Vassar men dominate New York politics

Two Vassar men are preparing to dominate New York politics—Rick Lazio '80 and Eric Dinallo '85, who are running for Governor and Attorney General respectively.

Here's a quick rundown of each Brewer:

Rick Lazio majored in Political Science at Vassar, before attending law school at American University in Washington, D.C.. Mr. Lazio has forged an incredibly successful career in both the public and private sectors. He served as Executive Vice President of J.P. Morgan (one of the world's largest financial institutions) and then served four terms in Congress from 1993-2001 representing New York's 2nd District. A Republican, his platform focuses on reducing government waste, controlling the State budget, and increasing Albany's efficiency. Albany has been notoriously gridlocked for the past two years, a trend Mr. Lazio hopes to reverse. During his time at Vassar, he was a reporter for The Miscellany News and Vice President of the student government.


Eric Dinallo majored in Philosophy at Vassar, and then earned his M.A. in public policy from Duke University and his J.D. from New York University School of Law. A Democratic candidate, his campaign focuses on fighting corruption, particularly in the financial sector, on the heals of the recession and several Ponzi schemes. Coincidentally, Cardozo Law just hosted a debate of all the Democratic Attorney General candidates, where I got to see Mr. Dinallo in person. He was easily the most eloquent candidate, and presented a real vision for the justice system in New York. Mr. Dinallo faces a primary against several other Democrats, in advance of the November elections.


Good luck to both men this election season! Brewers play to win.

Class of 2014 is the most selective in Vassar's history

Congratulations to the 666 members of the entering Class of 2014, who will arrive on campus in just a couple days! 2014 is the most selective and academically elite class in Vassar's 150-year history. Their average GPA's range between an A- and A, and their SATs (Critical Reading, Mathematics, and Writing) average between 680 and 700.

It's a running joke that most alumni, if they applied to Vassar these days, couldn't get in. Indeed, nearly 80 percent of applicants are rejected, with more and more applying each year (nearly 8,000 this year). It's a scary time to be an applicant. But the reward is well worth it: the best, most enriching four years of your life at one of the country's greatest liberal arts colleges.

Read more about the astoundingly brilliant Class of 2014. And best of luck to the forthcoming Class of 2015... They'll need it!

Follow the Vassar Student Association (VSA) on Twitter!

Want to keep track of daily life at Vassar? Follow the Vassar Student Association (VSA) -- Vassar's student government -- on Twitter. This brand new Twitter page will keep you up-to-date on official Vassar happenings. The elected representatives on the VSA are responsible for virtually all student activities on campus, from lectures and conferences to concerts and movie screenings. Learn more about the student government on the VSA's Web site!

Craving more #Vassarsocialmedia? Here's a list of Vassar's many information sources, including newsletters, RSS feeds, Facebook, Twitter, and blogs.

Rankings fever

At the end of every summer, dozens of magazines and Web sites launch their "authoritative" rankings of America's best colleges and universities. There are literally thousands of colleges in the United States, and ranking them consistently is no simple task. Fortunately, no matter where you look, Vassar appears towards the top of the list.

Here are some of the highlights:

U.S. News & World Report: 12th

U.S. News & World Report (High School Counselors Ranking): 6th

Forbes Magazine: 23rd (including both colleges & research universities)

Princeton Review: 10th Most Beautiful Campus

Princeton Review: 9th Best College Theater Program

How precise, reliable, and trustworthy are all these various rankings? Well, many critics point out that ranking colleges is sort of like ranking music -- one's experience is so subjective that 'ranking' them seems irrelevant. I know plenty of miserable, slow-witted people who attend the top 20 national universities on U.S. News, and I know many really brilliant, happy and driven people who attend schools with lower rankings. College rankings are not determinative of your experience. Any school will be entirely what you make of it.

That said, many of these rankings are based on important, objective data -- for example, graduation rates, student/faculty ratios, and endowment size. (For the record, Vassar has a very high graduation rate, nearly 300 faculty, and a very large endowment). To look at one number in depth, consider the freshmen retention rate. This number is the percentage of freshmen who return the following year -- it's a pretty good indicator of student satisfaction. Here, Vassar ranks 10th in the nation with 95.8% of our freshmen returning as sophomores. In this category, we crushed schools like Wesleyan, Haverford, Middlebury and Wellesley. Now consider what U.S. News calls the "Best Value" schools -- the colleges with the greatest percentage of discounted tuition through generous financial aid packages. Here, Vassar also ranks toward the top, again beating out Wesleyan, Haverford, Middlebury, Wellesley and Carleton, to name a few. Surely, these data are important facts to consider when selecting a college.

