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The area right around Vassar is fine—sort of college-towny. Technically, the area right by Vassar is Arlington, I think. If you go further into Poughkeepsie, it’s not so nice. I don’t really go into Poughkeepsie often, so it’s never really mattered to me.

Honestly, it’s much more of a hookup culture at Vassar than a dating culture. People do date and I do have friends with boyfriends/girlfriends, but it’s mostly a hookup culture.

Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong, other Vassar people!

Yes! Within walking distance from campus there are a whole bunch of restaurants (Middle Eastern, empanadas, pizza, Indian, Thai, Japanese, and Mexican, to name a few). There’s also a dollar store, mini-supermarket, and a Rite Aid (although the Rite Aid isn’t super close—I have walked there before, but it’s a bit of a hike). There’s also one bar (which probably won’t matter much to you as a freshman, but the upperclassmen sometimes go there). We also have a shuttle to the train station, Stop and Shop, and the mall so if you need to get to those, you can.

Not super frequently. It’s about a 2 hour train ride, so people do go into NYC but most don’t go all that often. As for internships, people do (my housemate did one last semester), but it depends on your schedule. You probably wouldn’t be able to do one on a day you have class, so you’d need to have at least a day or two free (which is possible).

Yupp! I got into a few and I have a friend who got into a PhD program at Yale. And I heard of another going to Princeton. So yes :)

Hi!
One of my favorite things about Vassar is that the curriculum is very open. The only requirements are a language class, freshman writing seminar, and quantitative analysis (which is anything vaguely mathy), so you have a lot of freedom to take the classes you’re really interested in. And that also means that most of the people in all of your classes really want to be there. I also really love the sense of community here at Vassar. Because the dorms are all mixed freshmen through juniors, the freshmen don’t feel separated from the rest of campus. And the dorms have a lot of activities to really foster that sense of community with the other people who live there. The student fellow system is also great—your student fellow is kind of like an RA, but has no disciplinary power so you can feel comfortable going to them with any issues. You’ll be assigned a fellow group (usually about 8-10 people on your hall) and you go through orientation with them and your student fellow. It’s nice to have a built-in group to hang out with in the very beginning and really helped me start making friends and feel comfortable here.
There are also tons of orgs for all sorts of things, so you should be able to find some that interest you. And there are always a bunch of events going on on weekends (plays, all-campus dances, concert etc.)
I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any more questions!