I’m sticking with:
in a more or less structured program? Carleton has a strong set of distribution requirements, designed to give you a lot of flexibility but making sure that you have a well rounded college background, whereas Vassar has minimal requirements beyond your major. You can see the difference in their graduation requirements:
https://apps.carleton.edu/academics/liberalarts/requirements/
http://deanoffreshmen.vassar.edu/academic/requirements.html
(the Carleton one is easier to read- Vassar’s sounds very complicated, but basically boils down to 1 quantitative course, 1 freshman writing course, a 2nd language up to medium level, and at least 1/4 of your classes in a different division than your major (divisions are Arts, Foreign Languages, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences).
at a more or less extroverted place?
I don’t want to overstate this, because I don’t think it’s an extreme difference, and I am confident that there are plenty of very outgoing people and plenty or introspective people at both colleges. But I suspect that the underlying tone difference between “come! you’ll love it here!” vs “you’re welcome if you’d like to be here” probably has some truth to it. What do you think, @thehangingtree?
would you be happier on a more or less conservative campus?
Again, I don’t think it’s a huge difference, but I think that Carleton may be a bit more conservative than Vassar.
I didn’t mention diversity, but if it matters the Carleton student body is slightly more balanced in male:female ratio, and is slightly whiter and wealthier than the Vassar student body.