Vassar College Top Questions

The open curriculum allowed students to design their own academic schedules, ensuring that each class was populated by people who actually wanted to be there (as opposed to simply being there because it was required of them). Moreover, Vassar's attitude of inclusiveness and acceptance made it a wonderful place to grow, learn and discover the world and yourself.

Vassar is the greatest school I could ever hope to find. People here are truly in love. We're in love with each other, in love with our campus, in love with this incredible place.

One aspect that I have really grown to love about Vassar is the acceptance of all economic levels into the community. Going to an expensive but VERY economically accomodating college has allowed me to interact with people of all classes, and accept all different types of people with open arms. Coming from New York City, I am used to the diversity, and its nice to come to such an economically, and creatively mixed atmosphere.

My senior year, a couple of my friends started a magazine called squirm. It is a journal of "smut and sensibility," exploring sex and sexuality, involving nudity and non-mainstream attitudes about sex. It was the first magazine of it's kind, but it was also, on campus, not a big deal. Why would it be? It was just a bunch of kids questioning things together. It was just what we did. What makes this different from other institutions? Well, it wasn't until years later that students at other academic institutions followed suit, and even that was, in some cases, with great limitations from the administration. For those institutions, it was a big deal. Those students did not have the good fortune of having an administration and faculty that supported and nurtured intellectual creativity, nor did they have the luxury of taking it for granted.

Vassar is truly an eclectic community of academics. Everyone's different and come from a huge number of states and countries, yet we're all Vassarians when it comes down to it. We're a work hard, party hard school - we have great parties and dances on the weekends, but once the week rolls around, you can hear a pin drop on campus it's so silent.

I really loved my time at Vassar, but you have to find the right fit for you. I initially thought I wanted to go to a big school in a city, like New York University. However, this ended up being the college experience I wanted. Vassar was slightly bigger than my high school, and allowed me a nice transition from high school to college (a transition that would have been way too difficult at a large university). However, there are always issues at any school. There have been classes that I had high hopes for that weren't very good, or professors that just didn't care about their students. But overall, Vassar was a wonderful experience.

I am really thrilled with my experience here. I have made wonderful friends, met some great professors, gotten a decent idea of what I want to do with myself and found something I am fascinated in learning about - and had a lot of fun. Of course I have also pulled some miserable all-nighters. I really wish that Vassar was more racially and economically diverse, like most private colleges, I think that the (on average) privileged status of the student body can skew the campus dynamics.

I LOVE THIS SCHOOL AND CRIED FOR A WEEK STRAIGHT DURING GRADUATION!

AS a rising senior, I am totally ready to be done. Recently the Vassar administration has decided to close a bunch of dorms and senior housing and admit the same number of students, leading to... a housing crisis. Vassar has also decided to go the un-environmentally friendly route of turning the food service into an all-you-can-eat buffet system, and renovate the dorms by removing all of the student cooking spaces. So you can now only eat their greasy buffet food (granted there are some alternatives... but they are always the same ones, and get a little tiresome) and ou have no place to cook for yourself.

We have a quidditch team.

The majority of students at Vassar are not happy.

Vassar changes people's opinions about what to expect and what to assume, or not to, about everyone. It's really changed the way I think.

Vassar really has something for everyone. We have wild partiers, quiet loners, geeks, jocks, writers, artists, whatever you want. What we do not have is a traditional large, loud, UC - school type campus - if you're looking for that, we can't offer it. Also, if you're not comfortable with "openly displayed" homosexuality, you may be uncomfortable here - we're very queer friendly, and take pride in that fact. But once again, most things are taken in stride here, and I can't think of a better place where it's ok to be yourself.

coed bathrooms are not very ackward if you own a bathrobe!

Damn it, tell those fuckers to stop cutting down the trees. And I think REsLife is the most unhelpful and ridiculous piece of administrative bullshit ever created Rich Horowitz you are a silly prick but you still can't make any part of the experience unworthy... it's just a tutorial on how to deal with assholes and a lesson on leaving diplomacy behind because it don't woik wif some o dem ijits.

There are always going to be the people who don't have to work as hard because they're already going into the family business, whose moms went here and contributed generously, and/or who happen to do fairly well in a sport at a time when Vassar decides that we want to do well in that sport too. Despite what admissions tells you, we're still a college. We still like getting lots of gift money and doing better in athletics. It's not fair, no, but it's a little bit more so than plenty of other schools. The best way to understand the atmosphere of the school is to come and do an overnight. You really get a sense of what goes on here, what the social interactions are like, and how students feel about the most recent Issues. Highly Recommended.

