Hi, I am a senior and am trying to decide if I will fit in at Vassar.
I am a very shy guy. I am not athletic. I have little interest in politics and find political correctness annoying: however, I am respectful and support LGBTQ and multiple political views. Will people be discussing Trump’s latest tweets every day at lunch? Also if I were to express support for stuff like Zionism or even something Trump said would I be harassed or made fun of for my “white privilege” like multiple people on a college review website called Niche complained about?
So if I want to make friends with guys that mostly play video games like Mario Kart (not anime stuff in NSO) instead of being politically active would that be difficult at Vassar?
Thank you!
Based on my experience, the answer is “yes, you will have no trouble fitting in at Vassar as there are tons of people like you there, although you will be occasionally annoyed by some of the campus drama and politics.” IMHO, being challenged and pushed out of your comfort zone is part of getting an education at any great college (you want to be pushed in new directions, right?), but you should go do an overnight visit to make sure you feel good about the school.
I think you will have no trouble finding like-minded peers. There are a wide variety of people with diverse personalities and interests at Vassar.
The voices on reviews tend to be at the extremes, loving a school or wanting to complain about it.
However, protests are part of the culture at Vassar, maybe a bit more than at some of their peer schools, so if that will bother you a lot, that may be a consideration. But protests and political events can happen anywhere, and I am sure you will hear the term ‘privilege’ at any school in the northeast. I do not think many would have predicted what happened at Middlebury, which previously did not have the reputation of being quite as politically active as Vassar or Wesleyan.
There is some opposition to Israeli policies that has been voiced in recent years at Vassar, as at many other colleges. But when we visited I spoke with our tour guide after the tour, since he mentioned he is the head of a Jewish group on campus, and I was left with the impression that there is not a general atmosphere of intimidation and that the Jews in his group feel at home on campus.
If possible, visit Vassar and check it out yourself. Maybe admissions can help you speak to someone in a videogaming group.