May 13, 1866

A student’s letter home noted President Raymond’s announcement that Sunrise Hill was in bounds for “all seniors, juniors, and all over twenty,” adding “[the] last was an important addition as no mortal persons know whether they are in the Freshman or Senior year.”

Her reference was to the impossibility of determining the first group of students’ class years.

“For the first year, no attempt was made to grade the students by any common standard. It would hardly have been possible to do so, so dissimilar had their previous plans of study been. Their individual wants were, therefore considered only; and they were classified in the several departments of instruction separately.”

John Howard Raymond, Vassar College: a college for women, in Poughkeepsie, N. Y.