Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in the town of Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States. The college became coeducational in 1969. The college offers BA degrees in more than fifty majors. Vassar College's varsity sports teams, known as the Brewers, play in the NCAA Division III as members of the Liberty League. As of 2023, there are close to 2,500 students.
The college is one of the historic Seven Sisters. The Vassar campus comprises over and more than 100 buildings. A designated arboretum, the campus features more than 200 species of trees, a native plant preserve, and a ecological preserve.
History
Vassar was founded as a women's school under the name "Vassar Female College" in 1861. Its first president was Milo P. Jewett, who had previously been first president of another women's school, Judson College; he led a staff of ten professors and twenty-one instructors. After one year, its founder, Matthew Vassar, had the word Female removed from the name, prompting some local residents of Poughkeepsie, New York, to quip that its founder believed it might one day admit male students. The college became coeducational in 1969.
Vassar was the second of the Seven Sisters colleges, higher education schools that were strictly for women, and historically sister institutions to the all-male Ivy League colleges. It was chartered by its namesake, brewer Matthew Vassar, in 1861 in the Hudson Valley, about north of New York City. The first person appointed to the Vassar faculty was astronomer Maria Mitchell, in 1865.
Vassar adopted coeducation in 1969. Immediately following World War II, Vassar accepted a small number of male students on the G.I. Bill. The formal decision to become co-ed came after its trustees declined an offer to merge with Yale University, its sibling institution, in the wave of mergers between the historically all-male colleges of the Ivy League and their Seven Sisters counterparts.
In its early years, Vassar was associated with the social elite of the Protestant establishment. E. Digby Baltzell writes that "upper-class WASP families educated their children at colleges such as Harvard, Princeton, Yale, and Vassar." A select and elite few of Vassar's students were allowed entry into the school's secret society Delta Sigma Rho, founded in 1922. Before becoming President of the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was a Trustee.
Approximately 2,450 students attend Vassar, and 98% live on campus. About 60% come from public high schools, and 40% come from private schools (both independent and religious). Vassar is currently 56% women and 44% men, at national average for national liberal arts colleges. Students are taught by more than 336 faculty members, virtually all holding the doctorate degree or its equivalent. The student-faculty ratio is 8:1, average class size, 17.
In recent freshman classes, students of color constituted 32–38% of matriculants. International students from over 60 countries make up 8–10% of the student body. In May 2007, Vassar returned to a need-blind admissions policy without regard to a student's financial status.
Vassar president Catharine Bond Hill departed in 2016. She was succeeded by Elizabeth Howe Bradley in 2017.
The college was listed as a census-designated place (Vassar College CDP) in 2019.
Presidents The following persons have served as president of Vassar College:
ImageNameTerm startTerm end1Milo P. JewettFebruary 1861April 18642John H. Raymond1864August 14, 18783 Samuel L. CaldwellSeptember 12, 18781885actingJ. Ryland Kendrick188518864James Monroe Taylor188619145Henry Noble MacCracken1915June 30, 19466Sarah Gibson BlandingJuly 1, 1946June 30, 19647Alan SimpsonJuly 1, 1964June 30, 19778Virginia B. SmithJuly 1, 1977June 30, 19869Frances D. FergussonJuly 1, 1986June 30, 200610Catharine Bond HillJuly 1, 2006August 15, 2016interimJonathan ChenetteAugust 16, 2016June 30, 201711Elizabeth H. BradleyJuly 1, 2017present
Table notes:
Campus The campus is in Poughkeepsie Town, adjacent to Poughkeepsie City. The area around the campus appeared as a census-designated place (CDP) in the 2020 U.S. census, with a population of 2,472.
Architecture
Vassar's campus, also an arboretum, is and has more than 100 buildings, ranging in style from Collegiate Gothic to International, with several buildings of architectural interest. At the center of campus stands the Main Building, one of the best examples of Second Empire architecture in the United States. When it was opened, the Main Building was the largest building in the U.S. in terms of floor space. It formerly housed the entire college, including classrooms, dormitories, museum, library, and dining halls. The building was designed by Smithsonian architect James Renwick Jr. and was completed in 1865. It was preceded on campus by the original observatory. Both buildings are National Historic Landmarks. Rombout House was purchased by the college in 1915 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
Eero Saarinen made designs for several Vassar dormitories, but only one, the Emma Hartman Noyes House, was completed in 1958. Built for roughly 160 students, it was the first part of a circular construction that was to be continued in "Noyes II." The starkly modernist building's high cost and structural difficulties with the windows, however, led administrators to leave it at one. The dorm's common area is famous for its futuristic design; readings and concerts are held there regularly. The Noyes building was also the home of an all-female football team, the Noyes Nymphs, who competed against Ivy League teams in the 1960s and 1970s.
Libraries
Vassar is home to one of the largest undergraduate library collections in the U.S. The library collection today – which actually encompasses eight libraries at Vassar – contains about 1 million volumes and 7,500 serial, periodical and newspaper titles, as well as an extensive collection of microfilm and microfiche, with special collections of Ellen Swallow Richards, Albert Einstein, Mary McCarthy, and Elizabeth Bishop. Vassar has been a Federal Depository library for selected U.S. Government documents since 1943 and currently receives approximately 25% of the titles available through the Federal Depository Program.