In short, rankings have many pros and cons. You should always take them with a grain of salt and look carefully at their methodology. But it's reassuring to know that -- across many years and across many methodologies -- Vassar is consistently leading the pack.

Incidentally, my friends and I are crossing our fingers that Vassar will break into the Top Ten on U.S. News next year for the College's 150th anniversary. We're so close. We know Vassar should be there. Next year, it will be.

New York Times profiles Rachel Simmons, Vassar Class of 1996

Today's New York Times featured an extensive profile of Rachel Simmons, Vassar Class of 1996. Simmons, a Political Science major at Vassar, graduated Phi Beta Kappa and won a Rhodes Scholarship (one of only 32 Americans that year) to attend graduate school at Oxford University. She was also editor of The Miscellany News, Vassar's student newspaper since 1866.

The Times profile discusses her incredible career -- first as an Urban Fellow in Mayor Giuliani's administration in New York City, then as Deputy Finance Director to Senator (then Congressman) Charles Schumer. Since then, Simmons has achieved fame in educational circles for her books and workshops on adolescent development. The article focuses on her Girls Leadership Institute, a "camplike" program aimed at boosting confidence and leadership in young women.

Finance, politics, education, publishing -- quite the renaissance student. The epitome of Vassar.

Reader Question: "Do I REALLY need to do the Freshman Reading?"

With Vassar just a couple weeks away for the Class of 2014, I've gotten a few e-mails asking about the freshman course reading. Do we really have to do it? Will everyone else have read it? When will we talk about it?

Each year, Vassar selects a book to be read by the entire incoming class. This year, it's Gerald Graff's acclaimed Clueless in Academe: How Schooling Obscures the Life of the Mind (Yale University Press). After discussing the book with your fellow group and in your Freshman Writing Seminar, you will hear directly from the author at a large event known as the William Starr Freshmen Course Lecture.

How often do you get to read a book, discuss it in depth, and then engage the author in a dialogue? Pretty amazing.

My freshman year, the Class of 2010 read Shalimar the Clown, and then were treated to a lecture by the world-renowned author, Salman Rushdie. The next year, freshmen heard from Tim O'Brien, author of the famed Vietnam War-era memoirs The Things They Carried and In the Lake of the Woods. Then it was Elizabeth Kolbert (journalist for The New Yorker) who discussed her Catastrophe: Man, Nature and Climate Change. And last year (one of my favorites) the freshman class were treated to Billy Collins, Poet Laureate of the United States.

My advice: you should absolutely read Clueless in Academe. No, you won't be tested on it. Vassar isn't like high school. But trust me, you'll be happy that you did. Not only do you get the obvious intellectual benefits of reading the book (it's supposed to be hysterical!), but the assignment gives you an instant bond with your future classmates. Just think: No matter how different you and your roommate might be, you'll be able to quickly break the ice by asking, "So, what'd you think of the book?" It's an instant conversation starter.

What's also cool is that when you arrive at campus, virtually everyone will have read the book over the summer -- the staff, the professors, the deans, and of course, your classmates. In a school filled with unique perspectives, the freshmen reading provides common ground for the whole community. So happy reading!

Watch President Obama give Presidential Citizens Medal to Vassar grad

Obama awards the Presidential Citizens Medal to Class of 1955 Vassar graduate

Check it out on Vassar's InfoSite and on the White House Web site. The prize was awarded for the founding the Student Conservation Association (SCA).

On August 4 in a ceremony at the White House, President Barack Obama awarded Student Conservation Association (SCA) founder and Vassar College alumna Elizabeth Cushman Titus Putnam ’55 the 2010 Presidential Citizens Medal for “performing exemplary deeds of service for her country and fellow citizens.”

The original idea for the SCA, for which the alum won the award, began as her senior thesis at Vassar. Putnam was a Geology major (a department we now call Earth Science & Geography). Congratulations!