Vassar is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York. Vassar draws students who are passionate and engaged in activism, and the school values diversity. The acceptance rate for the class of 2024 was 23.5%.
Vassar’s supplement did not change since last year, but we are revisiting it with fresh eyes below:
Why are you applying to Vassar? (Limit 300 words)
Vassar has 51 majors and over 1,000 courses in their curriculum. Their website is also terrific, which is great because you need to cozy up to it. Your goal with this prompt is to outline your specific academic interests, and explain why Vassar is the only logical place for you to advance your goals.
Let’s say that you’re applying to Vassar to study English. Look through the course catalogue until you find two upper-level courses that excite you. Then, look through the list of professors until you find someone whose expertise aligns with your area of interest. The more specific, the better. Once you’ve found the courses and professors, find a way to explain how your academic interests came to be. Then, figure out the best way to craft a narrative throughout your response. Instead of simply listing out what you love about Vassar’s programs, include details about your past experiences that show how you’ll contribute to the community. Think about classes you’ve done well in, jobs, internships, books you’ve read, online classes you’ve taken, and passion projects. When we work with TKG clients, they can easily find classes they want to take but often struggle to connect the dots and find their “why” for wanting to take certain classes. Spend just as much time thinking back about your accomplishments as you do finding the courses and professors, and you’ll be good to go.
And because you won’t be spending all of your time in a classroom, find a student group or organization that you plan to join. You absolutely must write about something that is an extension of the activities that you did in high school. Write about how you’ll contribute to the club by explaining what you’ve done in the past. Don’t worry, if you get into Vassar, you can join any club that you want. But for this supplement, you need to write about something that makes sense within the context of the rest of your application.
Before you start writing, make sure that you’ve found all of the following:
An origin story that explains your academic interests
Your desired major at Vassar
Two upper-level classes you want to take
A professor who you’d like to do research with
An extracurricular activity you plan to join
After you’ve crossed off this last, spend time brainstorming how to best arrange your supplement to ensure that it presents as a story with a beginning, middle, and end.
Your Space is your opportunity to allow the Committee on Admission to learn something about you that you have not addressed in another section of the application. Your Space is entirely optional. If you choose to include a Your Space submission, be sure it is labeled with your name, high school, and date of birth. Due to the volume of submissions, we will be unable to return your work. Please do not send anything that is irreplaceable.
This is quite literally your space to do whatever you so desire. This is a gift, and you should take advantage of it. We recommend using this space to show another side of your personality that has not been represented elsewhere in your application. So, if you wrote your common app about How to Cook Eggs but you’re also the person that all of your friends and family call for help, you can use this space to tell that story here. If you had two qualities that you wanted to share with your common app essay and had to set one aside last minute, now is your chance. Stick with creativity, and do not use this space to expand on an extracurricular activity. Vassar gives you a space to upload your resume, and you should absolutely do that. This also means that Vassar knows you’ve spent a lot of time playing volleyball, so make sure that you’re focusing this space on a soft skill or aspect of your personality that you think is important to express.
Because Vassar students tend to be passionate about pretty much everything, your excitement should jump off the page. Be thoughtful about what should be included, and make sure to edit your supplements multiple times.
If you’re not sure where to start, contact us here. We love helping students get on the right track.