Vassar College Top Questions

Frissbee is the closest thing to a frat on campus, very cliquey, lots of partying. Kids always leave their doors open, unless you live in Strong, the all women dorm. With such a small campus, its hard for any group to be really exclusive. When the weather is nice, the entire campus parties together at senior housing. It's great. The only drawback might be trying to find something to do if you aren't a big drinker. While there are loads of performances and movie screenings each weekend, I'm not sure how much there would be to do past 10. Kids also seem to be really separated by dorm. Also, hookups are NEVER secret, and yes, if it's awkward you will inevitably run into the person you're trying to avoid several times within the next few days.

There are a million different things going on all the time at Vassar (Great theater, amazing guest speakers, eye-opening events, pow-wows, hoe-downs, sit-ins) but they are all over by 10:00. From 10:00 on, if you don't party, you don't do much. Vassar is ruled by a "pre-gaming" culture in which people drink as much as humanly possible before going out to one party or another (and the parties, I should say, are almost always lame). The one thing I do really appreciate about the party scene, however, are the campus-wide parties that Vassar throws. It is relatively unique for a school to sponsor and throw so much campus-wide parties (but then, maybe its because there is NOTHING to do in Poughkeepsie). Side note: If you want to date, don't come to Vassar. Pickings are slim when it comes to straight men and, as a result, every decent-looking straight man on Vassar's campus now thinks that they are some kind of demi-god. You can find a good one every once in a while, but its like a needle in a hay stack.

There are many different groups and activities on campus. The rugby teams are usually pretty big and the next largest groups would be environmentally concerned groups. Dating scene really isn't dating. More or less it's a hook-up where eventually the two people start to see each other more frequently. Parties happen every weekend and when the school has a sponsored event, it's usually highly attended. Founder's Day is a big celebration that is a lot of fun and irresponsible behavior. There is no Greek system which all students at Vassar are happy about. If you don't like to drink, it can be difficult to socialize.

Vassar has amazing guest speakers come to the campus on a regular basis. Every week the school sends out an email listing the week's events, and almost every time it includes at least two guest speakers. Vassar's high reputation and its connection with alumni (including Merryl Streep, & Lisa Kudrow) as enticed many famous and intellectual speakers to enter its great halls to share their expertise with the student body. Wikipedia has an extensive list of most of the notable faculty and alumni at Vassar, many of which return as guest speakers or students can learn from in classes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Vassar_College_people

-Athletic events are only really attended by other sports teams. The athletes are very segregated in their own community. They tend to eat, party and hang out together. -If you're not involved in sports, your friends will most likely be confined to people who live in your dorm. Most friendships are made in student fellow groups freshman year, with little social mobility afterwards. -If you aren't a heavy partier, the weekends can be filled pretty easily with theater and music performances. You have to be especially adventurous if you want to find activities outside the campus because we are fairly cut off from the town socially despite countless outreach programs.

Plenty of guest speakers and like events Serenading is awesome Living in a dorm is shit sometimes, but good most of the time Weekend parties are hella fun

Drinking and drug use are huge on campus. People party at least 3 nights a week. I know that some people choose to opt out of substance abuse, but in my experience most people do not. Vassar throws a lot of really popular, huge dance parties on the weekends and those are a lot of fun- most people get drunk first. There is no greek life or anything, and virtually no bars in town, so most people buy their own alcohol and party in the rooms.

Rugby is a big thing here. Our women's team is on their way to nationals this year, actually. Since we're a DIII school, sports aren't really a huge deal overall, but there are a lot of good club sports as well as varsity. I play frisbee: it is the largest club sport on campus with over 40 people involved. It's a great bunch of people to play around with and its essentially a big group of friends who get to play a sport they love. Vassar is a safe community: most people don't lock their doors and usually people's doors are wide open if someone's just doing their homework or something. Given Vassar's rep as a predominantly female school, it would surprise people to find out that there is quite a nice male population here as well. Some of my friends are single, others have partners at other schools, and just as many have a partner at Vassar. There is no greek life here, so the big parties happen in senior housing, which are located on the outskirts of campus. There is almost always at least one party going on in senior housing every weekend, but if drinking isn't your thing, there are always movie screenings and dances going on elsewhere on campus.

Plenty to do...PLENTY, you will NOT be bored

I'm always awake at 2am on a Tuesday. What am I doing? Probably either a problem set, or just hanging out with people. The dating pool is small, but hookups happen fast, so I'd say we have a good dating scene. Beware, however, that just because it's easy to get a date doesn't change the fact that we're low on true "date" locations, but if that's what you want, plenty of people date that way. We don't have many long-lived traditions (I only know of one traditional event that hasn't changed within the memory of the seniors, and that's the annual *voluntary* freshman hazing event called "serenading." Simply put, if you don't like singing vulgar songs to seniors and getting pelted by ketchup-filled balloons, you don't have to go--if you do, enjoy), we don't have any fraternities or sororities, and we don't do much off campus, but we have killer dances almost every weekend and there's always a place to party stoned, drunk, or substance-free.