage of students qualifying for financial aid is a bit on the low side at 46%. This suggests that the college has probably targeted or attracted full-pay students a bit more heavily than some peer schools. This would explain the slight lag in diversity noted above. My daughter did volunteer that she feel a bit of the "rich kid" vibe during her visits, but she also travelled the world with some really down to earth Vassar kids and remains close friends with several.</p>
<p>Vassar is an excellent school. I'd certainly put in on a list to visit and consider.</p>
<p>I have one supergood friend at Vassar and three "advanced acquaintances."</p>
<p>Supergood friend is a very un-Vassar person-- okay, okay, I'll start with the fact that he's male and he's straight. But he's also very non-crunchy granola (more of a "nerd" or a "prep," even) and he's also not at all into the party or drinking scene, which according to him is very available and very avoidable (good combination, I think).</p>
<p>Three advanced acquaintances are all females, all really thoughtful, intelligent people I'd really like to have a class with. None of them are particularly alternative, edgy, or funky-- but they're my textbook definition of "laid back." All very friendly, approachable people. All really like the school.</p>
<p>Like interesteddad, I'm a big, big fan of Vassar.</p>
<p>So what are some of Vassar's drawbacks? Like any LAC, it can feel a bit like an isolated "everyone knows everyone" bubble at times. (Though Poughkeepsie does have a train that goes into the city, that's really nice). I liked their campus a lot, and found the physical campus somewhat comparable to other LAC's I've been to.</p>
<p>Poughkeepsie is not really an ideal collegey town, but I think it works okay.</p>
<p>My impression of the school:
School for Jackie O type girls where dads are ibankers and moms were one-time/ sometimes actresses/models)
The students are reasonably smart, somewhat pseudointellectual, and they go to school for the sake of going to school. Their ultimately goal is to marry a Rockerfeller or a Kennedy.
To borrow words from a dude that went to Oberlin
[quote]
a bunch of pretentious, entitled, politically-correct, self-satisfied, bleeding-heart, postmodern burlesque and street art enthusiast ******nozzley fags doesn't mean we don't have feelings. If anything, we have far too many feelings. Feelings we have learned to express thanks to four years of professors who humored us when we raised our hands to start a sentence with "I kinda feel like..."
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Slight correction to ID's post.
Vassar had an enrollment of 2100 when Vassar went coed in around 1969-70.Enrollment stayed at 2100 for at least a decade or so. If memory serves me correctly, enrollment didn't increase until Frances Fergusson was president in around 1986, with a goal to slowly increase enrollment from 2100 to 2400. Enrollment was closer to 2250 in 1999-2000, and has hovered around 2400 in recent years. Enrollment</a> FTE</p>
<p>Everybody does not know everybody at Vassar. For that matter, my s went to a school with an undergrad enrollment of only 1800 and everyone did not know everyone. Certainly there is a better sense of community at a smaller school, but you will not know everything about everyone, nor will everyone know your personal business. </p>
<p>And midsmith seems to be living in the dark ages- but alas, even chivalry wasn't alive when he/she walked this earth.</p>
<p>Yep. That impression of Vassar is outdated by at least a couple of decades, and I'm pretty sure it was always inaccurate. And the kids I know (including the many straight males) are ambitious and much more than reasonably smart, and would actually be pretty horrified if people thought their ultimate goal was to marry a Kennedy.</p>
<p>Here's the historical enrollment data for Vassar from the IPEDS database. These figures are the fall enrollment numbers. I could be wrong, but it sure looks like the rapid increase in enrollment accompanied the arrival of men on campus. A 40% increase in enrollment in the three years from 1969 to 1972 is pretty breathtaking:</p>
<p>
**Year Female Male Total**
1967 1,667 2 1,669
1968 1,606 27 1,633
1969 1,544 111 1,655
1970 1,524 376 1,900
1971 1,438 535 1,973
1972 1,652 679 2,331
1973 1,605 793 2,398
1974 1,592 690 2,282
1975 1,623 691 2,314
1976 1,580 768 2,348
1977 1,508 831 2,339
1978 1,463 924 2,387
1979 1,397 974 2,371
1980 1,372 992 2,364
1981 1,364 969 2,333
