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Vassar College is a private coeducational liberal arts college situated in Poughkeepsie, New York. Founded as a women's college in 1861, it was the first member of the Seven Sisters to become coeducational. U.S. News & World Report ranks it
Overview Originally founded as a women's college, Vassar was one of the oldest institutions of higher education for women in the United States. It was founded by its namesake, Matthew Vassar, in 1861 in the Hudson Valley, about 70 mi (100 km) north of New York City. The very first person appointed to the Vassar faculty was the astronomer Maria Mitchell, in 1865. Vassar adopted coeducation in 1969 after declining an offer to merge with Yale University. Vassar's campus, also an arboretum, is 1,000 acres (4 km²) marked by period and modern buildings. The great majority of students live on campus. The renovated library has unusually large holdings for a college of its size. It includes special collections of Albert Einstein and Elizabeth Bishop. Vassar was also 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, Vassar, and Smith among other elite colleges."• Roughly 2,400 students attend Vassar. About 60% come from public high schools, 40% from private schools (both independent and religious). In recent freshman classes, minority students have comprised up to 27% of matriculants. International students from over 45 countries comprise 8% of the student body. The overall female to male ratio is about 55:45, although in recent classes it has been closer to 50:50. More than 85% of graduates pursue advanced study within five years of graduation. They are taught by more than 270 faculty members, virtually all of whom hold terminal degrees in their fields. Vassar president Frances D. Fergusson served for nearly two decades, longer than almost any other president of a comparable liberal arts college. She retired in Spring 2006, and was replaced on July 1 by Catharine Bond Hill, former provost at Williams College. Her retirement was marked by a campus-wide celebration known as Fran-Fest, as well as a campus walkway, which is lined with marble benches crafted by renowned contemporary artist Jenny Holzer inscribed with the poetry of Vassar alumna Elizabeth Bishop. Academics Vassar confers the A.B. degree in more than 45 majors, including the Independent Major, in which a student may design a major, as well as various interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary fields of study. Students also participate in such programs as the Self-Instructional Language Program (SILP) which offers courses in Hindi, Irish/Gaelic, Korean, Portuguese, Swahili, Swedish, and Yiddish. Vassar has an open curriculum intended to promote breadth in studies by requiring for graduation only proficiency in a foreign language, a quantitative course, and a freshman writing course. Students are also strongly encouraged to study abroad, which they typically do during one or two semesters of their junior year. Vassar also confers the M.A. degree in Chemistry. Ranking and reputation Vassar College is a leading undergraduate institution in the United States and the world. Barron's has placed Vassar in its "most competitive" category for admissions. It is ranked The College library in the United States holds over a million printed volumes. All classes are taught by members of the faculty, and there are no graduate students or teacher's assistants. The most popular majors are English, Political Science, Psychology, and Economics. Vassar also offers a variety of correlate sequences, or minors, for intensive study in many disciplines. Presidents of Vassar College Faculty Vassar has had a number of distinguished faculty over the years. Some former and current members include: Athletics Vassar is a NCAA Division III college. Vassar College currently offers the following varsity athletics: - Baseball (Men only) - Basketball - Cross-Country - Fencing - Field Hockey (Women only) - Golf (Women only) - Lacrosse - Rowing - Soccer - Squash - Swimming/Diving - Tennis - Volleyball Club Sports which compete in NCAA competition - Rugby - Track and Field Basketball plays in the new Walker Fieldhouse. Volleyball plays in Kenyon Hall, reopened in 2006. Soccer, Baseball, Field Hockey and Lacrosse all play at the Prentiss Fields by the Town Houses, which will be completely renovated starting in November 2006 to include new fields for all teams and a new track. Architecture The Vassar campus has several buildings of architectural interest. Main Building 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 is on the registry of national historic landmarks. Many beautiful old brick buildings are scattered throughout the campus, but there are also several modern and contemporary structures of architectural interest. Ferry House, a student cooperative, was designed by Marcel Breuer in 1951. Noyes House was designed by Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen. A good example of an attempt to use passive solar design can be seen in the Mudd Chemistry Building by Perry Dean Rogers. More recently, New Haven architect César Pelli was asked to design the Lehman Loeb Art Center, which was completed in the early 1990s. In 2003, Pelli also worked on the renovation of Main Building Lobby and the conversion of the Avery Hall theater into the $25 million Vogelstein Center for Drama and Film, which preserved the original 1860s facade but was an entirely new structure. Writers Drama, Film, and Television Music Science Business Politics Attended, but did not graduate Fictional Alumni/Alumnae Trivia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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