Vassar College or Wesleyan University for EDII?

Hey guys,

Just finished my Amherst College ED application a week ago, but am stuck in a dilemma on whether to apply to either Vassar College or Wesleyan University for EDII.

To me, there’s nothing much that separates the two in terms of academic prestige, so my decision is primarily based on which one I stand a better chance of getting into.

While Vassar does have a higher overall acceptance rate, Wesleyan has a higher ED acceptance rate, although I couldn’t find any information on EDII for either of the places.

Can someone please let me know which of these I stand a better chance of getting into?

If it helps, I am an American citizen living in India, applying for a major in History. I have a 1390 SAT.

Thanks in advance!

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My actual suggestion is you instead prioritize where you think you would be happiest and do the best. If you are not sure, you could ED2 at neither to give you more time.

But holding that aside:

Fortunately as an American citizen, you do not have to worry about these colleges being need aware for non-residents. However, I hope you are aware none of these colleges admit by major, they all use a general admissions model where you are simply admitted to the college and are expected to explore options before declaring a major.

Most of what will matter in terms of their academic evaluation is therefore going to be your secondary school curriculum and grades, and they will be looking for kids who are the best bets to do well in a variety of classes, not just classes within their intended major.

But as to your SAT score . . .

If you look at Vassar’s Common Data Set, only 3% of their enrolled students had an SAT under 1400. That’s not quite as bad as it sounds, as only 26% of their enrolled students even submitted an SAT score, and only 13% submitted an ACT (and probably a few of those were already among the 26% submitting an SAT). So a lot of kids are getting into Vassar test optional.

But this is just underscoring that to get admitted to Vassar, you will need to persuade them based on the rest of your application, including but not limited to your overall academic record.

At Amherst, 30% had under a 1400 (among the 38% submitting), and at Wesleyan it was 41% (among the 52% submitting). But before you see that as a good sign for you, I think you should understand likely most, possibly close to all, of those enrollees were recruited athletes where submitting such an SAT would actually help them satisfy a pre-read requirement. Just to do some math, 30% of 38% is 11.4%, and 41% of 52% is 21.3%, and both of those numbers are plausibly at least mostly within the percentage of their classes which are recruited athletes.

So my point is again I think if you are not a recruited athlete, these colleges will likely only seriously consider you if the rest of your academic record, on its own, persuades them you are the sort of student they are looking for. Which it might, but I don’t know because you didn’t give any of those details.

As a final thought, it appears there are a lot of people who think applying ED will automatically give every applicant a “boost”. This makes no sense from the colleges’ perspective. Indeed, if they are sure they would not want you RD, it makes no sense to accept you ED. If they are unsure if they would want you RD, they can defer you. So it really never makes sense for them to accept you ED unless they are quite sure they would want you RD too.

Again, this does not mean you will not be admitted to any of these colleges, either ED or after being deferred to RD or just applying RD. But I would just emphasize that merely applying ED is unlikely to really make a material difference. What will matter is whether your overall application makes them really want you, which will likely depend in part on your overall academic record making them think you would do well in a variety of classes.

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I will provide an over simplified answer given the limitations of the info you have provided.

If you are male Vassar will be an easier admit, if you are a female Wesleyan likely will be easier. This isn’t a universal truth but a historic pattern.

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Thank you so much for your response. Not only was it very informative, but it meant a lot to me to see how thorough and thoughtful your response was.

You have provided me with valuable insights, which hold true not only in my Vassar-Wesleyan conundrum but in all of my remaining applications. And for that, once again, I cannot thank you enough.

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Will take this into consideration as well. Thank you!

wait for the results of your ED1 :slight_smile:

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While my daughter did not ultimately choose either of these schools (she landed at Wellesley), we did visit both and here are my impressions:

  1. Vassar: ok, this place screams privilege and the architecture is impressive. I would say the student body is “artsy”-- a lot more colored hair here/alternative looks. Poughkeepsie isn’t much of a town-- pretty run down and it feels rather remote. I wasn’t super sad when they didn’t accept my daughter.

