University Rankings USA

Vassar Acceptance Rate: Admissions, SATs and Requirements

Vassar has a 25 percent acceptance rate. Only 25 out of every 100 applications are accepted. This indicates that the school is extremely selective. If you meet Vassar’s GPA, SAT/ACT scores, and other application standards, you have a good chance of being accepted. However, even if you meet all of the other admissions requirements, you’ll have a slim chance of being accepted if your GPA or SAT/ACT scores fall short.

GPA Requirements at Vassar

Many schools stipulate a minimum GPA requirement, however this is frequently the bare minimum to submit an application without being rejected right away.

The only GPA criterion that matters is the one that will allow you to have a realistic chance of getting in. We do this by looking at the school’s current students’ average GPA.

At Vassar, the average GPA is 4.0.

Vassar expects you to be at the top of your class with a 4.0 GPA. To compete with other applicants, you’ll need practically straight A’s in all of your classes. Furthermore, you should enroll in challenging subjects, such as AP or IB courses, to demonstrate that college-level academics are simple. If you’re a junior or senior, changing your GPA in time for college applications is difficult. You’ll need a better SAT or ACT score to compensate if your GPA is at or below the school average of 4.0. This will enable you to compete effectively against applicants with better GPAs.

ACT Scores Policy

If you take the ACT instead of the SAT, you have a significant advantage in terms of how your scores are sent, which has a significant impact on your testing approach.

Here’s the deal: you have complete control over whatever tests you transmit to colleges when you send ACT scores. You could take ten tests and just send the one with the highest score. Unlike the SAT, where many institutions ask you to send all of your previous examinations, this is not the case.

This indicates you have a better possibility of improving your ACT score than you believe. You should take the ACT as many times as possible to try to meet the school’s ACT requirement of 33 or higher. You can then send only that score to all of your schools once you’ve arrived at a final score that you’re happy with.

ACT Superscore Policy

Most universities do not superscore the ACT in general. (When you submit a superscore, the school takes your top section scores from all of your test dates and combines them to give you the best possible composite score.) As a result, most colleges will only consider your highest ACT score from one session.

Overview of Vassar College

Vassar College is a private college that was established in 1861. It boasts a total undergraduate enrollment of 2,435 students (fall 2020), a suburban environment, and a 1,000-acre campus. The academic calendar is semester-based. Vassar College is ranked #22 in National Liberal Arts Colleges in the Best Colleges 2022 edition. The total cost of tuition and fees is $62,870.

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Vassar is 75 miles north of New York City in Poughkeepsie, New York, amid the picturesque Hudson Valley. Students at Vassar can join one of the nation’s oldest all-female a cappella groups, the Vassar Night Owls, which is one of the nation’s longest continuing all-female a cappella groups. There are no fraternities or sororities at Vassar. In the Liberty League, the Vassar Brewers compete in NCAA Division III varsity sports. The Butterbeer Brewers, Vassar’s Quidditch team, competes against other universities in the sport based on the “Harry Potter” novels. Vassar is a residential college, which means that freshman must live on campus. The school provides lodging for all four years, with 98 percent of students residing in one of the nine resident halls or apartments.

Mount Holyoke, Wellesley, Smith, Radcliffe (now part of Harvard), Bryn Mawr, and Barnard are the first of the Seven Sisters, a collection of traditionally women’s institutions in the northeast. Vassar College was the first of the Seven Sisters colleges to admit men in 1969. National Historic Landmarks include the Maria Mitchell Observatory and the Main Building, which formerly housed the whole college. The college newspaper, The Miscellany News, was founded in 1866 and is one of the country’s oldest collegiate publications. Grace Hopper, poet Elizabeth Bishop, actor Meryl Streep, actress Lisa Kudrow, and writer-director Noah Baumbach are among the notable alumni.

Academics

Vassar College has an 8:1 student-to-faculty ratio, with 68.3 percent of classes having fewer than 20 pupils. Social Sciences, Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Visual and Performing Arts, Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies, Mathematics and Statistics, Psychology, Foreign Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics, Computer and Information Sciences and Support Services, English Language and Literature/Letters, and Physical Sciences are some of the most popular majors at Vassar College. The average freshman retention rate is 95%, which is a good indicator of student satisfaction.

Admissions

With a 25% admittance rate, Vassar College is one of the most selective colleges in the country. An SAT score of 1360 to 1520 or an ACT score of 32 to 34 is required for admission to Vassar College. However, one-fourth of approved applicants received scores that were higher than these ranges, while the other quarter received scores that were lower. The deadline for applications is January 1st, and the application price for Vassar College is $65.

The GPA of a student is a very essential academic factor for Vassar College admissions officers. When available, an applicant’s high school class rank is crucial, as are letters of recommendation, according to Vassar College admissions staff.

