Bogus College Stereotypes

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Getty Images Are Cornell students suicidal? Is Dartmouth all Republicans? Is Vassar really gay? Kathleen Kingsbury investigates which college reputations are bunk—and which are well-deserved.

Campus stereotypes have been around as long as college itself. And, usually, these reputations stick no matter what a university—or parent—tries to do about it.

“My favorite was, ‘God, Mom, Hamilton is so Hootie & the Blowfish,’” recalls Meg Gobles, a Brooklyn mother who guided her son through the college admissions process last year. “What does that even mean? And how could I possibly rebut it?”

From Dartmouth’s buttoned-down Republicans to Cornell’s suicidal student body, The Daily Beast investigates the longstanding stereotypes of eight prominent schools to find out just how true they are.

How Gay is Vassar?

Not surprisingly, Vassar College does not track students’ sexual orientation. As a former women’s college located an hour outside New York City, however, it’s no surprise that it tends to attract more open-minded applicants. There are “a good number of gay and lesbian students, particularly gay men,” says Phillipe Kleefield, president of the Queer Coalition of Vassar College. Furthermore, he adds, “A lot of people are more willing to question their sexual orientation on campus and experiment.”

But Kleefield found himself often disappointed by his classmates when it came to supporting gay issues. He estimates his organization had five active members, and when it came to political controversies such as gay marriage, Vassar students rarely got involved. “When you live in a bubble, where you don’t have to interact with people who think differently than you, it’s easy to get a progressive place,” says Kleefield, who graduated in May. “I think Vassar students start to think everywhere is as tolerant, and that just isn’t the case.”

Cornell Makes Students Suicidal

This is one of those urban legends that Cornell administrators would love to make disappear. The school’s isolated location in frigid upstate New York doesn’t help. Nor does the fact that, like most of their Ivy League counterparts, Cornell coeds carry a stressful workload. Not to mention that, over the years, there have indeed been students who have taken their lives by flinging themselves dramatically into the depths of Ithaca’s famous gorges.

But, in reality, Cornell has just one or two suicides each year, consistent with the national average. (Suicide is the second leading cause of death among American college students, after motor-vehicle accidents.) In addition, since 2002, Cornell has put in place several measures to prevent suicides, and only five students have taken their life since then, compared to 11 in the six years prior.

All of Long Island Goes to Wisconsin

This, of course, is not true: Nearly two-thirds of students at Madison are Wisconsin residents. And yet, ask any “Sconnie”—as the natives are known—and you’re sure to hear about the town being overrun by “Coasties,” the not-so-affectionate moniker for students from the East Coast and California. In campus lore, these out-of-state invaders even have a uniform: oversized sunglasses, a North Face jacket, spandex pants, and furry UGG boots—no matter the weather. Oh, and her perpetual orange suntan.

How the University of Wisconsin became a Midwest mecca is a mystery. (After neighboring Illinois, New York sends more college students to Wisconsin than any other state, and California is close behind.) But there’s little doubt that the influx of East and West Coast applications since the early 1990s has brought prestige and money—out-of-state tuition is nearly three times that of in-state. Perhaps as a result, admissions have become more selective as freshman applications rose more than 40 percent from 1989 to 2005.

That fueled some resentment as it got harder for even Wisconsin students to get in. And the Coasties don’t always help their own image, often living in private, off-campus dorms and sticking to their own fraternities and sororities. Tensions have occasionally spilled into the classroom. “A couple of days ago, I was in lecture when a teacher asked if there was anyone from Los Angeles in the class… Upon hearing one student's reply, the professor stated, ‘If anyone needs money, go to this guy—or his parents,’” freshman and New Yorker Skye Kalkstein recounted in the campus paper in 2006. “After another student said she came from Beverly Hills, the professor called her a ‘rich bitch.’”

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