Nationwide, isn’t the average female:male ratio at colleges about 58:42?
OP, my kid didn’t go to Vassar, but his school also didn’t isolate freshmen in their own dorms. It worked out well – in fact his sophomore year, he entered the housing lottery with a senior. The older students gave a lot of helpful guidance. Also, post- grad, many of those older students have been helpful resources in working through career choices and exploring grad schools. He also has friends who graduated a year or two afterhim.
In a smaller school, it helps expand the friend choices from the 500 in your year to any of the 2000 on campus.
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I worked with a guy who was in one of the first classes at Vassar to admit men (so I’m sure a much lower percentage than the 37% now). He loved it.
My nephew’s long term girlfriend went to Vassar. She’s about 32 now and her brother who is also a few years younger than her did too. They both loved it.
My daughter went to a a school with the opposite ratio, about 27% female when she was there. It didn’t bother her at all but she was on a sports team and in a sorority (small) so had built in groups of female friends. When I saw the photo of the RAs I commented "Wow, that’s weird there are so many male RAs.’ DUH, there were 3x as many male students! They lived in suite style apartments so most had 3 apts of guys and one of girls on each ‘landing.’
This is really helpful. Thank you!
Oh wow. What a great description of the residence hall life! This is the information I was hoping to get. The dorm situation just had a big question mark for us, so I’m glad to hear the intentionality of it. Sounds like a neat way to spend three years! Thanks for the response.
This was my D22’s experience as well. There were definitely upperclassman in the dorms, but a strong freshman community on her hall.
And despite what everyone says, it is very easy to move to a different dorm sophomore or junior year. My D actually lived in different dorms for each of her first three years, and is in a TA for her senior year. While many people do have house pride and stay with their dorm for three years, it is totally fine to move. Junior year, if you study abroad, they often put you in a single for the semester you are on campus. My D and her best friend requested singles near one another upon return from study abroad. (I think they could rank either being in a specific dorm, or being near a specific person.) They were issued singles next-door to each other in a dorm neither had previously lived before. They were very happy.
Housing at Vassar is part of what makes it such an interesting place. I don’t think there are two dorm rooms alike in that entire school. The rooms my daughter has had over the years were all so very different in size, shape, windows, wall/floor type, and view. In fact, when my D moved in after study abroad, we were surprised to find out that her best friend‘s single room next-door, with an identical layout, was almost twice as large as D’s room. Keeps it exciting!
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