VASSAR COLLEGE

Since its founding in 1861, Vassar College's purpose has been to offer a broad, deep education in the arts and sciences to undergraduates. Founder Matthew Vassar began the College to open the same educational opportunities to women that only men then enjoyed; it has been coeducational since 1969. In that tradition of promoting access, Vassar’s mission includes fostering the most diverse possible student body, because a truly liberal education requires a campus to reflect the diversity of today’s society and enable dialogue across that diversity. First-generation college students, urban young people, and a wave of young immigrants are the fastest-growing segments of the college-age population. To those groups, Vassar adds a program it began two years ago with New York’s Posse Foundation, to admit an annual cohort or “posse” of women and men veterans. Sixty per cent of Vassar’s student body comes from public high schools, and a need-blind admissions policy holds for all who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents. For them, admission decisions are made without regard to family means. We were honored recently to be ranked first in a New York Times survey of college accessibility for this reason, and first in a Princeton Review ranking of best colleges for financial aid. Last year, Vassar’s average need-based grant per aided student topped $41,500.