<p>We visited Marist when we saw New Paltz. I am not familiar with Vassar, so maybe someone else can chime in on that one…but Marist was a very different school than NP. First off, it’s a private school where NP is a state school. We got the impression that Marist is very sports oriented and has more of a jock population. The population looked very homogeneous - not much diversity. There is not much around the school - across the street is an Applebees and drug store and not much else. It seems like you would need transportation to get anywhere. My son was accepted there but didn’t feel it was a good fit for him. He is more the creative type, into alternative music and down to earth. New Paltz was a good fit since the population is diverse, creative and down to earth and there is a nice community feeling with the ability to walk to town from the campus. They are both nice schools, it’s just a matter of fit.</p>