Vassar is an undergraduate-focused liberal arts college an hour and a half north of New York City by train. Vassar is loved by humanities minded students who want to be in the country without being in the woods and losing access to cultural opportunities like live music and museums. STEM-focused students who don’t want to lose a liberal arts core also love Vassar as it empowers them to be their creative selves alongside their more systematic interests. Class sizes are small, the campus is beautiful, and the acceptance rate has plummeted in recent years as more students beyond the east coast have learned what Vassar has to offer. The acceptance rate is about 20%.
There is an Early Decision application option for Vassar, which is super important to remember as you determine whether it will be a target for you or a reach. If you apply to Vassar ED, your chance of admission is nearly twice the overall acceptance rate, which means that the Regular Decision acceptance rate is more like half the overall.
Regardless of how you apply, standing out requires impressive grades with a clear sense of focus and direction. They want students who embody the liberal arts, but also who have shown passion for a particular subject, taking that interest beyond the classroom.
Vassar is test optional, so you can decide whether to submit the SAT or ACT as part of your application. About 50% of recent admitted and enrolled first-years did not submit scores. So, you can truly get in without having scores as part of your application. However, if you can get an SAT over a 1520 or ACT of a 34+, including your scores will underline how impressive your application is and can even help smooth over any lower grades you received early in your high school career. While deciding whether to include scores, remember that Vassar does superscore, meaning that they will focus on your highest sections scores for the tests you have taken.
Once you have all your numbers in order, it’s time to actually write the Vassar application. They have one long supplement and a section, the Your Space, that freaks everyone out but can actually be the most impactful piece of your entire application if you play it right.
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The Vassar supplement is very liberal arts school-y. By that, we mean that it is less about communicating a singularity and intensity of academic focus and more about showing that you are someone excited about Vassar’s way of doing things. They want students who are creative, collaborative, and who aren’t limited by traditional subject-area boundaries. These supplementals serve as there way of testing for exactly that. Being able to hang academically is the first hurdle, but showing that you are fit for Vassar culturally is an even higher one.
First, you are invited to pick one of two prompts to answer in 300 words or less. 300 words is long compared to most supplemental essays, and it basically takes away ‘just answering the question’ as an excuse for a narratively weak response. When you are talking to Vassar admissions, the way you write something is as important as what you are writing about.
Now, let’s break down each of the two 300-word supplement options.
At Vassar, we aim to foster an inclusive community through our philosophy of engaged pluralism. Engaged pluralism is rooted in “the conviction that collaborating across differences is necessary for social transformation and critical for the well-being of any community and its members.” In short, we believe it's our differences that make us stronger. Tell us a little bit about an important part of your identity and how it has shaped your life and/or interactions with others.
Much of this prompt is an exercise in Vassar illustrating that they probably have a fancier vocabulary than you — do not take it as them trying to test you, though. We think they are simply proposing that, maybe, you need you to respond in a way that equally steps things up a notch. We dare you, though, to do that by, first, slowing down.
When students read this prompt, they often jump to write something that makes them sound super smart and advanced. Going toe-to-toe with “engaged pluralism” off the bat is a bad approach, though, because it’s like going in for a hug with your arms stretch out straight in front of you — there is no room for connection. Instead, we want to start with connection and then deepen into intellectual meaning.
This actually follows the structure of the last sentence: identity first, then how it has shaped you and how you engage with others. To do this, we like to start with a story that represents who you are at your core, not simply how you look or talk, but who you truly are, then pull back to illuminate connection and sense of self.
What this is not, however, is a hardship test. Don’t start brainstorming ideas by wracking your brain for struggles you’ve faced. Go smaller than that. This could be as small as making dinner for your family once a week, walking dogs for a local shelter, celebrating a cultural holiday by doing a specific craft, or studying a language you can feel in your bones and want to be able to speak.
Maybe the meal for your family is because a parent is at night school, the dog walks are because you love animals, but a sibling is allergic, the holiday connects to your heritage, or the language would be a connection to a grandparent. The bigger story enveloping the specific narrative tells them why this is so formative to you.
Vassar is a diverse community that inspires positive change through open inquiry, deep dives into society’s most difficult challenges, and collaborative problem solving. We care deeply about one another, the communities that have forged us, and the community we build together on campus. Tell us about the community (or communities) you come from and how it has shaped your lived experiences and identity.
This prompt is actually super similar to the first one, and an answer for one could, often, easily be used for the other. So, what is the point of separating them out? The first prompt does open the door to essays about struggle (although we caution students considering that approach). This one is more about togetherness.
We encourage students who select this prompt to focus on one community and to really bring it to life. It could be cultural, religious, or a super passionate robotics club you dedicate massive time and effort to. There is no right or wrong community to focus on, as long as it is something you have been dedicated to for at least two years. Yes, there can be some wiggle room on that, but it needs to be a community you have shown commitment to over a period of time.
The community you focus on should also be close to home geographically. Now, ‘home’ can be defined broadly, but we mean either a) the place you primarily live or b) an ancestral place that you spend time in still even if it isn’t your primary community of residence. It is not good, then, to write about somewhere you have visited once or twice, even if it is a place or community that feels important to you.
Like with the previous prompt, the way you tell the story is as important as its content. Don’t simply describe a community, but paint a picture through a specific experience.
Your Space
Vassar’s Your Space section is fairly iconic for being completely open-ended. It’s optional, and it’s yours to do with what you will.
First, though, let’s make something clear: it is not optional. Yes, you can apply without submitting anything for the Your Space, but we strongly discourage students from taking that route. Avoiding the Your Space is like saying that Vassar doesn’t matter all that much to you, even if you apply early.
Instead, embrace it. We’ve had science students submit art, art students submit a creative writing piece, math nerds submit an artistic visualization of their favorite formula, and economics students submit their favorite birthday cake recipe. The right route is going to be unique to you, and that is what makes the Your Space awesome.
Do not, however, misuse the opportunity. A pitch deck for your candidacy as an applicant would not go over well, nor would a list of awards or accomplishments. Focus on showing who you are, not what you have accomplished.
Additional Upload Space
Lastly, Vassar leaves space for an additional upload. We love this for a research abstract or a portfolio, but you should at least use it for a résumé. If you want help crafting yours, get in touch. We help our students with every piece of their application from the essays to the order of your activities.
Getting into Vassar is getting harder every year, and as it gets harder students become more fixate on dialing in on exactly what it is Vassar is looking for. The thing is that there is no one perfect Vassar students. The way you present as strong as you can is by being you.
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