Vassar College

An idyllic liberal arts college in the Hudson Valley, It's just outside of scenic Poughkeepsie, one of New York state's ugliest cities.

Vassar used to be exclusively for women but as of 1969, it decided to admit men. Its founder, Matthew Vassar, crafted the main building so that it could also be used as a brewery in case it failed as a college.

As of 1999, Vassar had under 3,000 undergraduate students, and the male/female ratio was 60%/40%.

That being said, there are some fun things about Vassar:

• The main cafeteria on campus is called ACDC. (This becomes slightly less interesting once you realize that it just stands for All Campus Dining Center.)
• There is a Vassar-funded porn club called Squirm. Every once in a while they have porn screenings, which are heavily biased toward lesbians but are entertaining for others nonetheless.
• There is a drug information organization called The Source. The people there will answer any question, anonymous or not, about drugs and alcohol. This includes such helpful information such as which drugs should really, really not be mixed and what different alcohol levels will do to your body. During my first week there, they gave every freshman a little chart to help figure out someone's blood alcohol content by referring to his/her sex, weight, and number of drinks ingested. On the other side of the chart is a description of the effects of a range of blood alcohol contents, including when it would be a good idea to get the person some help.
• There are nine a cappella groups. (All right, maybe not everyone would think that's cool, but it's still sort of impressive.)
• Every dorm building on campus has a Steinway piano.
• Tea is served every day in Main Building at 3:00.
• The day before finals, students have made a tradition of going outside at midnight and screaming at the top of their lungs. This has been dubbed Primal Scream. Accompanying it this year were ice cream sandwiches, people juggling fire and people streaking.
• A few students get around campus by unicycle.
• The school mascot is a brewer. As of now, however, there is no actual picture of this brewer; it's only a concept.
• When you realize you're still in the crappy little town of Poughkeepsie, New York City is always just an hour and a half away.