Life in Isolated Community Stamps All Undergraduates with Similarities

The Vassar girl is sophisticated, at all costs.

Although the greatest efforts are made in Poughkeepsie to treat every undergraduate as an individual, there is a natural tendency toward conformity within any such closely-knit, isolated group. Though the aim of the admissions policy has been to gather individuals who show a wide variety of experience, the girl from Zanesville, Ohio, who leaves Vassar after four years must resemble her roommate from Manhattan in many respects.

She would prefer Manhattans or Martinis to highballs, she would drink 3.8 gallons of beer per academic year, and the college bulletin would claim that she also drank 255 quarts of milk in the same period.

Marry Quickly

She might come from a big city--44 percent do--or possibly from outside of the United States, and chances strongly favor that she will get married within four years after graduation. She would like to.

Because of the parietal rules, she probably spends her nights somewhere "on campus," unless he signs out to go into Poughkeepsie and be back by 10:30. She frequently takes advantage of her proximity to New York by using "theatre permission," the right to stay out until the last train from New York arrives, providing of course, that she goes to the theatre.

If she has a date for the weekend, he will arrive either early Friday afternoon or Saturday morning, because her 11:30 deadline on Friday and Saturday cuts down the available time. She will take care of his room accommodations and suggest dinner out.

Planned Weekends

It is on the weekend that the Vassar girl may deviate from the activities pattern. For those who choose the conventional, planned activities path there are numerous cocktail parties, sponsored either by the individual houses or the class. Here again, in most cases, the girl will assume the financial burden. It is possible to spend an inexpensive weekend in Poughkeepsie, but not easy.

The Vassar girl takes the various traditional requirements in stride, claiming they are ridiculous, but following them nevertheless: whenever the senior marching song, "Salve," is sung, the undergraduates clap; all undergraduates, except the seniors, who wear their caps and gowns, wear white to Convocation and to the first meeting of the College Government Association: the selected sophomores carry the daisy chain at every commencement; and the freshmen choose a class tree annually, marking their liberation form the ignominy of freshman duties.

And there are the favorite haunts which the girls visit regularly, including the Cider Mill, a museum about two miles from the campus; the solarium, the discreet roof of Kenyon Hall "for unrestricted sunbathing"; and the Alumnae House pub and Retreat, two campus food dispensaries.

Physically

If the girls do not look alike in physical appearance (the average freshman is five feet and a half inches tall and has a 25.4 waist), they dress alike. The studied sloppiness is a habit which is acquired shortly after entrance into the freshman year and is not forgotten throughout the college career, sometimes even later. The white men's shirt and dungarees is not as typical here as it is at other women's colleges, but it is far from rare.

The Vassar girl is subject to fads, members of the faculty claim. It is not unusual to note a disproportionate number of engagements in one House, started of by a particularly well-liked girl, they say.

These fads may extend to an item of dress or a haircomb, but they usually are limited to an action or a turn of speech. To facilitate the use of a community slang, the Student Handbook this year printed three pages of slang expressions covering more general campus needs.

It is difficult to take a Vassar girl somewhere new, because she's generally "best there before." She doesn't mind going again though because it's "real game," and "everyone will be there."

Whatever the Vassar girl is, she's 194 miles from Harvard, 80 from Princeton and 70 from Yale.