Vassar College's varsity sports teams, known as the Brewers, play in the NCAA Division III as members of the Liberty League.

It was chartered by its namesake, brewer Matthew Vassar, in 1861 in the Hudson Valley, about 70 miles (110 km) north of New York City.

[9] The formal decision to become co-ed came after its trustees declined an offer to merge with Yale University, its sibling institution, in the wave of mergers between the historically all-male colleges of the Ivy League and their Seven Sisters counterparts.

E. Digby Baltzell writes that "upper-class WASP families educated their children at colleges such as Harvard, Princeton, Yale, and Vassar.

"[12] A select and elite few of Vassar's students were allowed entry into the school's secret society Delta Sigma Rho, founded in 1922.

[24][25] Eero Saarinen made designs for several Vassar dormitories, but only one, the Emma Hartman Noyes House, was completed in 1958.

The starkly modernist building's high cost and structural difficulties with the windows, however, led administrators to leave it at one.

[31] The interior and exterior of the Van Ingen Art Library was renovated from June 2008 – May 2009 in an effort to restore its original design and appearance.

[43] In a departure from the architecture of the other dormitories, Noyes House was built in 1958 in a distinct modernist style, curved around a large green.

The most popular undergraduate majors, based on 2021 graduates, were:[53] For the class of 2027 (enrolling fall 2023), Vassar received 12,145 applications and accepted 17.7%.

In 2024, U.S. News & World Report ranked Vassar second for "Best Colleges for Veterans", 29th for "Best Value", 15th for "Top Performers on Social Mobility", and tied for 20th in "Best Undergraduate Teaching".

[71] It also ranked Vassar tied for fourth among top liberal arts colleges for economic diversity as measured by low-income students receiving federal Pell Grants.

[73] In its 2020 edition, The Princeton Review rated Vassar first for "Best Financial Aid" of all colleges and universities in the United States.

[76] Kiplinger's Personal Finance places Vassar 11th in its 2019 ranking of the 149 best value liberal arts colleges in the United States.

[78] In an article in The Christian Science Monitor, Vassar president emeritus Catharine Bond Hill argued that rankings "will always be limited in what they can tell consumers.

Part of higher education's role about the rankings should be to remind students and their families that these are only one piece of information that they should take into account in deciding where to go to college.

[80] Founder's Day is an annual campus festival at Vassar College that usually takes place in late April or early May.

[81] Originally, Founder's Day was a spontaneous event consisting of lectures, but was soon replaced with plays, pageants, and more recreational activities.

More recently themes have been added, including Alice in Wonderland,[82] Dinosaurs,[83] Vintage 1800s Vassar,[84] Nickelodeon, Nintendo, and Candyland.

[84] Recent artists at Founder's Day have included The Walkmen, Edan, DJ /rupture, Odd Nosdam, Jel,[85] Toro y Moi,[86] and Odesza.

The nickname originates from the college's founder and namesake Matthew Vassar, whose family ran a brewery in Poughkeepsie and would later amass a sizable fortune in the industry.

The competition included a 100-mile (160 km) road race over the Shawangunk Mountains in New Paltz as well as a criterium in Poughkeepsie just blocks from the school's campus.

[118] In a controversial move, on November 5, 2009, the athletics department leaders decided the men's and women's rowing team would transition over a two-year period from a varsity to a club sport as a cost-saving measure.