<p>I'm not really meant for the small middle-of-nowhere towns. I need a town with at least some kind of activity. I know of the Claremont colleges, is there any place else?</p>
<p>Swarthmore College is very close to Philadelphia</p>
<p>Amherst College is in a small town, but there are thousands of thousands of college students in that town, so there would be lots of activity.</p>
<p>Macalester is in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, and is right by the University of Minnesota campus</p>
<p>Fifteen minutes from the Albany airport, thirty minutes from Saratoga Springs. the Adirondacks and Berkshires within an hour, Boston and New York less than three hours away, one can be very happy at Union.</p>
<p>Davidson College is close to Charlotte (less than 30 minutes). Haverford College, like Swarthmore, is about 25 minutes from downtown Philadelphia. And smallish national university Rice (with 3100 students) may have the best location of all in a high-end section of Houston.</p>
<p>In Saratoga Springs, 15 minutes from the Albany airport. The Adirondacks and Berkshires within an hour, Boston and New York about 3 hours away, one can be very happy at Skidmore.
[Formatting courtesy of LAClover]</p>
<p>Holy Cross is less than 1 hour from Boston. HC is located in a mid-size city.</p>
<p>Occidental is in LA, Rhodes is in Memphis, Sarah Lawrence is about 30 minutes from NYC, Goucher is in Baltimore and if you're a girl, Agnes Scott is in Atlanta and Barnard is in NYC.</p>
<p>The University of Richmond (VA) and Lake Forest College (IL).</p>
<p>I'll look into all of these colleges. Thanks a lot everyone. (:</p>
<p>colorado college is located just blocks from downtown Colorado Springs (city of ~500,000). Always lots to do -- and Denver is only an hour's drive north.</p>
<p>Uhm...Smith College*– right near Amherst, just as good as any top tier school (and it is) but a lot easier to get in to.</p>
<p>Wellesley fits that description well (It's just not near Amherst, but it's 13 miles from Boston).</p>
<p>Also, Brandeis is quite good, too (big undergrad focus, so it's more LAC than university).</p>
<p>Emmanuel in Boston, as well as Simmons if you're a girl.</p>
<p>Also try Fordham and U San Francisco (not quite LACs, but the Jesuit influence makes them similar).</p>
<p>Lewis & Clark is a great little LAC and sits on a hilltop overlooking Portland, OR, one of the great cities on the West Coast. They have a fabulous combination of city life AND outdoors opportunities.</p>
<p>Also check out Reed, which is also right outside of Portland. Of all the LACs I visited, definitely one of my two favorite locations (along with Barnard in NYC, which someone already mentioned). I'm pretty sure that Carleton is reasonably close to one of the twin cities — my friend there talks about going into the city occasionally. </p>
<p>My own school, Wesleyan, is only about half an hour from New Haven and Hartford, and two from Boston and NYC, though most students don't take advantage of that very often. The town itself is pretty small, but has a couple of bars, some restaurants and a movie theater.</p>
<p>Also, Goucher isn't in Baltimore, it's in Towson, kind of a city-suberb of Baltimore. It's about a 20 min drive from Baltimore, and a little longer to the parts you might actually want to hang out in. But Towson itself is pretty active (movie theater, concert venues, LOTS of restaurants, and at least one other college).</p>
<p>Can you help an international?</p>
<p>What's a LAC?</p>
<p>LAC = Liberal Arts College. Generally only has undergraduate programs.</p>
<p>Here in Chicago we have a wide range of selectivity and a vibrant city scene - THE BEST theatre in the country, IMO.</p>
<p>NU in Evanston, a great place itself on the lake front, directly adjacent to Chicago with cheap public train into Chicago.</p>
<p>U of C on the south side.</p>
<p>Loyola and DePaul on the North side and DT.</p>
<p>University of Illinois - Chicago is near everything with lots of diversity. </p>
<p>Art Institute if you're into art.</p>
<p>OOPS - sorry, OP, I just saw the LAC req. I just gave you universities. I can attest to the teaching/thinking/writing orientation of U of C since I have friends there.</p>
<p>Holy Cross and Davidson-Boston& Charlotte are great locations.</p>
<p>Weskid: I'm going off-topic, but how do you like Wesleyan?</p>