1982 1,388 968 2,356
1983 1,411 947 2,358
1984 1,351 907 2,258
1985 1,406 911 2,317
1986 1,375 944 2,319
1987 1,359 944 2,303
1988 1,400 995 2,395
1989 1,414 1,047 2,461
1990 1,422 1,031 2,453
1991 1,384 961 2,345
1992 1,369 903 2,272
1993 1,377 864 2,241
1994 1,448 864 2,312
1995 1,472 874 2,346
1996 1,452 878 2,330
1997 1,463 897 2,360
1998 1,471 925 2,396
2000 1,475 925 2,400
2001 1,494 945 2,439
2002 1,509 963 2,472
2003 1,456 988 2,444
2004 1,496 979 2,475
2005 1,404 974 2,378
</p>
<p>I know three young women currently attending Vassar. All are upper-middle class, it's true, and all attended exclusive private schools at least for a while before getting into Vassar. All were outstanding students in high school and all are intellectual in a funky, nonpretentious way (varied interests, sense of humor, wacky-but-serious approach to their undergrad education.) Two are very politically involved, yes, democrats, but one of them is a fairly conservative democrat as far as democrats go. All like Vassar except for its setting, and all three have commented about the wealth of academic opportunities available to them.</p>
<p>I'd always imagined that guys who went to Vassar were attracted by the gender ratio.
However the recent Vassar grads on the male side I've met aren't, shall we say, "Yale Bulldogs."</p>
<p>I'll go back and look at my catalog from 1971 (yes, I still have it!). I do recall that the planned enrollment for the years I was there was around 2100. Those stats are surprising, as the years I was there (71-75) the reported enrollment was 2100 for fulltime undergrad students. Perhaps your list included part time students and the few masters degree students? They did not "announce" a formal planned increase of undergrads to 2400 until many years later. I remember getting the letter, along with the request for a bigger donation!</p>
<p>Ironically, danas, I believe theat they say Yale has a surprisingly high gay population too these days.</p>
<p>Re: Surprise over a relative lack of Asian students at Vassar.
I think Asian-American applicants, or their parents, tend to be conservative and are wary of schools with perceived "alternative" student bodies.
Reed 7% (and on the West Coast no less)
Bard 4%
Hampshire 3%</p>
<p>jym:</p>
<p>Those numbers are just the raw enrollment numbers from the IPEDS database. I didn't spend a lot of time refining the search to eliminate grad students, etc. -- I've got babyback ribs to tend to!</p>
<p>It may well include part time students. </p>
<p>According to the history accounts, there was an early plan (right after the Yale merger was rejected) to go to 2400 with equal men and women. The account I saw said that was abandoned by 1971 -- presumably when they realized they could not get to equal men/women.</p>
<p>Those enrollment numbers are an exact mirror-image of what happened at Williams, only Williams started with a somewhat smaller all-male base and ended up at around 2000 students very quickly. </p>
<p>Without knowing anything about Vassar's finances, size of faculty, and so forth, I think Cappy Hill should at least consider cutting female enrollment back towards 1000 with an eye towards a total enrollment of 2000 with a more even gender split. This would increase selectivity and bump the per student endowment. Knowing her background with Morty Schapiro and George Winston, I'm pretty sure that thought has crossed her mind.</p>
<p>I don't see Vassar as being anything even remotely similar to Bard or Hampshire. Not really similar to Reed either. </p>
<p>I actually see it as probably being a direct competitor of Wesleyan as maybe the closest "peer".</p>
<p>EDIT: I checked the USNEWS. Vassar lists its top-four cross-admit schools as:</p>
<p>Brown
Columbia
Wellesley
Wesleyan</p>
<p>If memory serves me correctly, ID- there were several large endowments given to VC by alums with stipulations that the enrollment ALWAYS favor females over males. I suppose that could be folklore/rumor, but it was pretty standard conversation during what were known as the "cluster years" when I was there. Thus, there will always be more females than males, even if the percent is small. </p>
<p>I wasnt asking you to parse out the enrollment data. I was explaining the difference-- I was just saying yours are different than what we students/alums were given. and postulating why. BTW, bring in the ribs for all to share. VC can match it with its broccoli endowment (I do think the broccoli endowment story was folklore, but we did have a lot of broccoli)</p>