School Mission

Vassar’s intellectual inquiry is distinguished by its unusual flexibility. Students can declare a major by concentrating on a department, an interdepartmental program, a multidisciplinary program, or an individually created topic of study in the Independent Program, which does not have a core curriculum. Vassar’s academic life has been shaped by this intellectual openness, which has produced original thinkers. Indeed, Vassar scholars have been known for encouraging interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary studies since the early 1900s, when the college began providing interdepartmental courses, and the wide-ranging exchange of ideas has progressively inspired an array of new courses, programs, and resources. From Latin American and Latino/a Studies to Environmental Studies, Vassar now offers a dozen multidisciplinary and interdepartmental programs. Africana Studies, the college’s oldest such program, celebrated its fortieth anniversary in 2009, while Media Studies was established in 2004. As a result, Vassar’s curriculum is now more comprehensive, deeper, more diverse than ever before, with 35 departments, seven interdisciplinary programs, thirteen transdisciplinary programs, 50 majors, and over 1,000 courses to choose from.

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Inclusion in the Classroom

Vassar College fosters freedom of expression and encourages students to participate fully in teaching, learning, scholarly research, and artistic endeavors. The College is dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge, inquiry freedom, and informed, robust, and inclusive debate. Faculty and students at Vassar are free to participate in a variety of fields and concerns, as well as to study disputed ideas and political viewpoints. Dissent and protest that respect and support the expression of differing ideas are welcomed in our community.

Academic freedom and free expression have legal constraints, which the College accepts. Defamation and incitement to violence are examples of illegal behavior that will not be tolerated. Vassar is a voluntary association of people who share a commitment to protect the rights, dignity, and integrity of all community members and visitors as a private institution. All community members and visitors are expected to follow Vassar’s guiding principles when interacting with one another, in addition to following federal and state regulations. In this setting, abusive or bullying behavior is not tolerated.

A spirit of giving and the willingness to evaluate our own preconceptions are also required for membership in an intentional learning group. As a result, the College encourages people to approach one another as partners in a learning process that fosters knowledge generation while also cultivating a rich intellectual and cultural atmosphere in which everyone can thrive. The goals of a liberal arts education and the needs of the complex, diversified society of which Vassar is a part can only be met by a community that values freedom of expression, diversity of viewpoints, and mutual reliance.

Other Outstanding Colleges in New York

Barnard College

Barnard College is a women’s liberal arts college on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, on an attractive and small campus near to Columbia University. Barnard has all the benefits of a top-ranked liberal arts college, with 2,600 students, a totally undergraduate focus, and a 9 to 1 student to faculty ratio: the community is tight-knit, classrooms are small, and students form strong ties with their instructors. At the same time, the college has a seamless cross-registration relationship with Columbia University, giving students access to a bigger comprehensive university’s variety of programs and research opportunities.

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Barnard College admits only a small percentage of applicants. In fact, the college has the lowest acceptance rate of among the nation’s best women’s colleges, at 14 percent. The college boasts an excellent four-year graduation rate of 85 percent. Financial aid is another area where the college excels. The average grant award for students who qualify is nearly $47,000 per year.

The most common majors are psychology, history, English, economics, political science, and neuroscience. STEMinists in Training Institute, a summer pre-college program at Barnard College, is for high school women who want to pursue degrees and professions in STEM subjects.

Baruch College

Baruch College, one of the 11 senior CUNY colleges, has the most stringent admissions requirements. The acceptance rate is 41%, and admitted students often have SAT or ACT scores that are significantly higher than the national average. Over 15,000 undergraduates and 4,000 graduate students attend the college. Accounting, management, and marketing are the most popular degrees in business. With students speaking 110 languages and hailing from 168 countries, the campus is one of the most diverse in the country.

The college’s campus is comprised of a few huge buildings located in Manhattan’s Part Avenue South neighborhood between 22nd and 26th Streets. Many students commute to college from New York City. Although the institution provides lodging, it can only accommodate a tiny percentage of students.

In-state tuition at Baruch College is less than $8,000 a year, and the institution consistently ranks among the best value colleges in the country. Despite the college’s low tuition, 91 percent of students receive some type of grant aid. The CUNY system was founded on the principle of making college affordable to everyone, and it continues to do so regardless of financial circumstances.

Columbia University

The Morningside Heights district of Manhattan’s Upper West Side is home to Columbia University. The campus is bordered by Barnard College. Getting into one of the renowned eight Ivy League colleges is challenging. Straight A’s and combined SAT scores of over 1500 are the standard at the university, which has a 7% admittance rate. A complete bundle of good academics, impressive extracurricular accomplishments, high standardized test scores, and winning application essays is required for admission to an Ivy League school.

Columbia University is a comprehensive research university with a student-to-faculty ratio of 6 to 1. With around 8,000 undergraduates and three times that number of graduate students, undergrads will have a plethora of options to participate in research on and off campus. Academically, the school excels in the humanities, arts, sciences, and social sciences. English, computer science, history, economics, political science, and several engineering subjects are also popular majors.