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Reply to "Vassar Feedback Please"
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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Would welcome feedback from parents whose kids are at Vassar or have graduated in the past several years. DS is seriously considering Vassar. It is appealing in multiple dimensions. We visited the campus recently but it's tough to get a feel for the campus vibe in these covid times. What we know about the vibe has been gleaned from college guidebooks and what little we can find online. What we read online is often contradictory. DS is trying to connect with current students. Given its artsy, very progressive reputation, we are wondering if DS would feel at home there and find "his people" in adequate numbers. He is liberal but not an activist, has varied interests (sports to video games to playing a musical instrument) but is not artsy, and will likely major in something on the quantitative end of the spectrum but will probably minor in something completely different. (I am intentionally being a bit vague.) Again, would welcome input from people with fairly recent, [i]firsthand[/i] experience with Vassar. (We aren't looking for suggestions on other schools to consider.) Thanks.[/quote] OP, our DD is currently a student at Vassar and is very happy there. I wish your DS had had a chance to do a full-on tour like in normal times; what impressed my DD on her tour (and I took it with her) was the talk about how small classes are and how undergrads get to know professors and vice versa. That has proven to be true. DD is a sophomore and is already working one on one with a professor on a semester-long special project; she knows other students who do science research for professors etc. that at gigantic state schools just wouldn't get that chance, that early. From freshman year on, DD had small classes and seminars so there is a lot of feedback, a lot of opportunities to discuss things with professors directly. That has all been excellent. As a freshman DD got onto the "majors council" for her area of interest even though she hadn't declared her major yet--the council is students working with the department to provide student input. All that is to say -- if your DS wants actual interactions with professors from the start, and feedback, and opportunities to be part of a department in a larger way than just going to and from classes -- Vassar can provide that. I should add, OP (and I've posted this before on DCUM, so if you saw it in a search...that's me): Vassar was not on our radar at all; we were going to visit other NY SLACS, and since Vassar was in the area, decided we'd stop there. Before the trip, DD e-mailed the head of one department and the admin for another department, and both invited her to come by and chat while on campus one on one. DD ended up taking a full-on class that turned into the head of the department walking her all around the building, popping into classrooms to show them to her, sitting down with her to answer questions, etc. Totally unsolicited and the department head spent a ton of time with this random high school senior who hadn't even thought about Vassar before. Then DD went to the other department and the "come on by and we'll talk for a few minutes" turned into 90 minutes of a one on one tour of that whole building. Of course we may have caught Vassar on a really slow day but....they took SO much time for her individually. All because she e-mailed in advance and just asked to stop in for just a few minutes. The departments couldn't have been more welcoming. (Like you I'm not getting too specific!) Add in the fact that there is [b]no[/b] rigid "core curriculum" tying students down the first two years and it was very appealing to DD. Students must do a certain level of language proficiency, a quantitative course (which could be in math or science, or in sociology or econ, etc.), and a writing seminar, but that's it, and there is a lot of choice--for instance the freshman writing seminars might be in the English dept. but there are math dept. writing seminars, history dept. writing seminars, etc. Very flexible and not prescriptive. You mention your DS likely doing something "quantitative" but possibly minoring in something totally different. That's doable for sure. It seems to us, and DD confirms it, that a LOT of students do minors (called "corellates") at Vassar. And DD knows students doing things like: Neuroscience major, minor in music; neuroscience major, minor in drama; biology major, minor in religion; history major, minor in language; and so on. (Neuroscience is pretty big, just BTW.) You mention liberalism. DD is very liberal but not involved in any campus political groups or activism per se. That's all there for those who want it but I doubt any student is going to be pressured to be an activist if he or she isn't so inclined. I could go on but will stop there--come back here with questions if you want. It is absolutely not the right college for everyone! But it was right for our kid. One big add: The college has handled Covid very well so far. DD came home for spring break in March 2020 and the college closed over break, as many did, so she did not return last spring; the college arranged for students like her, who had stuff in dorm rooms, to get movers who came in, packed their stuff, and it was stored on campus for them. [u]Vassar did manage a FULL fall semester 2020 on campus and they are back now and on track for a full spring semester on campus.[/u] This is doable because the campus is self-contained and about 99 percent of students live on campus, in campus housing -- there is no off-campus "culture" or a need for students to live off campus. Plus, there is a culture, according to DD, of the students being concerned about each other and about Covid, so DD says she and all her friends and classmates were and are rigorous about masking and distancing and staying in "pods" they were permitted to form, etc. Hope all this helps. Sorry so long. Ask me stuff if you like. [/quote] This is what I love about Vassar and other SLACs. OP, your kid will have a strong network of Vassar alums - and parents- throughout the country. My own kid, not a Vassar alum, pretty much has sleeping places in different parts the country and the world. [/quote]
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