The Vassar College Class of 2025 admissions statistics are in the books. In all, 10,884 students applied to Vassar this year. 19% of these students, or approximately 2,068 applicants, earned admission to Vassar’s incoming class. Vassar’s application tally marked a new benchmark for the Poughkeepsie, New York-based institution; applications were in fact up 25% from just last year when the admission rate stood at 24%. Vassar’s jump in applications to the Class of 2025 was in line with the trend at the vast majority of highly selective universities during this year of the pandemic. But in comparison to its peer institutions, the 25% rise in applications at Vassar was nonetheless notable — applications surged 12% at Swarthmore College and 16% at Haverford College as but two examples.

As Lucille Brewster reports for The Miscellany News, the newspaper of Vassar College, in a piece entitled “Vassar Class of ’25 most competitive year yet for applicants,” “Selective institutions saw their applications spike during the pandemic because most schools, including Vassar, went standardized test optional, meaning students could choose whether to submit ACT or SAT scores. This was meant to accommodate interruptions in local testing and grading policies for high school students due to the pandemic. Without having to submit test scores, many students widened their college search…Admissions officers across the country expressed concern about how to evaluate an increased pool of applicants, all while considering the conditions of the pandemic and the absence of test scores—and, in many cases, gaps in junior year transcripts and a lack of available extracurriculars during the pandemic. ‘We’ve always had a holistic application review process and that did not change,’ commented [Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Sonya] Smith.”

Congratulations to all students who earned admission to Vassar College’s Class of 2025 in what marked the most competitive year in the history of the institution!