Interestingly my son attends Vassar and my daughter just committed to Rice. In my son’s experience Vassar has been pretty a-political. I seems I saw more about Ferguson protest at Rice then at Vassar. My sons roommate his first year drank a lot so Sophomore year he moved into a wellness floor, a floor in his dorm where the whole floor voluntarily follows a substance free life style. I have hung out on campus a bit. I don’t think Vassar ranks high on the politically active list. There is bit of political correctness to be found, but I think the vibe is less politically liberal and more non conformist. The one overwhelming vibe I get from my time there is artsy and hipster. You could probably be vocally libertarian there and it would be cool because it would be breaking the norm. Vassar is an “anything goes” type of environment. What I know of Rice beyond what I have read is form spending a couple of days there during owl days. People seemed pretty relaxed. I saw professors interacting with students at the student run coffee shop which was hopping. My daughter summed up the people as somewhat nerdy but not socially awkward. Everyone was extremely friendly. Rice does not have substance free housing and I have read people who feel constrained by the college housing system but others seem to love it. It is probably a northeast thing but Vassar seems more introverted. You could probably narrow it down to artsy versus techy. In fact the whole surrounding Hudson River Valley seems more artsy. We took a trip out to SUNY New Palz which is a 20 minute drive from Vassar and that also was a cool artsy college town and then there is Rhinebeck about 20 minutes north a cool artsy town. Marist is also in Poughkeepsie but I never hear of anyone from Vassar having anything to do with it. People at Rice seemed to be very happy generally. I have never seen a less hilly campus then Rice, even Grinnell had more ups and downs, I don’t think there is one staircase in the landscaping. At Vassar there is a lot of opportunities for hiking and outdoor activities if it is fall or spring. At Rice the swimming pool is outdoors and open all year.