I’m very closely torn between these 4 schools. I know my best chances of getting into them are if I apply ED which is why I feel the need to pick between them. I’m looking for a college that’s highly focused on academics, art, social justice, and study abroad. Also important to me is having a nice library, since I need a quite space to study. I’m also open to suggestions about other colleges to look into… Thanks!
Also, I need ample research opportunities for Neuroscience…
For the time being – isolating just one aspect of your question – Vassar has a beautiful library.
Vassar’s library is amazing, but Wesleyan’s is super nice as well. Wesleyan is very strong in the sciences.
You will have no issue with study abroad issues at any of the four schools.
Conn College is the most preppy, Bard is very hipster. Vassar and Wesleyan fall in between the other two but I personally feel that Wesleyan offers the greatest diversity in its student body.
Have you visited? Sounds like it would be worth your time. And Vassar’s library is a stand-out.
Pull up the course catalog and check the number of courses offered for Neuroscience. (Be careful - are they offered every year or only every other year? Do students get shut out if the classes are small, as they often are at LACs? What’s the policy if you get shut out of a class you want? Do you get priority next time?) Look at what is required to complete the major and the distribution requirements to graduate. Is there room to complete a minor if you decide you want to? How many of the faculty are doing neuroscience? Are they their own dept. or subsumed under bio?
As for study abroad, it’s a huge industry internationally and most schools have partnerships with organizations in just about every country you could want to study in. But no reason not to ask what the study abroad opportunities are in x and y countries when you visit and what the requirements are to attend. (Sometimes there are limits on the number of spaces available to students at a particular program in a specific country - or language pre-reqs.) Overall, this particular criteria isn’t a reason to choose or reject a school, but ‘eyes open’ is a good policy in any case.
Applying ED should be for someone who has made up their mind definitively, its not to play the admissions game of “oh I have a better chance at getting in…” Its risky to put your chips into a school you have not visited, nor stayed overnight. Reading college books, this forum or even college websites all pale in relation to actually visiting and experiencing the school.
Conn seems like a bit of an outlier. Much preppier and not nearly as artsy as the other three. “Academics, art, and social justice” are what Bard, Vassar and Wes are all about for sure. I don’t get that same vibe from Conn, but I haven’t visited. (Speaking of which, have you visited all four?)
Vassar has one of the most beautiful libraries I’ve ever seen.
“[Conn is] not nearly as artsy as the other three.” (#6)
I understand the OP’s interest in art as literal. Connecticut College is very strong in studio art as well in the artistic discipline of dance.
@merc81 I guess I meant artsy in the more non-literal sense. I mainly made that comment to highlight the fact that Conn has a very different vibe than the other three.
Thank you for all of these replies. I have visited all 4 and I’ve really liked all of them. I’m a strong student, but I’m not sure if I’m strong enough to get in without early decision. When I visited, Vassar seemed like a really good place for neuroscience and art, but I question its social justice aspect. At Wesleyan, I fell in love with its library, social justice, and neuroscience, but at the same time, it seemed they offered very little for fine arts. At Connecticut college, I was also impressed with its dedication to the sciences and art, but felt as though it lacked in the social justice department. At Bard, they had good social justice, neuroscience, and art but their library was not up to par, which is distressing considering I will be spending most of my time there. I guess my primary question can be boiled down to: Which of these four schools is the best overall for neuroscience, fine arts (specifically drawing, painting, sculpting, etc.), and social justice.
Students at Bard can use Vassar’s library 
@BlueNerdBird If you are concerned enough about getting into Bard that you want to apply ED, then the others might be really unrealistic.
@BlueNerdBird by social justice do you mean academic programs regarding social justice, or a general culture among the student body involving things like feminism, LGBTQ+ activism, and other liberal political activity? If you mean the latter, I think you will find plenty of that at Vassar. Don’t know about Conn though.
@lalalemma
Primarily the latter, but I would not be disappointed to have the first too
@AStern
I’m not concerned about getting into Bard, it just happened to fall amongst the other schools, primarily Vassar and Wesleyan, that I was concerned about.
I really dislike this use of ED as a way to game the system. First of all, I’m not certain it actually helps that much - admissions officers say it does not and they have no reason to lie about it (if anything, encouraging people to apply ED would lock more people in so they wouldn’t have to match financial aid packages, and it would increase their yield). The statistics seem to show that it does, but those are skewed by the self-selecting nature of ED applicants. Secondly, ED is supposed to be used when you have a clear first choice, and if you don’t have one it seems like a not-so-good way to apply.
That said…some people feel strongly about it, so go ahead. My cynical reply is that if you really like all four of them and can’t choose between the four, then which one you apply to ED doesn’t really matter, yes? You’d be more or less equally happy.
No college is perfect and it seems like all four choices have something missing that you find important. You’ll have to decide what you are MOST okay with sacrificing. For example, if you plan on majoring in neuroscience and doing fine art more as a hobby, strength in the sciences is more important than if it were the other way around. Also, social justice in the students is a difficult thing to replace; you can always travel to other cities to participate in activist events occasionally, but if having it as a regular every-day thing is important consider that strongly.
There’s also the question of where you think you might be able to use other resources to get what you need. Poughkeepsie is a relatively medium-sized town but with easy access to New York, where you could go on weekend trips to satisfy that social justice itch you might have. There are also other nearby-ish places - SUNY New Paltz is close and two of my friends are alums and the school has a strong social justice bent; there’s also Marist College. (I also have a couple friends who are Vassar alums and I think social justice is actually pretty strong there - stronger than most schools. It’s a fairly liberal place.) Middletown and New London are both medium-sized towns with Amtrak station; you might be able to ride to other cities with more support for the fine arts and social justice respectively, if you feel that is missing.
It’s not as simple to travel a long distance for a good library, and Annandale-on-Hudson is a tiny hamlet located inside of the small town Red Hook, so you’re unlikely to be able to access larger or better services nearby.
Honestly, my sense is that you’ll be happier at Wesleyan or Vassar than the other two - I think Vassar is better for social justice than you think it is. I’m not sure about Wesleyan and the arts, but it’s a quirky place known for artsy students, so I’d imagine there’s at least some support. And these are top schools we’re talking about, so “lack of support” is just relative to places with fewer resources. All four of these places are probably more excellent in all four areas than the vast majority of colleges across the country.
I wasn’t kidding about Bard students having access to the library at Vassar. And there is a bus between the two towns. And folks are driving that way quite often. There’s also something known as inter-library loan In addition, many of the professors have their own special collections which they share with the students. And, really, the Bard library is not that bad - just thin in certain areas. I’ve never heard anyone complain that if they had it to do all over again they wouldn’t go to Bard - because of the library. Not to say my son isn’t enjoying Yale’s library now he’s a grad student there.
@SpiritManager Thats awesome, thank you!
@juillet I appreciate this response. It was very insightful and I’m sure it will aid in my decision.
I don’t believe you’ll find Vassar lacking in the social justice department. There’s a good neuroscience department, a sublime library, and one of the best on-campus art museums you will ever find.