Vassar is a great place. Just be careful of the vegan station in the main dining hall, be prepared to search for a working public printer when you need one, and watch out for the squirrels. They're everywhere.

I'm disappointed with being here but I think I would feel that way about any college. I just want to leave and go be a techie.

just visit. it's the only way you'll ever understand.

Before I got to Vassar I'd heard a lot about a heavy drug presence on campus, particularly coke. I have to say, it's there somewhere--but if you don't want anything to do with it, you'll never see it.

I like Vassar a lot.

Don't come to Vassar looking for a husband, relationships are almost non-existent, while drunken late night hookups seem to be the goal of every weekend night out. Surprisingly enough for such a traditionally feminist school the off kilter ratio has led to a somewhat mistreat of women. Men here believe they can throw away any gal that gets to complicated because there will be two or three more waiting to take here place.

Vassar's campus is gorgeous and, even if I get really fed up with the student body, I'd do it all over again just to see the trees bloom one more time in the spring. If you get tired of the people or the classes, go for a walk! You'll never find a more beautiful place!

Overall, Vassar is great. I would be careful not to become too complacent with your hallmates and not go out and meet new people- that was my mistake, and now I feel a little suffocated by my very insular group of friends. There are lots of cool people here, don't limit yourself to just a few- also, try hanging out with people who maybe don't look like you or dress like you. The diversity of personality here is great and it should be taken advantage of.

I have had a really great experience at Vassar. I would recomment it to anyone, but it is by no means the perfect institution. In a lot of ways what makes Vassar great is how self aware it is. Everyone who is a part of the school understands its flaws, both flaws innate in it being a private institution, and other, more specific flaws. I am getting a great education here and meeting friends I know I will keep throughout life. I have also learned so much about myself through my experienced here, both social and academic.

Nope, everything was covered.

There are many different lifestyles that you can encounter here at Vassar. You could end up loving this school or hating it. I don't think there are people that are particuarly ambivalent about it.

it's a gorgeous campus

Coming to Vassar was the best decision of my life. The opportunities that were awarded to me here are unbelievable. I have conducted orchestras, worked for the foundation director of a major non-profit, done one-on-one research with the world's leading scholars, studies philosophy, literature, languages and the arts. The resources and the possibilities are endless!

Whatever dining service you go with, make sure they get Cracklin' Oat Bran.

Vassar is really good at selling itself. Be careful not to buy too much into what they say at the info session and the pretty tour under the longest no longer free standing branch by the hogwarts-esque library. Vassar is a great school with great opportunities but it's not the happy rainbows and cupcakes fairyland admissions makes is out to be.

I love this school so come if you're considering it. It has its problems but so does every school! There is no such thing as a perfect school so don't fall into that trap please. Wherever you go you'll find SOMETHING you don't like about it trust me. Vassar may have its issues but at least apathy here is not absolute in the fact that if there is a problem SOMEBODY somewhere is talking and complaining about it. It just doesn't go under the radar and that's what I like about Vassar. It atleast TRIES to be that perfect place for students, which is why I kept coming back every year....

I love Vassar College!

I've been very happy in my four years here, but I'm aware of how different college is from The Real World. I'm ready to be totally blown away by reality - I don't think there's too much REALITY here . . . but it's a great place to become hungry for experience in The Real World.

Vassar is a great place, and it's mostly what you make of it. It can provide you some of the best experiences of your life and some of the people you'll ever want to find. The education is unsurpassed, the architecture is beautiful, the social scene is personal and relaxing, and the college experience is neither monotonous nor suffocating. Especially if you're a bit weird, creative, off-beat, yet unpretentious or just intelligent and mild-mannered but you want some oddball friends, this is the place for you. Frat boys and Daughters of the Confederacy need not apply.

The admissions office was unbelievably rude to me once when I was applying, and my mother called there a week later and they were rude to her too. But you don't have to deal with them after you're admitted, and they're not a great reflection of the school as a whole. Also, for some reason Freshman are TERRIFIED of the all-female dorm, Strong, which has never ceased to baffle me, since I love it. It's a clean, calm dorm with a lot of nice rooms and nice people, not a lesbian dungeon where no boys may enter and from which no female will ever escape! (And would they really be *that* upset about not getting to share a bathroom with boys? )