  2. Wesleyan: this school does not ‘wow’ you in terms of architecture. The setup is strange, with the athletic fields right in the middle of campus, if I remember right. Student body seemed balanced, and there wasn’t anything wrong with the place; it just wasn’t as traditionally beautiful as Vassar. I really liked the town around it, however, and thought it felt fresher (though still quaint) when compared to Poughkeepsie.

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Makes sense! Although I would like to have a backup in mind!

Most posting here know I am a bit biased as I am an alum of one of your 2 “second choices”. Is cost a factor? Vassar is known for being very generous with FA. And I agree with those who are advising you to apply test optional.

I don’t think it is a problem to be considering ED2 and RD strategies at this point, just to be prepared.

But I note one thing that can happen is being deferred by your ED1/REA/SCEA/etc choice. You then have to decide whether to ED2, or keep open the option of attending that first school if in fact you are eventually admitted.

For example, my S24 and a good friend both applied to the same early school, and both were deferred. Neither ended up doing ED2. My S24 thought about it, because he had another school he really liked, but decided to keep his options open.

OK, then my S24 was ultimately rejected by his early school–but admitted to what would have been his ED2 school, and he is there now. His friend was ultimately admitted to the deferral school, and he is there now.

Of course some people in this situation will not get admitted to either school, but then hopefully will end up at somewhere else great.

But point being at least one thing you may need to wait on is what to do if you are neither accepted nor rejected but deferred.

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Definitely something worth considering! Thank you!

Vassar was built during the height of the Gilded Age and even though it was founded in 1861 by a wealthy benefactor, it didn’t open its doors until 1865; Wesleyan was founded prior to the Civil War by followers of a small but growing religious movement. Different vibes; different architectural themes. Thus, Vassar went all-in on Second Empire and Gothic which was popular in the years between 1870 and the 1920s while Wesleyan was much more restrained in its early choices of English Country Gothic and basic McKim, Mead and White neo-Classical.


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I note the industrialist who bankrolled Vassar’s founding, Matthew Vassar, was actually born in England (although his family moved to New York when he was still very young), and the main family business was brewing ale. His older brother tragically died in a brewery explosion, but Matthew then became head of the business, and that ultimately made him very wealthy (with interests that spread out into transportation, banking, and so on). And it was supposedly Matthew’s niece who persuaded him to give what was reportedly half his financial wealth and a large plot of land to establish Vassar.

None of which is really relevant, but I always thought that was a cool founding story, and I do think it is fun to think about when visiting Vassar.

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super interesting!

FYI Vassar’s campus is huge at 1,000 acres for 2,400 students (much of which is Vassar farm or Shakespeare Gardens).

https://www.vassar.edu/preserve

https://www.vassar.edu/specialcollections/exhibit-highlights/2016-2020/shakespeare/shakespeare-garden.html

Wesleyan is a spacious 360 acres with 3,200 students.

As a point of reference consider Georgetown is just over 100 acres with 7,500 undergraduates plus a very large graduate population.

Creates a very different sense of space and community.

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James Renwick (who designed St. Patrick’s Cathedral, the Smithsonian, and several other well known buildings) designed Vassar’s Main building.
James Renwick Jr. - Wikipedia.

And Fredrick Law Olmsted (who largely designed Central Park) designed the landscape architecture/campus.

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We could add the dorm designed by Eero Saarinen (who designed the St. Louis arch). Saarinen’s wife was a Vassar grad.

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Wesleyan’s most recent CDS (22-23) reports 5458 men applied and 9063 women applied. About 1000 of each were admitted. Both Wesleyan and Vassar are easier admits for men.

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Good point, but I’m guessing Catcher means the ED round where I’m pretty sure a good portion of the male population comes in through the athletic recruitment process. I’m guessing female non-recruits have a slight advantage over male non-recruits.

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Thanks I am a VC male alum and wasn’t aware Wesleyan had a similar gender disparity.

In that case either way apply to Vassar it’s a better school with more sarcastic alum😀

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