The interior and exterior of the Van Ingen Art Library was renovated from June 2008 – May 2009 in an effort to restore its original design and appearance. This was the library's first major renovation since its construction in 1937.
Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center
In November 2016, the gallery opened the Hoene Hoy Photography gallery on the second floor, named after Anne Hoene Hoy from the class of 1963.
Capital improvements
In 2011, Vassar embarked on a $120 million project to improve science facilities at the college, centering on the construction of a new Bridge for Laboratory Sciences.
Housing The majority of students in their first three years live on campus in the nine residence halls. Main House occupies the upper floors of Main Building, constructed at the college's founding. To accommodate a growing student body, Strong House was constructed in 1893. Strong was made all-women's housing after the college went coeducational in 1969; the house now also accepts nonbinary and other gender-nonconforming students. Similar Elizabethan-style houses—Raymond, Lathrop, and Davison—were built from 1897 to 1902 to form a residential quadrangle. A nine-story Tudor-style dormitory, Jewett House, was constructed in 1907 on the north end of the quadrangle. The second largest dormitory, Josselyn House, was built in 1912 to Jewett's west. Cushing House was constructed outside of the quadrangle in 1927. In a departure from the architecture of the other dormitories, Noyes House was built in 1958 in a distinct modernist style, curved around a large green.
Most fourth-year students live in groups of four or five in on-campus apartments. Vassar has three apartment complexes: the Terrace Apartments, the Town Houses, and the South Commons. A cooperative house, Ferry House, opened in 1951 and houses 20 students. Vassar guarantees housing to all full-time students.
As part of a master plan to renovate all the dormitories, Jewett, Davison, and Josselyn were renovated from 2002 to 2011. The college opted for minor improvements to the rest of the dorms due to cost.
Vassar maintains housing for faculty; the current complex opened in 2023. The previous faculty housing facility, Williams House, was to be demolished after 2020. School-age dependents living on the Vassar faculty complex, as well as other areas in the Vassar College CDP, are within the Arlington Central School District, which operates Arlington High School.
Academics
The most popular undergraduate majors, based on 2021 graduates, were: Biology/Biological Sciences (40) Economics (37) Political Science and Government (36) English Language and Literature (33) Biochemistry (25) Neuroscience (25) Computer and Information Sciences (23)
Admissions
+Enrolled fall freshman statistics 2023 2022 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 Applicants 12,145 11,412 10,884 8,663 8,961 8,312 7,746 7,284 7,556 Admits 2,1532,129 2,193 2,126 2,127 2,043 1,842 1,964 1,947 Admit rate 17.7%18.7% 20.1% 24.5% 23.7 % 24.6% 23.8% 27.0% 25.8% Enrolled 689 681 679 594 691 685 625 659 667 SAT mid-50% range* 1450–1530 1420–1540 1420–1540 1380–1500 1370–1510 1370–1510 1330–1500 1330–1490 ACT mid-50% range 33–35 32–34 32–34 31–34 31–33 31–33 30–33 30–33 * SAT out of 1600
For the class of 2027 (enrolling fall 2023), Vassar received 12,145 applications and accepted 17.7%. The combined average SAT scores of those who opted to submit their testing data was 1489 and the ACT composite average was 33. The middle 50% ranges for the SAT were 1450-1530 and 33-35 for the ACT. Of the matriculants whose high schools provided rankings, 79% were in the top ten percent of their class. For the class of 2026 (enrolling fall 2022), Vassar received 11,412 applications and accepted 18.7%. For the class of 2025 (enrolling fall 2021), Vassar received 10,884 applications, a 25% increase over the previous year, and accepted 2,068 (19%). For the class of 2023 (enrolling fall 2019), Vassar received 8,961 applications and accepted 2,127 (23.7%), with 691 enrolling. For the class of 2025 (enrolling fall 2021), the middle 50% range of SAT scores for enrolling freshmen was 710-760 for evidence-based reading and writing, 710-780 for math, and 1420-1540 for the composite. The middle 50% ACT score range was 28-33 for math, 32-34 for English, and 32-34 for the composite.
Students of color (including non-citizens) made up 45.5% of the incoming class; international students were 8.8% of enrolling freshmen.
Rankings
The 2027 edition of U.S. News & World Reports "Best Colleges" ranked Vassar as tied for the 12th best liberal arts college in the U.S. (a list that includes military service academies) out of 211 rated, and 6th for Top Performers On Social Mobility. In previous years the college was ranked in the same list by U.S. News & World Report as high as 10th. Also in the 2027 edition of U.S. News & World Report, Vassar was ranked 9th among private liberal arts colleges in a list that excluded military service academies. In 2024, U.S. News & World Report ranked Vassar second for "Best Colleges for Veterans", 29th for "Best Value", 15th for "Top Performers on Social Mobility", and tied for 20th in "Best Undergraduate Teaching". It also ranked Vassar tied for fourth among top liberal arts colleges for economic diversity as measured by low-income students receiving federal Pell Grants.