Vassar College

Vassar College is a private institution that was founded in 1861. It has a total undergraduate enrollment of 2,456 (fall 2023), its setting is suburban, and the campus size is 1,000 acres. It utilizes a semester-based academic calendar. Vassar College's ranking in the 2025 edition of Best Colleges is National Liberal Arts Colleges, #12. Its tuition and fees are $71,030.

Vassar is located Poughkeepsie, N.Y., in the scenic Hudson Valley, 75 miles north of New York City. At Vassar, students can get involved with more than 100 student organizations on campus, including the Vassar Night Owls, one of the nation’s oldest continuing all-female a cappella groups. Vassar does not have fraternities or sororities. The Vassar Brewers compete in NCAA Division III varsity sports in the Liberty League. The Vassar Quidditch team, known as the Butterbeer Brewers, competes against other colleges in the sport from the "Harry Potter" novels. Vassar is a residential college, and freshmen are required to live on campus. The school guarantees housing for all four years, and 98 percent of students live in the nine residence halls and apartments.

Vassar College is one of the first of the Seven Sisters, a group of historically women’s colleges in the northeast including Mount Holyoke, Wellesley, Smith, Radcliffe (now part of Harvard), Bryn Mawr and Barnard. In 1969, Vassar became the first of the Seven Sisters colleges to open its doors to men. The Maria Mitchell Observatory and the Main Building, which once housed the entire college, are registered as National Historic Landmarks. The Miscellany News, the college newspaper, was founded in 1866 and is one of the oldest college newspapers in the country. Notable alumni include computer pioneer Grace Hopper, poet Elizabeth Bishop, actress Meryl Streep, actress Lisa Kudrow and writer-director Noah Baumbach.