My daughter is a great kid but lacks comfort in social situations. We really want to find the right fit for college. She is a bright and ambitious kid (3.8 GPA, 4.5 weighted) and takes advanced classes. She currently has a 1400 SAT (750 Math, 650 Verbal) but is taking again to get her verbal score up. She is VERY interested in environmental studies and activism. She is heavily involved in a number of organizations working on climate change, zero waste, etc. and wants to study this in some form in college. She wants a large/decent sized Jewish population. She does NOT want cold/grey winters (so ruling out NE, NW and Mid-West for the most part). I don’t think she will do as well in large city or in a super large university, but I could be wrong. She is a junior now so we are trying to get a solid list of schools going and maybe visit a few. Suggestions appreciated!! Thank you.
Look at Pitzer in Claremont…part of the Claremont 5…Oberlin in Ohio but you’ll have grey winters…
I wanted to add …Is your daughter seeking an LAC as it sounds like what might be right for her…2 more V Good LAC’s but out east are Wesleyan and Vassar. Both with commendable Env Studies programs and a Green Awareness…Of course any info you have regarding need based aid would be helpful, Her scores and little other that you mention has her very competive for these LAC’s.
She is open to anything. LAC works as well. She is pretty determined to avoid the cold/grey winters so I think Connecticut and NY are out. There are sooo many great options in the north east and mid west but she knows that she tends to do better (mentally) when the weather is warmer and sunny.
New College of Florida, the Honors College in Sarasota, FL. Sounds perfect for her. Fantastic for Environmental, it’s on the water. Nice price too, even if you are out of state (which we are not). (PS, just to brag, It is now light and sunny for both my commute to and from work in Miami and I work 8:30-5:30.)
Budget?
Tulane, U of Miami, U Florida, and Emory came to mind.
Not sure why you are ruling out the Northeast.
If your daughter is studying climate change, she is probably aware that temperatures in New England are rising faster than anywhere in the country, and water temperatures are rising at three times the global rate!
The last two days here in the Boston area have been in the 60’s and we have had virtually no snow this winter.
By the time your daughter is ready to attend college, Boston will probably be a tropical paradise with swimming year 'round.
Some Bostonians swim in January already! 
Occidental?
We have enough saved to cover her for 4 years wherever however our plan is to be able to support for grad school also. We would not be able to cover both at full tuition rates (some of these schools are $60-70k including all expenses for a year!!). We were hoping for her to get merit scholarship as we will not qualify for any need based scholarship.
I’d recommend you start with colleges in Southern California. Pitzer would be the first: https://www.pitzer.edu/about/mission-and-values/
Pacific Northwest shouldn’t be ruled out, especially for environmental studies/activisit kid. Whitman College in Walla, Walla. Lewis & Clark in Portland. Reed, also in Portland, is a super-obvious choice… Willamette in Salem. U of Puget Sound. Those are all LACs, but there are university options too, including ultra-progressive Evergreen State.
Sure, gray will still be an issue, and Walla Walla has four seasons because it’s not along the coast, but the others should offer more moderate weather
How about Colorado College? They have the block plan which is quite different from most colleges and appeals to lots of people. Colorado has winter but skies are often clear and sunny, and the views in the Rockies are spectacular! It’s very liberal there and has a carbon neutral campus.
Pomona? Davidson?
Goucher
California schools are plentiful and overwhelming. Can you give me an idea Of which ones other than Pamona you recommend?
Maybe take a look at this site? They list public and private schools.
Rather than trying to build the list, why not start by having her explore what colleges of various types are like? Do visits to colleges in large cities and rural areas, to large U’s and LACs, etc. Choose colleges in your area so it doesn’t take a lot of travel.
A flaw with this is its better if she can talk to some current students at each college, but given her social anxiety she may not be willing to do it. A more outgoing student, for example, might contact an officer of an environmental club on the various campuses and say “I’m going to be doing a campus visit to X on the 29th; can we meet for coffee so I can find out more about what students are doing and to get some of your thoughts about attending X?”
I’d start with Pitzer and the rest of the Claremont Consortium. Here are a couple of other suggestions:
UC Santa Barbara
Cal Poly
UC San Diego
Southern Cal
Chapman
Occidental
If you can take a trip/vacation to the LA area and see a couple of these while you are there it might spark an interest.