Middlebury or Vassar (Parchment says Vassar)
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Anonymous
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A sign of Parchment's lack of reliability has been its volatility. In this sample from its "Student Choice" rankings, for example, Vassar placed 47th in its category, down 17 from the previous year; and Middlebury placed 185th, down 130 from the previous year:
https://www.parchment.com/c/college/college-rankings.php?page=1&perPage=25&thisCategory=LAC&thisYear=2020 |
Anonymous
have you toured in the last 5 years? we toured on Tuesday and found it very artsy. in my day - and maybe your day - it had pretty weak FA so it was a lot of well off white families from New York City,. they did well because they always did well. today is not 1995 though. Also, the % of men has decreased to under 38% now. It had climbed to above 40% for a time, but it's slipped back. |
Anonymous
I must be thinking of a different Poughkeepsie, NY. |
Anonymous
Parent of a recent grad here. Addressing how "artsy" Vassar is, my own DC was an arts graduate, but has many friends whose degrees are in neuroscience (a big thing at Vassar--how did your tour miss that?) as well as chemistry and biology. They're all working in those fields now, two years after graduation, or they're going to grad school in those fields. Vassar definitely has strong and prominent humanities and performing arts departments, no doubt. But it's a bit of a stereotype to depict it primarily as artsy. Did you tour the Bridge, which is the campus's main science laboratory builidng? |
Anonymous
| Vassar is in a small, boring city and is pretty isolated at the edge of town. The kids are spoiled, entitled, and very rich. The academics are mediocre. |
Anonymous
I too was baffled by this. I'm from Poughkeepsie. Vassar isn't even in the good part (not that there is much of a good part). |
Anonymous
Vassar is not a "college town" college and not a "urban campus" college either. Students don't really go out in Poughkeepsie, except to the few restaurants right at one edge of campus. Bear in mind: Nearly 100 percent of students live on campus, so there is just no culture of off-campus living with apartments, houses, etc. extending into town and surrounded by businesses catering to students. There is a lot to do on campus and very active social stuff, theater, student groups, etc. Students also sometimes go into NYC by train, which is easy to do but costs, so it's not like they're racing off to Manhattan to party on weekends. Students with cars sometimes do thiings in the Hudson Valley, which is beautiful and has a lot to do and see. Nature, historic sites, some great small towns to visit, etc. If a student is going to want to spend time socializing close to campus, Vassar's not for them. It will be boring to kids who want to be able to cross the street or go into town and go to bars, clubs, whatever, regularly. I'm the parent whose DC graduated from there recently and loved it, but for her, living on campus and beng involved in a lot of groups, clubs and shows there was what she wanted and enjoyed. Different strokes. No need to be "baffled" by anyone praising the location, though, PPs. The city of Poughkeepsie is run down for sure, but it's also not the social focus for students, according to DC and her friends. |
Anonymous
| Middleburry way more isolated than Vassar |
Anonymous
| Just stop |
Anonymous
| Seems more like a choice about lifestyle and extra curricular activities than anything else. |
Anonymous
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Vassar is two hours from NYC. Middlebury is 2.5 hours from Montreal.
Both have Amtrak stations that will get you to NYC. |
Anonymous
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Population:
Poughkeepsie - 32K Middlebury - 9K Any day Vassar, else, Grinnell, Williams are far better than Middlebury |
Anonymous
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middlebury has a pipeline to the street. I mean, it kind of does.
middlebury reads wealthy hipster, but it's really preprofessional. they have a shocking number of grads that move directly into finance, tech, consulting, etc. not sure if you think that's a good thing or bad. |
Anonymous
All SLACS in top 25 are excellent and elite. Period. No point in comparing them on academics and rigor. Difference could be in terms of majors that they champion such as Econ, Pre-med, CS etc hence some are good in sending to street, some to silicon valley, for eg Mudd/GrinnellAmherst/Pomona etc good for CS, W&L/Williams/Amherst/Bowdoin/CMK etc good for Econ, Mudd/Williams/Wellesley etc for Maths and so on. |
Anonymous
I didnt' compare them on academics or rigor. I compared outcomes and destinations, which are publicly available. This is not a bad place to start. Middlebury mid table on top 60 schools recruited for IB. Vassar not on the list. and yes, this is all I said. not about pre-med or or whatever. just this. I said Midd was good for *this* https://www.peakframeworks.com/post/ib-target-schools |